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Book Backdrop: The First Amendment in Action - How We Use Our First Amendment Rights to Shape Our World

Album Description

Into the Streets  A Young Person's Visual History of Protest in the United States by Marke Bieschke  9 - 12   Social Studies/History   Book Backdrop   bestof 

See Teaching Notes under the Sons of Liberty image.

into the streets.jpg

Teaching Notes

This book traces the history of protest in America from 1492 to the Present.  I think excerpts from this could be used in Government class when we study the First Amendment.  Students have usually heard of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and of course, they see the news now; but I think that they often fail to realize how ingrained the First Amendment rights to free speech, assembly, and petition are in American civilization.  By providing them with examples from past times and looking at the successes and failures of these protests, I hope that students will begin to understand the significance of these First Amendment rights.

Sons of Liberty

Teaching Notes

Each of these images is some form of First Amendment activity.  I would divide the class into small groups.  Each group would have one photo, they would be responsible for describing it and trying to determine what it was and what it was for as well as when it may have occurred.  Each group would describe their image to the class.  We would then discuss what the images have in common.  I would then ask the students how these images tie into the Constitution.  This would hopefully segue into a discussion of the First Amendment.

[Women marching in national suffrage demonstration in Washington, D.C., May 9, 1914.]

Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/mnwp000268

Reference note

Contributor Names: Harris & Ewing, Washington, D.C. (Photographer)
Created / Published: 1914 May 9
Subject Headings: -  National Woman's Party
-  Suffragists--United States--1910-1920
-  Processions
-  Women--Suffrage--United States
-  Demonstrations--Washington (D.C.)--1910-1920
-  Photographs
-  United States -- District of Columbia
Genre: Photographs
Notes: -  Title derived by Library of Congress staff.
-  Summary: Photograph of suffragists in sashes marching down the street past The Washington Post building, flanked by policemen.
Repository: Manuscript Division
Digital Id: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mnwp.160078

The meeting of the friends, City Hall Park

Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/2008661655/

Reference note

Summary: New York governor Horatio Seymour's famous "My Friends" speech, delivered from the steps of New York's City Hall during the draft riots, was widely misrepresented in the press. On the basis of reports such as this, Seymour was viewed as a disloyal "Copperhead" agitator. The riots, which took place between July 11 and 16, 1863, broke out as a result of the Enrollment Act, which was highly discriminatory to the lower classes. (On this see "Wanted a Substitute," no. 1863-13). Although not an enthusiast of President Lincoln's war policies, Seymour actually rushed to the scene of the riots and tried to restore order. Here Seymour stands on the City Hall steps, addressing a motley crowd of armed rioters, most of them Irish. In the foreground one rioter holds the head of a black man in a noose, while three other black men hang from a tree in the background. (In reality, the rioters sacked and looted a Negro orphan asylum and hanged black men from lampposts.) Behind Seymour stand three men, including (left to right) a fool (no doubt a newspaper editor) wearing a cap labeled "Express," former mayor Fernando Wood (whose top hat fails to conceal a pair of devil's horns), and a man resembling Tammany boss Peter B. Sweeny, with a hat tagged "4-11-44." Below the scene is the dialogue: A Friendly Voice: "Governor, we want you to stay here." Horatio Seymour: "I am going to stay here, M̀y Friends'" Second Rioter: "Faith and the Governor will stay with us." Horatio Seymour: "I am your f̀riend;" and the f̀riend' of your families." Third Rioter: "Arrah, Jemmy, and who said he cared about the D̀irty Nagurs'?" Fourth Rioter: "How about the draft Saymere?" Governor: "I have ordered the president to stop the draft!" Chorus: "Be jabes, he's a 'broth of a boy." Weitenkampf, probably correctly, attributes the drawing for the print to Henry L. Stephens. It may have been published in connection with the New York "Tribune," whose building is prominent in the background. The "Tribune's" editor, Horace Greeley, was among Seymour's most vocal critics.
Contributor Names: Stephens, H. L. (Henry Louis), 1824-1882.
Created / Published: 1863.
Subject Headings: -  Seymour, Horatio,--1810-1886
-  Sweeny, Peter B.--(Peter Barr),--1825-1911
-  Wood, Fernando,--1812-1881
-  United States.--Army--Recruiting, enlistment, etc.--Civil War, 1861-1865
-  New York tribune--1860-1870
-  African Americans--1860-1870
-  Draft protests--1860-1870
-  Draft (Military service)--1860-1870
-  Journalism--1860-1870
-  Politics & government--1860-1870
-  New York (N.Y.)--1860-1870
-  New York (State)--1860-1870
Genre: Political cartoons--1860-1870
Wood engravings--1860-1870
Notes: -  Probably drawn by Henry L. Stephens, New York.
-  Title appears as it is written on the item.
-  Weitenkampf, p. 138.
-  Purchase (Caroline and Erwin Swann Memorial Fund); Old Paper Person; 1987; (DLC/PP-1987:199).
-  Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)
-  Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1863-12.
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital Id: cph 3b42499 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b42499

