Jennie Tudor Gray: Arts Educator: Civil Rights Leaders Portraits

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, I decided to teach a unit on Civil Rights Leaders, and non-violent social change. Students learned about the African-American Civil Rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's and the role that young people played in standing up for desegregation. I also taught the students about the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement and its leaders Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. We also looked at the role young people had in the Chicano/Chicana student walk-outs. We also discussed the Women's Rights movement and the work of leaders such as Gloria Steinem.

When learning about the Mexican American civil rights unit, I discussed how the Tuscon public school system had recently prohibited any teaching of Mexican American studies and how if we lived there I wouldn't be able to teach them this unit. This brought up all sorts of issues and questions from the students, of course, and I explained as best I could that there are still many human rights issues that exist today. Here is an article with more information about it:
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/24/155644119/first-year-without-controversial-class-in-ariz-ends

Students used a grid system to help learn the proportions of the human face and how to draw portraits. Students chose their own Civil Rights leader to draw and had to explore the Art element Value by drawing a range of dark to light in their pencil drawings. I was so impressed in how they turned out and how involved the students were in the project.

Four of the portraits even won prizes at the University Interscholastic League competition. I know that more would have done so, but we were limited to only three per category.

Portrait Winners

6th Grade: 2nd Place Drawing Category

(We also took the 1st place drawing for a Picasso Split Portrait Drawing!)