Analyze and explain ideas about liberty, equality, and justice in American society using documents such as in Reverend Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech and Letter from Birmingham City Jail (1963), and compare King’s ideas to those in such founding-era documents as the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776), the Declaration of Independence (1776), Massachusetts Declaration of Rights (1780), and the Federalist Papers (1788).
Students will identify and define ideas at the core of government and politics in the United States, interpret founding-era documents and events associated with the core ideas, and explain how commitment to these foundational ideas constitutes a common American history and civic identity. They will also analyze issues about the meaning and application of these core ideas to government, politics, and civic life, and demonstrate how citizens use these foundational ideas in civic and political life.