1) Equality means everyone being treated the same way with equal rights and opportunities in life, regardless of attributes like gender, religion, or race. 2) Throughout history, groups like the Suffragettes and leaders in the American Civil Rights Movement have campaigned against inequality and discrimination to gain equal rights. 3) While laws have changed to promote equality, some people still experience inequality today for various reasons. Current movements like Black Lives Matter continue working to ensure equality for all.

1. What does Equality mean?

2. Glossary
• Campaign – to work in an organised and active way towards a particular goal.
• Right – something which everyone can have by law. For example: every child has
a right to an education.
• Act – a law passed by the government.
• Racism – unfair treatment of someone based on the colour of their skin or the
country they are from.
• A movement – a change made by a group of people.
• Abolish – to put an end to something permanently.
• Protest – to express that you are against something.
• Discrimination – unfair negative treatment of a person or group of people.

3. Equality – what does it mean?
Equality means everyone, no matter who they
are, being treated the same way with equal rights
and opportunities in life. The opposite of equality
is inequality. People can experience inequality for
reasons such as gender, religion and race.

4. Equality – what does it mean?
Think of a time when either you or someone you
know may have experienced inequality. What
happened? How did it make you/that person
feel? Discuss this with a partner/someone at
home.

5. Who has campaigned for equality in the past?
Throughout history, people have had to campaign in
order to gain equality. On the following slides there are
examples of some of these people, who you may have
learnt about in history lessons.

6. The Suffragettes
The Suffragettes were a group
of women who campaigned for
voting equality so that women
could have the right to vote.
Before 1918, all women were
not allowed to vote in
elections.
Suffragettes on a protest in
Britain

7. The Suffragettes
The leader of the
Suffragettes in Britain was
Emmeline Pankhurst. As so
many people were against
the women’s right to vote,
Emmeline was often
arrested and spent time in
prison for what she
believed in.

8. The Suffragettes
In 1918 the Representation of the
People Act was passed which
allowed women over the age of 30
who owned a certain amount of
property to vote. Although 8.5
million women met this criteria, it
was only about two-thirds of the
total population of women in the
UK. If this law was passed today it
would mean that many of your
teachers or parents would still not
be able to vote!
These special edition 50p coins were issued in
2018 to commemorate 100 years since the
Representation of the People Act in 1918.

9. The Suffragettes
It was not until 1928 that
women over 21 were able
to vote and women finally
achieved the same voting
rights as men. This
increased the number of
women eligible to vote to
15 million. Today anyone
aged 18 or above can vote
in any election.
A poster from the suffragette
movement.

10. American Civil Rights Movement
Slavery in America was abolished in
1865, but black Americans still did not
have equality and were treated
unfairly and often with violence due to
the colour of their skin.
Facilities for black and white people
had to be 'separate but equal'. In
reality, black people’s facilities were
almost always worse than that of
white people’s. Keeping people
separate like this is called segregation. People protesting in America for
integrated housing and education.

11. American Civil Rights Movement
In the 1950s and 1960s the
Civil Rights Movement –
led by Martin Luther King
Jr – campaigned against
racial inequality in
America.Martin Luther King Jr giving his famous ‘I have a dream’
speech in 1963. You can listen to it in full here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP4iY1TtS3s

12. American Civil Rights Movement
Rosa Parks was an important
figure in the American Civil
Rights Movement. Due to
segregation laws black people in
America were required to sit at
the back of buses and had to
give up their seats to white
people. Rosa Parks is famous for
refusing to give up her seat on a
bus in America in 1955. This
helped lead to the end of
segregation on public transport.

13. American Civil Rights Movement
Due to the campaigning of the Civil
Rights Movements many laws
changed such as:
• The Civil Rights Act (1964)
outlawed segregation in
schools, public places or jobs.
• The Voting Rights Act (1965)
gave all black people the right to
vote.
• The Fair Housing Act (1968)
banned discrimination in
housing.

14. What does equality look like today?
Whilst there has been lots of progress across the world to
ensure equality for all, there are many people who are still
experiencing inequality. Why do you think this might be?
Discuss this with a partner/someone at home.

15. Black Lives Matter
Recently there have been many protests across the world for Black
Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter is an international human rights
movement, set up by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi in
2013. It campaigns against violence and racism towards black people.
From left to right: Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, and Patrisse Cullors

16. Black Lives Matter – why isn’t it ALL lives?
Lots of people might find the name Black Lives Matter confusing as it
says ‘black lives’ and not ‘all lives’. Black Lives Matter does not mean
other people’s lives do not matter as much as a black person’s. Instead,
the name means that it is important to make sure that black people’s
lives matter TOO – equally with anyone else’s.
The actor John Boyega, who appears in the
Star Wars films recently gave a speech at a
Black Lives Matter protest. He talked about the
racism he has experienced as a British black
person.

17. What does equality mean to you?
Thinking about the issues we have discussed, you are going to create a
poster about equality and what it means to you. Make your poster bright
and interesting. If you can, take a photograph of your poster and upload it to
DB Primary.