Answer Close-Reading Questions
Have students write their responses or use the Close-Reading Questions to guide a discussion.
• How do the first five paragraphs relate to the rest of the article? (Text Structure)
The first five paragraphs tell the story of how a Minneapolis, Minnesota, teen recorded a video of the killing of George Floyd, a Black man in police custody. The video sparked the largest protest movement in U.S. history with millions of people demanding reforms to eliminate brutality and racial bias in policing.
• Why are many Americans demanding changes to policing in the U.S.? (Central Ideas)
According to experts, most of the 800,000 police officers in the U.S. are committed to protecting all people regardless of race, but many police departments have racist policies and practices. Black people are more likely than white people to be arrested and about 2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be killed by the police. Outrage over the deaths of Floyd, Elijah McClain, Breonna Taylor, and other Black Americans has led millions of Americans to demand changes to how officers are trained and how police departments are funded.
• What were slave patrols? What were Black Codes? (Analyze Events)
Slave patrols were one of the earliest forms of policing in the U.S. and existed from the 1600s to the mid-1800s. They were organized groups of white men who used violence and intimidation to prevent enslaved people from escaping or revolting. After the 13th Amendment outlawed slavery in 1865, many states passed Black Codes that made homelessness and unemployment crimes. As publicly funded police forces became more common, officers were able to arrest many newly freed Black Americans who had few ways to support themselves. Once in prison, they were forced to do the same kind of grueling labor they had to do when they were enslaved.