In the United States, true equality has never existed. From the Declaration of Independence to modern times, the U.S. legal system has failed in any attempt at equality. The ideology of "all [men] are equal but some [men] are more equal than others" has been present throughout the history of the U.S. (Orwell). Inequality has always existed in the United States legal system and continues to exist today; however, the inequality presently in the system is not as blatant as what it once was, but the system has come to depend on inequality. Since the very beginning of a legal system in the United States, there has been inequality. The Declaration of Independence declared that "…all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…"(Jefferson). The reality of the Declaration of Independence was that all free, white, landowning men are created equal. Slavery continued in the U.S. for nearly ninety years after the Declaration, and black Americans still feel the sting of inequality. Women were also left out of "…all men are created equal…." The implied meaning of the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence is what the U.S. legal system has strived for and failed to grasp fully. After the establishment of independence in the United States, the development of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights ensued. The Bill of Rights was to establish the basic rights of every citizen of the United States, but failed to do so. The rights of white, male citizens were the only rights that were ensured by the Bill of Rights. The rights of blacks and the underprivileged were not even considered. The Fifth Amendment states, "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury…, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation" ("Constitution", Amendment V). These rights were often denied to those that were second class citizens or those people that were not even considered to be people, such as slaves. The rights ensured by the first ten amendments have been denied to some part of the population at any given time in American history. The denying of the basic rights established by the Bill of Rights is not limited to the any one amendment.... ... middle of paper ... ...aration of Independence". Encyclopedia Britannica 1997-98. CD-ROM. Britannica. 1998. "Jim Crow Laws". Encyclopedia Britannica 1997-98. CD-ROM. Britannica. 1998. Kairys, David. "Unexplained on Grounds Other Than Race". American University Law Review. Volume 45, Book 3. 12 Dec. 1999. href="http://www.wcl.american.edu/pub/journals/lawrev/KAIRYS.HTM">http://www.wcl.american.edu/pub/journals/lawrev/KAIRYS.HTM Orwell, George. Animal Farm in The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations. CD-ROM. Microsoft. 1997. "Racial segregation" Encyclopedia Britannica 1997-98. CD-ROM. Britannica. 1998.United States Supreme Court. "Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896)." Selected Historic Decisions of the US Supreme Court. Legal Information Institute, 1999. 12 Dec. 1999. href="http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/historic.htm">http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/historic.htm United States Supreme Court. "Brown v. Board of Education, 349 U.S. 294 (1955)." Selected Historic Decisions of the US Supreme Court. Legal Information Institute, 1999. 12 Dec. 1999. href="http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/historic.htm">http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/historic.htm
Board of Education was a United States Supreme Court case in 1954 that the court declared state laws to establish separate public schools for black segregated public schools to be unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education was filed against the Topeka, Kansas school board by plaintiff Oliver Brown, parent of one of the children that access was denied to Topeka’s none colored schools. Brown claimed that Topeka 's racial segregation violated the Constitution 's Equal Protection Clause because, the city 's black and white schools were not equal to each other. However, the court dismissed and claimed and clarified that segregated public schools were "substantially" equal enough to be constitutional under the Plessy doctrine. After hearing what the court had said to Brown he decided to appeal the Supreme Court. When Chief Justice Earl Warren stepped in the court spoke in an unanimous decision written by Warren himself stating that, racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that "no state shall make or enforce any law which shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Also congress noticed that the Amendment did not prohibit integration and that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal education to both black and white students. Since the supreme court noticed this issue they had to focus on racial equality and galvanized and developed civil
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” These were the mighty words that Thomas Jefferson wrote down he developed his portion of the Declaration of Independence. Some people do not recognize Thomas Jefferson as one of the founding fathers, with other names like Ben Franklin and John Hancock being thrown around the room, but yet we should see him as the most important one. Thomas Jefferson was assigned to make a draft for the document. He chose to talk about how all men are equal and everybody deserves life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The declaration of independence is one of the most important documents in history and made all men equal, meaning one race is not superior to another. This influenced the public by making the black race have hope because now, they could see that one day they would be just as equal as...
“All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights,” (Thomas Jefferson) This is the famous statement made by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. He is being extremely hypocritical here considering he himself owned a near two hundred slaves. The slaves are still owned and treated as ‘property’. Thomas Jefferson did not have care for the slaves. The equalities discussed in the Declaration were not aimed to all men, they were aimed at specific white men. Frederick Douglass a former slave excellently asks in reaction to Jefferson; “Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?” What he means by “Us” is African American, it could also mean slave considering he was one. It is just so perfectly put because it is obvious the beliefs of Jefferson were not extended to African American’s or slaves. He continues on rather sarcastically “confess the benefits”, this is important because there was very little benefits. (Frederick Douglass, 1852,
Overall, the Declaration of Independence, drafted by the United States of America, has not only become an anchor to protect those against oppression and tyranny, but from others within this precious country, as well as those outside. With the Declaration of Independence, we have motivated other nations to take action against their very own tyranny, whether it be the Egyptians in their revolution against their corrupt government in modern day or the French in the mid to late 1800s against their very own corrupt monarchy against King Louis and his family. Not only has it become a motivator, but a reminder on how we should appreciate our values and morals today, and take note on every action we take against certain issues on our country; whether the issue is on abortion or gay marriage. All Men are Created Equally.
