American Democracy and the Promise of Justice

Classroom Activities

Topic One

Foundations of Our Democracy- 18th century

Hamilton traces the rise of Alexander Hamilton, from his youth in the Caribbean to his battles in the American Revolution, his role in shaping the Constitution and early economic policies, and finally his ill-fated duel with Aaron Burr. The plot, which weaves in a love story and messages about democracy and civic engagement, is told primarily through rap.

Students will listen to and research the Hamilton soundtrack and study our history through rap and song. Students will read two important chapters from Chernow’s book Hamilton that the musical Hamilton is based on. Having listened to the songs and read individual chapters, students will discuss our Founding Fathers, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers.

Using primary sources, secondary sources, and tracks from Hamilton: An American Musical, this lesson will help students understand how both the personal and political differences of Jefferson and Hamilton created factions in Washington’s first cabinet and the creation of American two-party political system. In activity one, students will use a graphic organizer to compare the two men. Students will listen to track one of Hamilton, which will provide a background on Hamilton’s early years. To understand Jefferson, students will listen to track 24 called “What Did I Miss.” This background will enable students to understand how political and ideological conflicts between Jefferson and Hamilton contributed to the creation of the two-party system in the American political system.

In the next activity, students will identify key reasons Hamilton defended his proposal for the assumption of state’s debts and the establishment of a national bank. For this, students will view a clip from the HBO miniseries “John Adams” based on the book of the same name by historian David McCullough. In addition, students will listen to “Cabinet Battle I” from the soundtrack to gain further background knowledge. The assessment for this activity will include three questions for the students to answer.

1. After viewing the video clip, what do you believe was Hamilton’s reasoning for assuming states’ debts?
2. What was Jefferson’s argument against assuming states’ debt and establishing a national bank?
3. How did Hamilton justify assuming the states’ debts left over from the Revolutionary War?

In the third activity, students will use critical thinking skills to interpret a primary source document. They will read an excerpt from Hamilton’s essay entitled “Pacificus 1.” In this document, the Secretary of State defended his belief that the United States should stay neutral during the war that began between France and Great Britain in 1793. After reading, students will listen to the track “Cabinet Battle 2.” The assessment for this activity will include three questions for the students to answer.

1. What was Jefferson’s argument to why America should get involved in foreign affairs involving France and Great Britain?
2. What was Hamilton’s reasoning for staying out of this foreign conflict?
3. Whose side does Washington take and why?

In the fourth activity, students will listen to the track entitled, “One Last Time.” This track will allow students an opportunity to gain a sense of how Washington felt about partisan fighting among American politicians. To help put this into context, students will then read an excerpt from Washington’s farewell address. By comparing these to sources, students will be able to answer the following five questions.

1. What issues does President Washington warn against in his track and his Farewell Address?
2. Why does Washington feel the need to step down from his post as president?
3. What does he believe he will achieve by stepping down?
4. What does Washington intend to do during his retirement from the presidency?
5. After listening to this track, do you feel there was any favoritism towards Hamilton by Washington? Why or why not?

After completing the first four activities, students will begin the culminating task of Topic One. Students will prepare answers to five questions. Students will reflect on their understanding of the conflicts between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton during their time in Washington’s first cabinet and answer the five questions. Then students will participate in a Socratic Seminar where they will discuss their answers, consider each other’s opinions, and draw conclusions regarding the influence of personal conflict on shaping the American political system.

1. How much do you believe the personal differences between Jefferson and Hamilton played into the breakdown of their relationship while in Washington’s first cabinet?
2. What role do you feel the conflicts between Jefferson and Hamilton played in the creation of the two-party system?
3. How did these factions, especially those between Jefferson and Hamilton, lead to the two-party system?
4. How does this system still divide our country today?
5. How did the sharp political divisions of Washington’s cabinet help set the precedent for later presidents and their cabinet appointments? ³⁶

Topic Two

The Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and Significant Constitutional Amendments

The purpose of this lesson plan is to provide high school students with an enhanced understanding of enfranchisement, or the right to vote, as protected by the Constitution of the United States and their respective state constitution. Students will read Chapter 21 of David Goldfield’s book America Aflame to gain an understanding of the government and economy after the Civil War.

In the first activity, students will read and analyze various primary source documents. Students will begin by reading and studying the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution to establish the history of voting rights in the United States. By looking at historical context, students will examine how certain laws came to be and the ways in which laws can disproportionately impact different community members.

For the second activity, students will be provided with a color-coded visual timeline to show important voting rights dates in history. These important dates will range from the Civil War era to the 1960s. This timeline will help students to visually see the progression of historical voting events in chronological order. Students will also chart a timeline with an excel spreadsheet of specific dates to make historical connections.

For the culminating activity, students will research other important dates that were happening during this time period. Students will fill in the timeline to include world politics, U.S. and local politics, natural events, entertainment, sports, science exploration, art, and music. Students will pick five important dates from each category to enter on their timeline to get a broader understanding of historical events that were going on in the world. Students will discuss, identify, and correctly sequence main events.

Topic Three

Civil Rights, Equal Rights, 1960s

To begin, the students will examine the 15 Amendment and the letter from Senator Borah. Through these documents, students will understand the historical context of the Amendment and Senator Borah’s perspective on the Amendment. Students will also discuss how his perspective demonstrates the limits of legislation in eliminating racism.

Next, the students will view a political cartoon, poll-tax petition, and citizenship test. Students will identify obstacles to African American enfranchisement and explain how “grandfather clauses” provided access for poor white southerners and how and why the citizenship test was an unreasonable voting requirement. Students will evaluate the validity of a real literacy test: The State of Louisiana Literacy Test (this test is to be given to anyone who cannot prove a fifth-grade education).

