Elections
Nimmer/Schill
History of Voting Rights in the U.S.
Essential Question: How have voting rights expanded throughout US history?
Sources:
History of Voting Rights in America
Voting Rights Timeline
Winning the Vote; Gilder Lehrman.org
Directions:
 Students will be assigned an event from voting rights history to research and create a timeline entry for
 Students will conduct research
 Students will write a summary and select an image to represent their event
 Students will place summary and image on timeline entry page
 Class will work together to organize timeline into proper chronological order and post on classroom
wall
Timeline Entry Expectations
 You will research and write a summary for your assigned event
 Entry Page: will include your summary, an image, a title, a date and ‘creative flair’
(Construction paper will be provided for entry page)
 Summary: In 6-8 sentences, explain what your event is and how it affected voting in the U.S. Include
important locations, dates, people and laws that may have been a result of your event.
 Image: Select one image to represent your event (may be hand-drawn or printed)
 Title/Date: The title of your timeline should be larger than your summary. The date of your event
should be below your title, also printed largely
 Creative Flair: Make you entry page unique, add your own creativity. Consider adding a border,
additional images, important quotes etc.
Significant Events Impacting Voting Rights (U.S.)
15th Amendment
24th Amendment
26th Amendment
19th Amendment
Crawford V. Marion County
Elk V. Wilkins
Richardson V. Ramirez
Dawes Act
Dunn V. Blumstein
Demeny Voting System
National Voter Registration Act
Gray V. Sanders
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
Voting Rights Act (1965)
Indian Naturalization Act
McCarran-Walter Act
Takao Ozawa V. U.S. (1922)
Civil Rights Act (1960)
Indian Citizenship Act (1924)
Civil Rights Act (1964)
Maine Same-Day Registration Laws
Civil Rights Act (1957)
Americans with Disability Act
Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act
Fischer vs. Stout
Alabama Act 2003-381
Lassiter V. Northampton County Board of Elections
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996
Year
Event
Impact on Voting Rights
Year
Event
Impact on Voting Rights