Objectives
Establish Historical Context
Primary Documents and Timeline
Students will gain an understanding of the concept of civil liberty in a historical context aided by an annotated timeline of their own creation. They will experience authentic
interaction with essential documents in the development of political philosophy from the 18th through the 20th centuries. It is common practice in our nation to toss about random phrases from founding documents without taking to time to read the actual materials in depth and with an understanding of their historical settings. By the combined use of maps and timelines, students will come to have both comprehension of the contents in context and an appreciation for the unfinished work of democracy.
England and France
John Locke, born in 1632, though he obviously did not live to witness the American Revolution, nevertheless sensed the glorious possibilities in the New World. His assessment is laudatory: "In the beginning all the world was America."24 Locke, of course would overlook the early beginnings of the slave trade.
From France came Jean Jacques Rousseau's battle cry for freedom: The Social Contract: "MAN is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they."25 Rousseau was born in 1712. His writing sparked the Founders' thinking, and he pre-echoes both Henry David Thoreau and Abraham Lincoln.
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
Both these documents had their brief moment of possibility for promoting true equality, but circumstances, political in nature, seemed to make delaying justice somehow acceptable. Jefferson's original intent to condemn George of England for the British slave trade as a "cruel war against human nature itself" met the opposition of Congress. He could not in good conscience oppose slavery in its American manifestation as he owned more than 175 slaves himself.26 Students may want to ponder how our country's history would have been different with a different decision.
It is worthwhile for students to have available the text for a close reading and/or memorization: "WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another…a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation."27 This section provides an opportunity to discuss the issue of how a country functions in the light of world opinion.
"WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." Students will be asked to delineate specifics from these generalities and to contemplate the evolving definition of "all Men."
The Constitution need not have sanctioned slavery (with the cruel hoax of boosting Africans' status as people from zero to 3/5ths of a person for the purpose of increasing the Southern planters' representation in Congress), except that the South would not have joined the Union. The price to keep them in more than half a century later would be steep indeed. The Preamble is every citizen's opportunity to embrace: "We, the people of the United States of America, in order to form a more perfect Union, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."28 This might be an appropriate juncture to consider the terms "strict constructionist" and "activist justice." Given that the founding document of our government excluded African, female, and non-propertied white males, perhaps "honoring the Founders' intentions" should be considered is less than absolute terms!
The Forgotten
When the opportunity presented itself, persons of color and of the female gender made know their righteous distress over their lengthy exclusion from the rights and duties of citizenship. First, Frederick Douglass asked, "Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, What have I, or those I represent, to do with you national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?" July 5, 1852.29
Declaration of Sentiments by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied…" Stanton echoes the original language so closely that is it at first difficult to discern where the changes lie.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…" http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/modSenecafalls.html.
Modern Times
No more powerful moment in my recollection of living American history was the opening statement at the Watergate hearings by Representative Barbara Jordan: "Earlier today we heard the beginning of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, 'We, the people.' It is a very eloquent beginning. But when that document was completed, on the seventeenth of September in 1787, I was not included in that 'We, the people.'" Here is an occasion where students might write "reverse time capsule" letters to the Founders, explaining the context for Ms. Jordan's remarks and querying the Framers on their assessment of the nation's progress.30
Twenty-five years later, Keith Boykin brought the issue of exclusion full circle when he began his "Poem for the Millennium (Gay Rights) March" in Washington, D.C. in 2000: "I speak Today/As One Black Gay Man…I Speak Because/Barbara Jordan/Langston Hughes, and/The Reverend James Cleveland could not speak…I Speak for myself,/but I also speak for my uncle,/a black gay man/who could not be here…"(http://>). Discussing gay rights is a challenge in classrooms today, despite school district policies that protect rights of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender students and staff. Students will raise questions of religion and family values. Boykin catalogues individuals living and dead who are or were part of the GLBT community. Perhaps as students realize that persons they have known about and respected shared this particular characteristic, they may focus on the totality of the individuals' lives. The question of gay rights has currency in the context of the war on terror, as the army has blocked or expelled large numbers of gay people from military service, including a group of Arabic-trained translators.31
Understand Changes Over Time
Civil War
Students will review essentials of Ex parte Milligan (1866) that include the demographics and political orientation of Indiana, anxiety over possibility of Rebel spies and saboteurs, the Constitutional questions, and the outcome.32
World War I
We will consider the difficulty the Wilson administration had in winning public support, the measures taken against a variety of groups (Socialists, progressives, women), the continuation of the debate on how a state of war impacts civil liberties as evidenced by the Schenk v. U.S. decision (1918).33
Of particular interest for A. Philip Randolph students is an item found on page 114 in Goldstein's book, without identifying our namesake: "If much of the government's repressive activity seemed to be random terrorism, much of it was not. It was certainly not happenstance that…the editors of the Messenger, one of the few black publications that refused to back the war all-out were jailed and the paper banned from the mails."
World War II
We will consider the events surrounding the internment of Japanese citizens through the lens of Bayard Rustin's involvement, the Korematsu v. U.S. decision, and the reparations decision.
Cold War and Vietnam
A brief history of the House Committee on Un-American Activities will include a list of AP writers called to testify, chief among them, Langston Hughes. Hughes' experience as a poet and political activist will be the paradigm we consider in one of the lesson plans.
Here I will share my personal stories of one relative's strong anti-Communism and another's loss of a job over refusal to sign a loyalty oath. Students will be asked to consider how they might have reacted to the challenges of that era.
George Orwell's essay on "Politics and the English Language" will lead us to a consideration of the propaganda war and writings by former Communists. First-hand accounts of experiences during the Vietnam War will be presented by former service members, war opponents, and war supporters. The novels The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien and Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myer's will be offered for independent reading. The War on Terror
Personal reflection journals will afford students the opportunity to write about their memories of September 11th. Marge Piercy's poem on the topic will be available. Students will analyze which areas of their lives are significantly impacted by provisions of the Patriot Act. (http:>).
As a way of fostering student appreciation of their individual access to civil liberties and their action options for safe-guarding these hard-won entitlements, we will compile a list of actions taken by citizens throughout history, then rank these actions in order of their appeal, availability, and effectiveness. From this catalogue, we will create a checklist for use as we proceed to read works on AP list.
Evaluate Literary Works
At the end of the introductory phase, we will bring together the evidence for Mills' definition of Civil/Social Liberty in readings so far. We will then begin our first reading outside the Civil Liberties Unit - from the Advanced Placement preparation materials. Students will maintain an ongoing journal of their findings from the literature relating to individual expression vis-à -vis government and society strictures as we progress through the year.
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