Writing Prompt #16: Comparison and Contrast Essay

Follow the two links to find similarities and differences between Alligators and Crocodiles.  Use the information you find in these resources to support your writing.

Alligator Vs. Crocodile

Differences:
http://www.diffen.com/difference/Alligator_vs_Crocodile

Similarities:
http://sciencing.com/alligator-crocodile-similarities-8626864.html

Freedom Walkers Overview

           
          Recently, we completed the Freedom Walkers book! This story chronicles the lives of those involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  We hope that you took away one, if not many, life lessons from this story.  Some things students took away from the story are that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, or to respond to hate with love. Also, we learned that you need to stand up for what you believe in know matter what might happen. Finally, that your voice matters. No matter how young or old, everybody has a voice that needs to be heard.

--Skylar

February 21-24 announcements

**Health**

New/updated announcements

Mr. J's Science Class Presentation Dates

Presentations on 2/24
Deforestation
Loss of Biodiversity
Climate Change

Presentations on 2/27
Global Water Crisis
Factory Farming

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Global Water Crisis
Scientists: Skyler/Roberto
Politicians: Isabella/Ayla
Reporter: Hailey
Engineer: Katie

Factory Farming
Scientist: Grace
Politicians: Louise/Niciah
Reporter: Raleigh
Engineers: Crystal/Dylan

Deforestation
Scientist: Ava
Politician: Nick
Reporter: Kennady
Engineers: Nestor/Kayleb

Loss of Biodiversity
Scientist: Terra
Politician: Alaina
Reporter: Chase
Engineers: Angel/Ethan

Climate Change
Scientist: Kyle
Politicians: Sydney
Reporter: Princess
Engineer: Trey

February 13-17 announcements

February monthly announcements

MIGRATION INTERNET SCAVENGER HUNT

Go to this link right HERE!!!!

Due 1/12

Mr. J's Science Class

Welcome Mr. J's class!   Please use the resources available on this blog to help you with your Science Projects!  Look to the right tab for links listed under, "Human Impact Projects."

Week of 2/5-2/10

Writing Prompt 14: Montgomery Bus Boycott

Here is the link you need to do your research!  I also have copied the text below if you would rather just stay here!  Please read the article and take notes on the given graphic organizer!

The following article is from:

http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/montgomery-bus-boycott

The Montgomery Bus Boycott, in which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating, took place from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, and is regarded as the first large-scale demonstration against segregation in the U.S. On December 1, 1955, four days before the boycott began, Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, refused to yield her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus. She was arrested and fined. The boycott of public buses by blacks in Montgomery began on the day of Parks’ court hearing and lasted 381 days. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system, and one of the leaders of the boycott, a young pastor named Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-68), emerged as a prominent national leader of the American civil rights movement in the wake of the action.

MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT: PARKS REFUSES TO YIELD BUS SEAT

In 1955, African Americans were still required by a Montgomery, Alabama, city ordinance to sit in the back half of city buses and to yield their seats to white riders if the front half of the bus, reserved for whites, was full. On December 1, 1955, African-American seamstress Rosa Parks (1913-2005) was returning home from her job at a local department store on the Cleveland Avenue bus. She was seated in the front row of the “colored section.” When the white seats filled, the driver, J. Fred Blake (1912-2002), asked Parks and three others to vacate their seats. The other African-American riders complied, but Parks refused. She was arrested and fined $10, plus $4 in court fees. This was not Parks’ first encounter with Blake. In 1943, she had paid her fare at the front of a bus he was driving, then exited so she could re-enter through the back door, as required. Blake pulled away before she could re-board the bus.

Did You Know?

Nine months before Rosa Parks' arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin (1939-) was arrested in Montgomery for the same act. The city's black leaders prepared to protest, until it was discovered Colvin was pregnant and deemed an inappropriate symbol for their cause.

Although Parks has sometimes been depicted as a woman with no history of civil rights activism at the time of her arrest, she and her husband, Raymond (1903-77), were, in fact, active in the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and Parks served as its secretary. Upon her arrest, Parks called E.D. Nixon (1899-1987), a prominent black leader, who bailed her out of jail and determined she would be an upstanding and sympathetic plaintiff in a legal challenge of the segregation ordinance. African-American leaders decided to attack the ordinance using other tactics as well. The Women’s Political Council (WPC), a group of black women working for civil rights, began circulating flyers calling for a boycott of the bus system on December 5, the day Parks would be tried in municipal court.

MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT: AFRICAN AMERICANS MOBILIZE

As news of the boycott spread, African-American leaders across Montgomery, Alabama’s capital city, began lending their support. Black ministers announced the boycott in church on Sunday, December 4, and the Montgomery Advertiser, a general-interest newspaper, published a front-page article on the planned action. Approximately 40,000 African-American bus riders–the majority of the city’s black bus riders–boycotted the system the next day. On the afternoon of December 5, black leaders met to form the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). The group elected Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-68), the 26-year-old-pastor of Montgomery’s Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, as its president, and decided to continue the boycott until the city met its demands.

Initially, the demands did not include changing the segregation laws; rather, the group demanded courtesty, the hiring of black drivers, and a first-come, first-seated policy, with whites entering and filling seats from the front and African Americans from the rear. Ultimately, however, a group of five Montgomery women, represented by attorney Fred D. Gray (1932-) and the NAACP, sued the city in U.S. District Court, seeking to have the busing segregation laws invalidated.

Although African Americans represented at least 75 percent of Montgomery’s bus ridership, the city resisted complying with the MIA’s demands. To ensure the boycott could be sustained, black leaders organized carpools, and the city’s African-American taxi drivers charged only 10 cents–the same price as bus fare–for African-American riders. Many black residents chose simply to walk to work and other destinations. Black leaders organized regular mass meetings to keep African-American residents mobilized around the boycott.

MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT: INTEGRATION AT LAST

On June 5, 1956, a Montgomery federal court ruled that any law requiring racially segregated seating on buses violated the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That amendment, adopted in 1868 following the American Civil War (1861-65), guarantees all citizens, regardless of race, equal rights and equal protection under state and federal laws. The city appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court’s decision on December 20, 1956. Montgomery’s buses were integrated on December 21, 1956, and the boycott ended. It had lasted 381 days.

Integration met with significant resistance and even violence. While the buses themselves were integrated, Montgomery maintained segregated bus stops. Snipers began firing into buses, and one shattered both legs of a pregnant African-American passenger. In January 1957, four black churches and the homes of prominent black leaders were bombed; a bomb at King’s house was defused. On January 30, 1957, the Montgomery police arrested seven bombers; all were members of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group. The arrests largely brought an end to the busing-related violence.

BOYCOTT PUTS KING IN SPOTLIGHT

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was significant on several fronts. First, it is widely regarded as the earliest mass protest on behalf of civil rights in the U.S., setting the stage for additional large-scale actions outside the court system to bring about fair treatment for African Americans. Second, in his leadership of the MIA, Martin Luther King emerged as a prominent national leader of the civil rights movement while also solidifying his commitment to nonviolent resistance. King’s approach remained a hallmark of the civil rights movement throughout the 1960s. Shortly after the boycott’s end, he helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a highly influential civil rights organization that worked to end segregation throughout the South. The SCLC was influential in the civil rights campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, in the spring of 1963, and the March on Washington in August of that same year, during which King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. The boycott also brought national and international attention to the civil rights struggles occurring in the U.S., as more than 100 reporters visited Montgomery during the boycott to profile the effort and its leaders.

Rosa Parks, while shying from the spotlight throughout her life, remained an esteemed figure in the history of American civil rights activism. In 1999, the U.S. Congress awarded her its highest honor, the Congressional Gold Medal.

Student Post (Skyler and Krystin)

           

 Welcome to our class blog! Throughout the week Krystin and Skylar will be informing you about what we are learning, our announcements, etc...

This week we have started a new science class. We will be learning about physics and matter, in Mr. J's classroom. Remember to take notes and bring your planners on Friday. Also, don't forget that we have a science paper due during our next science class. SWAG is also due this Friday.

Next week we are started a new social studies assignment about, ancient cultures and civilizations in the Western Hemisphere. If you have any suggestions for our next weeks post, talk to Skylar or Krystin.

Have a great week y'all!