1 00:00:06,047 --> 00:00:09,677 [brass crescendo] 2 00:00:09,759 --> 00:00:13,889 What do you think about when you think of America? 3 00:00:13,972 --> 00:00:15,812 ♪ This land is your land… ♪ 4 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:20,730 [announcer] This ball is crushed. 5 00:00:21,521 --> 00:00:23,231 -[bell dings] -[muffled speech] 6 00:00:24,399 --> 00:00:26,739 ♪ From California ♪ 7 00:00:28,111 --> 00:00:31,241 ♪ Well, to the New York island… ♪ 8 00:00:31,322 --> 00:00:34,242 [narrator] What words come to mind? Justice? 9 00:00:34,325 --> 00:00:36,235 Freedom? Equality? 10 00:00:36,327 --> 00:00:38,457 What about citizenship? 11 00:00:38,538 --> 00:00:40,958 [Obama] To my fellow Americans, our newest Americans, 12 00:00:41,041 --> 00:00:45,551 what a remarkable journey all of you have made. 13 00:00:45,628 --> 00:00:48,668 [narrator] The fabric of America is held together 14 00:00:48,757 --> 00:00:51,507 on the threads of these powerful ideas. 15 00:00:52,218 --> 00:00:56,558 People have fought and died over the definitions of these words, 16 00:00:57,140 --> 00:00:59,060 but what do they really mean? 17 00:01:00,477 --> 00:01:02,397 -[woman] What do we want? -[crowd] Justice! 18 00:01:02,479 --> 00:01:03,899 -When do we want it? -Now! 19 00:01:03,980 --> 00:01:08,690 [narrator] Every day as Americans, we are standing on the legacy of this fight. 20 00:01:08,777 --> 00:01:11,197 And we are challenged in every moment 21 00:01:11,279 --> 00:01:13,989 to live up to the promise of these ideals. 22 00:01:14,074 --> 00:01:16,494 The 14th Amendment of the Constitution… 23 00:01:16,576 --> 00:01:19,496 We want the 14th Amendment to apply to women. 24 00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:23,210 [narrator] The 14th Amendment is cited in more litigation 25 00:01:23,291 --> 00:01:25,001 than any other Amendment. 26 00:01:25,668 --> 00:01:29,838 From its ratification to today, its relevance has never wavered. 27 00:01:29,923 --> 00:01:32,223 And yet, we barely know it exists. 28 00:01:32,717 --> 00:01:36,217 [woman] What astounds me is that average, ordinary Americans 29 00:01:36,304 --> 00:01:39,144 are unabashed about talking about their First Amendment rights. 30 00:01:39,224 --> 00:01:41,524 There are Americans for whom the Second Amendment, 31 00:01:41,601 --> 00:01:43,941 that seems to be the most important to them. 32 00:01:44,020 --> 00:01:47,900 And yet, most of how we think about ourselves as Americans, 33 00:01:47,982 --> 00:01:50,572 most of what we are proudest of, 34 00:01:50,652 --> 00:01:55,532 and most of the ways in which we believe we are free 35 00:01:55,615 --> 00:01:58,115 are embedded in the 14th Amendment. 36 00:01:58,201 --> 00:02:01,451 So when I learned about it, I just had to tell you. 37 00:02:01,538 --> 00:02:02,998 This is why we're here. 38 00:02:03,081 --> 00:02:03,921 [man] Mark. 39 00:02:05,875 --> 00:02:06,915 [man] Action! 40 00:02:07,627 --> 00:02:10,797 [narrator] To tell our story, to tell its story. 41 00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:14,380 The story of the 14th Amendment. 42 00:02:24,477 --> 00:02:25,977 [narrator] The 14th Amendment. 43 00:02:26,062 --> 00:02:28,482 It's okay if you don't know it by heart but, 44 00:02:28,565 --> 00:02:31,895 it is the center of the promise of America 45 00:02:31,985 --> 00:02:33,645 and it goes something like this: 46 00:02:33,736 --> 00:02:38,156 If you're born in the United States, you're a citizen. Pretty simple, right? 47 00:02:38,241 --> 00:02:39,581 And under the law, 48 00:02:39,659 --> 00:02:44,039 everyone in America gets this thing called equal protection. 