African Americans and the Vote: Echoes From the Past

Abstract

4 | BLACK HISTORY BULLETIN VOL. 82, NO 2 82 No.2 LA VONNE I. NEAL, Ph.D., Professor Emerita and Retired Associate Vice President, Administration and Finance, Northern Illinois University; Email: lneal1@niu.edu ALICIA L. MOORE, Ph.D., holds the Cargill Endowed Professorship in Education at Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas; Email: moorea@southwestern.edu FOREWORD AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE VOTE: ECHOES FROM THE PAST By: Alicia L. Moore and La Vonne I. Neal “I believe unconditionally in the ability of people to respond when they are told the truth. We need to be taught to study rather than believe, to inquire rather than to affirm.” —Septima Poinsette Clark The theme for this Black History Bulletin issue is “African Americans and the Vote.” We begin this issue with a powerful introduction—”Looking Back, Reaching Forward: African Americans and the Vote,” written by guest editor Dr. Conra D. Gist, Associate Professor of Teaching and Teacher Education in the College of Education at the University of Houston. She sets the stage for the authors—educators, lawyers, and activists such as Michelle Duster, great-granddaughter of Ida B. Wells, and Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas NAACP, who illuminate current Black voter suppression laws that echo the laws of the past and the collaborative networks used then and now to defeat them. Additionally, in the spirit of Septima Clark, the authors have developed culturally responsive lesson plans that feature inquiry and critical thinking skills by incorporating the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards, described below: What binds purpose, preparation, and practice together in this document is the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards, released in 2013 (NCSS, 2013). The C3 Framework is a set of interlocking and mutually reinforcing dimensions of practice that focus on the intersection of inquiry, ideas, and learners. As a collaborative effort that began in 2010, the C3 Framework was built on the following shared principles: (1) social studies prepares the nation’s young people for college, careers, and civic life; (2) inquiry is at the heart of social studies; (3) social studies involves interdisciplinary applications; (4) social studies is composed of deep and enduring understandings, concepts, and skills from the disciplines; and (5) social studies emphasizes skills and practices for democratic decision-making. The four dimensions of the Inquiry Arc in the C3 Framework center on the use of questions to spark curiosity, guide instruction, and deepen investigations, and ideas in real-world settings in order to become active and engaged citizens in the twenty-first century. As the statement on what meaningful and powerful social studies instruction ought to look like, the C3 Framework served for the 2016 committee as the milestone for the kinds of knowledge, skills, and dispositions social studies teacher preparation programs are required to cultivate. Each standard outlined in this document is framed by the ethos of the C3 Framework—to enhance the rigor of social studies education by building the critical thinking, problem solving, and participatory skills that enable students to become informed citizens.1 Notes: National Council for the Social Studies, National Standards for the Preparation of Social Studies Teachers, January 1, 2018, available from https://www.socialstudies.org/standards/teacherstandards, 8. ...