No idea is more fundamental than freedom to Americans’ sense of themselves as individuals and as a nation. But the story of American freedom is not a clear progression to a preordained goal. It is a tale of debates, disagreements and struggles between individuals and groups of people with different ideas and points of view. It is as multifaceted, contentious and ever-changing as America itself. And it continues today.
Our With Liberty & Justice for All exhibit focuses upon four key transformative moments in the American quest for freedom: the Revolutionary Era, the Antislavery Movement and Civil War Era, the Woman’s Suffrage Movement, and the Civil Rights Movement. It highlights the people and iconic artifacts that were involved in those moments, and involves visitors in the important debates and struggles.
Freedom in America has always been the product of social movements and struggle. Groups of people coalesce around a progressive idea or issue and strategies and leaders emerge. Recognized as articulate, effective and charismatic at the time, these all-too-human leaders soon become symbols of the movement and are seen as super-human icons of freedom in the later glow of historical hindsight.
The United States has been fortunate in having leaders at specific moments in history who transcend their times. On the world historical stage, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King could hold their own with the leaders of any nation at any time. Each found himself facing contradictory events and ideas about the human condition; the realities did not match the progressive ideals of the day. Each one was historically informed and morally driven, ideol ...More...
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