49 00:02:44,122 --> 00:02:48,382 That means we all have the same rights and the same legal protection, 50 00:02:48,459 --> 00:02:52,709 and no one can take those away without due process. 51 00:02:52,797 --> 00:02:54,587 That's your day in court. 52 00:02:54,674 --> 00:03:00,184 So, basically, the 14th Amendment says we're all equal players on the same team. 53 00:03:00,263 --> 00:03:02,313 And, as simple as that sounds, 54 00:03:02,891 --> 00:03:04,271 it's revolutionary. 55 00:03:04,350 --> 00:03:07,060 It's what the American Dream is made of. 56 00:03:10,315 --> 00:03:12,105 Were it not for the 14th Amendment, 57 00:03:12,192 --> 00:03:14,442 I would not be a citizen of the United States. 58 00:03:14,527 --> 00:03:15,777 [cheering and applause] 59 00:03:15,862 --> 00:03:17,412 [man] Without the 14th Amendment, 60 00:03:17,488 --> 00:03:20,658 marriage equality probably still wouldn't exist. 61 00:03:21,242 --> 00:03:23,082 [woman] I am married to a white man, 62 00:03:23,161 --> 00:03:26,831 which would not at all be possible without the 14th Amendment. 63 00:03:27,415 --> 00:03:31,205 [man] The fundamental promise that the 14th Amendment presents to us 64 00:03:31,294 --> 00:03:34,134 is the promise of a society of equals. 65 00:03:34,881 --> 00:03:36,511 [narrator] Growing up in Philly, 66 00:03:36,591 --> 00:03:40,301 my family was no stranger to the inequalities in this country. 67 00:03:40,386 --> 00:03:44,636 But, despite their struggles, my parents and grandparents 68 00:03:44,724 --> 00:03:48,734 believed wholeheartedly in the promise of America, 69 00:03:48,811 --> 00:03:51,401 and I've seen firsthand how the 14th Amendment 70 00:03:51,481 --> 00:03:54,361 lays out the path towards the American Dream. 71 00:03:54,943 --> 00:03:57,283 At the heart of the 14th Amendment 72 00:03:57,362 --> 00:04:00,702 is the definition of citizenship in America. 73 00:04:01,824 --> 00:04:05,294 It is through this definition that all the rights we cherish 74 00:04:05,370 --> 00:04:06,870 are granted and defended. 75 00:04:10,083 --> 00:04:11,583 To tell this story, 76 00:04:12,377 --> 00:04:15,957 we've got to go back to a time before the 14th Amendment existed, 77 00:04:16,047 --> 00:04:18,587 before slavery was abolished in America. 78 00:04:19,509 --> 00:04:20,839 We begin with one man, 79 00:04:21,719 --> 00:04:22,759 Frederick Douglass. 80 00:04:24,013 --> 00:04:25,773 You may have heard his name before, 81 00:04:25,848 --> 00:04:29,348 but he is so much more than his killer fro. 82 00:04:29,435 --> 00:04:31,515 ♪ I don't know 'bout y'all… ♪ 83 00:04:32,021 --> 00:04:34,691 Frederick Douglass is born into slavery 84 00:04:34,774 --> 00:04:39,324 at a time when slavery has been a part of this land for almost 200 years. 85 00:04:39,404 --> 00:04:41,074 ♪ It's just sweat and tears ♪ 86 00:04:41,155 --> 00:04:43,275 ♪ Mixed drippin' down my ears… ♪ 87 00:04:44,742 --> 00:04:47,162 No one would expect Douglass to gain his freedom, 88 00:04:47,245 --> 00:04:48,955 much less lead a revolution. 89 00:04:50,540 --> 00:04:52,830 Despite the risk of beatings or worse, 90 00:04:52,917 --> 00:04:56,167 Douglass breaks the law by teaching himself to read. 91 00:04:56,921 --> 00:04:59,801 And even though his first attempts to escape slavery fail, 92 00:05:00,967 --> 00:05:02,467 he doesn't give up. 93 00:05:02,552 --> 00:05:04,512 By the time he's 20 years old, 94 00:05:05,221 --> 00:05:07,811 he successfully escapes to New York City. 95 00:05:09,100 --> 00:05:10,390 That's where we meet him. 96 00:05:10,893 --> 00:05:15,863 -[train horn sounds] -[bell rings] 97 00:05:15,940 --> 00:05:19,860 -[background chatter] -[hooves click] 98 00:05:19,944 --> 00:05:22,534 "I'm in the great city of New York, safe and sound. 