Today's lesson included instruction on the Constitutional basis for suffrage. I discussed how universal suffrage was not a goal of the Founding Fathers who framed the Constitution so that only white men could vote and only directly for members of the House not for the Senate or the president. I then reviewed all of the constitutional amendments that provided voting rights to African Americans, women, Indians, and citizens over the age of 18 . I further discussed the importance of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the act's evisceration in the case of Shelby v Holder. Last, I defined the models of voting participation: rational, retrospective, prospective and party line,