The purpose of this unit is to analyze the different ways that race and law have operated over the course of American history. The unit is designed to be implemented in a United States History course, but can also be used in a Civics classroom as a way of understanding the function of the law. The unit compromises of three main case studies 1) Racial Formation of Legal Code in Colonial America with the specific focus on the aims and goals of the Naturalization Law of 1790 2) The Prerequisite Cases of the 1920s and finally, 3)Anti-Miscegenation Cases and Racial Categories at the time of the Eugenics Movement in the 1930s and 40s. The purpose of weaving these different historical time periods together is to help students reshape the ways in which they look at the law and more importantly understand how race and law have worked together to shape the world in which we live. The different case studies can be introduced individually or used in a thematic manner.
The curriculum unit operates on the analysis of four essential questions that should be posed to students 1) How has race worked to construct law? And vice versa 2) Can the law truly be neutral? 3) What is the function of the law in our society? 4) How were the scientific and cultural understandings of race cemented and legitimized through the instrument of legal code?
The curriculum unit is divided into two parts 1) Strategies for teaching race in the United States History curriculum in meaningful ways and introducing new strategies to be utilized that can be applied outside of the focus area of the lesson and 2) The application of these strategies into tangible lessons based on the former case studies mentioned. For effective and optimal use of the curriculum, educators must analyze the strategies in which they use in the classroom, without such, the unit lacks in purpose and real reshaping of the discourse and direction in the classroom.
Throughout this unit, I will be focusing on how to teach race and law throughout United States history as a means of analyzing how race and ideas race can form on a systematic basis over time. However, the underlying goals of this unit will be to provide strategies and vocabulary to approach race in the classroom. I want to be transparent and vulnerable in stating that this curriculum will not magically cure racism or provide the perfect lesson plans to completely cure race relations within your classroom, let alone the nation. No lesson plan can. It is important for all of us to recognize that the implementation of any effective strategies surrounding teaching race in the classroom will require all parties involved to deconstruct and relearn and reshape the ways in which we view race in America and a deeper global context. It will require consistent analysis and unpack their own colonial scripts in which we all have been provided as a means to understanding the world around us.