99 00:05:24,657 --> 00:05:26,407 Walking amid the hurrying throng 100 00:05:26,492 --> 00:05:29,292 and gazing amid the dazzling wonders of Broadway. 101 00:05:31,122 --> 00:05:33,172 Dreams of my childhood now fulfilled. 102 00:05:35,460 --> 00:05:38,340 A free state around me, and free earth under my feet." 103 00:05:38,421 --> 00:05:40,921 [emotional music] 104 00:05:41,007 --> 00:05:42,047 "What a moment." 105 00:05:42,550 --> 00:05:46,050 [man] When Frederick Douglass arrives in the streets of lower Manhattan 106 00:05:46,137 --> 00:05:47,427 an escaped slave, 107 00:05:47,513 --> 00:05:51,353 he at first feels this indescribable euphoria. 108 00:05:51,434 --> 00:05:54,524 Breathing free air for the first time in his life. 109 00:05:54,604 --> 00:05:56,564 [man] He tried to escape slavery before 110 00:05:56,647 --> 00:06:00,107 and now he seems to finally have achieved his freedom. 111 00:06:03,196 --> 00:06:06,736 And he bumps into this guy 112 00:06:06,824 --> 00:06:11,334 that he knows from Maryland who was also enslaved there, 113 00:06:11,412 --> 00:06:13,622 who Douglass knows as Jake. 114 00:06:13,706 --> 00:06:16,826 The guy says, "That's not who I am anymore." 115 00:06:16,918 --> 00:06:19,588 He says, "I'm William Dixon in New York." 116 00:06:19,670 --> 00:06:22,380 That Mr. Dixon tells him, "Don't trust anybody. 117 00:06:22,465 --> 00:06:24,375 Don't trust me. I don't trust you. 118 00:06:25,385 --> 00:06:27,045 Anyone here can betray you." 119 00:06:30,473 --> 00:06:34,353 [Bonner] Dixon tells Douglass to "keep your eyes peeled for slave catchers. 120 00:06:34,435 --> 00:06:35,935 Be on your guard." 121 00:06:36,896 --> 00:06:40,976 Also, there are histories of Black and white slave-catching rings. 122 00:06:41,859 --> 00:06:43,069 It's really simple. 123 00:06:43,152 --> 00:06:45,032 Douglass is worth a lot of money. 124 00:06:45,613 --> 00:06:47,533 Legally, someone owns him, 125 00:06:47,615 --> 00:06:49,825 and legally that person has a claim on them, 126 00:06:49,909 --> 00:06:53,369 can send out slave catchers in pursuit of this property that they own. 127 00:06:53,454 --> 00:06:55,254 [Blight] A price on their body, 128 00:06:55,331 --> 00:06:57,631 a price on their very existence. 129 00:06:59,085 --> 00:07:00,995 In the moment of his freedom, 130 00:07:02,296 --> 00:07:04,256 he realizes he's not free. 131 00:07:07,093 --> 00:07:12,143 Now, just because your society and laws don't recognize you as a citizen, 132 00:07:12,223 --> 00:07:15,063 it doesn't mean that a person, throughout time, 133 00:07:15,143 --> 00:07:17,733 doesn't declare that they have those rights. 134 00:07:18,938 --> 00:07:23,608 Douglass was certainly one of those who claimed every right as a citizen, 135 00:07:23,693 --> 00:07:27,283 despite the fact that the laws of his country denied them. 136 00:07:27,822 --> 00:07:30,412 Prior to the 14th Amendment, 137 00:07:30,491 --> 00:07:33,741 there is an open and notorious question, 138 00:07:33,828 --> 00:07:35,958 what makes one a citizen of the United States? 139 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:43,500 For African Americans, citizenship is a hotly debated, 140 00:07:44,046 --> 00:07:47,876 highly contentious, and very messy question. 141 00:07:48,384 --> 00:07:51,054 Citizenship is the right to have rights. 