NC Working For Change

NC Working For Change

​The Greensboro 4

Suffrage for Women

In the late 1800s, some women began to work for suffrage, or the right to vote. By 1913, woman’s suffrage groups had formed in Morganton, Charlotte, and other North Carolina cities.

Multiple Choice

What is suffrage?

• the suppression of a vote

• voting how someone else wants you to

• voting for the first time

• the right to vote

After World War I, more people began to support suffrage for women. To give women the right to vote, the United States Congress introduced the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Gertrude Weil (WYL) was the president of North Carolina’s Equal Suffrage League. The league urged people to support the new amendment. State lawmakers, however, voted not to pass it.

Multiple Choice

What did the 19th amendment do?

• Gave all men the right to vote

• Gave women the right to vote

• Gave African American men the right to vote

• Gave children the right to vote

By August 1920, enough states had passed the amendment for it to become law. As a result, women across the United States could now vote in all elections. Later that year, Lillian Exum Clement of Buncombe County became the first woman elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives.

Improving Working Conditions

As businesses grew during the late 1800s, the demand for workers increased. In North Carolina, new workers were needed to run machines in mills and factories.

To save money, some businesses even hired children as workers. Factory work was noisy and dangerous. Children as well as other workers were sometimes injured by large machines in the factories and mills.

Open Ended

Why was having children work in factories dangerous?

In 1903, North Carolina passed its first child labor law. It stopped businesses from hiring children under the age of 12 during the school year. It also set limits on the number of hours children could work. In 1933, the federal government made all child labor against the law.

Multiple Choice

What did the national government pass laws

against in 1933?

• women's suffrage

• child labor

• labor unions

• segregation

Labor unions were also started during the late 1800s. A labor union is a group of workers who act together to get employers to listen to their demands. Labor unions helped many workers get better pay and a shorter workweek.

Multiple Choice

What do labor unions do?

• They help workers get employers to listen their demands

• They pay workers more then their employers

• They help workers find better jobs

• They take employees away from their jobs

Civil Rights

In the late 1800s, most southern states and some other states passed new segregation laws. Segregation is the practice of keeping people apart because of their race or culture.

Open Ended

What is segregation?

Segregation laws took away many of the civil rights African Americans had gained during Reconstruction. A civil right is a right given to all citizens by the Constitution. African Americans were not allowed to go to the same schools as white students. They could not go to the same movie theaters or to many other public places.

Multiple Choice

What are civil rights?

• Rights allowing others to take nicely to each other

• Rights given only to one group of people

• Rights given to all citizens by the Constitution

In 1954, the United States Supreme Court ruled that separate schools were against the law. One year later, three African American students were admitted to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Two years after that, North Carolina opened its public schools to all students.

Open Ended

List T of the effects of the Supreme Courts ruling that separate schools were against the law.

By the 1960s, many people had joined a larger Civil Rights movement. It was led in part by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He and other civil rights leaders led marches and peaceful protests to end segregation and get equal rights for all people.

Multiple Choice

Which of these people led protests to end segregation?

• Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Gertrude Weil

• Ellen S. Baker

• Lillian Exum Clement

On February 1, 1960, four African American college students went into a Woolworth store in Greensboro. They sat down at the lunch counter reserved for white customers. The store manager refused to serve them. The students said they would not go until they were served food. The next day, more African American students joined the “sit-in.” By the end of the week, there were hundreds of protesters at the lunch counter.

Six months later, the Woolworth company ended segregation at its lunch counters. People began holding similar protests throughout the South. In 1964, the United States government passed the Civil Rights Act. This law made segregation in public places illegal.

Open Ended

Describe how the Greensboro Four contributed to the end of segregation.

Multiple Choice

What was the name of the law that made segregation in public places illegal

• The Emancipation Proclamation

• The Civil Rights Act

• The Women's Suffrage Act

• The Fourteenth Amendment

The United States government also passed laws to protect the voting rights of African Americans. Since the 1960s, many other groups have worked to gain civil rights. These groups include American Indians, Hispanics, women, and people with disabilities.

Open Ended

Summarize:

Summarize how the people of North Carolina have fought for equal rights since the 1900s?