July 4, 1776
Although the Declaration of Independence that he drafted immediately became the world’s leading manifesto celebrating human rights and personal freedom, Thomas Jefferson owned over two hundred slaves when he wrote it. African Americans used similar language to make their freedom claims.
Excerpt:
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
January 25, 1831, New York
A black mass meeting was held in 1831 to protest the recently organized American Colonization Society’s initiative to send free blacks to Africa.
Excerpt:
We do not believe that things will always continue the same. The time must come when the Declaration of Independence will be felt in the heart as well as uttered from the mouth, and when the rights of all shall be properly acknowledged and appreciated. God hasten that time. This is our home, and this is our country. Beneath its sod lie the bones of our fathers; for it, some of them fought, bled and died. Here we were born, and here we will die.
Abraham Lincoln 
January 1, 1863
Issued on the eve of the third year of the nation’s civil war, the proclamation ostensibly freed enslaved Africans in the rebellious states but did not abolish slavery in states loyal to the Union. More significantly, it authorized the use of black men in the Union Army and Navy. Almost two hundred thousand blacks eventually fought for the Union and black freedom.
Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
A lithograph celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation, c. 1863
“That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States.”
Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaque-mines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.
Cleveland, Ohio, 1865
The National Equal Rights League grew out of the Syracuse National Negro Convention of 1864 to advocate for the rights of black people through appeals to conscience and via legal processes. The petition from the Cleveland meeting in 1865 called for a constitutional amendment barring all Jim Crow legislation.
The undersigned, officers and members of the National Equal Rights League call the attention of your honorable body to the 4th Article of the United States Constitution, Section 4th, in which we find that “the United States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a Republican form of government”; and seeing that in many States such a form of government does not exist, we therefore most respectfully ask the adoption of the following amendment to the Constitution of the United States:
That there shall be no legislation within the limits of the United States and Territories, against any civilized portion of the inhabitants, native-born or naturalized, on account of race or color, and that all such legislation now existing within said limits is anti-republican in character, and therefore void.
A Harper’s Weekly cover from November 16, 1867 shows Virginian freedmen voting for the first time.
1865–70
Three Reconstruction amendments ratified between 1865 and 1870 opened the door to full citizenship for African Americans: the 13th abolishing slavery, the 14th guaranteeing citizenship, and the 15th giving black men the right to vote. The promise of the 15th Amendment was not fully realized until almost a century after its ratification in 1870. Southern states employed poll taxes, literacy tests, and other measures to effectively disenfranchise African Americans. The majority of African Americans in the South were not registered to vote until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Excerpt of 13th Amendment to the US Constitution:
Abolition of Slavery Ratified 1865
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Excerpt of 14th Amendment to the US Constitution:
Civil Rights Ratified 1868
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Excerpt of 15th Amendment to the US Constitution:
Voting Rights Ratified 1870
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Chicago, Illinois, 1890
A group of 147 delegates from 21 states and the District of Columbia met to form this national organization to advocate for equal rights and to organize and encourage state and local affiliates in efforts to break down color barriers. The delegates adopted this sarcastic response to a series of congressional legislative proposals to fund black deportation from the South.
A Petition to Congress:
Whereas, The predominance of Afro-Americans in the States of Alabama, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, and other Southern States makes the situation painful and uncomfortable for the small minority of white fellow citizens residing therein; therefore, be it
Resolved, That we do petition the Honorable Congress of the United States to make and provide for an appropriation of $10,000,000,000 to furnish the unhappy white citizens of these States, who may desire to settle in other and more favored States, free from Afro-American majorities, with free transportation and lunch by the way to any of the States north of the Mason Dixon line. Be it further
Resolved, That the Congress designate Senator Morgan, of Alabama; Senator Hampton, of South Carolina, and Senator Gibson, of Tennessee, to be the “Moses” to lead the unhappy people out of the States of their misfortune.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt June 25, 1941
A. Philip Randolph issued a call to black Americans for a March on Washington on July 1, 1941, to demand that President Roosevelt outlaw racial discrimination in the defense industries and the armed forces. Under pressure, the President issued this executive order and Randolph called off the planned demonstration. Black men and women worked in the defense industries during World War II.
Excerpt:
Reaffirming Policy Of Full Participation In The Defense Program By All Persons, Regardless Of Race, Creed, Color, Or National Origin, And Directing Certain Action In Furtherance Of Said Policy
WHEREAS it is the policy of the United States to encourage full participation in the national defense program by all citizens of the United States, regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin, in the firm belief that the democratic way of life within the Nation can be defended successfully only with the help and support of all groups within its borders; and
WHEREAS there is evidence that available and needed workers have been barred from employment in industries engaged in defense production solely because of considerations of race, creed, color, or national origin, to the detriment of workers’ morale and of national unity:
NOW, THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the statutes, and as a prerequisite to the successful conduct of our national defense production effort, I do hereby reaffirm the policy of the United States that there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin, and I do hereby declare that it is the duty of employers and of labor organizations, in furtherance of said policy and of this order, to provide for the full and equitable participation of all workers in defense industries, without discrimination because of race, creed, color, or national origin; . . .
July 2, 1964
As the nation watched the often brutal response to the nonviolent civil rights protests of the late 1950s into the 1960s, President John F. Kennedy was prompted to send a bill to Congress that would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson.
Excerpt:
An Act. To enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States to provide injunctive relief against discrimination in public accommodations, to authorize the Attorney General to institute suits to protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights, to prevent discrimination in federally assisted programs, to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the “Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
August 6, 1965
By the summer of 1964, voting rights had become a dominant issue in the civil rights movement in the South. Following the murder of voting rights activists in Philadelphia, Mississippi, that summer and the “Bloody Sunday” attack by law enforcement officers on civil rights marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, in March 1965, President Lyndon Johnson addressed Congress on March 15 to present his voting rights bill, ending with the words of the civil rights anthem, “We shall overcome.” He signed the Voting Rights Act five months later.
Excerpt:
AN ACT To enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act shall be known as the “Voting Rights Act of 1965.”
SEC. 2. No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.
President Lyndon Johnson signs the voting rights bill.
