Q1: What factors led to the formation of STRESS in 1970s Detroit?
Formative Performance Task:
- Create a google slides presentation outlining the factors that led to the creation of STRESS in Detroit. (Political/social and economic)
- Create a timeline of events leading up to the creation of STRESS.
Activities and Timeline
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Introduce the compelling question to students for the unit. How does society balance civil rights and public safety?
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Ask students to write down what they know about their civil liberties and rights when it comes to the police and court. After a brief discussion of what they know, present them with the handout on civil liberties/rights in the United States. Explain to students that these weren’t always available to all citizens of the United States and there has been a long hard fought battle over hundreds of years to secure these rights. Extend the conversation and ask students if they feel all citizens are afforded these rights and ask them to write down why they think these rights aren’t always valued. After a brief discussion, ask students what they think the role of police are in a community. After some discussion, present them with the overall compelling question on balancing our civil rights while also keeping the public safe. Can both of those work effectively for all citizens? After all of the discussion, explain to students that we will be looking at the compelling question through the lens of Detroit in the 1960s and 1970s. (The depth of these discussions are limited to the age and maturity of the students in class)
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Share the following website with students. https://policing.umhistorylabs.lsa.umich.edu/s/detroitunderfire/page/creation-of-stress
As a class, go through the various sections of the website and explain for the first part of the unit, students will create a google slides (or a similar platform) presentation on the factors that led to the creation of the STRESS police unit in Detroit. Students can work with a partner or alone. They must address the political, economic and social factors in Detroit at the time that led to the creation of STRESS.
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Depending on how much time is allotted for this first activity, the slides can be presented by the students or turned into the teacher. One possibility could be for the teacher to choose one or two that hit all the elements of the rubric to share with the class or have those groups present.
Sources:
For this supporting question, ask students to become familiar with the information and types of archival sources at The Creation of STRESS · Detroit Under Fire: Police Violence, Crime Politics, and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Civil Rights Era