Struggle for Black Voting Rights

For nearly 100 years after emancipation, the vast majority of African Americans who lived in the South were denied the right to vote and without it they had no weapon to fight economic exploitation, legal injustices, and vast personal indignities. This collection of historical documents brings the struggle for black suffrage into full view, and gives students a sense of the strong emotions that the fight for full citizenship for African Americans engendered. The portfolio contains several ready-to-use, primary source documents, most in their original sizes, and reproducible essays that provide historical background for understanding the documents. Imparting important information is made easy through comprehensive Reproducible Student Activities, which include vocabulary, writing, research, and creative thinking exercises, plus a teacher's response key. The detailed timeline of events between 1861 and 1965 gives students an quick-and-easy reference to the crucial strides in obtaining equal rights. 4 Illustrated Broadsheet Essays: * The Reconstruction Period * The Fight for Suffrage * Losing the Vote * "Give Us the Ballot..." 19 Primary Source Documents: * "This is White Man's Government" cartoon by Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, 1868 *Two cartoons by Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, 1868 * "It is Only a Truce to Regain Power," "Is This a Republican Form of Government," and "Death at the Polls" cartoons by Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, 1872-1879 * "The First Colored Senator and Representatives: In the 41st and 42nd Congress of the United States" lithograph by Currier and Ives, 1872 * "Canvassing for Votes" and "Black Political Parade" cartoons, Harper's Weekly, 1872 and 1876 * "The Political Pinkertons" cartoon, Judge, 1892 * "Negro Rule" cartoon, 1900 * "Opinion of WE.B. DuBois," The Crisis, 1920 * "Election Day in Florida" article by Walter F. White, The Crisis, 1921 * Nixon v. Herndon, Supreme Court Reports 536, 1926 * "Why the Poll Tax Must be Repealed" broadside, NAACP, 1944 * Letters to and from Thurgood Marshall regarding protecting and securing black voting rights, 1946 * Committee for Alabama letter regarding the Boswell Amendment, 1946 * "Hands off Democracy" handbill, NAACP, 1949 * "M is for Mississippi and Murder" pamphlet, NAACP, 1955 * "Hands that Picked Cotton... " poster, Voter Education Project, 1965 * "100 percent Registered to Vote" window sticker, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1990 * Profiles of Lowery, King, and Young on voter's card, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1990 * "The Fifteenth Amendment" poster, 1870