Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Challenges with freedom of speech
Problems with freedom of speech
The importance of the 1st amendment
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Challenges with freedom of speech
From an early age, American children are taught about the Constitution and one very important amendment; the first. We are taught that we have the freedom of speech, religion, the press, and the right to assemble. I’ve seen media coverage of riots and fights and burning buildings. I’ve seen pictures in my history textbooks of marches for civil rights and suffrage. But the belief that my voice has an impact didn’t peak until this year. On January 20, 2018, my friend and I attended the Women’s March in Chicago. We took the 5:45 AM train into Chicago. I questioned this choice a lot, especially when my alarm started going off at four in the morning, but when we reached the speaking area for the rally, we were at the front, literally standing …show more content…
at the barricade, witnesses to history. The speakers encouraged us to get involved, speak up, and vote. After attending the Women’s March, I felt inspired to become more politically active in my community.
When there was a student who came to school wearing a sweatshirt with the print of the Confederate flag, many students and I were upset that it was okay for someone to wear such a blatant symbol of hate and oppression to school. Our administration has taken steps to ensure that there is a safe learning environment for all students, but when no administrator did anything, I decided something needed to be done. I started a petition to change our dress code; specifically to add a clause stating that clothing bearing symbols of hate, including (but not limited to) the Confederate flag, Nazi swastikas, and burning crosses, is not permitted. However, there were a lot of questions I had to grapple with. How many signatures was I trying to get? What was I going to do with it when I got them? Do people really care about this? If my principals found out before I was ready to present it, would they stop me? Would I face punishment at school for this? Who was going to disagree, and why? Would anyone even want to sign? I didn’t know what other people would say, but I knew, whether anyone stood behind me or not, I wanted to take a step towards change. After typing my petition, I posted a picture on my Instagram story and invited my followers to ask me about it. A few people messaged me, asked me what it was about, and said they would sign it. I brought my petition to school
and, within no time, I collected almost 100 signatures! I was inspired by how many people are hungry for the same change that I am. I did face some opposition. Some object on the grounds that, in America, we have the right to freedom of speech. They say people should be able to wear whatever they want. However, the Supreme Court has continuously upheld that public schools may infringe upon students’ rights in order to create a safe and positive learning environment for every student. My school in particular has banned clothing with depictions of death, guns, tobacco, alcohol, and other illegal substances, because these things do not lead to a safe and positive learning environment. Symbols of hate do not lead to a safe and positive learning environment. Why is one tolerated, while the other is not? While changing the dress code may be the ultimate goal, there are larger, more significant impacts of this petition; getting people to talk and raising awareness. This petition is making people address the uncomfortable topic of hate speech in our schools. Becoming an activist has taken on new meaning for me. I have discovered that we have a responsibility to stand up for what we think is important and take action to bring about change. Catalyzing change requires starting a dialogue. It is empowering to know that I’ve taken action to right a wrong. As I transition into the next phase of my life, I will remember that I have a voice that makes a difference. I plan to continue to use my voice to affect positive change.
A high school in Chattanooga, Tennessee suspended a student for wearing a jacket that depicted a Confederate flag. The school had already banded the flag prior to the student’s suspension, for fear of racial backlash. In a slim one-vote margin, the court upheld the school’s decision, solely for the possibility that racial retaliation could ensue. The student’s parents did appeal the decision, but the court deemed that this was not a violation of the student’s freedom of speech or expression.
One of the most influential leaders of the African American Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr., stated in a letter from Birmingham Jail: “We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights.they were in reality standing up for what is best the American dream”(75). In the document written by Casey Hayden and Mary King, they discuss how there are many similarities between the way African Americans were being treated and the way women were being treated. These women go on to say that people aren’t discussing these issues enough socially to give them adequate importance. All of these advocates for both movements chose to voice their concerns and opinions through writing or speaking to groups rather than through violence. They were parallel in this sense because they thought this was the most effective way to get the message across to America.
Throughout the 1800s, women across the world began establishing organizations to demand women’s suffrage in their countries. Today, there are still women in countries fighting for their right to vote. Some countries who’ve succeeded in the mid to late 1800s were Sweden and New Zealand. Once they expanded women’s suffrage, many other countries followed. Like Sweden, countries first granted limited suffrage to women and other countries approved to the full national level. Additionally, there were quite a few countries who had taken over a century to give women the right to vote, Qatar being a prime example. Although the fight for women’s suffrage varied in the United States, France, and Cuba in terms of length and process, each effort ultimately
During America's early history, women were denied some of the rights to well-being by men. For example, married women couldn't own property and had no legal claim to any money that they might earn, and women hadn't the right to vote. They were expected to focus on housework and motherhood, and didn't have to join politics. On the contrary, they didn't have to be interested in them. Then, in order to ratify this amendment they were prompted to a long and hard fight; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the 19th century, some generations of women's suffrage supporters lobbied to achieve what a lot of Americans needed: a radical change of the Constitution. The movement for women's rights began to organize after 1848 at the national level. In July of that year, reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton(1815-1902) and Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), along with Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) and other activists organized the first convention for women's rights at Seneca Falls, New York. More than 300 people, mostly women but also some men, attended it. Then, they raised public awar...
