Fred T. Korematsu was a national civil rights hero. In 1942, at the age of 23, he refused to go to the government’s incarceration camps for Japanese Americans. After he was arrested and convicted of defying the government’s order, he appealed his case all the way to the Supreme Court. In 1944, the Supreme Court ruled against him, arguing that the incarceration was justified due to military necessity.

In this lesson, students will learn how an individual can fight for justice in a system that discriminates against them, what role community plays in advancing justice during unjust times, and how Japanese internment relate to Islamophobia and the current “War on Terror.”