Sarah Goldsmith
You and your husband moved to this town soon after you married. Your husband works in town, making a modest salary, but enough so that you can stay home to take care of your children. You're president of the temple Sisterhood and teach at the temple's Sunday school, where your three children attend classes. During the week, your children attend the local public school. One of the reasons you chose a house in your neighborhood when you moved to town was because the schools were so good. Recently, you've been reading about how Northern civil rights activists want to integrate Southern schools. Your sister, who lives in Chicago, has told you about the integrated schools that her children attend and how the quality of the education dropped when African American children began attending the school. You're concerned that the same thing might happen here if the civil rights activists get their way.
Preparation for taking on the role of your character:
- What values (be as specific as possible) are important to your character? What in this description made you draw those conclusions?
- What are your character's experiences/concerns (be as specific as possible)? What in this description made you draw those conclusions?
- Based on these values and experiences/concerns, would your character support a) home hospitality for civil rights activists and/or b) members supporting the protest?
- Return to the documents you read earlier and identify the most relevant documents and arguments based on what you know about your fictional character.
- Using both what you know about your fictional character and the arguments from the documents you read earlier develop your argument for the board meeting. You may use the space below to outline your argument.