Kale Reed, In previous times, the equality between men and women was at a dramatic difference. It is frequently believed that women's suffrage was desired and fought for only in England and the United States during the 19th century. Though these movements changed in their reasons and tactics, the battle for female suffrage, along with other women's rights concerns, cut through many national boundaries. Women's rights and suffrage changed drastically from the 1890s until the time of Nixon's Administration. During this time, women were treated poorly, and they felt as if they weren't equal to other citizens of the world, especially men.
... when showing your support. Express the way you feel no matter how you demonstrate it because you are in all your rights. People can not violate your freedom of speech because you are not doing any harm to others around you. It is a free world where you can wear and speak out what is right. The students from Des Moines Independent Community School District have taught that no one can stop you from doing the right thing.
Women had a role in the forming of our country that many historians overlook. In the years leading to the revolution and after women were political activists. During the war, women took care of the home front. Some poor women followed the army and assisted to the troops. They acted as cooks, laundresses and nurses. There were even soldiers and spies that were women. After the revolution, women advocated for higher education. In the early 1800’s women aided in the increase of factories, and the changing of American society. Women in America were an important and active part of achieving independence and the framing of American life over the years.
Often historical events leading up to the twentieth century are dominated by men and the role of women is seemingly non-existent outside of reproduction. When one thinks of notable and memorable names and events of the Revolution, men are the first to be mentioned. The American Revolution was mainly dominated by men including George Washington, Samuel Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. There is no denying that men were vitally important to the American Revolution, but what were the women doing? Often overlooked, the women of the Revolution played a key role in the outcome of the nation. The women of the American Revolution, although not always recognized, were an influential society that assumed risky jobs like soldiers, as well as involvement
To begin with, there are many events in United States history that have shaped our general understanding of women’s involvement in economics, politics, the debates of gender and sexuality, and so forth. Women for many centuries have not been seen as a significant part of history, however under thorough analyzation of certain events, there are many women and woman-based events responsible for the progressiveness we experience in our daily lives as men, women, children, and individuals altogether. Many of these events aid people today to reflect on the treatment of current individuals today and to raise awareness to significant issues that were not resolved or acknowledged in the past.
Throughout most of recorded history, women generally have endured significantly fewer career opportunities and choices, and even less legal rights, than that of men. The “weaker sex,” women were long considered naturally, both physically and mentally, inferior to men. Delicate and feeble minded, women were unable to perform any task that required muscular or intellectual development. This idea of women being inherently weaker, coupled with their natural biological role of the child bearer, resulted in the stereotype that “a woman’s place is in the home.” Therefore, wife and mother were the major social roles and significant professions assigned to women, and were the ways in which women identified and expressed themselves. However, women’s history has also seen many instances in which these ideas were challenged-where women (and some men) fought for, and to a large degree accomplished, a re-evaluation of traditional views of their role in society.
Throughout history, Americans have fought for the rights of freedom in their country, freedoms that have been passed down through dozens of generations. Freedom’s such as religion, speech, the press, slavery and the right to vote. Americans, though very aware of their freedoms, often take them for granted and forget the struggles that their ancestors went through to obtain them. One example of this struggle is a woman’s right to be treated and looked upon by the government as equal. This was not an easy battle to win, and it took a strong few to begin to bring the struggle that women had faced for centuries to an end.
Remembering The Children’s Crusade, or known as one of the most stupefying events in history, could take anyone back in the days of segregation and great detriment to our own people. On May 2, 1963, a group of student protesters, in which were motivated by Martin Luther King Jr., partook in the 1963 campaign to desegregate Birmingham, Alabama. More than a thousand students skipped their classes and marched to downtown Birmingham using tactics of nonviolent direct action (Carson). The first day, hundreds were arrested and taken to jail in school buses and paddy wagons. On the second day, the children were surged with high-pressure fire hoses, attacked by police dogs, clubbed, and dragged to jail (Ward, Kelsey and Avery). The punishing of the African American race was harsh; when those punishments were mixed with how they protested for civil rights, it only got worse. Not all the time does one stop and realize that some whites felt the need to help out in some ways. Whether they could relate or they just truly had sympathy, these whites helped protest. When someone protests, they are expressing their objection to something. Whether it was more a silent protest or an aggressive protest, punishments to both races were given. During the Civil Rights Movement, white and black protesters were given some rare and extreme punishments for simply standing up for what they believed in.
Nothing simply begins. Everything needs something else in order to develop and live continuously. Fire needs wood to burn, water needs heat to boil, and the women’s right movement needed abolition to begin the real fight. The women’s rights movement of the nineteenth century emerged out of abolition activism because it was not until after abolitionist groups formed and began fighting slavery that women began to realize they had no rights themselves and began their own fight.
One hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation was written, African Americans were still fighting for equal rights in every day life. The first real success of this movement did not come until the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 which was followed by many boycotts and protests. The largest of these protests, the March on Washington, was held on August 28, 1963 “for jobs and freedom” (March on Washington 11). An incredible amount of preparation went into the event to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of people attending from around the nation and to deal with any potential incidents.
Throughout the 19th century, feminism played a huge role in society and women’s everyday lifestyle. Women had been living in a very restrictive society, and soon became tired of being told how they could and couldn’t live their lives. Soon, they all realized that they didn’t have to take it anymore, and as a whole they had enough power to make a change. That is when feminism started to change women’s roles in society. Before, women had little to no rights, while men, on the other hand, had all the rights. The feminist movement helped earn women the right to vote, but even then it wasn’t enough to get accepted into the workforce. They were given the strength to fight by the journey for equality and social justice. There has been known to be