Every citizens gets to vote in our democracy. That’s how it’s supposed to work, right? But that hasn’t always meant that each vote counts equally. Even today, rural voters have a disproportionate effect on our elections. Watch One Person, One Vote to learn about the ongoing struggle to make sure that all voters have an equal say in our elections.
The Gettysburg Address was delivered 153 years ago today
153 years ago today, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of Solders’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Four months earlier, Gettysburg had been the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. 51,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were killed or wounded over three days of fighting. Though only three paragraphs long, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is considered by many to be one of the greatest speeches in American history.
See an original copy and read the text at the Library of Congress.
The Japanese Internment is a dark period in our history that should never be repeated
Recently, a prominent supporter of the President-elect argued on national television for the creation of a registry for Muslims in America. To support this, he cited the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II as precedent. Please watch our film Korematsu and Civil Liberties about this dark period in our country’s history to see why such policies should never be repeated.
Today is Election Day
The polls are open, so go out and vote (if you’re old enough)!
And when you’re finished at the voting booth, check our our film One Person, One Vote about the landmark voting rights case, Baker v. Carr.
1st of the Federalist Papers published 229 years ago today
On October 27, 1787, the first of 85 essays that would come to known as the Federalist Papers was published in a New York newspaper called The Independent Journal. Using the pen-name “Publius,” Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay wrote the Federalist Papers to gain support for the ratification of the Constitution, which had been signed the month before on September 17, 1787.
Read the Federalist Papers at the Library of Congress.
