Polk County Public Schools
Teaching American History
Seminar Three: Civil Rights
Session I: Introduction--Defining Civil Rights, 1780s-1930s

Matthew F. Jacobs
University of Florida
mjacobs@ufl.edu

Introduction: Teaching Civil Rights
    What does the term mean?
        General Impressions
        A Dictionary Definition
    How do we give the term meaning?

Defining Civil Rights: A Chronology
    The 3/5ths Clause (1787)
    The Bill of Rights (1791)
    The Naturalization Act of 1790
    Dred Scott Decision (1857)
    Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
    Thirteenth Amendment (1865)
    Fourteenth Amendment (1868)
    Fifteenth Amendment (1870)
    1875 Civil Rights Act
        Reversed by Supreme Court in 1883
    End of Reconstruction (1877)
    Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
    Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
    Lynching Statistics (1886-1914)
    Founding of the NAACP (1910)
    The Great Migration (1915-1920)
    Nineteenth Amendment (1920)
    Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act or "National Origins Act")
    Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
    The Great Depression (1929-1941)

© 2009 Matthew F. Jacobs