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Issue 29 | Fall 2020 ISSUE 29 H FALL 2020 THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND PUBLIC PROGRAMS AT THE JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM Selected JFK Library Resources on Voting Rights Fighting Barriers to Voting 1963: The Struggle for Civil Rights ixty years ago, Senator “The Right to Vote in Mississippi” John F. Kennedy and civilrights.jfklibrary.org/chapter-read- more/to-vote-in-mississippi.html SVice President Richard Have students explore this interactive M. Nixon campaigned for online exhibit independently. Help president of the United them understand why the Voting States in a world dominated Rights Act was needed using a lesson by the Cold War. This elec- COURTESY OF LIBRARY CONGRESS. based on “The Right to Vote in Mississippi” – one of seven sections tion year, President Donald in this extensive interactive from the Trump and former Vice JFK Library. An introductory essay, President Joseph Biden are documents, photographs, and film making their case to the footage show the voting registration efforts of Bob Moses and SNCC American public while the workers, the violent backlash, and the country is facing many Poll Tax sign at Mineola, Texas. 1939. response of the Kennedy Administration. challenges including a global health pandemic, social unrest focusing on demands for racial justice and Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at Reception, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, human rights, and an uncertain economic landscape. As classrooms across the March 20, 1960. nation incorporate the election into the curriculum – helping students under- jfklibrary.org/assetviewer/archives/ stand the vital role voters play in a representative democracy in shaping the JFKSEN/0907/JFKSEN-0907-020 direction of the country – it is an optimal moment to help students appreciate In this speech, Senator Kennedy that not all people have had equal access to voting rights throughout US history. defends the Civil Rights Commission’s proposal for Voting Registrars and This past August marked the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment criticizes some components of the making it possible for women to vote and the 55th anniversary of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first civil rights legislation passed since the Voting Rights Act of 1965, removing racially discriminatory barriers to voting. reconstruction era. (The Act had This fall, help students understand how individuals and groups have used the created the Commission in the tools of democracy, laboring over long periods of time, to secure the right to executive branch, which was tasked vote and to demand laws protecting these rights. This is also a time to encourage with investigating voter discrimination and providing reports and recommended students of all ages to actively embrace their own important role in civic life as improvements to the president and well as to consider barriers faced by voters today. congress. It also gave the attorney general the power to get a court order Students might begin by reading a letter to President Kennedy from Charles mandating that those who had been McLaurin (civilrights.jfklibrary.org/media-assets/the-right-to-vote-in-mississippi. denied their right to vote due to html#State-of-the-State--Vote-at-Your-Own-Risk). “The people of Ruleville, discrimination be allowed to vote.) He Mississippi want to vote,” he writes, “but they are afraid of economic reprisal. states that the attorney general and the court system coupled with solving The mayor of Ruleville rides around and tells the Negroes that if they go to issues on a case-by-case basis was too continued on page 2 slow a process for something as time- sensitive as voting. He highlights three conditions that should be met for any HIGHLIGHTS effective action to take place. 3 Elementary & 7 High School 9 Electoral Maps 10 Suffrage continued on page 2 Middle School Lesson Activity Conference Lesson Invitation ★ Selected JFK Library Fighting Barriers to Voting, continued Resources on Voting Rights continued from page 1 register they will be fired from their jobs.” At the same time, White resistance to With this speech, students can explore the complexity The letter also reports the shooting of two change became even more entrenched of voting rights issues Black girls on September 10, 1962. At and violent in the Deep South, most following the passage of his news conference three days after this shockingly with the murder of three civil the Act and expand their incident, President Kennedy was asked to rights workers in Mississippi during the understanding of how the federal government works. comment about “anti-Negro terrorism in 1964 “Freedom Summer” voter registration the South.” JFK condemns the violence, campaign. In March 1965, after mounted Making the March on stating: “The United States Constitution state troopers charged and brutally clubbed Washington, Aug. 28, 1963. provides for freedom to vote and this peaceful demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/ archives/BMPP/061/ country must permit every man and President Johnson announced that the BMPP-061-015 woman to exercise their franchise.” time had come “to strike down restrictions This Kennedy Library to voting in all elections – federal, state The Constitution had no specific Archives blog focuses on and local – which have been used to deny protections for voting rights until the records in the collections Negroes the right to vote.” The bill that showing how the organizers 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870. President Johnson submitted to congress faced behind-the-scenes Many states, especially former Confederate challenges that made passed with strong bipartisan support, and states, strongly resisted extending the vote producing a successful March he signed the Voting Rights Act (VRA) on to Blacks, using a variety of strategies even more complicated than August 6, 1965. By the year’s end, a quarter it seemed. As the largest including poll taxes and phony literacy million new Black voters were registered. protest of its time, the March tests. Along with these obstacles, African on Washington for Jobs and Americans were discouraged from voting The VRA was readopted and extended Freedom is remembered now as a landmark moment in by economic coercion and the continuing four times from 1970 to 2006, including American history with threat of violence. Consequently, nearly all protections for language minority citizens. roughly 250,000 people Black citizens were disenfranchised in the In 2013, the US Supreme Court, ruling attending the event on South by the early 1900s. When the 19th in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, August 28, 1963. Amendment was ratified in 1920, many nullified a crucial section of the Voting Map of Voting Rights Cases of the women of color who fought to gain Rights Act in a controversial 5-4 decision. and Activity, 1965. the passage of suffrage were barred from The majority asserted that the formula in jfk.blogs.archives.gov/ voting through racially discriminatory that section of the law, which applied to 2020/08/27/making-the- march-on-washington practices. Indigenous communities were certain states and localities where patterns This map documents voting not legally recognized as full citizens until of voter discrimination were evident in rights violations in the 1924 and continued to be disenfranchised the 1960s, was no longer relevant – a view South. Beginning in 1961, by practices similar to those used against strongly contested by the four dissenting the Civil Rights Division of Black voters. justices. Acknowledging that violations the Justice Department of voting rights are still a problem today, moved into uncharted The Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 territory. Attorney General the Court invited Congress to amend the allowed for injunctions against voting Robert F. Kennedy vastly VRA to address current inequities. But will rights violations and other protections, expanded the size of the today’s highly polarized Congress be able staff, including a field but stronger tools were needed to address to meet that challenge? operation of lawyers who the most common forms of abuse by local spent weeks at a time in election officials. In a special message to Explore the two lessons in this issue the South investigating and challenging voting barriers. Congress, JFK proposed remedies that featuring case studies of barriers to voting At his direction, the Division would become Title I of the administration’s rights during the Kennedy administration used maps like this one to 1963 Civil Rights Bill. In the political with teaching strategies for applications track voting rights cases and fight to win passage, however, Title I was to voting rights issues today. For lessons monitor reported voting rights violations. The map narrowed to cover only federal elections. on the 19th Amendment, visit dates to 1965 and was Nonetheless, when President Lyndon B. docsteach.org/topics/women. H used by Assistant Attorney Johnson signed the bill into law on General Burke Marshall for July 2, 1964, it was a major victory H this purpose. for proponents of civil rights. 2 New Frontiers LESSON PLAN H Elementary and Middle School, Grades 5–8 Addressing Racial Discrimination in Voting ith the 2020 election quickly approaching, and the unique challenges that the Covid-19 Wpandemic presents to the electoral process, it is critical that elementary and middle school students understand the importance of voting and the tools available to protect this most basic of democratic rights. In addition, the renewed and urgent call for racial justice makes it paramount that students learn how voting rights have been denied to African Americans and other underrepresented groups. This lesson empowers students to identify tools JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM. that can be used to help ensure voting rights for all. This lesson is part of a longer lesson that includes a digital picture book and a telegram to President Kennedy from a civil rights leader.
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