Unit Objectives
In this unit, students will come to understand the historical foundations of voting rights in the United States of America through the analysis of primary sources (documents, speeches, bills, laws, and the Constitution). In addition, they will identify the fundamental principles necessary to maintain equal voting rights for all. The final lesson of the unit will allow students to participate in a voting rights campaign that will include how to get out the vote, who gets to vote, and the process of voting.
Objectives of the unit will include having students critically examine fundamental concepts of the theory and practice of democracy as these concepts were explored in our Yale National Initiative seminar, American Democracy and the Promise of Justice, led by Ian Shapiro, Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University. Dr. Shapiro taught and shared his knowledge ranging from the foundations of history, political comparisons, distributive politics, deliberative Democracy, and possibilities for Democratic reform.
Essential Questions in this unit will be: How did voting rights transform America and create the cornerstone of today’s democratic society? How can the right to vote continue our democracy in the future? Jim Crow laws will be examined to see how differences, or the absence of the law might have changed history. Students will look at how mass media in the beginning of the 20th century affected our laws and our society. Also, exploring different factions and coalitions in our government’s history will be studied to explain how politics and policy go hand in hand.
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