142 00:07:51,137 --> 00:07:54,517 [woman] You have the right to participate, the right to vote, 143 00:07:54,599 --> 00:07:56,979 you've got the right to call on the government 144 00:07:57,059 --> 00:07:59,559 and also to get protections against the government. 145 00:07:59,645 --> 00:08:02,765 [woman] All the things that we naturally take for granted, 146 00:08:02,857 --> 00:08:06,187 the benefit of all the laws, protection from violence, 147 00:08:06,903 --> 00:08:09,363 people prosecuted if they do something to us. 148 00:08:09,447 --> 00:08:13,777 If you're not a citizen, then you can't take advantage of those. 149 00:08:15,536 --> 00:08:18,036 [woman] "I spent the day gathering flowers 150 00:08:18,122 --> 00:08:20,672 and weaving them into festoons 151 00:08:20,750 --> 00:08:24,500 while the dead body of my father was lying within a mile of me. 152 00:08:25,421 --> 00:08:27,921 What cared my owners for that? 153 00:08:28,758 --> 00:08:30,928 He was merely a piece of property. 154 00:08:31,886 --> 00:08:35,306 Moreover, they thought he had spoiled his children 155 00:08:36,182 --> 00:08:38,982 by teaching them to feel that they were human beings. 156 00:08:39,936 --> 00:08:42,856 This was blasphemous doctrine for a slave to teach. 157 00:08:43,856 --> 00:08:45,476 Presumptuous in him, 158 00:08:46,275 --> 00:08:48,275 and dangerous to the masters. 159 00:08:49,570 --> 00:08:52,490 You never knew what it is to be a slave. 160 00:08:53,449 --> 00:08:56,789 To be entirely unprotected by law or custom. 161 00:08:58,079 --> 00:09:01,079 To have the laws reduce you to the condition of a chattel. 162 00:09:02,208 --> 00:09:05,208 Entirely subject to the will of another." 163 00:09:09,173 --> 00:09:10,803 [woman] There were people who said, 164 00:09:10,883 --> 00:09:13,593 "Citizenship belongs only to white people." 165 00:09:13,678 --> 00:09:16,508 The United States of America did not 166 00:09:16,597 --> 00:09:20,807 intend for people of color to be included in that definition. 167 00:09:22,061 --> 00:09:26,821 Remarkably, the founders don't think very hard about citizenship at all. 168 00:09:27,817 --> 00:09:32,317 [man] The original Constitution is kind of silent on the subject of citizenship. 169 00:09:32,405 --> 00:09:36,405 It doesn't have any statement of how someone becomes a citizen, 170 00:09:36,492 --> 00:09:38,742 or who is a citizen or who isn't. 171 00:09:38,828 --> 00:09:42,668 In that space of having this undefined term, "citizen," 172 00:09:42,748 --> 00:09:44,828 racism was allowed to flourish. 173 00:09:45,418 --> 00:09:49,508 [woman] "All men are created equal" is a founding ideal 174 00:09:49,589 --> 00:09:51,969 of the United States Constitution. 175 00:09:52,049 --> 00:09:56,969 We today understand that it was an ideal kind of embedded in the Constitution, 176 00:09:57,054 --> 00:09:59,064 but not at all a reality. 177 00:10:00,141 --> 00:10:02,981 [man] The Constitution talks a big game about freedom. 178 00:10:03,060 --> 00:10:05,980 Blah, blah, liberty, blah, blah, more perfect union, 179 00:10:06,063 --> 00:10:08,523 but it also has the Three-Fifths Compromise. 180 00:10:09,108 --> 00:10:10,108 It starts off fine. 181 00:10:10,192 --> 00:10:13,202 We're basing representatives on total number of free persons. 182 00:10:13,279 --> 00:10:14,239 Cool, cool. 183 00:10:14,322 --> 00:10:16,952 Excluding "Indians." Not cool. 184 00:10:17,575 --> 00:10:20,075 And three-fifths of all "other persons." 185 00:10:21,287 --> 00:10:25,207 "Other persons" is the Constitutional way of saying "urban." 186 00:10:25,291 --> 00:10:27,751 Now imagine that. Three-fifths a person? 