Part/Paragraph 1, Introduction including reflection or scenario hook with imagery, and the color-coded thesis statement: 
        The hold was rank from the sweat of the hundreds of bodies shoved, shoulder-to-shoulder in the bowels of the ship. Chains bound the bodies together, a physical reminder that they were tied together by their suffering, fear, and dark future. It was a grotesque, ominous foreshadowing of what was in store for them and their descendants over the next few centuries. It was not until The Civil Rights Movement in the 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s--and some argue even today--that black Americans were seen as equal to white people, and that the laws of the land supported that perspective. However, few disagree that The Civil Rights Movement was the turning point. But it did not just happen. Significant historical events led to awareness, people stepped up and took leadership roles, and a myriad of life-changing movements, boycotts, marches--rebellion--resulted in a strong, definitive push toward creating a more equal society for Black Americans. 

Part/Paragraph 2, part 1 of the thesis statement, background/historical events leading to The Civil Rights Movement: 

         The history of slavery in America set the stage for black oppression. In the 1600s, shortly after the first permanent English settlements in America, slave traders ravaged the coasts of Africa, stealing black natives who brought them hundreds of dollars on the block in places like North Carolina and Virginia. It was an inhumane beginning. About 100 years later, Americans fiercely fought each other in the Civil War--a war between the northern and southern states--to end the inequality and abuse. There is no question that white people--depending on geography, religion, culture, and maybe heart-- looked at black people as being "different," Following the Civil War, rabid, angry Southerners passed Jim Crow laws that effectively barred blacks from things such as voting, holding public office, eating in public places, and having their voice heard. The Klu Klux Klan, formed shortly after the end of the Civil War enforced and perpetuated the violence and prejudice, especially in the South. In 1896, Plessy vs. Ferguson, came before The Supreme Court. The highest court in the land ruled that segregation based on skin color was legal. Over the next 40-50 years, segregation justified the “separate but equal” doctrine that kept blacks under-educated and in poverty. But the 50s and 60s saw the rise of some great leaders--people who were unwilling to sit back and let the status quo remain unchallenged. 

Part/Paragraph 3, part 2 of the thesis statement, leaders instrumental in The Civil Rights Movement)                         

leadership paragraph

Part 4, part 3 of the thesis statement, events during The Civil Rights Movement: