Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Four Freedoms

    The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution set out to guarantee the equal rights of citizens. It decrees, “No State shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property...nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”. Despite this written assertion of seeming equality for all citizens, various groups faced hardships and discrimination in the century following the Fourteenth Amendment's ratification. This amendment would continuously interpreted and reinterpreted as social movements cited it as cause for their mobilization and activism. Two social advocacy movements were (and are) the Civil Rights movement that gained momentum in the 1960s and the Disability Rights Movement of the 1970s.

Freedom is a fundamental human right that all Americans enjoy today. Foner defines freedom as the ability of an individual to do as he/she wishes as long as long as the actions are within the law and respect the right of others (2). Accordingly, freedom is among the rights that are anchored in American constitution to protect the civil liberties of all Americans. Today, America is regarded as a democratic country that operates within the rule of law partly because of its respect for human rights (Romano 3). However, history shows that the freedom that African Americans enjoy today did not come easily; rather came after a long and enduring struggle by Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968). It is noted that, unlike white Americans who enjoyed freedom to do as they wished in the early 19th century, African Americans were denied the freedom to operate freely like their white counterparts (Foner 6). Therefore, because curtailing the freedom of African Americans were denying them the opportunity to advance socially, economically and politically, the Civil Rights Movement was formed by Martin Luther King Junior and colleagues to fight against racial segregation and to ensure that African Africans gain equal rights as the whites. This essay seeks to explore the Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968) struggle for freedom and

On January 6, 1941 President Roosevelt delivered his State of the Union Address before congress. He spoke eloquently of a future world founded on the essential human freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. (Foner 2014pg842). He used this speech as a rally cry to enter World War 2. (Foner 2014, 757) These four freedoms were meant to establish basic rights for all people in the United states and still today we hold true to these freedoms. (Foner 2014 pg842) Freedom of speech came to coincide with freedom and expression which would be the best defense against corruption of democracy. (Remembering the Four Freedoms 2016). Freedom of worship or religion would be our shield against the forces of bigotry, intolerance, and fanaticism, Freedom from want, a commitment to erasing hunger, poverty, and pestilence from the earth, brought hope for citizens as they fought the Great depression and Finally, freedom from fear, a freedom dependent on collective security, a concept carried forward with our leadership in the United Nations.(Remembering the Four Freedoms 2016) As America battled the great depression, Roosevelt was confident that the war would end the depression and cause the United States to thrive once again. (Foner2014, 843) Roosevelt declared on a radio address in 1942 that the “rights of men of every creed and every race, wherever they live” implying that the four freedoms made so prominent in this time era should be a

In 1865, nearly ninety years after the founding of the United States, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, thereby abolishing the “peculiar institution” which had once threatened to end the Great Experiment of American Democracy. Two subsequent amendments, ratified in 1868 and 1870, guaranteed equal protection of the law to all citizens and prohibited the denial of voting rights on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Yet, close to one hundred years after these three Reconstruction Amendments became the law of the land, racial equality was still something confined to the dreams of visionaries and activists. Writing a letter from Birmingham Jail in Alabama, civil rights leader Martin Luther King

The demands of the American people being met demonstrates the great democracy and progressiveness that many people want to be a part of. However, each group thus far that has chosen to fight for their rights in America, has initially gone through a struggle, in which hope was kept alive only by the strongest of believers. The recognition of these group’s importance and worthiness has especially been important to the people who faced discrimination all of their lives, or fought to death for change. Recognition of their values, beliefs, and traditions by the law, meant greater acceptance from the majority they were, -and still are-, a part of. Once African Americans paved the way beginning in 1865, women and the LGBT community followed suit to

During the mid 20th century, citizens all over America were fighting for their rights, especially including women and those of color. This period marked the beginning of a long road of reconciliation and reconstruction, but now citizens have been able to cross the finish line in establishing equal rights for all of the United States citizens. Over time, American’s former issues regarding the civil liberties of citizens have slowly resolved such as the rights of equality for citizens of color, the repercussions of citizens voicing their opinions, and acquiring rights for women.

As a result, nationwide anti-communist hysteria was created, thereby undermining American peoples’ rights. Many Americans of the time could not speak their minds or share different political opinions lest they be called out as communists. This resulted in a conformity that was stifling. Americans were afraid to speak their minds and voice opinions. This caused American people to have little to say about world development and the place of the American people and state in the world economy. Policies were enacted without adequate consultation with the American people. This means that there was limited control to their lives as individuals as well as the direction that development took. The effect was mass violation of American rights and liberties that allowed the people to engage constructively in government development efforts. Therefore, this approach shows how internal mechanisms for cold war controlled damaged America’s democratic institutions. It was only after the conclusion of the Cold War that Americans were truly comfortable in speaking their minds about political issues without fear of being accused.

In this paper I will be discussing the Constitution and Civil Rights. Both are vital to our nation’s strong beliefs that we, as Americans, deserve equal rights and a strong government. In the United States, we all want to have a nation that we can trust and will give us our unalienable rights, no matter the skin tone or gender. So why, in 2016, do women and people of color still fight for equal treatment?

In modern America, equality is becoming more of a realization however; racial and civil rights issues are still existent in today’s society. The civil rights movement, which originated in the 1960’s, involved public movements in the United States which the goals were to terminate racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans and to obtain and secure legal acknowledgement and federal protection of the citizenship rights enumerated in the constitution and federal law. Current racial issues have sparked movements such as the “Black Lives Matters” movement and the controversial killing of black men from

This speech, known as the Four Freedoms speech, demonstrates a precise insight of each speech and provides what is expected of them. They are known as “freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world,” “freedom of every person to worship God in their own way—everywhere in the world,” “freedom from want,” and “freedom from fear.” Franklin Roosevelt states: “That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.”

The President wanted people to stand up and fight for their beliefs. American freedom was being threatened and Roosevelt felt that the United States government had great responsibilities and people were counting on them to make the right decision (29). Freedom was described in this speech as the basic rights that the government should be able to give the people. It was said that the basic rights of freedom should never be lost or forgotten during times of hardship. Freedom was also described in this speech as, “the supremacy of human rights everywhere” (Roosevelt

During the time of the 1950’s and 1960’s, a large segments of African-Americans, women, and men were not really considered full citizenship rights in the American Republic, civil rights movements, as well as the struggles of freedom. The movements were to obtain civil rights for black Americans. Such movements have not only secured citizenship rights for blacks but have also redefined prevailing conceptions of the nature of civil rights and the role of government in protecting these rights. As mentioned in the text book, “The most important achievements of African-American civil rights movements have been the Post Civil War constitutional amendments”. As mentioned in the Webster dictionary, (2015) “This amendment abolished slavery and established

African Americans have faced harsh discrimination throughout the 1950’s with their rights of having a job, schooling, and daily life. Although African Americans were granted the same rights as a white man they were not treated the same. Segregation was imposed by officials, they called it de jure segregation ,“separate but equal”.Separate schools, fountains, hospitals, and shopping malls divided the white man to the African Americans. The facilities given to the African Americans were rarely even functional, but they were “equal”.

The Civil Rights movement may have started out as a mission to improve the lives of the large population of African-Americans, but who would have guessed that King’s quest for racial integration would provoke the same quest for individual rights by another group of people, Gays and Lesbians. The quest for equal rights by people, who had unjustifiably been repressed for hundreds of years, would spur and give

     The history of America shows that disadvantaged groups have rarely achieved greater measure of justice without a struggle. Legal equality has been rarely bestowed by the more powerful upon the less powerful. Their gains have rarely always occurred through intense and sustained political movements, such as the civil rights movement of the