History 383 - Dr. Olson-Raymer

Wherever There's a Fight - Assignment on Library Display

The display created by the authors of our book Wherever There's a Fight is now available for viewing on the first floor of the Library. On or before Thursday, October 30, please take some time to go to the exhibit, carefully read all 11 of the panels, and then address the each of the questions posed below. The assignment is due in class on October 30 and is worth 30 points. In addressing these questions, you may use our book Wherever There's a Fight and any other reliable sources.

Panel #1: What if you couldn't vote?

• After reading the authors' definition of civil liberties, do you feel it conforms with your beliefs about civil liberties? If so, how and why? If not, how would you change the definition?

• Provide an example of a California initiative that expanded the rights of certain groups of Californians. Then, provide and example of an initiative that restricted or took away the rights of certain groups of Californians.
• Explain an issue for which you personally advocated. Or, explain an issue for which someone you admire advocated. What were the consequences of such advocacy?

• Find and explain an example of when an individual or group of Californians were denied their citizenship rights based upon ethnicity. Please do not use the Wong Kim Ark or Fred Korematsu examples from the panel.

Panel #4: Who is Free?

• Drawing upon what we learned in class about the efforts to make California a free state, how can you explain the continuation of slavery during California's early years in the Union?

Panel #5: Who can vote?

• Do you think it is important to vote in federal, state, and local elections? Why or why not? Are you more inclined to vote in federal elections or in state elections? Why? And local elections? Why?

Panel #6: Who can own land?

• What role, if any, do you think California's Alien Land Law may have played in FDR's decision to enact Executive Order 9066?

Panel #7: Who is called a criminal?

• Find a newspaper or magazine article about the practice of DWB - Driving While Black or Brown - in California. Be prepared to share its content and findings with your classmates. How and why is this practice discriminatory.

Panel #8: Can we dissent?

• Do you feel free to openly dissent in public about federal policies? About state policies? Explain your answer.

Panel #9: Who is free to practice their religion?

• Using the Internet, find out more information about the 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Gasquet-Orlean Road (the GO Road). How did the court's decision infringe upon the Yurok, Hoopa, and Karuk peoples freedom of religion?

Panel #10: Whose voices are censored?

• Find out what the Kern County Board of Supervisor's found to be so offensive that they were compelled to ban The Grapes of Wrath from their libraries. Do you think any of their objections justified such censorship? Why or why not?

Panel #11: Who can get a good education?

• Ask at least 3 friends and/or family members if they can ever remember a time in their/your hometown when the local schools were segregated. Explain their answers.

Panel #12: Whose rights are voted on?

• Conduct some brief research on the current court battle to overturn Proposition 8. If the case goes to the Supreme Court, do you think Prop 8 will be overturned? Why or why not?

Panel #13: How will you stand up for your rights?

• What civil liberties do you feel are currerntly at risk in the university community? In your home community? What might you be willing to do to change this?
• Create an overall theme for this exhibit.