• 60 prompts
  • Checked October 2026

Writing Prompts for the Civil Rights Movement

A report, a letter home or an argument from beside a dated event, from 1954 to 1965.

Writing Prompts for the Civil Rights Movement

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  1. A paper boy in Montgomery sees a mule and a buggy on a street the buses used to fill; write what he tells his mother.Fact: boycotters in Montgomery also got around by bicycle, on mules and in horse-drawn buggies.
  2. Pick the better headline for August 29, 1963: one about the size of the crowd or one about the speeches. Defend it.Fact: the National Archives puts the crowd of August 28, 1963, at more than 250,000 demonstrators.
  3. A woman who lends her car to the Montgomery carpool writes to her daughter about who rode in it this week.Fact: the boycotters organized carpools, with car owners lending their cars or driving people themselves.

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All 60 prompts

A march seen from the pavement 15

  • A crossing guard in Birmingham watches students walk out of the school gate toward downtown; write her report of the morning. Fact: in May 1963 over 1,000 school students marched in Birmingham, Alabama, to talk to the mayor.
  • A farmer beside the highway counts the Selma marchers passing his fence and gets the same number twice; write his evening. Fact: on the two-lane stretch of the road from Selma no more than 300 people were allowed to march.
  • A paper boy in Montgomery sees a mule and a buggy on a street the buses used to fill; write what he tells his mother. Fact: boycotters in Montgomery also got around by bicycle, on mules and in horse-drawn buggies.
  • A railroad porter watches the special trains unload in Washington on August 28, 1963; write what he sees before breakfast. Fact: more than 2,000 buses and 21 chartered trains brought people to Washington on August 28, 1963.
  • A ticket clerk in Washington sells seats on a bus heading south on May 4, 1961; write what he notices about the group. Fact: the first Freedom Ride left on May 4, 1961, from Washington, D.C., for New Orleans.
  • A window dresser across the street watches the group at the Greensboro lunch counter grow; write days one to three. Fact: four students sat in on February 1, 1960, more than twenty the next day and over 60 on the third.
  • Describe a Montgomery sidewalk at rush hour during the bus boycott, as a child counting the walkers from a porch. Fact: during the boycott of 1955 and 1956 the sidewalks of Montgomery were often crowded at rush hour.
  • Describe the last morning of the march into Montgomery, from an upstairs window, as the line keeps growing. Fact: by the last day of the march, March 25, 1965, the crowd had grown to nearly 25,000 people.
  • Describe the walk down the National Mall on August 28, 1963, as a hot dog seller whose cart ends up in the middle of it. Fact: after a rally at the Washington Monument the marchers walked the mile-long National Mall.
  • The night before the March on Washington a sound engineer tests the loudspeakers one by one; write the test. Fact: a sound system was set up to carry the speeches to the whole National Mall.
  • Report dawn at a highway tunnel near Baltimore as the toll collector who watches bus after bus come through. Fact: by 8 a.m. on August 28, 1963, 100 buses an hour were passing through the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel.
  • Report the afternoon of February 1, 1960, as a shopper at the next counter who looks up and sees four students sit down. Fact: at 4:30 p.m. on February 1, 1960, four students sat down at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
  • Report the first morning of the Montgomery bus boycott as a shopkeeper who watches the buses roll past with empty seats. Fact: the boycott of the city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, began on Monday, December 5, 1955.
  • Report the long line of people walking to City Hall in Nashville, as a clerk watching from an office window. Fact: on April 19, 1960, 3,000 people or more walked to City Hall in Nashville, Tennessee.
  • Report the start of the walk from Selma on March 21, 1965, as a child lifted onto a parent's shoulders to see. Fact: more than 8,000 people set out from a church in Selma, Alabama, on March 21, 1965.

