Becoming Equal Under the Law Viewing Guide

Becoming Equal Under the Law Preview Questions

1. What does it mean to be equal under the law in the United States of America?

2. Why has equality been a process rather than a singular event?

3. Why is there still a debate about equality in the United States today? Can you think of

instances where not everyone is equal under the law?

4. What is the difference between "equality of opportunity" and "equality of outcome?"

5. How can you make sure all people are treated equally?

Becoming Equal Under the Law Viewing Guide

1. All men are created __________. They are endowed by their Creator with certain ______________________ ____________. To secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the ______________ of the governed.

2. Of the 55 delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, almost ________ of them owned ____________ at some point in their lives.

3. Jefferson calls slavery a __________ __________________.

4. The Founders do not foresee the ____________ ______. They do not foresee the ____________ ______________.

5. __________________________ had abolished slavery by the time of the Constitutional Convention.

6. ______________________ hold the White House for 50 of the first 72 years of the Republic.

7. __________________ territory is free soil. No ______________.

8. The Supreme Court ________________ a constitutional right to own slaves.

9. ____________ states secede from the Union.

10. The Civil War will settle two constitutional questions: __________________ and ______________.

11. The ________ __________________ abolishes slavery forever and is quickly followed by the ________ __________________ & ________ __________________ to guarantee equal rights to all Americans and the right of black men to vote.

12. No __________ shall deny to any person in its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

13. Southern state legislatures nullified the rights of freedmen with a sweeping set of laws known as __________ __________.

14. If you had ______ ________ of African blood in you, you were mixed race.

15. One Justice __________________: John Marshall Harlan.

16. War makes Americans think differently about ______________ and ________________.

17. Equality under the law means that no group can be treated ______________________.