Hands-on English current events activity for August, 1998
Note: You are welcome to print, copy and use this activity with your students. However, please don't re-publish it anywhere without permission.
To the instructor:
Hate
crimes have been much in the news lately, and this case offers a good
opportunity to discuss this issue with your ESL students. We have
prepared a short reading passage about the church-burning story, with
some suggested discussion points at the end. We hope the discussion
will allow your students to draw on their own experiences both in
this country and in their home countries.
Your students might be interested to know that the lawyer in this case (Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama) was also involved in a case in 1981 in which Vietnamese fishermen in Texas were being harrassed by the KKK. These fishermen were successful in their case and were able to continue pursuing their occupation.
The
Southern Poverty Law Center is a non-profit organization that
"combats hate, intolerance and discrimination through education and
litigation." To find out more about them, you can visit their website
at http://www.splcenter.org/
At this site you can read more about the cases they are involved in.
Under the 'Klanwatch' section you'll find a list of active hate
groups in the U.S. and a very interesting map of hate-group sites
across the U.S. The SPLC offers free or low-cost resources to
educators, and you can write to receive their free magazine,
"Teaching Tolerance."
Adapting to lower level students:
In
order to make this story accessible to very beginning level or
literacy level students, we are providing you with some
simple sketches
to illustrate the story. We hope you will
find these helpful, although we make no claims to artistic ability!!
(You might also be able to draw your own sketches for your students
based on this idea.) See
sketches: 
We hope you find this activity worthwhile.
--The
Editor
In
1995, two men helped to burn down a church in South Carolina, in the
U.S. The church belonged to some black people who lived in a small
town. The name of the church was the "Macedonia Baptist
Church."
The
two men were white, They belonged to a hate group called the Ku Klux
Klan. This group hates black people. They wanted to burn the church
to frighten the people.
A
lawyer for the church, Morris Dees, went to court. He told the judge
that the two men who burned the church were not acting alone. They
were working for the Ku Klux Klan. He said the KKK should pay the
people who lost their church.
In
July 1998 this court case was finally finished. The jury listened to
the case and agreed that these men and some other members of the KKK
were guilty, and they must pay. They must pay a lot of money. They
must pay $37.8 million dollars to the people of the Macedonia Baptist
Church.
When
will the church get this money? Probably never, said their lawyer,
because the two men and their hate group don't have very much money.
But he says it is still important to win this case. It shows everyone
that a hate crime in America is very serious.
Discussion
Here
are some important words to discuss. For each one, give some more
examples if you can think of any.
1. racist (This means they hate people because
of their skin color.)
Example:
The KKK is a racist group because they hate black people.
Other
examples:
2. hate crime (This means a crime against
someone they hate because of their color or religion.)
Example:
Burning the black people's church in South Carolina was a hate
crime.
Other
examples:
3. victim (This means a person or group who is
hurt in a crime.)
Example:
The Macedonia Baptist Church was a victim of a hate crime.
Other
examples:
4. discrimination (This means giving something
to one group but not to another.)
Example:
If this class was free for Russian students but Vietnamese students
had to pay, that would be discrimination.
Other
examples:
5. hate group (This means an organization that
hates people because of their color or religion.)
Example:
A Neo-Nazi group is a hate group that follows the ideas of
Hitler.
Other
examples:
Editor's
note: I'd be very interested to hear what you and your students
thought of this activity! Thank you! We welcome teaching
suggestions.--Anna Silliman. 
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