World War I and American Civil Liberties
Document Based Questions and Summative Assessment
Meaghan Davis and Gabrielle Lataille (UConn Interns at Manchester High School)
meaghan.a.davis@gmail.com and gabrielle.lataille@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
We have created a DBQ assignment to be used in multiple classroom contexts to
study World War I and American Civil Liberties. We have chosen four primary source
documents, accompanied by guiding questions for analysis as well as summative
assessment ideas for the entire assignment.
World War I and Civil Liberties DBQ
DBQ Essential Question
1. How were American civil liberties protected, endangered or absent during
World War I?
DBQ Objectives
Content:
 Identify the civil liberties protected, endangered, or absent as well as the
groups of American people fighting for those liberties.
 Contextualize these individual stories within the broader scope of WWI.
Skill:
 Critically evaluate and analyze the historical documents presented.
 Combine and articulate these critiques into one summative assessment.
Part I. Primary Source Analysis
Directions: Attached you will find four primary source documents from the World
War I time period. They all adhere to the theme of civil liberties during World War I.
Please analyze and evaluate each document and then answer the accompanying
guiding questions for each. After this first part is completed you will move on to the
summative assessment. Directions for this second part are attached later in this
packet. Good luck!
Source 1: The Espionage Act, May 16, 1918
Introduction and Context: The Espionage Act was a United States Federal Law
passed on June 15, 1917 and revised the following year. Its original mission was to
prohibit and eliminate any interference with military operations or military
recruitment when the United States first joined World War I.
Be it enacted, That section three of the Act . . . approved June I5, 1917, be . . amended
so as to read as follows:
SEC. 3. Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall wilfully make or convey
false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or
success of the military or naval forces of the United States, or to promote the success
of its enemies, or shall wilfully make or convey false reports, or false statements, or
say or do anything except by way of bona fide and not disloyal advice to an investor .
. . with intent to obstruct the sale by the United States of bonds . . . or the making of
loans by or to the United States, or whoever, when the United States is at war, shall
wilfully cause . . . or incite . . . insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty,
in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall wilfully obstruct . . . the
recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, and whoever, when the United
States is at war, shall wilfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane,
scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States,
or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United
States, or the flag . . . or the uniform of the Army or Navy of the United States, or any
language intended to bring the form of government . . . or the Constitution . . . or the
military or naval forces . . . or the flag . . . of the United States into contempt, scorn,
contumely, or disrepute . . . or shall wilfully display the flag of any foreign enemy, or
shall wilfully . . . urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production in this
country of any thing or things . . . necessary or essential to the prosecution of the
war . . . and whoever shall wilfully advocate, teach, defend, or suggest the doing of
any of the acts or things in this section enumerated and whoever shall by word or
act support or favor the cause of any coun try with which the United States is at war
or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein, shall be punished by
a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or
both....
Guiding Questions:
1. What is the Espionage Act disallowing Americans to do?
2. What is the consequence of Americans violating the Espionage Act?
3. Why do you think the US government enacted the Espionage Act?
Source 2: Schenck v. United States
Introduction and Context: In 1919 this case went to the Supreme Court.
Mr. JUSTICE HOLMES delivered the opinion of the court about Schenck’s first
amendment rights and his protests against World War I.
This is an indictment in three counts. The first charges a conspiracy to violate the
Espionage Act of June 15, 1917, c. 30, § 3, 40 Stat. 217, 219, by causing and
attempting to cause insubordination, &c., in the military and naval forces of the
United States, and to obstruct the recruiting and enlistment service of the United
States, when the United States was at war with the German Empire, to-wit, that the
defendants wilfully conspired to have printed and circulated to men who had been
called and accepted for military service under the Act of May 18, 1917, a document
set forth and alleged to be calculated to cause such insubordination and obstruction.
The count alleges overt acts in pursuance of the conspiracy, ending in the
distribution of the document set forth. The second count alleges a conspiracy to
commit an offence against the United States, to-wit, to use the mails for the
transmission of matter declared to be non-mailable by Title XII, § 2 of the Act of June
15, 1917, to-wit, the above mentioned document, with an averment of the same
overt acts. The third count charges an unlawful use of the mails for the transmission
of the same matter and otherwise as above. The defendants were found guilty on all
the counts. They set up the First Amendment to the Constitution forbidding
Congress to make any law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, and
bringing the case here on that ground have argued some other points also of which
we must dispose.
[…]
It was not argued that a conspiracy to obstruct the draft was not within the words of
the Act of 1917. The words are “obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service,” and it
might be suggested that they refer only to making it hard to get volunteers.
