The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 Lesson Plan

What does Byron do to his hair that gets him in trouble? Why are his parents so upset about his decision? Do you think his punishment was fair?

Byron has Buphead chemically treat his hair to straighten it, to achieve the conk hairstyle popular at the time. The students can discuss multiple reasons why his parents are upset about this decision. First, they explicitly forbade him from doing it. Second, there are risks to using potent chemicals on one's head: the application has to be done precisely to avoid chemical burns and requires a lot of effort after the fact to maintain. Lastly, given the fights for racial equality occurring at the time, students might discuss how...