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Conducting the town meeting

You and your group are to decide the answer to the question, “Is a boycott the only way to end segregation in Seattle Public Schools?”

I: Creating Your Role

You are to choose a description from the “groups at the meeting” list, or your teacher will assign one to you. Based on that description, you will create an identity (you can use your own name) of a person that would believe what the description says. Each group member will be her/his own character; during the Town Meeting, you will work together to get your point of view across. You do not need to agree 100%, with your group, but you should agree on fundamentals.

Use the following questions as a guide to creating your identity.

1. How old is your character? Where do you live? Where were you educated?

2. a. If you are an adult, do you have school children? Do you want your children going to integrated schools? Why or why not?

b. If you are a student, do you want to attend an integrated school? Why or why not?

3. What is your opinion on the Brown v Board decision? How does it apply to Seattle Public Schools?

4. What do you think a boycott would accomplish?

II: Preparing Your Position

You and your group are to prepare a one-minute opening statement responding to the question, “Is a boycott the only way to end segregation in Seattle Public Schools?” One member of your group will give your statement at the beginning of the meeting.

In order to prepare your position, you should examine the documents from the 1966 Seattle school boycott, and read the report on it. You may flesh out the information you learned from these resources, and disagree with any opinions you find; you may not contradict any actual facts.

III: The Town Meeting

Listen to each other’s opening statements; take notes on arguments or ideas that your character would particularly agree or disagree with.

After all of the opening statements have been made, the discussion will be open. Raise your hand and jump in! It is your job to convince others in the room of your point of view. Everybody in the group should speak at least once.

Statements or questions may be addressed to particular individuals in the class in response to either their opening statements or comments made during discussion (Example: “You said that you are in favor of the boycott, but what about...”). It is acceptable to disagree with ideas expressed but it is not acceptable to attack the person who makes the statement or expresses the idea.

IV: The Vote

At the end of the discussion, we’ll take a vote on the question: Is a boycott the only way to end segregation in Seattle Public Schools? The teacher will facilitate the vote. Students who agree that the boycott is the only way to end segregation in Seattle Public Schools should raise their hands first. Students who do not agree that the boycott is the only way to end segregation in the Seattle Public Schools should raise their hands second. The majority of the votes will determine the decision.

V: After the Vote: You will write an editorial to The Seattle Times or The Facts newspapers, or another ethnic newspaper of their choice, such as a Filipino American or Chinese American newspaper. The editorial will express your position on the boycott. You may or may not take the view of your assigned stakeholder. In your essays, you should use specific evidence from the resources you were provided with and/or found on your own. You should also include why they chose to write to the newspaper they selected.

Groups at the Meeting

Members of the Seattle School Board

• You are various members of the school board. At the time of the Brown vs. Board decision, the President of the school board said, “it was not our fault that the schools in Seattle were segregated”. You realize however that you have to do something about the situation. You highlight that the Seattle School Board was the first major city in the U.S. to undertake a district-wide school desegregation plan in August 1963. You vote for the Voluntary Transfer Program as a solution to the segregated schools. The program proposes that 1,400 of the 7,000 Black students in Central district schools will be sent to various schools outside the area. You do not think the proposal made by the CACRC (Central Area Civil Rights Committee) of mandatory busing of Black children to distant neighborhoods is the best solution, however they are threatening a boycott because they do not think you are acting quickly enough to desegregate the schools. You think a boycott will only hurt the children and deprive them of educational experience and there are more productive ways to accomplish the goals of civil rights organizations.

Students who support the boycott

• You are a group of students, of various ages, that attend various Seattle Public Schools throughout the district. You support the movement for the desegregation of schools. You believe that having desegregated schools will benefit your educational experience because it will prepare you for the real world where people have to live and work with people from different races. You believe that people of all races should be treated equally in education. Some of you do not think a boycott is the best way to go but it is the best step taken so far. You plan to participate in the boycott and attend one of the Freedom Schools.

