Lesson 7.02 Civil Rights Movement and Voter Turnout

• Introduction
• Learn
• Try It
• Task

Introduction

Enduring Knowledge: The events and struggles of the Civil Rights Movement led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that significantly changed voting demographics in the United States.

Analyze the cartoon. What is the significance of the three main objects in the cartoon (the rose, the man, and the thorn bush). Explain the meaning of the caption, "What do you mean, not so fast?" Roll over the image for clues to help answer the questions.

We learned in the first lesson that the 15th Amendment provided that Americans could vote no matter what race or color and the 19th Amendment provided that Americans could vote no matter what gender. So, that made everything equal right? The struggle was more complicated than just adding a law on paper. Americans continued to face obstacles while attempting to actually exercise the right to vote and impact politics, especially African-Americans in the South. For many Americans, the dream of equal rights under the law was not achieved until they were able to participate in elections in large numbers due to the triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement and Feminist Movement in the 1960s.

Open Civil Rights cartoon in a new tab | Civil Rights cartoon text version

This 1963 cartoon titled "What do you mean, 'not so fast'?" shows an African American man climbing his way through a thorny rose bush to reach for the rose at the top. The rose is labeled "Equality." The Civil Rights movement of the late 1950s and 1960s pushed for equality between African Americans and whites.

Lesson Objectives Following successful completion of this lesson, students will be able to: identify the importance of due process and equal procedure within Brown v. BOE in regards to the civil rights movement. identify laws that resulted from the Civil Rights Movement. analyze the role of the Selma-to-Montgomery march on the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. describe the implications of participation of large numbers of minorities and women in parties and campaigns. The above objectives correspond with the Alabama Course of Study: Government objective(s): 6.1, 6.2. This lesson incorporates the following Literacy Standards: R1, R2, R4, R7, W1, W3, W4, W5, W8, and W9.