Welcome to The Dirksen Congressional Center's Communicator–a web-based e-newsletter providing educators with news and ideas to improve the understanding of Congress: http://www.webcommunicator.org

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

* GRANTS: CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH AWARDS *

1. People Who Served in Congress
2. Congress Defined
3. *New* Elect Me! Creating a Campaign Platform and Advertisement
4. *New* Black Americans in Congress
5. *New* Resources
6. *New* Editorial Cartoons
7. *New* It’s My Party, Getting Ready To Vote, & Trivia
8. *New* Complete Convention Coverage & Your Turn: Ask a Candidate
9. Postscript Information

1. PEOPLE WHO SERVED IN CONGRESS
   Sketches of famous and not-so-famous Senators and Representatives 

Hiram Revels (R-Mississippi)

A freedman his entire life, Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first African American to serve in the U.S. Congress.

REVELS, Hiram Rhodes, a Senator from Mississippi; born in Fayetteville, Cumberland County, N.C., on September 27, 1827; attended Beech Grove Quaker Seminary in Liberty, Ind., Darke County Seminary in Ohio, and Knox College, Galesburg, Ill.; barber; ordained a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church at Baltimore, Md., in 1845; carried on religious work in Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri; accepted a pastorate in Baltimore, Md., in 1860; at the outbreak of the Civil War assisted in recruiting two regiments of African American troops in Maryland; served in Vicksburg, Miss., as chaplain of a Negro regiment, and organized African American churches in that State; established a school for freedmen in St. Louis, Mo., in 1863; after the war, served in churches in Kansas, Kentucky and Louisiana before settling in Natchez, Miss., in 1866; elected alderman in 1868; member, Mississippi State senate 1870; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate; presented his credentials upon the readmission of Mississippi to representation on February 23, 1870; took the oath of office on February 25, 1870, after the Senate resolved a challenge to his credentials, and served from February 23, 1870 until March 3, 1871; first African American Senator; secretary of State ad interim of Mississippi in 1873; president of Alcorn University (formerly Oakland College), Rodney, Miss., 1876-1874, 1876-1882; moved to Holly Springs, Marshall County, Miss., and continued his religious work; editor, Southwestern Christian Advocate, official newspaper of A.M.E. Church 1876-1882; in retirement after 1882, taught theology at Shaw University, Holly Springs, Miss.; died from a paralytic stroke in Aberdeen, Miss., January 16, 1901; interment in Hill Crest Cemetery, Holly Springs, Miss.

Sources:

Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress:  http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=R000166.    

Black Americans in Congress at http://baic.house.gov/member-profiles/profile.html?intID=14.

2. CONGRESS DEFINED
   Words and phrases that describe congressional processes

Enacting Clause.  The opening language of each bill, beginning “Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled . . . “  This language gives legal force to measures approved by Congress and signed by the president or enacted over his veto.  A successful motion to strike the enacting clause from a bill kills the entire measure.

Source:

Congressional Quarterly, American Congressional Dictionary, 3rd ed. (Washington DC;  CQ Press, 2001):  89.

3. * NEW LESSON PLAN * ELECT ME! CREATING A CAMPAIGN PLATFORM AND ADVERTISEMENT

During our annual Congress in the Classroom® workshop –– http://www.dirksencenter.org/print_programs_CongressClassroom.htm –– participants are asked to introduce the lesson plans, resources, and techniques that have proven successful in teaching about Congress in their classrooms.  A 2008 participant, Jan Loyd, Cabot Junior High South, Cabot, AR, presented a lesson entitled, Elect Me! Creating a Campaign Platform and Advertisement.

Students will be a candidate for an election as a United States Representative or Senator in the upcoming election.  They will need to decide which party fits their political views best.  Next, they will plan and present a 3-5 minute campaign commercial about them as a candidate, their platform, and why the voters should vote for them.

Questions students should be able to answer prior to creating their campaign commercials:

1.     Which office are they running for and why?
2.     Which party fits their political views the best?
3.     Which platform and plank?
4.     Why are they better than other candidates?
5.     Which type of voter are they appealing to?
6.     How are they going to attract the voters’ attention?
7.     Which propaganda method will they use and why?

