“Rationalizing Race” Lesson
Case Study Student Organizer – Teacher Answer Key
Case Study Student Organizer ANSWERS:
Title of assigned case, document, or event: US Constitution
Year: 1787
What group was discriminated against? Slaves (mostly of African descent)
What rights were denied this group? Equal representation, in matters such as apportioning government
representatives and taxes.
What year, and how, did this particular episode or kind of discrimination end (if information is
provided)? 1868, with the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
Summarize the main points of this case for your classmates: In the Constitution, slaves were only counted as
3/5 of other persons. Enslaved people did not receive recognition as whole persons until the 14 th Amendment that
stated “Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers,
counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed.”
Title of assigned case, document, or event: Plessy v. Ferguson
Year: 1896
What group was discriminated against? Blacks
What rights were denied this group? Right to sit in the same railway cars as whites (right to integrated
facilities)
What year, and how, did this particular episode or kind of discrimination end (if information is
provided)? Not provided in document, but legalized segregation ended nearly sixty years later when the 1954
decision in Brown v. Board of Education overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine, stating that separate
facilities are inherently unequal.
Summarize the main points of this case for your classmates:
Homer Adolph Plessy, who was of 7/8 Caucasian and 1/8 African descent, was arrested for sitting in a “whites
only” railway car in Louisiana. The case upheld the constitutionality of separate facilities for blacks and whites.
Title of assigned case, document, or event: Japanese relocation
Year: 1942
What group was discriminated against? Anyone who could be considered a threat to U.S. Security, particularly
persons of Japanese descent (both citizens and non-citizens).
What rights were denied this group? Right to live freely where they choose
Major corporate funding for this new production and its outreach initiatives is provided by The Coca-Cola Company and Johnson &
Johnson. Additional funding is provided by Buick. Funding is also provided by public television viewers and PBS. Additional
resources and materials for the teacher training workshops are provided by Ancestry.com.
What year, and how, did this particular episode or kind of discrimination end (if information is
provided)? Not provided, but the internment ended with the end of World War II. The struggle on the part of the
internees to reclaim their property and to be compensated for their losses continued long thereafter.
Summarize the main points of this case for your classmates: Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in
1941, President Roosevelt authorized the relocation of persons of Japanese descent from the West Coast to
internment camps inland. Approximately 122,000 Japanese Americans, including 70,000 American citizens, were
removed to the camps.
Major corporate funding for this new production and its outreach initiatives is provided by The Coca-Cola Company and Johnson &
Johnson. Additional funding is provided by Buick. Funding is also provided by public television viewers and PBS. Additional
resources and materials for the teacher training workshops are provided by Ancestry.com.