187 00:10:27,835 --> 00:10:30,545 No, nothing to see here, just fractioning humanity. 188 00:10:30,630 --> 00:10:31,800 How did this happen? 189 00:10:31,881 --> 00:10:34,591 Well, the South wanted more representation, 190 00:10:34,675 --> 00:10:39,175 so they argued that slaves deserve representation, but not rights. 191 00:10:39,764 --> 00:10:43,024 Um, you just fought a revolutionary war about all this mess. 192 00:10:43,100 --> 00:10:44,980 How do you not see the irony in that? 193 00:10:45,061 --> 00:10:48,231 The majority of the first 16 presidents were slave owners. 194 00:10:49,607 --> 00:10:52,317 No wonder slavery didn't just die out on its own. 195 00:10:52,401 --> 00:10:55,071 And it also gave slaveholders a legal argument 196 00:10:55,154 --> 00:10:57,494 that the Constitution approves of slavery, 197 00:10:57,573 --> 00:11:00,993 of treating human beings like property before the law. 198 00:11:01,077 --> 00:11:04,367 We had the country founded on both the Declaration of Independence 199 00:11:04,455 --> 00:11:06,205 and the institution of slavery. 200 00:11:06,290 --> 00:11:08,750 And so for enslaved persons, they're citizens 201 00:11:08,834 --> 00:11:12,214 in the sense of being humans of moral worth and dignity, 202 00:11:12,296 --> 00:11:14,506 but they weren't citizens in the legal sense. 203 00:11:16,425 --> 00:11:19,425 [narrator] Some abolitionists, like Frederick Douglass, 204 00:11:19,512 --> 00:11:21,812 have this dangerous idea 205 00:11:21,889 --> 00:11:25,769 that enslaved people are actually citizens. 206 00:11:28,562 --> 00:11:29,562 So, what's next? 207 00:11:31,399 --> 00:11:35,359 They set out to see if they can stir up public support for this idea. 208 00:11:35,986 --> 00:11:39,366 Blacks born free in the North, like Frances Harper, 209 00:11:39,448 --> 00:11:43,368 share the story of oppression through essays and poetry. 210 00:11:43,953 --> 00:11:47,833 [woman] "We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, 211 00:11:47,915 --> 00:11:51,285 and society cannot trample on the weakest of its members 212 00:11:51,794 --> 00:11:54,424 without receiving the curse in its own soul." 213 00:11:54,505 --> 00:11:59,085 [narrator] They also, like Maria Stewart, lecture publicly on anti-slavery. 214 00:11:59,176 --> 00:12:02,256 "It is not the color of the skin that makes the man, 215 00:12:02,805 --> 00:12:05,975 but it is the principles formed within the soul." 216 00:12:06,600 --> 00:12:08,980 [narrator] Harriet Jacobs and her brother John Jacobs 217 00:12:09,061 --> 00:12:11,441 expose their experiences with slavery 218 00:12:11,522 --> 00:12:14,072 to provoke Americans into action. 219 00:12:14,775 --> 00:12:17,235 "All men are created free and equal by their maker 220 00:12:17,319 --> 00:12:19,819 and endowed with certain inalienable rights. 221 00:12:20,406 --> 00:12:22,866 Where are the Colored man's rights in today's America?" 222 00:12:24,869 --> 00:12:28,579 [Epps] The abolitionist movement is a fascinating part of American history 223 00:12:28,664 --> 00:12:31,884 that people don't fully understand, in part because it was so diverse. 224 00:12:34,587 --> 00:12:39,217 One branch of the abolitionist movement really believed the Constitution is evil, 225 00:12:39,300 --> 00:12:41,090 the Constitution is pro-slavery. 226 00:12:41,177 --> 00:12:44,507 They said that the US Constitution was a covenant with death 227 00:12:44,597 --> 00:12:45,847 and an agreement with Hell. 228 00:12:45,931 --> 00:12:49,691 They said what needed to happen was a destruction of the Constitution. 229 00:12:50,227 --> 00:12:51,557 "Let's dissolve the Union." 