Below are the notes from class that students can use as their initial resource for their wampum project.
If students research on their own at home or during Homework Club, they are reminded that they must turn the information they read into their own words. For the last Social Studies project (on Ancient Athens), there were a handful of students who had copied and pasted information into their projects.
The order of notes: Women's Suffrage, The Civil Rights Movement, and the Magna Carta.
All information below was taken from this website:
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Civil Rights
Women's Suffrage
What is women's suffrage?
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote
and to have a position in an elected office (e.g. become mayor).
When did women get the right to vote?
You may think that women have always had the right to vote, but this is
far from the truth. Up until the 1900s, most democracies throughout history
only allowed men to vote. This includes the democracies of Ancient Greece, the
Roman Republic, and early democracies in Britain and the United States.
In the United States women were not allowed to vote until the passage of
the 19th amendment in 1920. That's less than 100 years ago. In some countries
the date was much later, such as in Kuwait where women weren't given the right
to vote until 2005. In other countries
the date was earlier, as in New Zealand which pioneered women's suffrage in
1893.
Kate Sheppard, the driving force behind New Zealand's women's
suffrage movement, was not a native New Zealander. Like many who lived in
the country at the time, she was born in England. Sheppard was born in
Liverpool, in 1847. Her given name was Catherine, but she preferred Kate.
Young Kate grew up in London and in Scotland and Ireland. A very smart
child, she learned quickly and absorbed knowledge in a variety of subjects,
including languages, science, arts, and law. She also believed strongly in the
Christian religion.
Kate's father, a clerk, died when Kate was 15. Three years later, in
1868, Kate's mother took the children, which were Kate and a sister and two
brothers, to far-away New Zealand, where they settled in Christchurch, on the
country's South Island, to live with Kate's older sister, Marie.
At 24, Kate married Walter Sheppard, who was a grocer. They had a son,
Douglas, in 1880. Kate was active in Trinity Congregational Church and got
involved with the temperance movement. This movement worked towards
banning alcohol. It was their belief that to prevent the men from literally,
drinking away their problems, it would allow more of their paycheques to be
brought home for needs such as food.
The WCTU (which stood for the same as the American version except for
the W, which stood for Women's, not Woman's) grew in membership and influence
in the next several years, and the members began to campaign not only for more
laws around banning alcohol, but also laws providing women the right to vote.
The group believed that the anti-alcohol laws and granting women the right to
vote went hand-in-hand. Give women the right to vote, so that they can help
effect change through laws to better support ALL citizens, especially women.
In 1891, the WCTU presented to Parliament a petition for allowing
women the vote. The petition was signed by 9,000 women. A second petition the
following year had 19,000 signature. The movement was growing. The women's
suffrage movement had many male supporters as well, among them Prime Minister
John Ballance.
Sheppard helped the suffrage movement gain strength around the
country, visiting other cities and speaking out in favor of her cause. One of
her more famous quotes is this: "We are tired of having a “sphere”
[placed] out to us, and of being told that anything outside that sphere is
'unwomanly'."
A petition for women's suffrage was delivered to Parliament in 1893
with 32,000 signature, many of them men's.
That same year, Parliament voted to give women the vote. Prime
Minister Richard Seddon wrote a personal telegram to Sheppard, congratulating
her on her efforts. Lord Glasgow, the Governor-General, gave Sheppard the pen
with which he, as the English Queen's representative in New Zealand, had signed
the women's suffrage bill into law.
Sheppard didn't exactly retire after helping to bring women the right
to vote in New Zealand In fact, she began traveling a lot throughout England,
Canada, and the United States, helping fire up support for women's suffrage in
those countries.
Civil Rights
African-American Civil Rights
Movement
The
African-American Civil Rights Movement was an ongoing fight for racial equality
that took place for over 100 years after the Civil War (about the 1860s).
Leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Booker T. Washington, and Rosa Parks paved the way for non-violent
protests, which led to changes in the law. When most people talk about the
"Civil Rights Movement" they are talking about the protests in the
1950s and 1960s that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Background
The Civil
Rights Movement has its background in the abolitionist
movement before the Civil
War. Abolitionists were people that thought slavery was morally wrong and wanted it to come to an end.
Before the Civil War, many of the northern states had outlawed slavery. During
the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves with the
Emancipation Proclamation. After the war, slavery was made illegal with the
thirteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Segregation
and the Jim Crow Laws
After the
Civil War, many southern states continued to treat African-Americans as second-class
citizens. They implemented laws that kept black people separate from white
people. These laws became known as Jim Crow laws. They required separate schools,
restaurants, restrooms, and transportation based on the color of a person's
skin. Other laws prevented many black people from voting.
