Research Paper Draft

Outline

First paragraph
Quote (struggle)
Connecting sentence/s
Thesis statement - tells what
an essay is about

second paragraph (or more body paragraphs)

Topic sentence - tells what a
paragraph is about
support and evidence sentences
closing sentences

Closing paragraph
Reference to quote
any other sentences
restate thesis statement

sources
Do not forget to add your sources in the space provided.

First paragraph
Hook

Perhaps other text

Thesis statement

In 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King said, "We must have

our freedom now. We must have the right to vote. We
must have equal protection of the law." In the same year,
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights
Act in law. While this law represents major progress in
our democracy of voting, issues continue to arise, even
today.

The first Americans started voting in 1776, but these

voters were only white, Christian (not Catholic) men who
owned land or a home. By 1869, all men secured the
right to vote, but women waited another 50 years.
Although more people were given the right to vote, in
order to actually register to vote, a person had to be a
citizen. Between 1778 and 1948, various groups
challenged who could be considered a citizen. Major
victory occurred in 1965 with the Voting Rights Act. It
finally seemed that equality had won.

Unfortunately, only a few years ago, more issues began to arise causing concerns
about inequalities in the voting process. In 2011, Southern States like Texas, South
Carolina and Florida changed their voter registration laws, such as requiring photo ID
or a literacy test. In 2014, a Texas challenge went to the Supreme Court, which
upheld the new ID requirement. Judge Ginsberg dissented, writing A sharply
disproportionate percentage of those voters are African-American or Hispanic, she
added. In North Carolina, 94-year Rosanelle Eaton, is fighting her states literacy test
and photo ID requirements. As an African-American woman who lived through the Jim
Crow era, she feels that the current movement is a move back towards this racially
unjust time.

Closing Paragraph
Thesis statement

Refer to hook

Certainly, major progress has been made from the

first vote when only a small minority of men could vote.
However, the right to vote is a right that American
citizens cannot take for granted. Dr. King lived long
enough to see the Voting Rights Act signed into
legislation, but if he were alive today, he would be
marching for voter registration equality.