Unsung Heroes Mock Interview Project (Howard Zinn Interview)

Assignment # 1- Unsung Heroes

Part I (20 points):

1. Find one person who stood up against slavery.

2. Find one person who resisted the unequal treatment of women and African Americans.

3. Find one person who used nonviolent civil disobedience as a form of resistance.

4. Find one person who was willing to use force if necessary to achieve the goals of their cause.

5. Find one person who thought the best method of bringing about change was to change laws.

6. Find one person who thought the most effective way of bringing about change was to organize people at the grassroots level.

7. Find one female civil rights activist.

8. Find one person who fought to expand voting rights.

9. Find one person who played a pivotal role in the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

10. Find one person who has held important leadership positions in civil rights organizations.

Once you have located all of these people and your handout is completely filled out, return to your desk.

We will conclude with a brief discussion of the activity and all of the individuals we learned about.

Unsung Heroes:

Elaine Brown, Constance Baker Motley, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Maxine Waters, Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ida b. Wells, Melba Patilla Beals, Thurgood Marshall, Howard Zinn, Henry David Thoreau, William Lloyd Garrison, John Lewis, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bernice Reagon, Angela Davis, Frederick Douglass, Kenneth Clark, Sojourner Truth, Archibald Cox, Charles Sherrod

Use the "Eyes on the Prize Profiles" link and the "African American Profiles" links to find information about most of the people listed above.

Part 2: Mock Interview

Working in groups of three or four, prepare and conduct  a mock interview with your unsung hero. Interviews must be videotaped.

Your interview must include a minimum of six open-ended questions.  Questions and answers must be historically accurate and "believable."

You may want to do a bit of research before you develop your questions and practice your mock interview. Watch a few episodes of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. Watch some interviews on the cable news channels or morning news programs. "60 Minutes," and similar programs are also good sources of inspiration and ideas.

Before you videotape your interviews, I need to see a list of interview questions. Once I give you the go-ahead, you may begin taping your interviews. When you are finished and are satisfied with your final product, upload to YouTube (if possible).

As a class, we will view some of the "Unsung Hero" interviews (I will ask for volunteers). If you choose to not share your video with the class, make sure you share it with me electronically so I can grade it.

One last thing...please feel free to be creative with this project. In the past, I’ve had students dress up (be respectful and appropriate when doing so) and I’ve had students create a “puppet show-style” interview. Another suggestion is to create an animated video using an app!