In the third activity, students will read the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and create a list of the goals spelled out in this document.

For the fourth activity over this topic, students will watch a television news clip of Martin Luther King Jr. speaking about the Summer Community Organization and Political Education project. After viewing, students will list the concerns King expresses in the film clip and identify what issues were difficult for the legislation to address.

For the fifth activity, students will read a chapter from Michael Klarman’s book, Unfinished Business, Racial Equality in American History. Students will read chapter ten on The Civil Rights Era to gain further knowledge of the 1960s, social and political conditions, and challenges in racial issues. Students will discuss the protest and civil rights movements.

The last activity will have students view a television news broadcast from March 1965 in which Georgia state officials offer multiple objections to the proposed Voting Rights Act. In pairs, students will create a list describing these objections. Students will also listen to and analyze Martin Luther King’s Jr. “I Have a Dream Speech.” Students will be able to reflect on the speech in preparation for the lesson in the next topic about an important Supreme Court case that has recently been in the news and that also relates to civil rights and redressing racial inequality. Shelby v. Holder was decided over 55 years after the “I Have a Dream Speech.”³⁷

This lesson will focus on the 1965 law that aimed to ensure that African Americans would no longer be denied their right to vote. Students will read a summary of the Voting Rights Act to find out what it said, then study data that show the law’s impact. Students will watch two news reports, one from CBS and one from PBS, about a 2009 Supreme Court challenge to the Voting Rights Act and the Court’s ruling on the challenge.

After reading, reflecting, and working through the all the activities, the culminating task for Topic Three will require students to create a list of the remaining obstacles to full enfranchisement of people of color, particularly African Americans. Students will then create a second list of possible solutions to these obstacles, both legislative and non-legislative. Finally, in groups, students will write a letter outlining a policy proposal to a local organization or government body explaining and recommending one of these solutions.

Topic Four

Voter Suppression, Voter Disenfranchisement

To begin this topic, students will examine the 2006 Act to Amend the Voting Rights Act and identify five reasons for the necessity of this amendment. In addition, students will read a summary of the Supreme Court's 2013 ruling of Shelby v. Holder. Students will learn how this ruling effected the voting rights of minority groups. In addition, students will listen to, read, and analyze Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissent in the case. Students will read chapter 6, in Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s book, My Own Words, where she also writes about “human dignity and equal justice under the law.”³⁸

In Heidi Schreck’s recent play on Broadway, What the Constitution Means to Me, she argues the 9^th and the 14^th amendment. She explores equality for women as she supremely argues the case for women’s rights. This play challenges people to step back and look at a bigger picture, to dwell not just on the losses but also gains and the struggle to keep our precarious rights and freedoms from moving backwards. Students will watch several clips from the play and debate the merits of the Amendments.

In the next activity, students will think about how our society has changed in the past 240 years and think about how and why the Constitution has not changed. After examining this question, students will propose three changes they would make to the Constitution and defend their reasoning with evidence from their research.

Finally, students will begin the culminating task for this topic. In small groups, students will create ten rules for their current classroom. Then each group will imagine a classroom 243 years in the future and create ten classroom rules that would be appropriate for that time. Finally, each group will present their rules and explain why the future rules they chose would be relevant in the year 2260.

Topic Five

Call to Action - Civic Duty and Community Participation

To begin the first activity, students will research the history of the League of Women Voter’s (LWV). Students will learn about how the LWV started and their continued platform to register voters.

In the second activity, students will partner with LWV for a voter education and voter registration campaign. Students will start to gain insight into how they can enact change in the community. Volunteers from the LWV will come to the school to help educate students on their rights and how to enact their civic duty. Students will also research how young people are standing up and how to help increase the voter turnout amongst people age 18-35. From Parkland to Tulsa, there are many issues on the minds of students today. Students will research how they can educate others on issues that they care about, especially voting rights.

In planning your drive, think especially about how to incorporate voter registration into your classroom work.  In each class, ask the students to do the following:

Ask all students in the room to stand up.  Tell them they represent all 18-30-year old in the country.  Next, ask every third row (or roughly 35%) of the students to sit down.  Next, tell those sitting that they represent young people their age who were not registered to vote in 2008.  Next, ask every tenth student to sit down; these students represent those who are registered but chose not to vote.  Finally, ask everyone to look at those left standing; these are the young people making decisions for them every time they choose not to register or vote.  Those sitting down have no voice in the elections that impact their lives, and they’re letting everyone else (their standing colleagues) make the choice for them.

Following this exercise and a discussion about why voting is important, hand out voter registration forms and walk through the form step-by-step as students fill them out.

Note: Some states require either a driver’s license number or social security number in order to complete a voter registration application.  Remind students to bring this information to school with them on the day of the drive.

For the third activity, students will host a voter registration drive at school for a community forum night. Leading up to National Voter Registration Day on September 25, 2019, high school students will have a peer to peer informational campaign and registration at the school. The LWV will come to the school to help educate students on the process of voting. This will lead to a community night where students will present the information that they learned to their parents and members of the community.

Students will demonstrate the knowledge they have learned in this curriculum unit and their work with the LWV to register and educate eligible new voters. Students will establish how they can enact change at their school and in their community. Students will be prepared to answer questions about the rules for registering and voting in Oklahoma. They will review the requirements for registering to vote by checking with local elections officials. Students will have resources on-hand in the event of complex questions about registration, absentee/early voting, and other aspects of voting in Oklahoma.

For the final activity, students will write a reflection on the importance of community action, empowerment, and the relevance of their civic achievements. Students will then have a classroom conversation about the personal importance of voting and participating in our democracy.