Find Elect Me! Creating a Campaign Platform and Advertisement at: http://www.congresslink.org/print_lp_electme.htm

4. * NEW * BLACK AMERICANS IN CONGRESS

Black Americans in Congress.
The Office of History and Preservation announces the publication of Black Americans in Congress, 1870–2007.  The volume contains biographical profiles on each of the 121 African Americans to serve in Congress from Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi and Representative Joseph Rainey of South Carolina in 1870, through the end of the first session of the 110th Congress. Contextual essays introduce four generations of Members, and 10 appendices provide information on a range of topics: African-Americans in Congress by state and by Congress; chairs of committees and subcommittees; and chairmen and chairwomen of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Black Americans in Congress is accompanied by a website -- http://baic.house.gov -- which features additional artifacts from the House Collection as well as lesson plans and classroom activities based on the book for students and teachers. Black Americans in Congress is available for sale through the Government Printing Office http://bookstore.gpo.gov/collections/ba-congress.jsp.

For more information about this and other House history projects, contact the Office of History and Preservation at (202) 226-1300 or visit http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/index.html.

Find more information about additional books in this series at: http://www.congresslink.org/print_teaching_onlinetexts.htm

5. * NEW * RESOURCES

Public Markup

This site opens bills to online, public review.  Users have the opportunity to comment on proposed bills before they are even introduced—or while they are pending—in Congress.

Find Public Markup at: http://www.aboutgovernment.org/print_uscongress.htm

They Had a Dream Too: Young Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement

This site is an 11th and 12th grade curriculum project and consists of a 28-minute film highlighting the achievement of a few of the thousands of young people who made a difference in the 1950s and 1960s when the struggle for civil rights reached its peak in the United States. The film includes interviews with people who as young adults helped changed their world.

The film also contains a component that educates students about civil rights struggles that have occurred since the 1960s and challenges young people to become leaders today. 

They Had a Dream Too: Young Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement is a project designed to assist educators, challenge and inspire students, and help build future leaders. 

Find They Had a Dream Too: Young Leaders of the Civil Rights Movementat: http://www.congresslink.org/civilrights/1963.htm#june – scroll down to June 19, 1963.

6. * NEW * EDITORIAL CARTOONS

The Dirksen Congressional Center recently announced the completion of the Editorial Cartoon Collection project: http://www.congresslink.org/cartoons/index.htm.

The editorial cartoons and related lesson plans from The Dirksen Center will teach students to identify issues, analyze symbols, acknowledge the need for background knowledge, recognize stereotypes and caricatures, think critically, and appreciate the role of irony and humor.

This month we have posted three new cartoons:

Caption: Congressional Republicans vs. the Kennedy Administration http://www.congresslink.org/cartoons/chron11-20.htm #12

Caption: Legislative Agenda http://www.congresslink.org/cartoons/chron11-20.htm #20

Caption: “Ev and Jerry Show” http://www.congresslink.org/cartoons/chron21-30.htm #26

7. * NEW * IT’S MY PARTY, GETTING READY TO VOTE, & TRIVIA

It’s My Party

Are you a Democrat, Republican, or Independent? Take the quiz to find out. Find It’s My Party at: http://www.congressforkids.net/games/Elections_politicalparties/2_politicalparties.htm

Getting Ready to Vote

Get a lesson plan for your class and bring the election into your classroom.  Find Getting Ready to Vote at: http://www.congressforkids.net/games/elections_voting/2_voting.htm

Are you a political junkie? Do you watch C-SPAN for hours at a time? Let's see how much you know about the major-party 2008 United States presidential candidates, both former and current!

Trivia:  Both major parties saw their fields of presidential contenders shrink in advance of the first nominating contests in 2008. Identify the correct chronological order of pre-2008 GOP drop-outs.

1. Jim Gilmore, Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo, Tommy Thompson
2. Tom Tancredo, Tommy Thompson, Duncan Hunter, Jim Gilmore, Sam Brownback
3. Jim Gilmore, Tommy Thompson, Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo, Duncan Hunter
4. Jim Gilmore, Tommy Thompson, Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo

*Find the answer in next month's issue.

Answer to September’s Fun, Facts, and Trivia: http://www.webcommunicator.org/classroomresources/funfactstrivia_ans0908.htm

8. * NEW * COMPLETE CONVENTION COVERAGE & YOUR TURN: ASK A CANDIDATE

Complete Convention Coverage

Have your students watch and read videos and speeches from the Democratic and GOP conventions.

Find Complete Convention Coverage at: http://www.congressforkids.net/games/Elections_convent_in/2_Elections_convent_in.htm

Your Turn: Ask a Candidate

Ever wanted the chance to sit down with the president?  Would you ask about immigration? Religion? Health Insurance? Their favorite ice cream flavors?

If you could meet the candidates, what question would you ask?  What would you want to tell them?

Ask your question and then explain why it’s important to you in the text box provided.

Find Your Turn: Ask a Candidate at: http://www.congressforkids.net/games/Elections_candidates/2_candidates.htm

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