The Plainest Demands of Justice: Documents for Dialogue on the African American Experience

Students will be introduced to the concept of Founding principles based on natural law and natural rights as expressed in the Declaration of Independence. They will then analyze primary source documents to determine the extent to which the writing of the Declaration of Independence contributed to the quest to end slavery in the United States in the Founding era.

In this lesson, students will consider how Founding principles of liberty, equality, and justice were invoked or ignored in the quest to end slavery. Students will use primary source excerpts to consider the ways in which legislators, courts, and individuals interacted and interpreted these principles in the quest to end slavery from colonial times to the outbreak of the Civil War.

This lesson asks students to look at primary source documents as they consider the following question: To what extent did Founding principles of liberty, equality, and justice become a reality for African Americans from Reconstruction to the end of the nineteenth century? The Civil War ended slavery and African Americans were in a position to claim their natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But would that happen?

The following lesson asks students to look at primary source documents as they consider the following question: To what extent did the Founding principles of liberty, equality, and justice become a reality for African Americans in the first half of the twentieth century? The documents come from a variety of actors in the American republic: legislators and policymakers, the courts, and individuals and groups. As students go through the documents, encourage them to think not only about the principles of liberty, equality, and justice, but also about the ways in which these groups interact with each other in creating or stalling change.

The following lesson asks students to look at primary source documents as they consider the following question:  To what extent did Founding principles of liberty, equality, and justice become a reality for African Americans in the civil rights movement? The documents come from a variety of actors: legislators and policy makers, the courts, and individuals and groups. As students go through the documents, encourage them not only to think about the principles of liberty, equality, and justice, but also about the way in which these groups interact with each other in creating or stalling change.

The following lesson asks students to look at primary source documents as they consider the following question: To what extent did Founding principles of liberty, equality, and justice become a reality for African Americans in the latter half of the twentieth century to today? What work must still be done? Primary sources show the splintering of the later civil rights movement and continued debates over the full realization of equality and justice for African Americans in the present day.

In this lesson, students reflect on what they have learned across the “Plainest Demands of Justice” resource and choose a topic to explore further.