230 00:12:52,563 --> 00:12:54,193 But there was another wing. 231 00:12:54,273 --> 00:12:58,323 And the most famous member of that was Frederick Douglass. 232 00:12:58,903 --> 00:13:04,703 Douglass' first autobiography is certainly a risky project. 233 00:13:04,784 --> 00:13:08,704 Risky as an enslaved person, as a fugitive, 234 00:13:08,788 --> 00:13:11,078 to advertise oneself. 235 00:13:11,665 --> 00:13:15,705 He himself is still, in a formal legal sense, a slave. 236 00:13:15,795 --> 00:13:19,665 He is a person with a price, rather than a free man. 237 00:13:20,925 --> 00:13:24,345 [Blight] It became a classic instantaneously, and it still is. 238 00:13:25,054 --> 00:13:26,394 It's read all over the world. 239 00:13:27,932 --> 00:13:30,062 [Ifill] It was critical at that time 240 00:13:30,851 --> 00:13:32,691 to have someone like Frederick Douglass, 241 00:13:32,770 --> 00:13:34,730 a Black man who had been a slave, 242 00:13:34,814 --> 00:13:37,944 who could talk personally about the experience of slavery, 243 00:13:38,025 --> 00:13:40,145 who could talk about it from a human dimension. 244 00:13:40,736 --> 00:13:44,406 [Blight] He often said that his greatest fear during slavery 245 00:13:44,490 --> 00:13:48,870 was less the danger to his body than the danger to his mind. 246 00:13:48,953 --> 00:13:51,793 The internalization of the idea that some people 247 00:13:51,872 --> 00:13:54,382 are somehow born to be free, 248 00:13:54,458 --> 00:13:57,288 and others are born to be slaves. 249 00:13:59,922 --> 00:14:02,842 There is a moment in his first autobiography 250 00:14:02,925 --> 00:14:05,465 where he just stops, asking… 251 00:14:06,303 --> 00:14:07,433 "Why am I a slave?" 252 00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:12,480 [Blight] It's an ancient, existential question. 253 00:14:12,560 --> 00:14:13,770 "Why am I a slave? 254 00:14:14,645 --> 00:14:18,645 When these other white children I see are free to grow up, 255 00:14:18,732 --> 00:14:22,862 free to have books, free to be educated, free to roam and travel. 256 00:14:23,571 --> 00:14:24,661 Why am I a slave?" 257 00:14:30,786 --> 00:14:32,706 [Bonner] He's felt what it's like, 258 00:14:32,788 --> 00:14:35,418 the brutality of enslavement, the exploitation. 259 00:14:35,499 --> 00:14:38,789 He has decided that he's going to fight. 260 00:14:38,878 --> 00:14:40,168 [rhythmic clapping] 261 00:14:40,254 --> 00:14:42,264 ♪ I've been low… ♪ 262 00:14:42,339 --> 00:14:46,139 He travels all over the world speaking about his experience as a slave, 263 00:14:46,218 --> 00:14:48,848 speaking about the need for Black freedom. 264 00:14:48,929 --> 00:14:52,019 That is the cause to which he devotes his life. 265 00:14:52,099 --> 00:14:54,599 [Blight] He had a talent, a gift to get up and speak. 266 00:14:54,685 --> 00:14:57,265 Probably the greatest orator of the 19th century. 267 00:14:57,855 --> 00:14:59,975 ♪ I'm a Black man in a white world… ♪ 268 00:15:00,482 --> 00:15:04,242 He was so impressive that the Southern apologists 269 00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:06,910 kept spreading rumors that he'd never been a slave, 270 00:15:06,989 --> 00:15:09,449 that he'd been brought in from some other country, 271 00:15:09,533 --> 00:15:11,163 that he was an actor. 272 00:15:11,243 --> 00:15:13,453 There's no question about whether he wrote it. 273 00:15:14,622 --> 00:15:16,252 [crowd gasps] 274 00:15:16,332 --> 00:15:20,502 From 1848 on, he continues to bolster his public profile. 275 00:15:20,586 --> 00:15:22,086 He publishes The North Star, 276 00:15:22,171 --> 00:15:26,341 really incredibly popular among white abolitionists. 