Teacher Resources: Lesson Plan
Remember the Ladies: The Supreme Court and Women's Suffrage, Minor v. Happersett
Overview
In this lesson, students will explore the fight for women's suffrage in the federal courts. Students will examine the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments as well as excerpts from Minor v. Happersett. They will discuss how the court chose to interpret the law so that voting rights were not protected under the privileges and immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. They will conclude by examining the Nineteenth Amendment. This lesson is suited for high school students.
National Curriculum Standards met by this lesson
For a list of standards that this unit addresses, click here.
Time required
One 50-minute class period
Materials
- The Adams Family Papers:
http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/aea/ - Our Documents website:
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/content.php?flash=true&page=milestone - Document Analysis Worksheet--Fourteenth Amendment (below)
- Document Analysis Worksheet--Fifteenth Amendment (below)
- Minor v Happersett Worksheet (below)
The Lesson
Anticipatory Set
Display a transcription of Abigail Adams' letter to John Adams dated March 31, 1776:
http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/aea/cfm/doc.cfm?id=L17760331aa.
Ask students the following questions:
- What is Abigail asking John to do? (She is asking John to include laws that protect women in the new code of laws that will be created.)
- Why does she feel she must bring this to his attention? (The old code of laws allowed husbands to be tyrannical if they so chose. Abigail says that men "of sense" do not treat women as possessions, but they should ensure that other men cannot as well.)
- What does she threaten if women are not included in the new code of laws? (She threatens that women will not see themselves bound by laws in which they had no voice.)
- Ask students to predict how they think John Adams will answer his wife's concerns. Allow several students to share their predictions. Record these predictions to be revisited later in the lesson.
Procedures
- Divide the class into two groups.
- Distribute the following resources to the groups:
- Have students work with a partner to analyze the document given to them using the document analysis worksheet.
- As a class, discuss the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, their provisions, and what groups of people may not be covered by these laws.
- Read the following scenario to the class:
- Distribute the Minor v. Happersett worksheet (below). Have students work independently to complete the activities on this resource sheet.
- Based on the findings in Minor v. Happersett, ask students what they think would be needed for women to be allowed to vote in the United States.
- Display a copy of the Nineteenth Amendment http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=63&page=transcript. Ask students to explain how this amendment circumvents the Court's findings in Minor v Happersett.
- Close the lesson by revisiting Abigail Adams' letter to her husband John. Based on what they now know about women's voting rights in the United States, how do students think John may have responded to Abigail's letter? Did their predictions change as a result of this lesson? Why or why not? Share http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/aea/cfm/doc.cfm?id=L17760414ja.
- This lesson could be extended by allowing students to research Susan B.Anthony's trial for casting an illegal ballot in the November 1872 election.
Group 1: Fifteenth Amendment:
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=44&page=transcript
Copy of the Document Analysis Worksheet--Fifteenth Amendment (below)
Group 2: Fourteenth Amendment
Copy of the Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment:
http://www.law.emory.edu/FEDERAL/usconst/amend.html
Copy of the Document Analysis Worksheet--Fourteenth Amendment (below)
In 1872 Mrs. Virginia Minor was a citizen of the State of Missouri who was over 21 years old. On October 15, 1872, Mrs. Minor went to see the registrar of voters, a man named Happersett, to register to vote. This was one of the dates that the law in Missouri said citizens could register to vote in the general election held in November. Mr. Happersett refused to register Mrs. Minor to vote because she was a woman and the Constitution of Missouri said "Every male citizen of the United States shall be entitled to vote." Mrs. Minor sued Mr. Happersett for refusing to place her name upon the list of registered voters, by which refusal she was deprived of her right to vote. The case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Assessment
Assess student understanding of the lesson by having them complete the following activity.
When the Supreme Court decides a case, one of the Justices will write the majority opinion explaining the decision and the reasoning behind it. Other Justices are also allowed to write opinions to be filed with the case. If a Justice agrees with the decision but wants to explain his or her own reasoning, the Justice may write a concurrent opinion. If a Justice disagrees with the majority, he or she may write a dissenting opinion that explains how the Justice feels the case should have been decided and why. Decide whether or not you agree with the Court's decision in Minor v Happersett. If you agree with the court, write a concurrent opinion that explains your decision. If you disagree, write a dissenting opinion that explains your position. Be sure you refer to the documents examined in class today in your opinion.
