Proposal Overview

Tapping Narrative History to Inspire 'Protagonists of Democracy'

Queen of gospel music Mahalia Jackson lifted her voice and sang at the
Prayer Pilgrimage of Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial in May of 1957,
showing the persuasive power of artistic expression protected by the
First Amendment. CLICK here to experience her stirring performance
six years later at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

 

The struggle for civil rights would
not have succeeded without the
religious advocacy protected by
clauses of the First Amendment.

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Sample Lesson 1

Woman Suffrage, Legal Realism & the Birth of Market Theory

The significance of the fight for voting rights cannot be overstated
as one of the Three Great Pinnacles of First Amendment Activism,
along with the fight to end slavery and struggle for Black civil rights.
In each, all six freedoms of the First Amendment were harnessed in
tandem to power a social movement, driving political mobilization.

 

Ida B. Wells nudged journalism
toward more skeptical reporting
as the law moved toward more
progressive Legal Realism.

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Sample Lesson 2

MLK, Civil Rights & the Birth of the Modern First Amendment

More than 260,000 Americans of every racial and ethnic persuasion
assembled peaceably on Aug. 28, 1963, to exercise their rights under
the First Amendment to effect social and political change. The March
on Washington for Jobs and Freedom can be described accurately as
the Mount Everest of First Amendment Activism, never surmounted.

 

How long? MLK asked and answered.
Not long! CLICK here for the part
of his speech that includes the
"arc of the moral universe."

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