Trevor Jones

5th hour
PBL
M-F
Mrs. Nash
Human and Civil Rights
In the United States the people deserve human rights and civil rights. It is in the
constitution that everyone deserves the right to pursue life. Civil rights became a movement as
well in United States history. This essay will encompass human and civil Rights progression in
the United States. Three things need to be looked at while studying human rights and civil rights
which are the following; first look at how these rights were when the United States become a
country, then look at human and civil rights progression, and finally look at todays human and
civil rights and understand the United States still needs to progress.
When the founding fathers of the United States were writing the constitution Thomas
Paine, the author of Rights of Man, wrote to our founding fathers saying that we cannot be a
Tyranny like France was. France violated human rights of migrants, unemployed, and the
disabled. Working class people had to fight to gain the right to vote and to join trade unions. The
founding fathers then decided to create the Bill of Rights which gave freedoms that France gave
little or none of. Civil Rights that were in the constitution such as voting were for white men
until people fought for their civil rights.
There were different civil right fights from different types of people that all meant the
same thing, equal rights for everyone! After the United States started the only people that had
human rights would have been white men but the northern states wanted to give the slaves
human rights and end slavery. The south did not agree with the north and with a new president
elected, President Lincoln, who ran a platform on keeping slavery out of our new territories, the

southern states decided to seceded and formed the Confederate States of America. One other
thing that fueled the Civil War would be the Dred Scott case in 1857. Dred Scott escaped to a
free state and he claimed since he was now in a free state he should be free. The supreme court
made the decision to send Dred Scott back to the southern states because their belief was that if
someone is a slave then they should stay a slave.
It was a huge stepping stone for women to gain the right to vote. Women wanted that
right to vote because they were citizen so they believed that they should have the right to vote
just like men. While many women joined the fight, some chose not to because they did not want
to be a disgrace to their family. Other women believed that it was unnecessary because they were
already equal to men.
After Womens Suffrage, the civil rights movement happened and National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) got formed. Racism was huge after the civil
war, if a person was not white then there is a good chance that quite a few people would hate that
person. The Montgomery bus boycott happened to show our policy makers that AfricanAmericans did not like that they were being treated as second hand citizens, but that was not the
only thing. In 1892 the Supreme Court Case Plessy V. Ferguson happened, due to Plessy refusing
to sit in a Jim Crow Car, which was the car for colored people. It ended in the separate but
equal policy being created, so that there were equal accommodations in both cars.
Years later there was another court case called Brown V. Board of Education in Topeka,
Kansas. Brown stated that separate wasnt equal so he took it to the Supreme Court. They
listened to so many cases in different states but named them all under Brown V. Board of
Education. It ended in abolishing the separate but equal policy and ended segregation in
schools. The Arkansas governor did not like the plan of sticking African-American kids in a

white school so he sent the Arkansas national guard to the elementary school to keep out
colored children. This event was called the Little Rock Crisis. ("Little Rock Nine", 2017,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock_Nine)
There were certain court cases that had certain laws set up that we still use today. There
was a case that created the concept of Miranda Rights, Miranda V. AZ, in 1966. Ernesto Miranda
was a ninth-grade student who was charged with rape, kidnapping, and robbery so the police
took him in and interrogated him. He did not know his rights before, such as Anything you say
can and will be used against you in the court of law. He confessed to the rape and kidnaping but
not the robbery. He was then taken to court and the interrogation was used against him but he did
not consent to have it recorded so it was taken to the supreme court and now it is required for the
police to tell who they arrest their Miranda Rights.
There have been opinions on prayer and the pledge of allegiance in schools. A chunk of
the U.S. thought it should be required to have prayer and the pledge in schools but another chunk
of the U.S. thought it was against the constitution to force prayer in schools. So it was eventually
taken the Supreme Court in 1962 called Engel V. Nitale. In the end, it was decided that prayer
and the pledge would be optional so that students can chose to do it
The twenty first century has issues as well as those discussed being women rights and
African-American rights. We need to discuss what classifies something as a hate crime. A hate
crime is when a person physically hurts their victim due to their religion, race, gender, sexual
orientation, gender identity, or disability (U.S. Code 249). Hate crimes still happen today for a
big example look at the Orlando Massacre that happened during the first half of 2016. Omar
Mateen, a security guard, went into a gay bar with a weapon to kill LGBT+ members, so a
person targeted their victims due to the victims being a part of the LGBT+ community.

So now let us start with Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT+) rights. They have
fought hate crimes for a long time, even the government has wanted them to keep quiet about
their sexual orientation. An example of that is Bill Clinton passed the Dont Ask, Dont Tell
policy which made LGBT members keep quiet and if they came out then they would be treated
unfairly. In 2012 President Obama repealed the Dont Ask, Dont Tell policy. In the twentyfirst century is when marriage equality became an issue with same sex marriage but it was not
until President Obamas second term when marriage equality happened. President Obama sent a
bill to congress for legalization, congress eventually passed it and it went on to the Supreme
Court. The supreme court eventually came to the decision of Legalizing same-sex marriage.
When it happened, the White House had the colors of the rainbow projected onto it.
Now let us move on to African-American people, they are still discriminated against. In
2016 an activist group called Black Lives Matter was created because of police brutality to
colored people. 3.66 million innocent black people are killed by police while 1.92 million
innocent Hispanics are killed by policy annually but 0.9 million innocent white people are killed
by police. (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/30/opinion/the-state-of-race-in-america.html?
_r=1) This is due to 52% of officers turning a blind eye while 49% of police conduct the abusive
behavior. (http://graphs.net/police-brutality-statistics.html)
Now look at women, they are still fighting for some civil rights. They have the right to
vote, work, and join the armed forces. An issue is abortion, congress is debating whether a
woman should be able to have an abortion. Throughout the U.S. it is still legal unless a state
made it illegal. Oklahoma made it illegal for a woman to have an abortion, if she does than the
doctor that performed it and the woman both get arrested. Another problem that is being sorted
out is breast feeding in public. Some women claim they do it to feed their child when they get

hungry, some men complain about not wanting to see it in public. The Unites States is making
significant strides for equal human and civil rights however, the door is always ajar with new
ideas.
So, in conclusion this essay discussed that the U.S. is not done fighting for equality. With
our new president, it seems it will be more difficult to fight for improved civil rights due to his
comments on women, the LGBT community, and other minorities. Also, if you are in one of
these groups please do not stop fighting for what you believe in. For progression to happen
people must be behind each other all the way.
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