DEMOCRATIC WOMEN. WOMAN SUFFRAGE

Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/2016866065/

Reference note

Contributor Names: Harris & Ewing, photographer
Created / Published: 1914.
Genre: Glass negatives
Notes: -  Title from unverified caption data received with the Harris & Ewing Collection.
-  Gift; Harris & Ewing, Inc. 1955.
-  General information about the Harris & Ewing Collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.hec
-  Temp. note: Batch one.
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital Id: hec 05266 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hec.05266

Anti-draft demonstration, Central Park, NYC

Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/2020737831/

Reference note

Contributor Names: Gotfryd, Bernard, photographer
Created / Published: 1968.
Subject Headings: -  United States--New York (State)--New York
-  Demonstrations
-  Anti-Vietnam War protests
Genre: Slides--Color--1960-1970
Notes: -  Title from slide mount and other caption information provided by the photographer.
-  Anti Vietnam War protest held in New York City, April 1968.
-  Gift; Bernard Gotfryd; 2004; (DLC/PP-2004:032).
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Digital Id: gtfy 08290 https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/gtfy.08290

Inauguration Day : march on Washington, Sat. Jan. 20

Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/2016648546/

Reference note

Contributor Names: National Peace Action Coalition, sponsor/advertiser
Created / Published: [1968]
Subject Headings: -  Vietnam War, 1961-1975
-  Protest movements--1960-1970
-  Demonstrations--1960-1970
-  Presidential inaugurations--1960-1970
-  United States--District of Columbia--Washington (D.C.)
-  United States--New York (State)--New York
Genre: Posters--American--1960-1970
Prints--Color--1960-1970
Notes: -  Title from item.
-  Gift; Gary Yanker; 1975-1983.
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital Id: yan 1a38628 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/yan.1a38628
cph 3c27543 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c27543

Preacher, Black Lives Matter Plaza, Washington, DC

Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/2020632322/

Reference note

Summary: Photograph shows an African American preacher with fist raised using megaphone; behind him are supporters wearing face masks and one holding sign "Perfect Celebrate Life of George Floyd!! Be a Bone Marrow Donor!! Save Lives".
Contributor Names: Meehleib, Tracy, photographer
Created / Published: June 9, 2020.
Subject Headings: -  African Americans--Washington (D.C.)--2020
-  Fists--2020
-  Social justice--Washington (D.C.)--2020
-  Preachers--Washington (D.C.)--2020
-  Face masks--Washington (D.C.)--2020
-  Sixteenth Street (Washington, D.C.)--2020
Genre: Digital photographs--2020
Notes: -  Photographer, title, date, and other information from file header.
-  Gift; Tracy Meehleib; 2020; (DLC/PP-2020:137).
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital Id: ppbd 01158 https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppbd.01158

[The civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965]

Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/2003675346/

Reference note

Summary: Photograph shows some participants in the civil rights march sitting on a wall resting, one holds a placard which reads, "We march together, Catholics, Jews, Protestant, for dignity and brotherhood of all men under God, Now!"
Contributor Names: Pettus, Peter, photographer
Created / Published: [1999 or 2000 from a photograph taken in 1965]
Subject Headings: -  Selma to Montgomery Rights March--(1965 :--Selma, Ala.)
-  African Americans--Civil rights--Alabama--1960-1970
Notes: -  Title devised by Library staff.
-  Contact sheet 11, frame 0.
-  Photograph printed in 1999 or 2000 by the photographer from his original negatives.
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Digital Id: cph 3d02329 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3d02329