2. “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.” --The Declaration of Independence This Declaration and our Constitution were influenced by the words and ideas of the English philosopher John Locke, who believed that all people have natural rights including the rights to life, liberty and property. History

3. Our leaders saw the Constitution as a contract between the people and the government to protect the natural rights of its citizens. The debate over the rights of individuals began as early as 1787 with the adoption of our Constitution

4. The Constitution was not ratified until adoption of those rights was guaranteed. Our government pledged to protect the personal freedoms of its citizens and backed it up by signing the Bill of Rights.

5. Citizenship requires duties and responsibilities; in return, citizens are entitled to the protection of a state or nation. In the United States, these include protection from unfair actions of the government, equal treatment under the law, and basic freedoms like speech, press, assembly, and religion.

6. So, civil rights are rights guaranteed to individuals just because they are citizens.

7. The struggle for civil rights really began with the 13 th Amendment which abolished slavery and redefined African Americans as citizens rather than property. After the Civil War ended in 1865, new Southern legislatures passed Black Codes written to control freed men and continue slavery “in disguise”. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was supposed to overturn the Black Codes.

8. African-Americans officially became citizens with the passage of the 14 th Amendment in 1868. This amendment was intended to protect the rights of freed slaves. It defines “citizens” of the United States as all persons born or naturalized in the U.S.

9. The 14 th Amendment prohibits a state from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. It affirms that all citizens have equal protection under the law. That was the intention…..

10. With the passage of the 15 th amendment in 1870, African American men earned the right to vote, but voting in fact did not come easily. Neither did equal opportunities for jobs, housing, and education.

11. By the end of WWII, African Americans had struggled to participate in government, the military, sports and the Arts.

12. The Great Migration to the North led to the “Harlem Renaissance” in the 1920’s. The authors, poets, musicians and artists of this period were children and grandchildren of slaves who had lived through Reconstruction. This movement centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City.

13. Their work was an effort to portray the realities of their lives and “uplift” their people from the oppression they experienced. It helped build a black community that would struggle for civil rights later. Duke Ellington “Negro Speaks of Rivers” – Langston Hughes

14. By Langston Hughes

15. I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset. I've known rivers: Ancient, dusky rivers. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. --Langston Hughes The Negro Speaks of Rivers - by Langston Hughes