Early
Protests
In the
early 1900s, black people began to protest the Jim Crow laws that southern
states were applying that allowed governments to segregate races. Several African-American leaders such as W.E.B. Du
Bois and Ida B. Wells joined together to found the NAACP in 1909. Another
leader, Booker T. Washington, helped to form schools to educate
African-Americans in order to improve their status in society.
The
Movement Grows
The civil
rights movement gained momentum in the 1950s when the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in
schools was illegal in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. Federal troops
were brought in to Little Rock, Arkansas to allow the Little Rock Nine to
attend a previously all white high school.
Major
Events in the Movement
The
1950's and early 1960's brought about several major events in the fight for the
civil rights of African-Americans. In 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for not
giving up her seat on the bus to a white passenger. This sparked the Montgomery
Bus Boycott which lasted for over a year and brought Martin Luther King, Jr. to
the forefront of the movement. King led a number of non-violent protests
including the Birmingham Campaign and the March on Washington.
Civil
Rights Act of 1964
In 1964,
the Civil Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. This act outlawed
segregation and the Jim Crow laws of the south. It also outlawed discrimination
based on race, national background, and gender. Although there were still many
issues, this law gave the NAACP and other organizations a strong base on which
to fight discrimination in the courts.
Voting
Rights Act of 1965
In 1965,
another law was passed called the Voting Rights Act. This law said that
citizens could not be denied the right to vote based on their race. It outlawed
literacy tests (a requirement that people be able to read) and poll taxes (a
fee that people had to pay to vote).
The Magna Carta
The “Great Charter”
On the 19 June 1215 at Runnymede King John signed
the Magna Carta. (This means Great Charter.)
It was the first
official document stating that a King had to follow the laws of the land and
it guaranteed the rights of individuals
against the wishes of the King. This meant people couldn't be arrested,
imprisoned, or have their possessions taken away without a reason. If they went
to trial, there had to be some sort of group (like a jury) made up of his peers
who would listen to evidence and decide on the person’s fate from there. This
laid the way for the idea of “trial by jury,” which means people are tried by
their peers and guaranteed the civil rights of the individual.
The Magna Carta established the rule or idea that
the people of England (at this stage represented by the Barons) could limit the
power of a King, if he was doing things that were not good for the country.
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Background
John became king in 1199 when his brother, Richard the Lionheart, died
without any children. John had a bad temper and could be very cruel. He was
not liked by the English Barons.
John also had to deal with a lot of issues while he was king. He was
constantly at war with France. To fight this war he placed heavy taxes on the
Barons of England. He also angered the Pope and was excommunicated from the
church.
The Barons Rebel
By 1215, the barons of northern England had had enough of John's high
taxes. They decided to rebel. Led by Baron Robert Fitzwalter, they marched on
London calling themselves the "army of God". After taking London,
John agreed to negotiate with them.
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Signing the Magna Carta
King John met the barons on June 15, 1215 at Runnymede, a neutral site
just west of London. Here the barons demanded that King John sign a document
called the Magna Carta guaranteeing them certain rights. By signing the
document, King John agreed to do his duty as King of England, upholding the law
and running a fair government. In return, the barons agreed to stand down and
surrender London.
Civil War
It turns out that neither side had any intention of following the
agreement. Not long after signing, King John attempted to reverse the
agreement. He even had the Pope declare the document "illegal and
unjust". At the same time, the barons didn't surrender London.
Soon the country of England was facing civil war. The barons, led by
Robert Fitzwalter, were supported by French troops. For a year the barons
fought King John in what is called the First Barons' War. However, King John
died in 1216, putting a quick end to the war.
Details of the Magna Carta
The Magna Carta was not a short document. There were actually 63 clauses in the document outlining a
variety of laws that the barons wanted the King to enforce. Some of the rights
these clauses promised included:
• Protection of church
rights
• Access to swift justice
• No new taxes without the
Barons' agreement
• Limitations on feudal
payments
• Protection from illegal
imprisonment
• A council of 25 Barons
who would insure that King John followed the laws
Legacy
Although King John did not follow the agreement, the ideas put forth in
the Magna Carta became lasting principles of liberty to the English. Three of
the clauses are still in force as English law including the freedom of the
English Church, the "ancient liberties" of the City of London, and
the right to due process.
The ideas of the Magna Carta also influenced the constitutions and
development of other countries. The American colonists used the rights
guaranteed in the document as a reason to rebel and form their own country.
Many of these rights are written into the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
