Students will learn how racial discontent in the 1960s led to the creation of the nation’s first SWAT team, how the War on Drugs of the 1980s caused SWAT teams to be repurposed for drug raids, and how, in recent years, the SWAT approach to policing has fueled a nationwide trend: the militarization of local police departments.
Race and Racism
Posted inU.S. History
Lesson Plan: The War on Drugs and the New Face of Heroin
Students will learn the origin and racial context of America’s multi-decade war on drugs, and the impact the changing demographics of heroin users have had on the debate and public policy.
Posted inCivics and Government
Lesson Plan: George C. Wallace and the Politics of Segregation
Students will learn how Alabama Gov. George Wallace’s evolving positions on race reveal both the intensity of the white backlash to desegregation during the 60s and the growing political power of the black community during the 70s and early 80s.
Posted inCivics and Government
Lesson Plan: How ‘Zero Tolerance’ Blurred the Line Between School and the Justice System
Students will learn the social and political forces that led schools to adopt “zero tolerance” discipline policies in the 1980s and 1990s, and the racially unequal consequences of these policies today.
Posted inU.S. History
Lesson Plan: What Jesse Owens’s Story Tells Us About Sports and Politics – Mini Lesson
Students will discuss the impact of Jesse Owens’s achievements on the perceptions of race on the national and international stages.