... Brown v. Board of Education. n.d. 8 May 2014 http://www.pbs.org/jefferson/enlight/brown.htm>. History:
The Declaration of Independence and Constitution’s treatment of equality are different. Let’s start with the differences, the Declaration of Independence is the only document that uses the word equality. It does not have any real legal power. The Constitution add the bill of rights in 1789 and was written by James Madison. Within those bill of rights it states the rights of people and that everyone would not be deprived of “life, liberty or property”. The thing the Constitution missed is that in the 1700’s when it was first written it did not apply to everyone. It was not equal among slaves, landowners, and citizens of the American Colonies. You can also compare the Declaration of Independence and the Fifth Amendment. The Fifth Amendment is
When writing the Declaration of Independence, the founding father did not acknowledge the notion where there could have been multiculturalism, verifying that when writing about equality for all, it was specifically meant for only white individuals, regardless of status and wealth. Although the Declaration of Independence appeals to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, it was only offered for white citizens, excluding women, Native American Indians, and African Americans. Alongside equality dispute, beliefs, interests, attitudes, and overall lifestyle choices also divided the nation. In the race to achieve pursuit of happiness, it had led to a dispersed nation, where all the individuals were clawing for the piece of the pie rather than working
Turner, Billy. 1986. “Race and Peremptory Challenges During Voir Dire: Do Prosecution and Defense Agree?” Journal of Criminal Justice 14: 61-69.
In the American life there is reasonable doubt to state that all citizens are treated equally. Equality among all is something that has been fought for and should be put into action. However, it is evident that in the legal system of the United States there is no such thing as equality. People get treated differently depending on different factors. It is not fair for people to get different treatment just because let’s say they are a different race or have different beliefs then others. Each person is unique and therefore should not be treated differently just because they are different. So should the US propose legislation to reinforce equality under the law? Yes, the US should propose legislation to reinforce equality under the law as everyone deserves the same opportunity.
In 1848 women and men were said to have equal rights. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, writer of Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, claimed women did not have the same rights as men. In the Declaration points are stated where men have more rights than women and where women lack those rights. She goes to argue that the government is unjust and there needs to be resolutions. Over many years improvements were made between men and women's rights, but there are rights that are not still not equal. American laws give women and men equal rights however, women do not have the same equality when it comes to discrimination, and their job wages.
However, because there were those who believed that only white people were included in the clause, the opposition had plenty of grounds to justify their slavery. Lincoln’s paraphrase turns the “all men are created equal” clause into the proposition instead of the axiom. He says that if we are all conceived in liberty, then we are all created equal. This articulation strongly disputes the John Calhoun Calhoun’s view of the declaration that said that there is no way that people of color would be protected under the declaration because there was actually no “state of nature” that Hobbs and Locke described. Lincoln’s axiom doesn’t require us to return to the sate of nature like other axioms do. If all men are conceived in liberty, then no man can rule over another
The main argument of the Declaration of Independence was "All men were created equal" and there were certain unalienable rights that government should not violate which included that people have rights and freedom of life, liberty, and happiness. But if the government violates these rights then the people have the right to form their own society protecting their rights. Similarly, some of the people agreed with this point and some did not. When we read or hear the phrase by Jefferson, " All men are created equal", we tend to think that all the men and women, whites and blacks, all the races and colors are equal and are the creation of the god. But actually, this phrase disagreed because "All men are created equal" was written by Thomas Jefferson who owned 200 slaves and never set them free. Thus, we can predict that Jefferson phrase did not include any of the black people when he wrote this phrase. As a matter of fact, for Jefferson, the phrase meant all free men who owned property are created equal. As a result, the definition of equality was hard to find. In addition, the narrow definition created distinctions between free men vs slaves, women vs men, property owner vs debtors and much more. The phrase by Thomas Jefferson, "We hold this truth to be self-evident, that all men are created equal", but its conclusion is morally wrong. It is not true that black people are inferior to whites. This
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” (Jefferson). Thomas Jefferson, a white, Christian, political southern slave owner, wrote these words in 1776, a period in United States history when slavery thrived. The writer of the Declaration of Independence contradicts himself when he states that all men are created equal, when in actuality, his slaves were denied all that humans were meant to cherish.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident …”are among the most important words written in the Declaration of Independence, yet; they are not self-evident, nor are they true. These words are truly stated yet; the reality was that it only applied to white landowners. Thus, one of Americas founding tenets of equality taken from it declaration of independence was suspect from the beginning. The fa...