277 00:15:26,425 --> 00:15:28,715 There's this argument that Douglass is making, 278 00:15:28,802 --> 00:15:33,642 that he'll continue to make, for a transition from slave to citizen. 279 00:15:33,724 --> 00:15:36,694 ♪ Oh, it's all right I'm a Black man in a white world… ♪ 280 00:15:36,769 --> 00:15:41,399 [Bonner] 1852, Frederick Douglass is probably the most famous Black person 281 00:15:41,482 --> 00:15:42,612 in the world. 282 00:15:44,985 --> 00:15:48,735 [Epps] He understood that what he said was tremendously consequential 283 00:15:48,822 --> 00:15:52,492 for the strategy that would be taken by the anti-slavery movement. 284 00:15:53,953 --> 00:15:58,543 His argument was the Constitution is an anti-slavery document, 285 00:15:59,333 --> 00:16:00,753 it's pro-freedom. 286 00:16:00,834 --> 00:16:04,964 [Berry] He thought that the United States, with its Declaration of Independence 287 00:16:05,047 --> 00:16:07,677 and with its revolutionary tradition, 288 00:16:07,758 --> 00:16:10,678 that slavery was not something that should be tolerated. 289 00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:13,140 [man] According to Douglass, 290 00:16:13,222 --> 00:16:18,602 the Founding Fathers had not created a document that enshrined slavery, 291 00:16:18,686 --> 00:16:22,936 but in fact had created a document that guaranteed to every man 292 00:16:23,023 --> 00:16:24,863 the right of self-governance, 293 00:16:25,442 --> 00:16:28,072 of liberty, and of human rights. 294 00:16:28,153 --> 00:16:31,123 He did believe, and wanted to believe, 295 00:16:31,198 --> 00:16:35,908 that people like him really were part of the national community. 296 00:16:45,170 --> 00:16:48,590 [Blight] The Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester, New York 297 00:16:48,674 --> 00:16:52,094 invited Frederick Douglass to speak on the 4th of July. 298 00:16:52,845 --> 00:16:57,385 Six hundred people came to Corinthian Hall for this event. 299 00:17:00,769 --> 00:17:04,519 But his audience was not just the 600 people in the hall that day. 300 00:17:04,606 --> 00:17:06,316 His audience was us. 301 00:17:06,775 --> 00:17:08,605 His audience was the future. 302 00:17:09,361 --> 00:17:10,821 [narrator] Let me set the stage. 303 00:17:10,904 --> 00:17:15,584 Those 600 people in the audience are mostly white men and women. 304 00:17:16,076 --> 00:17:18,746 They generally agree with Frederick Douglass. 305 00:17:18,829 --> 00:17:23,329 But Douglass knows there's a difference between agreeing in theory 306 00:17:23,417 --> 00:17:27,297 and understanding deeply the reality on the ground. 307 00:17:28,213 --> 00:17:30,763 In order to really make them see, 308 00:17:31,675 --> 00:17:35,755 he's got to tell them the truth about themselves… 309 00:17:37,139 --> 00:17:38,559 …in 1852. 310 00:17:40,225 --> 00:17:41,765 This could get interesting. 311 00:17:42,269 --> 00:17:43,399 [exhales deeply] 312 00:17:46,774 --> 00:17:47,864 "Fellow citizens, 313 00:17:49,860 --> 00:17:52,950 the signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. 314 00:17:53,697 --> 00:17:55,117 Your fathers succeeded. 315 00:17:55,949 --> 00:17:59,239 And today, you reap the fruits of that success." 316 00:17:59,912 --> 00:18:02,542 [Blight] Douglass makes his audience feel very comfortable 317 00:18:02,623 --> 00:18:03,963 about the Fourth of July. 318 00:18:04,041 --> 00:18:06,421 He says the Founding Fathers were geniuses. 319 00:18:06,502 --> 00:18:10,342 They created this beautiful thing called the American Republic. 