Breaking Barriers to Represent

This collection looks at how the United States Congress began to undergo formidable changes after the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment.  African Americans for the first time served in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.  However this did not last.  With the end of Reconstruction, the U.S. Congress would return to a governing body that consisted of white men.  This did not and still does not represent the population of the United States of America.  

Essential Questions: 

-How did African Americans lead the way for more diversity in the United States Congress? 

-Should the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate mirror the population of the United States to be truly representative

-For a true democracy,  does the government need to be reflective of it's people? 

-How does the diversity of law makers impact the legislation that is created/supported?

- How does the lack of diversity of law makers impact the types of law created to protect the rights of marginalized Americans?

This collections allows students to attend to the following Essential Standard: 

-Students will apply social science skills to describe the impact of Reconstruction on the North and South with a focus on the effects of federal government policies on formerly enslaved people

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