Legislation Legacy

1.     CheckPoint: Legislation Legacy

·         Resource: National Congress of American Indians Web site http://www.ncai.org and the Indian Country Today Web site at http://www.indiancountry.com

·         Post a 200- to 300-word summary of a current issue between Native Americans and the federal government. Identify the legislation that you think is linked to the issue, and explain why you think there is a connection. Consult the National Congress of American Indians Web site, the Indian Country Today newspaper, or another online source for examples of pertinent issues.

            There has been a big gap in what the American Indians want and what the government thinks they need.  The American Indians have been ruled by the Federal Government and not allowed some basic cultural necessities.  There is a need for better communication and more effective policies in place to allow the Tribal Nations to govern themselves. 

            The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) president Jefferson Keel has been working to improve coordination with the Indian Tribal Governments.  According to the NCAI website on November 5^th, 2009 President Keel met with President Obama in the first annual White House Tribal Nations Conference where Obama said to every Cabinet agency he wanted a detailed plan within the next ninety days on how to implement his Executive Order 13175 which outlines the Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Governments. 

            This order will give power back to the Indian tribes for self-government.  The order will give the Indian tribes power to develop their own policies, honor tribal treaties, grant them the maximum administrative discretion possible, defer to the tribes to establish standards, and will consult with the tribal officials on what is needed for federal standards. 

            This is a major step in giving the American Indians back what was taken from them so many years ago.  

Leaders and Legislation of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements

1.     CheckPoint: Leaders and Legislation of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements

·         Research Ch. 7 of the text and Appendix C to identify events and leaders of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements and their contributions to their respective causes.

·         Complete both Parts I and II of Appendix C.

·         Post the completed Appendix C as an attachment.

Axia College Material

Appendix C

Leaders and Legislation of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements

Identify leaders of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements and their contributions to their respective causes. How did these social pioneers forge the way for this important ratification? What legislation was relevant during these critical times?

Part I

Complete the following matrix by identifying 7 to 10 leaders or legislative events from both the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. The first leader is provided as a model.

Leader and Associated Legislation, if any	Date(s)	Organization and/or Cause	Contribution
A. Philip Randolph	1941	Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, which fought Discrimination	His threat to march on Washington to protest discriminatory treatment caused former President Franklin D. Roosevelt to react with new policies on job discrimination.
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks	1955	Called the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement and secretary of the Montgomery NAACP chapter	She set in motion a case for desegregation of public transportation and boycott of the Montgomery buses by her refusal and subsequent arrest for not giving up her seat on the bus.
Martin Luther King Jr	1968	Civil Rights Leader	He was a huge spokesperson for the Civil Rights movement and preached nonviolent methods of protest, but his assassination, is probably had the biggest impact on Civil Rights.
Malcolm X	1952	Civil Rights Leader and ex-member of the NOI	Upon his release from Prison he joined NOI and became a prominent figurehead for civil rights.
Stokely Carmichael	1966	Head of the SNCC	He popularized the term “Black Power”
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale	1966	Founders of the BPP	Founded Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964	1964		Legislation that extended voting rights and outlawing racial segregation in schools, workplaces and general public
Brown vs Board of Education	1954		Oliver Brown filed a class action suit against Topeka’s Board of Education to reverse its policy of racial segregation.  The Supreme court made precedent by ruling in favor of Brown.

Part II

Once you complete the matrix, use the space below to write a 75- to 100-word response describing the role civil disobedience played in the Civil Rights Movement.

            While violence is never the answer in any situation, sometimes the threat or some level of disobedience must be achieved to get individuals to rise up and care about an unjust situation.  Groups have more power than individuals to affect change.  Civil disobedience can cause change when change is sorely needed.   These individuals and these events show a respectable level of civil disobedience that was needed to affect change in the name of equality and fairness.  Without these events these changes may have taken several more decades to achieve if at all.