Advocating Civil and Voting Rights - 11th Grade US History
This unit covers the Civil Right and Voting Right Movements in the United States in alliance with 11th grade California State Standards
11.10 Students analyze the development of federal civil rights and voting rights.
1. Explain how demands of African Americans helped produce a stimulus for civil rights, including President Roosevelt's
ban on racial discrimination in defense industries in 1941, and how African American's service in World War II
produced a stimulus for President Truman's decision to end segregation in the armed forces in 1948.
2. Examine and analyse the key events, policies, and court cases in the evolution of civil rights, including Dred Scott v.
Sandford, Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Regents of the University of California v. bakke, and
California Proposition 209.
4. Examine the roles of civil rights advocates (eg. A Philip Randoph, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Thurgood
Marshall, James Farmer, Rosa Parks), including the significance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter form Birmingham
Jail" and "I Have a Dream" speech.
5. Discuss the diffusion of the civil rights movement of African Americans from the churches of the rural South and the
urban North, including the resistance to racial desegregation in Little Rock and Birmingham, and how the advances
influenced the agendas, strategies, and effectiveness of the quests of American Indians, Asian Americans, and
Hispanic Americans for civil rights and equal opportunities.
6. Analyze the passage and effects of civil rights and voting rights legislation (eg. 1964 Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights
Act of 1965) and the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, with an emphasis on equality of access to education and to the
political Process.
7. Analyze the women's rights movement form the era of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and the passage
of the Nineteenth Amendment to the movement launched in the 1960s, including differing perspectives on the roles
of women.E
11.10 Students analyze the development of federal civil rights and voting rights.
1. Explain how demands of African Americans helped produce a stimulus for civil rights, including President Roosevelt's
ban on racial discrimination in defense industries in 1941, and how African American's service in World War II
produced a stimulus for President Truman's decision to end segregation in the armed forces in 1948.
2. Examine and analyse the key events, policies, and court cases in the evolution of civil rights, including Dred Scott v.
Sandford, Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Regents of the University of California v. bakke, and
California Proposition 209.
4. Examine the roles of civil rights advocates (eg. A Philip Randoph, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Thurgood
Marshall, James Farmer, Rosa Parks), including the significance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter form Birmingham
Jail" and "I Have a Dream" speech.
5. Discuss the diffusion of the civil rights movement of African Americans from the churches of the rural South and the
urban North, including the resistance to racial desegregation in Little Rock and Birmingham, and how the advances
influenced the agendas, strategies, and effectiveness of the quests of American Indians, Asian Americans, and
Hispanic Americans for civil rights and equal opportunities.
6. Analyze the passage and effects of civil rights and voting rights legislation (eg. 1964 Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights
Act of 1965) and the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, with an emphasis on equality of access to education and to the
political Process.
7. Analyze the women's rights movement form the era of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and the passage
of the Nineteenth Amendment to the movement launched in the 1960s, including differing perspectives on the roles
of women.E
Essential Historical Questions
The Unit Inquires to answer the Following Essential Questions:
"Shouldthe popular opinion of the American citizen during the Civil Rights Movement have had an effect on the Supreme Court’s rulings on Civil Rights issues or should the Supreme Court have examined the Civil Rights issues based only on the Constitutional holdings of the case?"
"How did the Civil and Voting Rights activists use protest strategies to affect political change? Would these protest strategies be affective today in causing political change for minority rights?"
"How did the political actions of the legislators, courts, and presidents in regard to Civil and Voting Rights initiate the American citizens and minorities to bring about societal change for the everyday life of minorities?"
"What impact did the Civil and Voting Rights Movements have on the social structure of Americans lives then and now?"
"What relationship exists between suffrage and political change and the social revolutions of women in American society in the 1960s?"
Big Ideas
The Unit will focus on the following Big Ideas:
The Unit will focus on the following Big Ideas:
- The Supreme Court’s decisions altered over time depending on the Public and Governmental opinions of minority groups and their constitutional rights.
- The combined, differing strategies used by Civil and Voting Rights advocates exhibit the powers of the citizens effective use of protest on government
policies. - The power of political activism for Civil and Voting Rights had an effect on the social lives of the American populace and our current ideals and way of life.
- The
effective political activist of the Civil and Voting Rights Movements used
strategic and emotional appeals to the populace and governmental leaders to
convey the necessity for legislative and societal change in America.
Unit Assessment
- Timeline/Mind Map of Civil Rights Supreme Court rulings.
- Newspaper cover page on the response by the public on a civil rights legislation.
- Presentation on a Civil Right Activist leaders effect on the Civil Right Movement.
- Analyze and write Compare and Contrast essay on the similarities and differences of the Declaration of Independence and the Declarations of Sentiment with a conclusion on How the views of the Declaration of Sentiment effected the roles of women in the 1960s.