The Struggle over Women’s Rights

Lesson Plan

Activity 1: Provide Background about the Racial Divide over Voting Rights during the Reconstruction Era

Begin the lesson by sharing that in today’s class, students will continue to explore the struggle to establish an interracial democracy during the Reconstruction era. Tell students that in this lesson, they will be examining one aspect of this history: the divide that occurred within the women’s rights movement over passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

Share the video The Racial Divide in the Women’s Suffrage Movement (see Teaching Note 1 for information about racist language in the video). Have students watch the video and pause at the following time stamps to check for understanding using the questions below: 

• What social movement gave rise to the women’s suffrage movement in the United States? (0:35)
• Why did the Fifteenth Amendment create conflict within the women’s suffrage movement? (2:20)
• How did the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment shape the perspectives of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony? What impact did it have on the women’s suffrage movement? (4:17)

Activity 2: Read a Speech from Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Tell them that in this class period they will be reading an excerpt of an 1866 speech from an African American activist named Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. To provide background for the speech for students, share some details about Watkins Harper from the context section of this lesson. Make sure that students understand that she was a suffragist who sided with Frederick Douglass in the debate over the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, supporting the passage of these amendments despite the fact that they left women’s suffrage off the table. 

Pass out Speech by Frances Watkins Harper: “We Are All Bound Up Together” and read it aloud as a class, and have students annotate the text using the following key: 

• Write an exclamation mark (!) in the margin alongside information that surprises you.
• Write a question mark (?) alongside passages in which the author assumes you know something you don’t. 
• Write a “C” in the margin alongside information that challenges your thinking. 

When students have finished reading and annotating, ask them to go back to the text and underline one word or phrase that resonates with them or that they would like to discuss with a classmate. In a Think, Pair, Share, have students share with a partner the phrase they selected, and discuss why it resonated with them. Then have partners discuss the text-dependent questions that appear on the handout.

To give students a sense of how their classmates are responding to the speech, ask volunteers to share the phrases they selected with the class or, time permitting, have every student share in a Wraparound. Then discuss some or all of the following questions as a class: 

• What insights does Watkins Harper provide about the challenges for achieving equality during the Reconstruction era? 
• How do you think her position as a Black woman in the United States informed her ideas? What unique perspectives did she bring to the discussion about African American rights? Women’s rights?   
• What insights can you take away from this lesson about the challenge of building inclusive social movements? How do you think those challenges can be addressed?