American Centuries

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American Centuries > Lessons > History Lessons By Teachers > American Voting Rights Timeline

American Voting Rights Timeline

Details

Author
Laila Di Silvio
Topic/Subject Area
Organizations, Associations, Societies, Clubs; Manners, Morals, Ethics; Media, Periodicals, Communication; Native American; Gender, Gender Roles, Women; Politics, Government, Law, Civics; African American, Black Life; Civil Rights, Protest, Dissent
Historical Era
The New Nation, 1784–1815, National Expansion and Reform, 1816–1860, Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–1877, Rise of Industrial America, 1878–1899, Progressive Era, World War I, 1900–1928, Great Depression and World War II, 1929–1945, Counterculture, Civil Rights, and Cold War, 1946–1989, New Millennium, 1990–Present
Grade Level
Middle School (6–8)
Creation Date
2010
Last Revision Date
2024

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About This Lesson

Summary and Objective

Students will understand that the voting rights Americans have today came in distinct stages by creating a human timeline.

Materials & Resources

From the Collection:
Websites:

Teaching Plan

  1. Divide the class into heterogeneous groups of 3-5 students each.
  2. Each group will be asked to view 1-2 primary sources having to do with a specific chapter of United States Voting history (Woman’s Voting Rights, African American Voting Rights, American Indian Voting Rights, Chinese American Voting Rights, …). Depending on class size two different groups may be assigned the same primary source documents. For primary source images and documents from the American Centuries collection having to do with Women’s Suffrage, see Materials & Resources section above. Use the second web link “15th Amendment to the Constitution” to find primary source materials having to do with African American suffrage; specifically, teachers may want students to look at the actual 15th Amendment and the political cartoon entitled “The First Vote”. The first web link has many resources to help students learn about Native American Suffrage and Chinese American Suffrage, among others. For resources relating to Chinese American Suffrage, students can also use the third website; a  primary source document that students might find useful is Mark Twain’s “Observations on Chinese Immigrants in California” (4th website).
  3. While viewing their group’s assigned primary sources, each group should discuss and write down their answers to the following focus questions: 1. What are the main ideas of each primary source? 2. From whose perspective do you believe the document is coming from? 3. At this time in history, who has the right to vote? Who does not? 4. Why do you think these issues are coming up at this time? 5. What historical events might have influenced people’s thinking about voting rights at the time your document was written?
  4. Teacher should then provide secondary source information about the key historical events and allow students to modify and augment their answers to Step 3. The “Timeline” (see first website link) would be a useful starting point.
  5. Next ask each student group to prepare a poster to present their findings to the rest of the class. Each poster should include significant dates, a visual image and the main ideas of their assigned readings.
  6. Have each group present their findings in the correct chronological order (i.e. in the order that significant portions of the American population actually gained access to the voting process). Ask students to take notes during each group’s presentation.
  7. After each group has presented their posters, have each student in the class pick a short excerpt from a variety of primary sources out of a hat. These can be the same documents used for Step 3 but also can include new readings having to do with United States Voting Rights. Then ask the class to construct a “human timeline”. Students should be encouraged to work together to try to get all of the quotations/excerpts into chronological order and demonstrate this order by standing in order from oldest to most recent.
  8. Lastly, each student should read their excerpt in order of their human timeline. Make corrections as necessary!