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Paired Texts > The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing

by Jessica McBirney

2016

We've identified these texts as great options for text pairings based on similar themes, literary devices, topic, or writing style. Supplement your lesson with one or more of these options and challenge students to compare and contrast the texts. To assign a paired text, click on the text to go to its page and click the "Assign Text" button there.

6th Grade Memoir 720L
Little Things Are Big
  • Jesús Colón
  • 1961

In "Little Things are Big," Jesús Colón, a Puerto Rican writer of African descent, describes an interaction with a white woman that changed his point of view.  

Pair “The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing” with “The Little Things Are Big” and ask students to discuss whether Colón’s fear to the woman if she needed help was justified, based on their knowledge of race relations in this time period. How would they have reacted in this situation?

8th Grade Informational Text 1020L
The Sit-In Movement
  • USHistory.org
  • 2016

This informational text discusses the different forms of peaceful protests that civil rights activists employed during their struggle for equality.

Pair “The Sit in Movement” with “The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing” and ask students to discuss the impact of non-violent protests during the Civil Rights Movement. Why did non-violent protests lead to change?

7th Grade Informational Text 1070L
Emmett Till
  • Jessica McBirney
  • 2016

This informational text explains how the murder of Emmett Till helped spark the Civil Rights Movement.

Pair “The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing” with “Emmett Till” and ask students to discuss the violent reactions of Southerners to shifting American attitudes regarding racial inequality. What about the American South allowed for such violence when dealing with issues of race? How did both Emmett Till’s murder and the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing affect national opinion on race, equality, and justice?

5th Grade Poem
The Many and the Few
  • J. Patrick Lewis
  • 2001

In J. Patrick Lewis’ poem “The Many and the Few,” a speaker describes the historic moment when Rosa Parks refused to give her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

Pair “The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing” with “The Many and the Few” and ask students to discuss how the events depicted in the two texts impacted the Civil Rights movement. Do students think that one had a greater impact than the other? Why or why not?