Recruiting heretofore usually having been accomplished by getting volunteers the
word is apt to call up that method only in our minds. But recruiting is gaining fresh
supplies for the forces, as well by draft as otherwise. It is put as an alternative to
enlistment or voluntary enrollment in this act. The fact that the Act of 1917 was
enlarged by the amending Act of May 16, 1918, c. 75, 40 Stat. 553, of course, does
not affect the present indictment and would not, even if the former act had been
repealed. Rev. Stats., § 13.
Judgments affirmed.
Guiding Questions
According to Mr. Justice Holmes, what is the finding of the court?
What is Schenck guilty of? Do you agree or disagree?
Is the finding of the court protecting or endangering American Civil Liberties? Why?
**Note**For sources 7 and 8 we did not have digital copies because they were
photo copied directly form the originals at the National Archives in
Washington, DC. The images these questions correlate with will be included in
your sources attached. Brief introductions and contexts are provided below.
Source 3: Photograph of the Women’s Suffrage Movement during World War I
Guiding Questions:
1. What action did the women in this photograph take? Why?
2. What civil liberties are being denied? Who is denying them and why?
3. How did the efforts of the Women’s Suffrage Movement impact American
civil liberties for the future?
Source 4: Department of Commerce and Labor Rejection Notice for Chinese
Immigrants to San Francisco in 1914
1. How does this document provide evidence of an effort to protect or endanger
American civil liberties? Provide a specific example.
2. Make a prediction as to why these potential immigrants were denied access
into the United States in 1914.
Part II. Summative Assessment
Directions: Choose one of the following options, either A, B, or C, to express your
knowledge gained about the essential question. Then, please also choose one of the
following themes: protected, endangered, or absent, in order to create a persuasive
summative product. Please use all of the four documents and their guiding questions
as evidence in your final product.
Question: How were American civil liberties protected, endangered or absent
during World War I?
Option A. Power Point Presentation: Please create an 8-10 minute presentation
persuading the audience with evidence from the sources and other outside
knowledge that civil liberties were absent, protected, or endangered during World
War I. Choose a position, create a thesis, and present evidence that supports your
assertion. Please do not include more than 15 slides. You may work with a partner
or independently.
Option B. Paper: Please write a 3-5 page paper that develops a thesis statement
and argument supporting either the idea that civil liberties were protected, absent,
or endangered during World War I. Work independently and use specific evidence
form the four primary source documents as well as outside knowledge to support
your thesis.
Option C. Creative Expression or Create Your Own
(Must be approved by the teacher)
Specific length and time requirements will be issued to students upon their request
of the assignment or upon assigning these options to students as teachers. These
projects will be held to the same standards in terms of choosing a position and
developing a persuasive argument using direct evidence from the primary source
documents as well as outside knowledge.
Options for Creative Expressions
Create on of the following: rap, comic strip, song lyrics, skit, photomontage, website,
poster board, picture book, newspaper article, advertisement, diary entry etc.
Summative Assessment Rubric
CATEGORY
Thesis
Statement
4 - Above Standards
The position statement
provides a clear, strong
statement of the author\'s
position on the topic.
3 - Meets Standards
The position statement
provides a clear statement
of the author\'s position on
the topic.
2 - Approaching Standards
A position statement is
present, but does not make
the author\'s position clear.
1 - Below Standards
There is no position
statement.
Use of
Primary
Source
Documents
as Evidence
All four documents are
cited as evidence to support
the thesis statement.
Three documents are cited
as evidence to support the
thesis statement.
Two documents are cited as
evidence to support the
thesis statement.
Only one document is
cited.
Outside
Knowledge
A strong amount of
supportive and additional
knowledge is reported
accurately and properly
supplements thesis
statement.
Some supportive outside
knowledge is reported
accurately to support thesis
statement.
Minimal supportive outside
knowledge is used and/or
accurate.
No outside knowledge is
included.
Grammar &
Spelling
Author makes no errors in
grammar or spelling that
distract the reader from the
content.
Author makes 1-2 errors in
grammar or spelling that
distract the reader from the
content.
Author makes 3-4 errors in
grammar or spelling that
distract the reader from the
content.
Author makes more than 4
errors in grammar or
spelling that distract the
reader from the content.
Effort and
Use of Class
Time
All class time was used
productively and effort was
exceptional.
Most of class time was
used productively and
effort was evident.
Little class time was used
productively and effort was
minimal.
Class time was not used
productively and effort was
absent.