Taking Ownership of the Law

• What makes democracy work? 
• How can individuals use the law to claim their rights within a democracy?

This lesson is designed to fit into one 50-minute class period and includes:

• 1 activity
• 1 audio
• 2 extension activities

As students listen to the 7-minute audio Ben Railton on the Freeman and Walker Cases , they can take notes on the following questions: 

• How does Professor Railton define democracy? 
• Who were Mum Bett and Quock Walker and what were they seeking in their legal cases? 
• What was impact did these court cases have in Massachusetts?

Discuss the audio recording using the following questions: 

• What stood out the most about the stories of Mum Bett and Quock Walker? Did anything about these stories surprise you?  
• What allowed Mum Bett and Quock Walker to sue for their freedom?
• How does Professor Railton use these stories to explain what makes democracy work? What do you think these stories reveal about what it takes to sustain and grow democracy? 
• In a healthy democracy, what relationship should individuals have to the law? 
• Professor Railton says that democracy works best when individuals lay claim to a nation’s laws and ideals to assert their own rights and freedoms. Can you think of other historical or contemporary examples, of people using the law to claim their rights? How might you apply Professor Railton’s insight to advance an issue that you care about?

Deepen your discussion of the Freeman and Walker cases using these sources, including historical overviews and related primary documents:

• An overview of the Mum Bett/Elizabeth Freeman case from the Massachusetts court system educator resource page
• A virtual exhibit about the life of Elizabeth Freeman at the Ashley House, the historic site where she was enslaved
• An overview of the Quock Walker case from the Massachusetts court system educator resource page 
• Text of Chief Justice Cushing’s instructions to the jury in the Quock Walker case

The resources below help students see how people have used the law and American ideals to claim greater rights and equality for themselves and their communities throughout United States history.

• The Lesson 9 entitled “Equality for All” in The Reconstruction Era and the Fragility of Democracy explores how several groups, including women, workers, African Americans, Chinese immigrants, and Native Americans attempted to claim their rights, and sometimes came into conflict with each other, in the 1870s.  
• Episode 2 from the film “Becoming American: The Chinese Experience” describes the way Chinese Americans challenged discrimination and tells the story of Wong Kim Ark, who won a legal victory before the Supreme Court to claim U.S. citizenship. See the segment from 16:30-30:00. Our companion study guide includes more historical context, documents and teaching ideas.
• The landmark legal decision in the Brown vs. the Board of Education case in 1954 was a pivotal moment when a coalition of civil rights groups effectively used the courts to overturn segregation in public schools. This story is told in the film The Road to Brown.