Chapter 8

"My Brother Zachary"

RATIONALE:
"In this lesson, students will examine civil disobedience as a means for social and political change. Through the analysis of primary and secondary sources, students will examine the following historical acts of civil disobedience, Jews during the Holocaust, Gandhi’s Salt March, and the Civil Rights Movement.  Emphasis will be placed on the degradation of humanity that leads to civil disobedience and the various ways individuals use non-violence to fight for their dignity. After careful discussion and analysis, students will construct a definition for civil disobedience. The idea for this lesson came from page 65 of Alicia: My Story. Alicia states, 'After Zachary got well we saw very little of him…but we understood his need to fight murderers in his own way. To sit and wait, as most of us did, was unbearable to my brother. Somehow I believed that Zachary and his friends would find a way to save at least some of us.' "

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVE(S):
Students will be able to:

- Identify ways individuals used non-violent resistance to maintain their human dignity during the Holocaust, Civil Rights Movement, and British occupation of India.

- Infer ways Jews, Indians and African Americans experienced degradation.

- Construct a definition of civil disobedience using primary and secondary sources.

- Identify individuals that are experiencing degradation today and analyze how they might use civil disobedience to enact change.