The Long, Painful Journey: Discrimination, Racism and the Struggle for Everlasting Freedom

Veronica Everett

This unit is intended to be taught at the seventh grade level. However it can be taught at the eighth grade level and also can be altered to be taught at the High School level as well. I usually teach this unit in the beginning of the school year. This unit usually spans six weeks long.

This unit is intended to demonstrate to students how freedom has changed over time and how the word freedom has different meanings to different people. What is freedom? Students take many things for granted and don’t realize that many people had to fight to gain basic freedoms. This unit examines three different groups of people: African Americans, Mexican Americans and Women. The lessons are designed to give students an understanding of the struggles these three groups of people faced in trying to gain different freedoms and at what cost. Students are able to take the very words of our forefathers and see if those words hold any truth to them.