4.3 Civil Rights Visual Timeline Assignment
In this section, you have been reading about the advancement of civil rights since the end of World War II. For this assignment, you will be creating a visual timeline for this era in which you look at what stayed relatively continuous during this time and what changed. You will tie these changes to the events that took place.
Step 1
Open this worksheet. To complete this assignment, you will have to identify three civil rights conditions that remained continuous from 1945-2000 and three conditions that changed. You will also need to identify three events that caused the change or were associated with it. Keep in mind that the conditions that were continuous are likely quite different from those that changed.
Criteria for an important change:
- Substantial effect: Dramatic difference in the way things function
- Relatively permanent: Lasting condition or development
- Widespread: Effects are broadly felt across society/time period
Criteria for an important constant:
- No substantial deviation: Little or no difference in the way things function
- Important aspects: The similarities are found in significant aspects of life
- Widespread: Similarities are broadly present across society/time period
Consider the following statements about continuity and change from The Historical Thinking Project.
There were lots of things going on at any one time in the past. Some changed rapidly while others remained relatively continuous. The decade of the 1910s in Canada, for instance, saw profound change in many aspects of life, but not much change in its forms of government.
One of the keys to continuity and change is looking for change where common sense suggests that there has been none and looking for continuities where we assumed that there was change. Judgments of continuity and change can be made on the basis of comparisons between some point in the past and the present, or between two points in the past, such as before and after Confederation in Canada.
For example, you might consider which political situations regarding civil rights were continuous and which changed. You can also think of economic equality or social norms. You can watch this video below to help you better grasp the concept.
Step 2
Fill in the worksheet. Then create your visual timeline of civil rights. You can do this as a physical poster or as a digital display.
Your timeline will have two sides with at least three images representing continuity on the left and at least three representing change on the right. It must have a title at the top.
Here is an example: Imagine that someone was doing this timeline for the years 1900-1920 and imagine three examples on each side instead of one.
This student notes that the Chinese Head Tax was in place throughout this time period, which is a civil rights issue.
The student also notes that women were granted the right to vote in the Manitoba provincial election of 1916. The change that occurred during this time is that women were granted the right to vote throughout Canada in all elections (with an exception in Quebec).
Notice that the event is related to the change but has little or nothing to do with the continuity.
This is what it might look like on the collage.
Step 3
Write a statement of at least four sentences describing your collage. You will need to explain your choice of images as well as the rationale behind how you organized them. Provide the 5 Ws (who, what, where, when, why) to explain why your images illustrate the points you want to show.