History Day - Rights & Responsibilities

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Rights & Responsibilities

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Topic Ideas

Possible Topics

These are a few topics that you might consider focusing into a History Day Project. See sub-pages for subjects and a few suggested resources to get you started.

  • Monuments - honoring past, caring for present. Honest representation.
  • Education
    • Sheff v O'Neill - see below
    • Prudence Crandall - see below
    • Brown v Board of Education
    • Special Education
      • ADA, IDEA
  • Housing
    • Redlining - see below
  • Human Rights
    • Capital Punishment
    • medical care
  • Draft, Conscription
    • Conscientious Objectors , peace
    • Selective Training and Service Act of 1940
  • Indigenous peoples
    • Federal/State Recognition
    • First contact
  • Animal Rights
  • Property Rights
    • Eminent Domain
    • Smith Sisters
    • Women and marriage rights
  • Medical
    • human experimentation
    • informed consent
    • reproductive rights
      • Griswold v Connecticut
      • Roe v Wade
      • Dobbs
    • National/universal healthcare
  • Religion
    • Quakers in colonial CT
  • Civil Rights
    • voting rights
      • African American suffrage
      • Woman's Suffrage - see below
      • gerrymandering
    • segregation
      • Sheff v O'Neill - see below
      • redlining - see below
  • Prohibition & Temperance Movement
  • WWII
    • internment of Japanese-Americans and Native Alaskans
  • Reproductive Rights
    • Marriage property rights
    • pre-quickening common  law
    • Griswold v Connecticut
      •  381 U.S. 479 (1965)
        • 381 U.S. 479 ; 85 S. Ct. 1678; 14 L. Ed. 2d 510; 1965 U.S. LEXIS 2282
      • right to marital privacy and the limitation of family size
    • Roe v Wade
      • 410 U.S. 113 (1973)
    • Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, 579 U.S. 582 (2016)
      • The decision in Hellerstedt was overruled when the Supreme Court repudiated Roe v. Wade and the court-created right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215 (2022).
    • Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization 
      • 597 U.S. 215 (2022)
    • Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992)
    • 1821 Ct Law 

Books, Reports, Documents, etc.

Articles, Newspapers

Databases

These are a few examples. For a full list, see:

  • Encyclopedia of American Immigration
    • Remote access with CT State Library card

    Covers U.S. immigration history from the earliest colonial settlements to the present.

  • Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) (HeinOnline)
    • Remote access with CT State Library card

    This HeinOnline database presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity.

  • Gun Regulation and Legislation in America
    • Remote access with CT State Library card

    This new HeinOnline collection brings together more than 500 titles dealing with this difficult and important topic. Included are periodicals, key compiled federal legislative histories, relevant congressional hearings, CRS Reports, Supreme Court briefs, and more. Links to nearly 500 scholarly articles, an extensive bibliography, and a balanced selection of external resources to further research this subject are also provided. Research the National Firearms Act, the Miller and Heller decisions, and other key aspects of this subject.

  • Intellectual Property Law Collection (HeinOnline)
    • Remote access with CT State Library card

    With millions of pages of legislative histories, treatises, documents, classics, and more relating to copyrights, patents, and trademarks, this collection allows researchers to search across all intellectual property law materials in one database.

  • Judges and the Judiciary: Exploring America's Court System (HeinOnline)
    • Remote access with CT State Library card

    This HeinOnline database focuses on the structure, creation, actions, and oversight of the courts both at the state and federal level.

  • ProQuest Congressional
    • Remote access with CT State Library card

    Comprehensive index and selected full-text source for Congressional publications. Coverage: 1819-

  • Terminology & Usage Disclaimer

    Please be advised that some of these resources--particularly those created in previous eras--contain descriptions for ancestral, racial, ethnic, and gender identity that may be offensive or harmful to individuals investigating these records, and are considered inappropriate to use in modern times. The descriptions and treatment of historically marginalized groups, women, and animals may be upsetting. Also, please note that inclusion in this subject guide does not necessarily constitute endorsement of the views therein--we encourage investigators to use their own judgment when evaluating books, websites, articles, documents, and other resources.

    Woman Suffrage

    Woman Suffrage

    1920 saw the passage of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote.

    For resources see:

    Prudence Crandall

    Prudence Crandall

    Prudence Crandall opened the Canterbury Female Boarding School, a school for girls and allowed girls of color to attend, thus creating what is believed to be the first integrated classroom. When White parents withdrew their children, Crandall decided to make the school for African American girls. For this she was arrested and brought to court.

    For legal resources, see https://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/hg/africanamerican/crandall

    Betty Hudson - Women and LGBTQ+ Rights

    The Connecticut State Library has a unique collection pertaining to the long struggle for LGBTQ rights in Connecticut: the Betty Hudson Papers, RG 069:175. Betty Hudson (1931-2016) was a politician and activist who was Connecticut’s first female state senator in the 1970s. Hudson championed both women’s and LGBTQ rights during her tenure in office. Among her accomplishments was introducing a bill guaranteeing equal rights to gay people, which, while it did not become law, was the first LGBTQ rights bill to pass any legislative chamber in the United States. After her time in office ended, Hudson lived in Simsbury with her long-time friend and companion, Fran Roberts. She passed away in 2016.

    This collection contains both political and personal papers, including legislative records, photographs, publications, and more.

    Sheff v. O'Neill

    Sheff v. O'Neill

    1989 lawsuit that lead to 1996 Connecticut Supreme Court case. Sheff v. O'Neill, 238 Conn. 1, 678 A.2d 1267. Settlement approved Jan. 10, 2020.

    Elizabeth Horton Sheff filed on behalf of her son, Milo Sheff lead plaintiff (of 18 Hartford area school children), suing the State of Connecticut, constitutionally elected officials, including Gov. William A. O'Neill, and others from various state commissions and agencies.

    See https://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/historyday/Sheff-v-ONeill

    Redlining and Housing Discrimination in Connecticut

    Redlining and Housing Discrimination in Connecticut

    Redlining gets its name from "residential security" maps drawn by agents of the Home Owners Loan Corporation, a federal agency, between 1933 and 1940. On these maps neighborhoods would be grouped into four color-coded categories, with highly desirable neighborhoods shaded green and the least desirable neighborhoods shaded red.

    See our guide:

    Capital Punishment - Death Penalty

    The right to live or die, the to avoid cruel and unusual punishment.

    For legal resources, see our research guide:

    Constitutions

    In the U.S., rights and responsibilities are granted by state and federal constitutions.

    See our research guides:

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