Social Justice in the Cities: Freedom

Social Justice in the Cities: Freedom: Freedom, it’s an idea that many are fighting for in Egypt and the Middle East . It’s an idea and practice that most Americans take for gran...

Freedom

Freedom, it’s an idea that many are fighting for in Egypt and the Middle East. It’s an idea and practice that most Americans take for granted. After all, we declared our freedom from the tyranny of the English king way back in 1776. Later in 1787 Americans created their own set of laws which “guaranteed” those freedoms. But Freedom isn’t free, and it isn’t always equal. When the Constitution of the United States of America was originally drafted the only people for whom freedom was guaranteed were white men. Women and African American (then called Negroes) were considered property.

From 1878 to 1920 Women fought for equal rights under the law for themselves. Women didn’t have the right to vote, get a divorce, serve on a jury, receive equal pay for work, or work at any job they wanted. Women were considered at best second class citizens with few or no rights. The primary goal of the National Woman Suffrage Association and its leaders Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton was to achieve voting rights for women by means of a Congressional amendment to the Constitution. It began a dialogue that continues to this day about women’s rights. Later, Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and others form the American Woman Suffrage Association. This group focuses exclusively on gaining voting rights for women through amendments to individual state constitutions. Eventually, in 1920 42 years after the National Woman Suffrage Association and its leaders Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton brought attention to women’s rights did the United States finally pass the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. The same year the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor is formed to collect information about women in the workforce and safeguard good working conditions for women.

Japanese Americans had their freedoms taken away by their own government after the attack on Pearl Harbor. On February 19, 1942, FDR signed executive order 9066 to “relocate” Japanese Americans into Internment Camps for their own “safety.” There they stayed until 1946 when the last camp closed. Many young Japanese American boys became soldiers and fought for a country which imprisoned their families. For many, the last time they saw their families was from the other side of a barbed wire fence.

For African Americans the struggle for freedom took even longer. It began on January 1, 1863 when President Lincoln signed The Emancipation proclamation stating that African Americans were no longer slaves.  However, they still did not enjoy the same freedoms as the whites. They couldn’t vote, own property, sit and enjoy a meal and sit anywhere they liked, get an education anywhere except a “negro school” and the list goes on. In 1964 The Civil Rights Act was passed into law granting freedoms to all Americans regardless or race, creed, color or gender.

American which is held up as the example of Freedom took a long time and a lot of blood shed even with non-violent protests to grant freedoms to all it citizens. We’re still not done now LGT groups fight for freedoms we take for granted. Only recently were they granted the right to serve openly in the military. They still don’t have the freedom to legally marry who they love. A hetero sexual person enjoys the freedom to get married to one person, have their marriage annulled or get a divorce and remarry another person, as many times as they like as long as it’s not more than one person at a time.  A homosexual/transgender person can’t get legally married even once. We still have a ways to go before we grant all individuals the right to the freedom of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

We still have the freedom to fight for these causes without fear for our lives from the military. I wonder will the Middle East take after America and grant its people their freedom or will America take after the Middle East and deny more freedoms to more of its people?

 Read more: Women's Rights Movement in the U.S.: Timeline of Events (1848-1920) — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womenstimeline1.html#ixzz1fsjPRwkp