As the presidential primary approaches, use these five Retro Report videos to introduce your students to discriminatory practices that have resulted in voter suppression.
These five documentaries, all under 15 minutes, have accompanying classroom resources. Use them to help students explore issues faced by voters in the past and today.
Voter Suppression and Disenfranchisement
Poll Watchers and the Long History of Voter Intimidation
Poll watchers – observers who can report voting problems to local officials – operate under strict rules. In the 2020 campaign, President Trump’s call for his supporters to guard polling places during the election raised concerns about the potential for voter intimidation.
How Geography Drove M.L.K.’s Fight for a Ferry in Alabama
In April 1965, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. urged residents of Gee’s Bend, Ala., to vote, fueling a continuing fight over a small ferry there. Removal of the ferry isolated a Black community. Earl Hilliard, the first Black American to be elected in Alabama since Reconstruction, took office in the 1990s and was able to bring the ferry back to Gee’s Bend, but has much really changed?
How Black Women Fought Racism and Sexism for the Right to Vote
For decades after the 19th Amendment was ratified, Black women faced obstacles to voting. The 1965 Voting Rights Act outlawed many of those barriers, but some remain.
Gerrymandering Tilts Political Power. Here’s How Redistricting Affects Democracy
Courts are beginning to intervene in redistricting debates, but it is unclear where and how they are drawing the line. How did gerrymandering emerge? What does the future hold?
Bush v. Gore: How a Recount Dispute Affects Voting Today
The presidential race pitting George Bush against Al Gore and its aftermath uncovered flaws within the electoral process. Over the next few years, reforms were put in place.
We have over 50 additional documentaries related to civics and elections to prepare your students for the 2024 presidential race.
DAGMAR ROTHSCHILD is an education intern at Retro Report. She is an undergraduate at Georgetown, studying International Relations.
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