Exhibit Educational Materials

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This selection of student activities and lesson plans is part of the exhibit project America I Am: The African American Imprint. The exhibit responds to a question asked by W. E. B. Du Bois in 1903: “Would America have been America without her Negro people?” Visitors will see a wide-ranging collection of rare objects, maps, documents, prints, and other historical items illustrating the ways in which African Americans had a profound impact on the nation.

Lesson Plans

A More Perfect Union: Barack Obama’s Race Speech at the National Constitution Center

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This lesson is designed to show the process of perfecting the Union through changes made to the Constitution and through the powers delegated to each branch of government by the Constitution. The lesson encourages student deliberation on race in America by familiarizing students with Senator Obama’s speech entitled, A More Perfect Union, his famous race speech, given at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia in March 2008. Students are asked to read the speech for homework, guided by essential questions. In class, students work in groups to analyze parts of the Constitution, legislation and a Supreme Court opinion. They are then asked to consider them in regards to the progression of race relations in American history and Sen. Barack Obama’s call to perfect the Union. The deliberation culminates with students creating an action plan detailing how they will play a part in perfecting the Union.

The Exchange: Is the Constitution Colorblind?

www.constitutioncenter.org/exchange
This research and deliberation activity is designed to encourage students to look at the issue of affirmative action from a variety of perspectives and then to find political, social and economic measures to address the issues of fairness and inequality. In any deliberation activity, compromise and listening will play a key role in finding common ground.

The Future of Race

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In the 2003 Supreme Court ruling Gratz v. Bollinger Justice Sandra Day O’Connor argued that in 25 years racial preferences would not be needed to determine admissions into institutions of higher learning. With this lesson students will learn, using a hypothetical case, about the future of race in America by examining the “narrowly tailored” admission policy of the University of Kentucky in the year 2011. The policy requires students who wish to benefit from their race in the admissions process to submit to a DNA test proving their ethnic makeup. However, the university quickly learns that the makeup of their students’ DNA does not always match how students perceive themselves or how others perceive them. In addition to examining this case, students will also learn about and analyze historic affirmative action cases. The lesson culminates with students viewing a clip of how some of the country’s sharpest legal minds ruled on the future case in a moot court. For assessment, students will write a feature piece for a newspaper about affirmative action: past, present, and future.

Classroom Posters

Classroom mini-posters are high quality reproductions of primary source documents from the National Constitution Center’s collection. Each poster includes an image of the actual document and background information on the document with classroom discussion questions.

Download the Emancipation Proclamation

Download the 13th Amendment

Town Hall Walls:

To provide an overview of current constitutional debates and give visitors the opportunity to voice their opinions, the Center has pioneered the innovative exhibition, Town Hall Walls. Town Hall Walls are large posters that ask visitors to respond to a question based on current events.

Is the Constitution color-blind?

Is racial balancing in public schools constitutional?

Online Resources

The National Constitution Center’s Interactive Constitution

Article 1 Section 2: “…Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.”

Interactive Constitution: Article 1 Section 2

Article 1 Section 9: “The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.

Reconstruction Amendments

Amendment 13

Amendment 14

Amendment 15

Topic Pages

Affirmative Action

Civil Rights

Slavery

The Exchange: Is the Constitution color-blind? Online Student Discussion

This a community site designed for high school students and their teachers. The Exchange is a free interactive student program hosted by the National Constitution Center and supported by the Annenberg Foundation which connects student from across the country to discuss important constitutional and political issues.
www.exchangeideas.org

Educational Media

Eyes on the Prize
From 1954 to 1965, America experienced one of the most tumultuous and momentous periods in its history. Senior NPR reporter and commentator Juan Williams joins the Center to reflect on the civil rights era which continues to have resonance in a country where debates about social and political equality endure. Program recorded on 9/26/2006.

What I Know for Sure
The National Constitution Center, in partnership with the Philadelphia Tribune, presents media personality and author Tavis Smiley for a Citizens’ Constitutional Conversation to discuss his new memoir, What I Know For Sure: My Story of Growing Up in America. Program recorded on 10/17/2006.

Dred Scott, 150 Years Later
Writing the majority opinion for The Supreme Court in the infamous Dred Scott v. Sanford case of 1856-1857, Chief Justice Roger Taney asserted that African Americans were not and never could be citizens of the United States. To mark the 150th Anniversary of the Dred Scott v. Sanford decision, and to discuss the essential historical context and its enduring legacy, the Center presents three leading scholars and experts to share insights on the case that would ultimately lead the United States into civil war. Program recorded on 5/15/2007.

Slavery and the Literary Imagination
Fiction and non-fiction writers have different constraints on what stories they tell, but the story-telling techniques they sometimes share are powerful tools for stimulating the historical imagination. "Slavery and the Literary Imagination" features Lorene Cary, educator, social activist and author of The Price of a Child, Lawrence Hill, critically-acclaimed author of Someone Knows My Name, and Beverly Lowry, director of the Creative Nonfiction Program at George Mason University and author of Harriet Tubman: Imagining a Life. Program recorded on 07/16/08.

Delta Blues
As part of its year long series commemorating the end to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the Center presents musician and historian Ted Gioia in a program featuring recordings from the Mississippi Delta and a discussion of how the Blues helped give shape to contemporary music and culture. Leading the discussion is Jonny Meister, host of “The Blues Show,” an award winning radio program on WXPN. Program recorded on 10/26/08.

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