Study Guide: The Measure of a Man

I. Pre-reading Activities

B. Identifying the Historical Moment

To appreciate the historical context surrounding the main achievements of Sidney Poitier’s career, work with a partner on placing the events mentioned here in the appropriate year. Do internet research about each event in order to complete this task.

Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy/Assassination of Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy/Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr./Brown vs. Board of Education/Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington/Rosa Parks and the Beginning of the Civil Rights Movement/The Great Depression/Thurgood Marshall’s Appointment to the Supreme Court/World War II (The Holocaust)

 

February 20, 1927 Sidney Poitier’s date of birth



1950No Way Out

 

1951Cry the Beloved Country

 

 

 

1958:  The Defiant Ones

 

1961:  A Raisin in the Sun

 

1963: Lilies of the Field

 

 

 

1965: A Patch of Blue

 

 

1967: To Sir, with Love/In the Heat of the Night/Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner