Teach Voting Rights in the Pandemic 

What Our Students Should Know About the Struggle for the Ballot ---- but Won't Learn from Their Textbooks

By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca
The Washington Post, April 2020
 
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 15th Amendment, which promised "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
 
Given the dizzying array of disruptions to our lives during the pandemic, one could be forgiven for failing to register this anniversary. But the fight for voting rights enshrined in the 15th Amendment is still very much alive, and more urgent than ever. At this very moment in Wisconsin, Republican lawmakers (bolstered by a conservative Supreme Court majority) have forced voters to literally risk their lives to exercise the franchise.
 
It is critical that voter suppression, of the sort we are witnessing today in Wisconsin, and the long struggle to win and protect the right to vote, be taught to every student in this country.
 
Three Lessons on Voting Rights
By Ricardo Levins Morales
Who Gets to Vote? Teaching About the Struggle for Voting Rights in the United States

A unit with three lessons by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca provides essential historical context for the contemporary struggle against voter suppression and for voting rights in the United States.

These lessons, free at the Zinn Education Project website, can be taught individually
or in progression.

Teach the 15th Amendment
The Zinn Education Project is partnering with Color of Change on a campaign to teach about voting rights on this 150th anniversary of the 15th Amendment. We offer lessons, film and book recommendations, and more.
Sign a Petition for Vote-by-Mail Legislation
The national racial justice organization (and our partner)  Color of Change is offering a Toolkit for Voting Rights Activists.

We encourage teachers and students to download the toolkit and to sign their petition to Congress to pass emergency vote-by-mail legislation, a lifeline for democracy in 2020.

Teaching People's History in the Pandemic

While school buildings are closed, the Zinn Education Project offers parents and teachers resources for emergency online teaching.
Share Your Story, Get a Free Book!

As teachers across the country face the daunting challenge of emergency online instruction, we want to hear your stories. Are you finding ways to bring interactive, people's history lessons to online platforms? What about the countless schools where not all students have online access? How do you continue to build the community necessary for these lessons to be successful? How are you teaching about the coronavirus with a focus on equity and climate science?

In appreciation for your time, we will send you a copy of the new book Rad American History A-Z.

Learn more about how to share your story and read entries to date, in People's History Teaching Stories: Remote Learning, about teaching during the pandemic.
We Need Your Help

With no corporate sponsors, 100 percent of Zinn Education Project funding comes from individuals like you. Make a donation today.
Bring people's history lessons to millions of students.
 
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