1. Martha Vasquez
Beatriz Sarabia
Alma Vaca
Heidi Miedecke
Geography 300
March 7, 2013
Human Settlement and Civil Rights Movement
Grade level: 9-12
Subject area: geography
Standard:
Understand the patterns of human settlement and their causes.
Benchmarks:
Understand the physical and human impact of emerging urban forms in the present-day world
(e.g., the rise of megalopolis, edge cities, and metropolitan corridors; increasing numbers of
ethnic enclaves in urban areas and the development of legislation to protect the rights of ethnic
and racial minorities; improved light-rail systems within cities providing ease of access to ex-
urban areas).
Subject area: U.S. history
Standard:
Understand the struggle for racial and gender equality and for the extension of civil liberties.
Benchmarks:
Understand significant influences on the civil rights movement (e.g., the social and constitutional
issues involved in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and Brown v. Board of Education (1954) court
cases; the connection between legislative acts, Supreme Court decisions, and the civil rights
movement; the role of women in the civil rights movement and in shaping the struggle for civil
rights).
Objectives
Students will understand the following:
1. Oral interviews can be a significant source of historical insights.
2. Since the 16th century, immigration has played a major role in the United States.
3. In addition to being, except for Native Americans, a country of immigrants, the United
States is also now remarkable for the frequency with which people move around the
country, from region to region.

2. Materials
Atlases, encyclopedias, almanacs, and other sources of information about interviewees'
original homes. scale model materials…
Procedures
1. After students learn about what African Americans experienced in the 20th century as a
result of moving from the South to the North, invite student to explore the general issue
of leaving one's home to improve one's life somewhere else. Explain to students that they
will research through interviews to see if today's newcomers to an area have experiences
similar to or different from the experiences of the people who were caught up in the
Great Migration. Later, students will convert the interviews into written reports.
2. Brainstorm with students to determine where the class can find people who have
immigrated to your town or area from another part of the country or from another part of
the world for improved economic and social conditions. You and students may come up
with the following suggestions:
Students who themselves are recent immigrants
Students' parents or other relatives who came to your town before the
students were born
Religious or other community organizations that help new arrivals to an
area
Clubs that immigrants establish to help them keep in touch with other
people who moved to this town or area from the same place
3. If your students plan to interview someone who came here recently from a place where
English is not the first language, you may have to figure out with your class how to
conduct an interview in a language other than English. Is one or more students in the
class fluent in the interviewee's language and able to do immediate translations? Will the
class have to invite a translator to accompany the interviewee? Or will you decide to
interview people only if they have acquired a certain proficiency in understanding and
speaking English?
4. Organize groups of, say, five students who will work as a committee to conduct a
successful in-class interview with a person who moved to your town or area from
elsewhere in the hope of improving his or her lifestyle. Allow the committee to choose a
spokesperson who will approach an individual regarding an interview or will contact an
organization that can suggest an individual who would make a good interview subject.
The spokesperson may make the request for the interview by phone or in writing. (The
invitation to the individual or group should make clear that a group of students will
conduct the interview and that the interviewee will have to come to the school building.)
This spokesperson will also lead off the in-person interview and draw it to a conclusion
later. Make sure the other students on the committee understand they must contribute to

3. the research that precedes the interview, help to generate prepared questions, ask follow-
up questions during the interview, and collaborate on the final, written report about the
interview.
5. Once students find out whom they will be interviewing, they should do research on the
place the subject comes from so that they may understand more readily why the person
chose to move away.
6. Teach students the general guidelines for conducting an effective and courteous
interview with someone they may not have met before:
1. The interviewer must accommodate the interviewee's schedule, inconveniencing the
interviewee as little as possible. Once the interviewee agrees to be interviewed, the
interviewer should make a specific appointment and then confirm the appointment as the
date approaches. During the interview, the interviewer must watch the clock and not
exceed the agreed-upon duration for the interview.
2. The interviewer must find the right balance between showing genuine respect for the
interviewee and not letting the interviewee duck critical questions.
3. The interviewer must do his or her homework and completely avoid asking questions of
facts about the interviewee's original home. As noted previously, students should do their
own research about the place the interviewee left to come to your town or area.
4. The interviewer should go to the interview with four or five substantive questions
thought out in advance. Then the interviewer must listen carefully to the interviewee's
response so that he or she can ask a follow-up question or two based on the response
instead of slavishly following the list of questions he or she brought to the interview.
5. As much as possible, the questions should be built around Who? What? Where? When?
and How? so that answers provide substantive information rather than simply yes or no.
6. The interviewer must take careful notes or, with permission from the interviewee, tape-
record the interview.
7. As soon after the interview as possible, the interviewer should write up the interview,
contacting the interviewee if necessary to clarify or verify facts.
8. Without being obsequious, the interviewer should thank the interviewee for agreeing to
the interview and for responsiveness during the interview. The interviewer should offer
to show the interviewee the write-up of the interview before publishing or otherwise
using the interview.
7. Help each committee generate questions that will elicit the interviewee's thoughts about
leaving a home to move here and adjusting to this town or area. These questions should
reflect to some degree what the students learned about the Great Migration of African
Americans from the South to Chicago in the 20th century. Questions may concern the
following:
Expectations versus realities of living here
Homesickness
Goals already accomplished by moving here
Additional goals the interviewee has
The best and the worst parts of moving here
Advice the interviewee might give to other people moving here

4. Review each committee's first draft of questions, giving them advice for revisions if
necessary.
8. Have students conduct practice interviews with each other so that you and classmates can
offer constructive criticism on interview content and style.
9. As each committee appears ready to conduct its interview, make any arrangements that
are necessary in your school for guests.
10. After the interviews, give the committees instructions about what to include in their
written reports based on the interviews. You may tell them to include the following:
A generalization about the subject's experiences in moving here
Plenty of examples to support the generalization
A comparison-contrast of the subject's experiences with the experiences of
people who moved to Chicago during the Great Migration
A statement of what students learned about preparing for and conducting
personal interviews; a statement of what, if anything, they would do
differently next time
11. If any students have not taken part on the interview committees, have them act as peer
editors of the committees' written work, calling for revisions as appropriate.