A letter home 15

  • A college student in Greensboro writes home to explain why she spent the day at a lunch counter with her homework. Fact: on the second day, February 2, 1960, the students did schoolwork at the counter from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
  • A college volunteer writes home from a small Mississippi town about her first week helping people register to vote. Fact: Freedom Summer began in June 1964 to register as many Black voters in Mississippi as possible.
  • A cook who has walked to work for a year writes home on the night the Montgomery bus boycott ends. Fact: the Montgomery bus boycott's official end was December 20, 1956.
  • A federal examiner writes to his wife after his first day of registering voters in a county post office. Fact: the Voting Rights Act of 1965 provided for federal examiners with the power to register voters.
  • A Freedom School teacher writes to a friend about the grandmother who sits in the front row of her class. Fact: almost 40 Freedom Schools taught over 2,500 students in one summer, parents and grandparents among them.
  • A grandmother writes to her family from the bus home after the March on Washington. Fact: 450 buses left New York City for the march of August 28, 1963.
  • A marcher writes home by flashlight from a campsite on the road between Selma and Montgomery. Fact: the marchers of March 1965 spent their nights at four campsites along the 54-mile route.
  • A Montgomery taxi driver writes to his brother up north about the fare he has started charging. Fact: during the boycott Black taxi drivers in Montgomery charged ten cents a ride, the same as the bus fare.
  • A mother in Little Rock writes to her sister in 1957 about the plan for the city's schools, one level at a time. Fact: Little Rock's school board voted for a plan that began with the high school in 1957; junior highs came later.
  • A Nashville student writes to her old teacher about the workshops she went to before she ever sat at a lunch counter. Fact: workshops on nonviolent tactics were held in Nashville, Tennessee, from March 1958.
  • A soldier sent to Little Rock writes to his younger sister about standing guard outside a high school. Fact: an executive order of September 1957 sent federal troops to Central High School in Little Rock.
  • A student who has joined a Freedom Ride writes to her parents from a bench in a bus station. Fact: in all, 436 people took part in at least 60 separate Freedom Rides.
  • A teenager who rode from Birmingham to the March on Washington writes home about what was left in the picnic basket. Fact: marchers from Birmingham, Alabama, rode 750 miles by bus with picnic baskets and water jugs.
  • A woman who lends her car to the Montgomery carpool writes to her daughter about who rode in it this week. Fact: the boycotters organized carpools, with car owners lending their cars or driving people themselves.
  • One of the 300 who walk the narrow stretch of the Selma road writes to the friends who went back by bus. Fact: after the first day most marchers went back to Selma by car or bus; 300 camped and walked on.

A rule that was changed 15

  • A county clerk learns the poll tax no longer applies to a federal election; write what he tells the next person in line. Fact: the 24th Amendment, ratified on January 23, 1964, ended the poll tax in federal elections.
  • A hotel desk clerk writes in her diary about the first guest she checks in under the new law of July 1964. Fact: hotels were among the businesses in which the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed segregation.
  • A librarian fills in a card for a reader who was never allowed one; write the scene from her side of the desk. Fact: libraries were among the public places opened to all by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
  • A lifeguard reports the first July afternoon the town pool is open to every child. Fact: the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended segregation in public places such as swimming pools.
  • A messenger carries the new act across Washington on July 2, 1964; write the hours between the vote and the signing. Fact: the Civil Rights Act was signed just a few hours after Congress passed it on July 2, 1964.
  • A movie theater usher keeps a diary of the week the separate seating ends. Fact: theaters were among the businesses that the act of July 2, 1964, barred from segregating.
  • A registrar takes the reading test off the counter one August morning; write the day from the other side of that counter. Fact: literacy tests as a condition of voting were outlawed by the act signed on August 6, 1965.
  • A reporter counts the new names in a county's voting book at the end of 1965; write the first paragraph of her story. Fact: by the close of 1965, new Black voters numbered a quarter of a million.
  • A school board secretary types the words with all deliberate speed and wonders how fast that is; write her diary. Fact: on May 31, 1955, the Court told the states to begin desegregation plans "with all deliberate speed".
  • A school custodian in Topeka hears the news on the radio on May 17, 1954; write what he says to the first teacher he meets. Fact: on May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously against segregation in public schools.
  • A teacher at Central High School in Little Rock adds new names to her class list in 1957; write her diary the night before. Fact: in September 1957 nine Black students enrolled at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
  • Report the day the signs come down in a bus terminal waiting room, as the worker holding the screwdriver. Fact: from November 1, 1961, segregation was ended in the waiting rooms and lunch counters of bus terminals.
  • Report the Senate vote of June 19, 1964, as a visitor in the gallery keeping count on the back of a program. Fact: the Senate passed the civil rights bill on June 19, 1964, by 73 votes to 27.
  • Write the diary entry of a Montgomery bus driver on the first morning the seating rule is gone. Fact: the ruling that Montgomery's bus segregation laws were unconstitutional took effect on December 20, 1956.
  • Write the diary entry of a young law clerk on September 9, 1957, the day a civil rights bill is signed. Fact: with the Civil Rights Act of 1957, Congress passed its first civil rights law since 1875.

