Still Elusive : Unalienable Rights

Bureau of Engraving and Printing engraved vignette of John Trumbull’s painting Declaration of Independence (c. 1818). Engraving by Frederick Girsch.
Image is by Frederick Girsch and is in the public domain.

“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….”

These are among the best-known words in the English language and provided the thrust for revolution against an oppressive foreign power.

I am willing to celebrate these words and the potential they invoked for a great new society. But I think it is also important to recognize the extent that the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have been denied to many people within the United States throughout its history. So in addition to celebrating the Declaration, I will celebrate the creation of several other documents and long for the day when their promises are fulfilled:

The US Constitution
The Emancipation Proclamation
The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution, which prohibits the denial of the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
• The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women’s Right to Vote

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Unfinished business

Idealized image of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin reading the Declaration of Independence to colonists.
Idealized image of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin reading the Declaration of Independence to colonists. Public domain, work of the United States federal government

“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…” (From The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription, IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776, The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, signed by 56 white men).

Members of those 13 colonies successfully fought King George for independence, but large segments of the population then and now were excluded from the select group considered entitled to “certain unalienable Rights.”

Among the groups excluded from “all men” by the formulators of the Declaration were, of course, all women, plus all native peoples, slaves, freedmen, and others not seen as deserving the same rights as the men in the emerging power structures in the colonies.

There was no inclusive view of human rights in the minds of the authors of the Declaration of Independence—or most others of those times.

A vision of equal rights for all did not gain legal status in the U.S. until the passing of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (1866), which  included an Equal Protection Clause guaranteeing all citizens equal protection under the law. The 15th Amendment (1869) prohibited both the federal and state governments from denying the right to vote for reasons of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” It was not until the 19th Amendment (1920) that women were given the right to vote.

Today, in 2014, women’s suffrage seems pretty secure within the United States—at least for women in the white majority; however, there continue to be efforts to prevent people of color from voting.  And rights are far from being equally distributed.  Lots of work still to be done.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology