In this lesson, students will analyze a photograph of people protesting what they see as an unjust law: A law prohibiting marriage equality in California. This lesson is part of the Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice [1] series.
Objectives
Activities will help students:
Essential Questions
Introduction
Equality is one of the ideals on which the United States is
based. Unfortunately, the country—and its laws—has not always lived up to that
ideal. The tension was evident in the Constitution itself, when Northern and
Southern states agreed to do nothing about slavery and to count each African
American slave as 3/5 of a person for purposes of representation and taxation.
Such injustices, are seen by many as unjust laws. Over the course of U.S.
history, Americans have protested against such legal injustices in an effort to
move the country toward fully embodying the ideals on which it was based.
Activities
1. (Note: Write “unjust law” on the board. Provide
an explanation of the term. You may want to read the first paragraph of the
introduction.) With a partner, restate in your own words the explanation of
“unjust law.” Then brainstorm examples of such laws based on your knowledge of
U.S. history.
2. What do you know about California’s Proposition 8? Read about it here [2] or here [3]. How might Proposition 8 be an example of an unjust law? After you have thought about the question, share your answer with a partner. Then report your responses to the class. (Note: Call on student pairs randomly.)
3. With this understanding of unjust laws and Proposition 8, look at photograph A.
Photo A: Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images. Click here [4] for caption.
Write answers to the following questions:
Share your answers with your partner. Add any new insights you have gained in the conversation to your initial answers.
4. Photographers and their editors make decisions about how to crop photos before those photos go public. Cropping is “the act of cutting away unnecessary or unwanted portions of an image to help focus the viewers attention and help tell a story [5].” With your partner, take a piece of paper and try “cropping”—that is, redefining the edges of—the photograph different ways. How does each different way of defining the photo’s edges change your answers to the questions above? Be sure that one of the ways you crop the photo is only including a single person, rather than a group.
5. With your partner, find at least two photographs from a movement—past or present—against unjust laws. Try to find photographs that express different opinions about the protest—one that shows the protest in a sympathetic light and another that shows it in an unsympathetic light. Write captions for the photos. In the captions, explain what it is about the photograph that makes you think it either supports or opposes a particular view. Display photos around the classroom.
Extension Activity
1. Photograph B comes from an effort to combat another
instance of what many see as an unjust law. In 2011, the Wisconsin legislature
considered (and ultimately passed) a law that stripped state employees of their
right to collective bargaining. In other words, the law limited employees’
rights. The right to bargain collectively was officially endorsed by the
federal government in 1935, with passage of the Wagner
Act [6], so the Wisconsin legislation led to large-scale protests in the state
capital. You can read about the protests here [7].
Photo B: AP Photo/Andy Manis. Click here [8] for caption.
With your partner, look at Photograph B, and answer these questions:
2. Try the cropping exercise again. How would cropping the photo in different ways change your feelings about the man and the injustice he is protesting? Since this photo is just of one person, imagine that this person is among the people in a group shot, similar to Photograph A. How would his placement in such a photo affect you as a viewer? Would it show the protests in a more positive light? A more negative light? Neither? Why do you think so?
Links:
[1] http://www.tolerance.org/activity/using-photographs-teach-social-justice
[2] http://www.gaylife.org/proposition-8/
[3] http://www.afer.org/our-work/our-arguments/
[4] http://www.tolerance.org/supplement/prop-8
[5] http://www.caddpower.com/cms/croppingpictellsstory.htm
[6] http://www.civics-online.org/library/formatted/texts/wagner_act.html
[7] http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/26/us-wisconsin-protests-idUSTRE71O4F420110226
[8] http://www.tolerance.org/supplement/shawn-petts