An opinion to argue 15

  • A letter, a sit-in or a boycott: which asks for a change most strongly? Argue from what happened in Greensboro in 1960. Fact: in Greensboro students wrote to the store's president and sat in, and sales fell by a third.
  • The first people served at the Greensboro counter were the store's own workers. Argue whether that was the right ending. Fact: on July 25, 1960, four Black employees of the store were the first to be served at its lunch counter.
  • Is a ruling enough on the day it is given? Argue it from the three years between the school ruling and Little Rock. Fact: the school ruling came on May 17, 1954; troops were sent to a Little Rock school in September 1957.
  • The march from Selma took five days on foot. Argue whether the walking mattered more than the arriving. Fact: the march from Selma to Montgomery in March 1965 covered 54 miles in five days.
  • Montgomery answered the ten-cent taxi ride with a rule of its own. Argue whether that rule was fair. Fact: in December 1955 the city ordered a fine for cab drivers whose fare was under 45 cents.
  • On the day of the March on Washington, television set its usual programs aside. Argue what a camera shows that a newspaper cannot. Fact: the march of August 28, 1963, took the place of regularly scheduled television programs.
  • Pick the better headline for August 29, 1963: one about the size of the crowd or one about the speeches. Defend it. Fact: the National Archives puts the crowd of August 28, 1963, at more than 250,000 demonstrators.
  • Should a student miss school for a cause? Write the talk a Birmingham family might have had at the kitchen table in May 1963. Fact: in May 1963 many children left their schools to march in Birmingham, Alabama.
  • Should a vote ever cost money? Argue it with the poll tax as your example. Fact: the 24th Amendment of 1964 bars a poll tax or any other tax as a condition of voting in federal elections.
  • Was a reading test a fair way to decide who could vote? Argue your answer, then write the rule you would use. Fact: before 1965, Black voters in the South faced poll taxes, literacy tests and other restrictions.
  • Were four people enough to start something? Argue yes or no from the weeks after February 1, 1960. Fact: the sit-ins that began in Greensboro reached over 55 cities across 13 states.
  • Which changed more ordinary days: the act of 1964 or the act of 1965? Argue for one. Fact: the 1964 act covered businesses and public places; the 1965 act outlawed unfair voting practices.
  • Which did more to end the bus rule in Montgomery: a year of walking or the ruling of a court? Argue for one. Fact: the boycott began on December 5, 1955; the Supreme Court upheld the ruling on November 13, 1956.
  • Why do you think the Greensboro students brought books to the lunch counter? Give your answer and one reason. Fact: the students at the Greensboro counter in 1960 read books and studied while they were refused service.
  • Would you ride a bus for 20 hours to stand in a crowd for one afternoon? Write your honest answer and your reason. Fact: the bus ride from Birmingham, Alabama, to the March on Washington was a 20-hour ride.

How it works

These writing prompts for the civil rights movement set the writer beside a dated event as an ordinary, made-up person: a toll collector, a taxi driver, a librarian. The famous names are left out, so the page stays with the people on the pavement.

Read the full guide

Writing prompts about the civil rights movement, in four kinds

Fifteen are reports of a march, a boycott or a sit-in by someone watching. Fifteen are letters home, from a carpool driver in Montgomery to a marcher at a campsite outside Selma. Fifteen stand on the day a rule changed, and fifteen ask for an opinion with reasons.

Using one civil rights movement writing prompt

The Fact line under each prompt gives the event and its date. Start there: the date decides what your person can know. A cook writing home in December 1956 has walked to work for a year and has never heard of the march from Selma.

  • Write the weather and the shoes before the history. Your witness noticed those first.
  • For an opinion prompt, give the other side its best reason before you answer it.

Questions and answers

What are good civil rights movement writing prompts?

Ones with a place to stand. Report dawn at a highway tunnel as the toll collector counting buses on August 28, 1963, or write a Montgomery taxi driver's letter about the ten-cent fare he charged during the boycott.

Are there prompts about the March on Washington?

Nine. They stay at the edges of the day: a railroad porter watching special trains unload, a sound engineer testing loudspeakers the night before, a grandmother writing on the bus home.

Do the prompts cover the sit-ins and the march from Selma?

Yes. Seven are set at the Greensboro lunch counter in 1960 and two in Nashville, and six follow the walk from Selma to Montgomery in March 1965: 54 miles in five days, with four campsites on the way.

What years do the prompts run between?

From May 17, 1954, when the Supreme Court ruled against segregation in public schools, to the end of 1965, by which time new Black voters numbered a quarter of a million.

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