Voting: Rights and Responsibilities

Ready to vote

Overview

In this three-part lesson students use primary sources to explore voting rights in the United States. In Part I, students analyze two sets of documents to gain a deeper understanding of how suffrage has been both expanded and suppressed, developing claims about how voting rights impact equality. In Part II, students further analyze one of the documents from Day One before taking on the role of a congressional committee charged with amending (or not) the Voting Rights Act to require compulsory voting. In Part III, students write their answer to the Essential Question, informed by class discussion and primary source analysis.

Related Resources

Grade

High School

Subjects

Civics, Social Studies

Length

80-100 minutes

Topics

compulsory voting, congress, equality, legislation, poll tax, responsibilities, role play, suffrage, voting, voting rights, voting rights act, voting rights reauthorization act, woman suffrage

Author

Citizen U CRF

More Lessons

The Declaration of Independence: Created Equal?

By Teaching with the Library of Congress

The Importance of Voting

By Academy of American Poets

Race, the 14th Amendment, and Equal Protection

By Citizen U CRF

Perceptions & Roles of American Women

By Primary Source Nexus

Suffrage Strategies: Voices for Votes

By Teaching with the Library of Congress

Illustrating America

By Primary Source Nexus

Bonus Veterans

By Primary Source Nexus

Tactics in the March to Suffrage

By Primary Source Nexus

Rules & Responsibilities

By State Historical Society of Iowa

Signing the Declaration of Their Independence

By Primary Source Nexus

Making a Declaration – Advanced

By Our American Voice

Women’s Rights: Seneca Falls & Beyond

By Primary Source Nexus

Gerrymandering: Voting by Numbers

By Citizen U

Congress and Child Labor

By KidCitizen

African American Identity in the Gilded Age: Two Unreconciled Strivings

By Teaching with the Library of Congress

Gettysburg Address Game On

By Primary Source Nexus

The Fight for Women’s Rights

By Emerging America

Making a Declaration – Intermediate

By Our American Voice