Rubric:
An outstanding response clearly states whether the author agrees or disagrees with the Court's decision, presents reasons that firmly support the author's opinion, refers specifically to texts examined in class, and uses correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
A satisfactory response clearly states whether the author agrees or disagrees with the Court's decision, presents reasons that somewhat support the author's opinion, refers generally to texts examined in class, and may have grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors that do not interfere with the meaning of the text.
An unsatisfactory response states whether the author agrees or disagrees with the Court's decision, presents at least one reason for the author's opinion, does not refer to texts examined in class, and may have grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors that are careless or distracting.
Interdisciplinary Links
Work with a drama teacher to dramatize the Minor v. Happersett case.
Document Analysis, Fourteenth Amendment
With your partner, analyze the document you have been given. Answer the questions below.
What type of document is this? What do you know about this type of document?
What is the date on the document?
What significant events in American history happened during or immediately prior to the time period in which this document was written?
How might these events be related to this document?
What does the first sentence of the document mean?
What does the document mean when it says no state shall "abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States?"
Are there any groups of people who are not protected by this document? Explain your answer?
Document Analysis, Fifteenth Amendment
Instructions: With your partner, analyze the document you have been given. Answer the questions below.
What type of document is this? What do you know about this type of document?
What is the date on the document?
What significant events in American history happened during or immediately prior to the time period in which this document was written?
How might these events be related to this document?
What right was this document written to protect?
Who does this document benefit? How?
Are there any groups of people that this document does not protect? Who?
Minor v. Happersett Worksheet
- Consider the facts of the case that you have just heard. What do you think the Supreme Court will decide in the case of Minor v Happersett? Support your answer with information from the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.
- Virginia Minor claimed that the Missouri law stating that only men could vote violated the privileges and immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This clause reads:
- What two things would Virginia Minor have to prove in order to win her case?
- Read the following excerpts from the Supreme Court decision on Minor v. Happersett. Answer the question(s) following each excerpt:
- Which point that you listed in number two is addressed in this quote?
- What did the court decide?
- Does this help or hurt Virginia Minor's case? Why?
- Which point that you listed in number two is addressed in this quote?
- What did the court decide?
- Does this help or hurt Virginia Minor's case? Why?
- Did Virginia Minor get to vote in 1872? Why or why not?
- Was your prediction in number 1 correct or incorrect? Explain your answer.
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.
But if more is necessary to show that women have always been considered as citizens the same as men, abundant proof is to be found in the legislative and judicial history of the country...Notwithstanding this the records of the courts are full of cases in which the jurisdiction depends upon the citizenship of women, and not one can be found, we think, in which objection was made on that account...On the contrary, her right to citizenship has been in all cases assumed.
The Constitution does not define the privileges and immunities of citizens. For that definition we must look elsewhere. In this case we need not determine what they are, but only whether suffrage is necessarily one of them. It certainly is nowhere made so in express terms. The United States has no voters in the States of its own creation. Each State must appoint in such manner, as the legislature thereof may direct, the electors to elect the President and Vice-President... The amendment did not add to the privileges and immunities of a citizen. It simply furnished an additional guaranty for the protection of such as he already had. No new voters were necessarily made by it... It is clear, therefore, we think, that the Constitution has not added the right of suffrage to the privileges and immunities of citizenship as they existed at the time it was adopted...And still again, after the adoption of the fourteenth amendment, it was deemed necessary to adopt a fifteenth, as follows: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The fourteenth amendment had already provided that no State should make or enforce any law which should abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States. If suffrage was one of these privileges or immunities, why amend the Constitution to prevent its being denied on account of race, &c.?...Being unanimously of the opinion that the Constitution of the United States does not confer the right of suffrage upon any one, and that the constitutions and laws of the several States which commit that important trust to men alone are not necessarily void, we affirm the judgment.