No idea is more fundamental to Americans ' sense of ourselves as individuals and as a nation than freedom. The central term in our political vocabulary, freedom—or liberty, with which it is almost always used interchangeably—is deeply embedded in the record of our history and the language of everyday life. Before the readings and lectures in this module, I believed the major issues at stake regarding the understandings of American citizenship in the late 1800’s, had much to do with the written laws of the Federal and state government. Based from my previous knowledge, of the Women Suffrage Movement, to the freedom fighters, political and social figurative leaders, to lastly to civil rights, and citizenship, I my assumption of that, was based on written laws that white supremacists, and authoritative figures including the government followed, regardless of their feelings towards justice and equality.
The Lecture 1 document in this module refers to British sociologist, T. H. Marshal’s distinction between three different types of citizenships; civil, political and social (Marshall, 1968). This meant that civil citizenship allowed Black people to walk, talk, have opinions and own property
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During the twentieth century, the United States emerged as a persistent and powerful actor on the world stage. And at key moments of worldwide involvement the encounter with a foreign "other" subtly affected the meaning of freedom in the United States. Today, when asked to define their rights as citizens, Americans instinctively turn to the privileges enumerated in the Bill of Rights—freedom of speech, the press, and religion, for example. But for many decades after the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution in 1791, the social and legal defenses of free expression were extremely fragile in the United States. A broad rhetorical commitment to this ideal coexisted with stringent restrictions on speech deemed radical or