Students that do not support the boycott

• You do not support the desegregation of schools because you do not want to go to a different school. You want to stay at the school where you are at with your friends and teachers you know. You do not want to have to ride a bus to a part of town you are unfamiliar with.

White parents who support the desegregation of schools

• You support the efforts of local civil rights organizations. You want your children to go to school with children of all races. You would like people from all different races to live in your neighborhood. You feel it is a disadvantage for your children to be living and going to school in such an overwhelmingly White area. You are in favor of racial distribution in all Seattle Schools.

White parents who do not support the desegregation of schools

• You do not think that there is a problem of segregation in schools in Seattle. You believe that if parents want their children to go to schools in different sections of town, then those families should move instead of asking taxpayers to provide money for busing their children around the city. You live in an isolated all-White neighborhood and pay little attention to the problems in the predominantly African American section of town. You think the quality of your children’s schools with decrease and there will be an increase in violence if the schools are desegregated. You will not send your children to schools in the Central District in the Voluntary Racial Transfer Program, as a “reverse” transfers.

Black parents who have reservations about the desegregation of schools

• You want improved educational opportunities for your children but you have reservations about the desegregation of schools because you believe your children will be disproportionately burdened in the process. You think your children will receive a better education in a predominantly African American school. You do not trust that your children will learn about and be proud of their culture in a school that is predominantly White. You do not think your children should be forced to adjust to the European way of going to school. You also want to stress that local civil rights organizations like the CACRC (Central Area Civil Rights Committee), do not speak for all African Americans in the community.

Members of the CACRC (Central Area Civil Rights Committee) and CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) including parents and community members

• You represent mostly middle class African Americans who are committed to desegregation. You genuinely believe that a segregated school is a substandard one. You are in favor of closing the 62-year-old Horace Mann School that has a 97% Black enrollment, and propose that the students be dispersed to other schools to speed up desegregation. You propose a school boycott to show Black community displeasure over the slow pace of desegregation. It is the last thing you want to happen but the School Board has not been receptive to any of your suggestions.

Members from the NAACP

• You are dedicated to the desegregation of schools and have given up on the school administrators to come up with a plan of action. You are in full support of protesting until the following conditions are met: Seattle Public Schools come up with a plan to desegregate schools in a reasonable period of time and the school district begins a compulsory training program for all school employees in human relations so there will be understanding and acceptance of students of color in previously all White schools. You are tired of unfulfilled promises that action will be taken; however, you do believe that if a boycott is planned it will be called off if the School Board comes up with a plan that is spelled out in detail.

Journalists from Seattle Times

• The newspaper you write for has complete confidence in the school board and their decisions around the best ways to desegregate schools. The Times does not support mandatory busing of students. The paper thinks the School Board should not give in to the demands made by local civil rights groups in order to avoid a school boycott. You think that if the school board gives in then it shows that the groups can gain concessions by disruptive tactics. You are worried that a boycott will teach children to defy public authority. You hope few people participate in the boycott. You agree that the racial imbalance of the public schools is a problem but do not support the use of a boycott to prove a point and get things changed.

Journalists from The Facts

• You are a journalist for the Northwest’s largest African American newspaper. Your goal is the inform the Black community about the situation and the history of actions taken so far by the Seattle School Board and other civil rights organizations to desegregate schools. Your paper attempts to include the various viewpoints within the Black community. It contains editorials written by African Americans who support the CACRC (Central Area Civil Rights Committee) and their plan for the boycott as well as criticisms of some civil rights groups that support desegregation and claim to speak for the entire Black community.

Local elementary and high school teachers (of various racial and ethnic groups)

• You told your supervisors that if there was a boycott you would not be in school. You believe that citizenship requires your participation. You believe you cannot be a responsible citizen without taking action. That is what you teach your students and therefore it is your duty to participate and show your support for the desegregation of Seattle Schools. You want to help teach at the Freedom Schools set up at churches around the city that will be teaching students Black history, life, and culture and leadership skills during the boycott. You think that students participating in a boycott is an educational experience not a holiday from school.

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