Policing and Society

The librarian created a library course guide for this lesson.

The library guide includes links to the selected primary sources as well as the questions for the in-class group activity. Materials include photographs, newspaper articles, and government reports. The primary sources used include content from the Library of Congress’ digital collections, digitized newspapers, and governmental websites.

The librarian introduced the concept of primary sources and asked students about their familiarity with and experience using primary sources in research.

Students in groups of 3-4 were assigned a commission/task force. Each group read the materials from their assigned task force and answered the following questions:

• What president appointed the commission/task force?
• Who was appointed to the commission/task force? What were their roles and backgrounds?
• What event or issue was the commission/task force convened in response to?
• What recommendations or reforms did the commission/task force call for? Name at least two.

After group work, the instructor reconvened the class and facilitated group share-out with entire class. The instructor posed the following questions to the class as a whole and facilitated group discussion.

• What are some shared themes across the commission/task force recommendations?
• What are some differences?
• What surprised you most about the materials you read today?