Alabama Social Studies SS24.5.2b
The Standard
- SS24.5.2
- Describe Progressive Era political reforms in both the United States and Alabama.
Describe how the Populist Movement influenced the creation of the 1901 Alabama Constitution and explain the effects of its adoption, including disenfranchisement of voters through literacy tests and poll taxes that affected both Black and white male small farmers and laborers.
2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain how Populist support among small farmers and laborers challenged Alabama's ruling Democrats. They trace how the 1901 constitution used literacy tests and poll taxes to keep many Black men and poorer white men from voting.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can connect the Populist challenge to leaders' efforts to limit voting. They can explain how a poll tax or literacy test could keep a Black or white male farmer or laborer from voting.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think Populists wrote the constitution or that the voting rules affected only Black men. Some assume literacy tests were applied fairly, rather than used to exclude voters.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Why did Alabama leaders change voting rules in 1901? Name two rules and explain who could lose the vote.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs printed voter profiles and voting-rule cards; have them mark who might lose access to the ballot and explain why.
Ask, 'Why would leaders worried about Populist votes support rules that also barred some white farmers?' Have students write two sentences.
Give groups four shuffled cards labeled Populist challenge, constitution, voting barriers, and lost voters; have them sequence the cards and explain each link.
Show a current Alabama voter registration form beside a description of the 1901 poll tax; ask which required payment to vote.
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Related Standards
- SS24.4.16a
Describe how industry, trade, farming, and the rise of Populism changed Alabama after the Civil War and shaped its economy and communities in the late 1800s.
- SS24.4.16
Describe how political and social changes of the late 1870s to 1900 affected Black and white Alabamians, including the introduction of Jim Crow laws, sharecropp...
- SS24.US1.19b
Summarize political and social motives that influenced the writing of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, and explain its effect on politics and economics in A...
- SS24.AS.18
Summarize the creation and composition of the Alabama Constitution of 1901 and formulate an argument for constitutional reform in Alabama.
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