🧭 Cultural concept
Segregation, civil rights and diversity
Hidden Figures: How laws and customs separated Black and white Americans — and how people fought, at work and in science, for equal recognition. Key question: Can talent alone break down barriers?
Green Book: The Jim Crow South: separate spaces, “sundown towns”, and the strategies Black Americans used to travel safely and with dignity. Key question: Who gets to tell the story of the civil rights era?
Crash: How first impressions, fear and social position shape the way people see each other in a diverse city. Key question: Are we defined by our worst moment — or by our best one?
Film study 1Hidden Figures
🧭 Segregation & civil rights
Three Black women mathematicians help win the space race — while fighting segregation at work. The perfect entry point: inspiring, accessible, all audiences.
Film study 2Green Book
🧭 Segregation & civil rights
A road trip through the Jim Crow South, a famous guidebook, and a debate about who tells the story.
Film study 3Crash
🧭 Prejudice, stereotypes & diversity
Our centrepiece: an Oscar-winning ensemble film about prejudice in a diverse city. Rich in film language, perfect for debate — and debated itself.
For the teacher: age ratings
- Hidden Figures — PG · all audiences
- Green Book — PG-13 · trailer and context
- Crash — R · for 1re / Tle · trailer only
Ratings are the US MPA ratings. Full guidance: mode d’emploi professeur.
🪜 Suggested progression
- Hidden Figures (2nde/1re, B1→B2): discover segregation and the civil rights era through a positive story.
- Green Book (1re/Tle, B2): the Jim Crow South on the road; critical thinking about point of view.
- Crash (1re/Tle, B2→B2+): from legal segregation to everyday prejudice; formal debate and essay.
📅 Shared timeline
- 1865 The 13th Amendment abolishes slavery.
- 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson accepts “separate but equal”.
- 1936 First Negro Motorist Green Book.
- 1941 Executive Order 8802 bans racial discrimination in the defense industry.
- 1954 Brown v. Board of Education: school segregation is unconstitutional.
- 1955 Rosa Parks; the Montgomery bus boycott.
- 1958 NASA is created; segregated facilities at Langley are abolished.
- 1961 Freedom Riders challenge segregated buses.
- 1962 John Glenn orbits Earth; Don Shirley tours the South.
- 1963 March on Washington; Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream”.
- 1964 Civil Rights Act.
- 1965 Voting Rights Act; Watts uprising in Los Angeles.
- 1992 Los Angeles riots after the Rodney King verdict.
- 2004–2006 Crash: premiere, release, Best Picture.
- 2016–2019 Hidden Figures and Green Book.
📚 Shared vocabulary
| Segregation | segregation · Jim Crow laws · “separate but equal” · colored / white only · sundown town · to integrate |
|---|---|
| Rights | civil rights · equality · the right to vote · discrimination · to campaign · a landmark law |
| Prejudice | prejudice · stereotype · racial profiling · bias · to judge · to assume · a first impression |
| Recognition | to be overlooked · invisible · to break barriers · a pioneer · dignity · recognition |
Sentence starters
- The key word for this theme is… because…
- In both films, the word… applies to…
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https://trame-lycee.netlify.app/films/civil-rights.html
Created by Madame Carole Paoli Pompougnac.