Another unit is done in PLP and this was probably one of my favorite units of all time. This past unit we were looking at was the 1950’s-60’s and the civil rights movement within that time period.  In class we have been talking about influential people such as Martin Luther King, Linda Brown, Rosa Parks and many more. The project that was assigned for this unit was a partner project in the media form of a video. The video was about a movement, event or a person who was influential in the civil rights movement. The twist to this project was the the topic had to be have a direct correlation to Canada or the history of Canada in some way.

Please watch the video before reading on:

As you have seen the video now, I’ll break it down for you. The criteria was to create a video that was about the civil rights movement that is related to Canada. This video had to be about of 4-6 minutes long and have a voice over and some visuals. We were assigned partners and I was delighted that I was assigned one of my class members and former hockey team mate  Ryan. Since Ryan and I both play sports and Ryan loves to watch them we decided to pick the realm of sports to choose a topic from. Then it popped into our heads that we could tell the story of Jackie Robinson and how he was the first African American to be drafted into the MLB.

Jackie Robinson’s story is a well known one. It is the story of the man with the number 42. Many people know that he played in America but we couldn’t at first think of a way to connect his story to Canada. We did a good old search and found out that before Jackie played for the Brooklyn Dodgers he played for the Montreal Royals (thanks Google) Alright, now from there we moved on to more of the Canadian part of the story. Jackie was put in the Montreal Royals by the owner of the Dodgers, Branch Rickey. As I stated in the video, it is not common knowledge that Jackie wasn’t the best African American player. Jackie was picked by the Dodgers’ owner because of how he carried himself as well as the civil rights challenges that he had faced before. Jackie was picked because Rickey knew that he would be accepted well by the Dodgers’ crowd.

This project was a good one for me because I took on a different role. Instead of doing all of the visual editing I chose to take on the research and writing as well as the voice over. This was new role for me and was driven by one of the goals that I set in PGP. The goal was to push myself out of my comfort zone and put myself in new and maybe uncomfortable situations.

This project was pretty interesting for me and very influential. Putting myself into the new situations was something that I hope to continue and build on. I learned new research skills as well as I improved my audio recording skills. The biggest thing I learned in this unit was how unfairly the African American community of the US and Canada was treated. I feel as if I am inspired by all of the things that the civil rights activists did for the African American community as well as everything they did for people of colour. Just look at Jackie Robinson and what he did for Latinos and other coloured athletes in the sport of baseball.  He was a leader and an inspiration to many people.

Now that we have talked about the final project let’s go back to the beginning of this unit about civil rights. As this unit went on we travelled from the end of the 40’s, through the 50’s and onto the 60’s. Each time we learned about a new person or event that had an impact on the civil rights movement. The first person we learned about was Emmet Till. Emmet was a teenager, just like myself or one of my classmates, who went down south on vacation to visit his uncle. While down south, Emmet was brutally murdered by two men who owned a convenience store. The motive for the murder was a misunderstanding between Emmet and the store owner’s wife. The two men were later brought to trial and were acquitted by an all-white jury of all charges.  Another person we learned about was Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks is a relatively well know story. Rosa was an old woman who was tired of the segregation on buses and when asked to move by the bus driver, Rosa refused and this caused her to be arrested. She became a well-known face of the civil rights movement. Other events included the Little Rock Nine, the lunch counter sit-ins, the freedom rides, the Birmingham campaign, the March on Washington, the Mississippi freedom summer, Martin Luther King, the Civil Rights Act of 64, and the march from Selma to Montgomery. All of these events and people are super substantial to the history of the civil rights movement. All of these people and events made sacrifices and took a positive step forward for the African American community as well as for people of colour all across America. As we talked about these people and events in class it opened my eyes to the severe, utter hatred that some members of America had towards people of colour. It shows today’s youth how privileged we are to live in the world now. That being said, there are still strides to make in equality and the Black Lives Matter movement is leading that charge. Now you know why this has been by far my favourite unit I have ever done in my PLP career.  It opened my eyes and I have learned so much that I can take into my everyday life to make me a better person.