Making Historical Connections

Stumped by the media mayhem and roaring rhetoric of political campaigns? Get historical context and tools to demystify election procedures, analyze campaign messages and make your voice matter.

The Supreme Court justice presided over a program at the Newseum on Bradwell v. Illinois (1873). In this video, hear the arguments for and against a woman's right to practice law.

This video explores the interplay between a free press and the civil rights movement’s fight for equality.

Trace the history of the movement from the Declaration of Independence to the Equal Rights Amendment in a timeline with historical front pages, artifacts and interviews with historians.

Major historic events inevitably bring about changes in society, from politics to daily routines. In this activity, students use four historical front pages to hypothesize about the impact of the covered events, then use current media to explore the continuing impact.

See how advocates for — and against — change in the civil rights era leveraged the five freedoms of the First Amendment to make their voices heard.

The terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, forced us to reconsider the balance between protecting public safety and protecting First Amendment freedoms – our cornerstone rights of religious liberty, free expression and political action. Twenty-two paired case studies explore how this debate has evolved from friction among Founding Fathers to cybersecurity standoffs.

Explore significant dates, people and events in the fight for racial equality.

Explore how the suffragists embraced the First Amendment as a tool to help achieve ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.

Suffrage activists faced organized opposition from groups such as the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, which published this pamphlet.

Should the government publicly scrutinize an individual's political speech and actions, if the person belongs to an organization that may have ties to foreign enemies?

Students use examples from the pro- and anti-suffrage movements to dissect the persuasive techniques used to shape public opinion then and now.

Martin Luther King Jr. planned the Poor People's Campaign to lobby for fair wages for all working people.

Students analyze an exchange of “open letters” between abolitionist and editor Horace Greeley and President Abraham Lincoln over slavery in the Union.

After Castro leads a revolution to oust Gen. Fulgencio Batista, Time magazine ponders the future of the island nation under new leadership.

Students watch and discuss a Newseum-produced documentary about the role of the First Amendment freedoms in the civil rights movement and in protests today.

This lesson can be used with any of the case studies in our Free Speech Essentials EDCollection.