320 00:18:10,923 --> 00:18:12,553 It's a very calm opening. 321 00:18:12,633 --> 00:18:14,553 [faint applause] 322 00:18:14,635 --> 00:18:17,385 And then there's a moment where he says, "Pardon me." 323 00:18:18,347 --> 00:18:20,597 "Why am I called upon to speak here today? 324 00:18:23,102 --> 00:18:27,942 What have I, or those who I represent, to do with your national independence? 325 00:18:29,900 --> 00:18:32,150 The Fourth of July is yours, not mine. 326 00:18:32,236 --> 00:18:33,236 You may rejoice. 327 00:18:34,822 --> 00:18:35,952 I must mourn. 328 00:18:37,741 --> 00:18:39,581 Do you mean, citizens, to mock me 329 00:18:40,119 --> 00:18:42,119 by asking me to speak here today?" 330 00:18:45,040 --> 00:18:47,670 And then he blasts away at his audience 331 00:18:47,751 --> 00:18:51,381 with a litany of the terrors and horrors of the slave trade, 332 00:18:51,463 --> 00:18:53,723 slave auctions in the American South. 333 00:18:54,216 --> 00:18:56,886 -[jeering] -[whimpering] 334 00:18:56,969 --> 00:18:59,599 [Blight] He makes his audience feel their own senses. 335 00:19:00,305 --> 00:19:03,635 He tells them what the hold of a slave ship smelled like. 336 00:19:04,810 --> 00:19:08,400 He tells them the sounds and the feelings of a woman weeping 337 00:19:08,480 --> 00:19:09,650 as her child was sold. 338 00:19:10,524 --> 00:19:15,074 He takes them to the horrible heart of what slavery actually is. 339 00:19:15,154 --> 00:19:18,324 "To rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, 340 00:19:18,407 --> 00:19:21,617 to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with lash, 341 00:19:21,702 --> 00:19:24,162 to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh. 342 00:19:24,746 --> 00:19:27,326 Your shouts of liberty and equality, 343 00:19:27,416 --> 00:19:29,996 your sermons and thanksgivings are mere hypocrisy. 344 00:19:30,586 --> 00:19:32,246 There is not a nation on Earth 345 00:19:32,337 --> 00:19:34,297 guilty of practices more shocking and bloody 346 00:19:34,381 --> 00:19:37,091 than are the people of the United States at this very hour." 347 00:19:37,176 --> 00:19:38,086 [crowd gasps] 348 00:19:42,264 --> 00:19:43,184 Hmm. 349 00:19:43,682 --> 00:19:45,852 He's speaking to the people who are… 350 00:19:46,852 --> 00:19:49,982 on his side, and saying, "You're not on my side enough. 351 00:19:50,063 --> 00:19:54,033 You're not doing enough to fight slavery. 352 00:19:54,109 --> 00:19:55,359 It's 1852. 353 00:19:55,444 --> 00:19:58,284 I've been free for 14 years, 354 00:19:58,363 --> 00:20:00,123 but this is still going on." 355 00:20:00,199 --> 00:20:03,579 This is a nation that's supposed to be built around freedom, 356 00:20:04,369 --> 00:20:06,999 built around concepts of human equality. 357 00:20:08,165 --> 00:20:11,415 As long as slavery persists, the nation is a lie. 358 00:20:11,501 --> 00:20:14,171 "America is false to the past, false to the present, 359 00:20:14,254 --> 00:20:17,344 and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. 360 00:20:22,012 --> 00:20:23,562 Allow me to say in conclusion, 361 00:20:24,223 --> 00:20:26,183 I do not despair of this country. 362 00:20:27,809 --> 00:20:31,939 The doom of slavery is certain and I therefore leave off where I began… 363 00:20:35,067 --> 00:20:35,977 …with hope." 364 00:20:37,778 --> 00:20:44,328 -[applause and whistling] -[fireworks explode] 365 00:20:47,120 --> 00:20:49,960 I think he considers himself a citizen. 366 00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:53,250 The question is whether the government considers him a citizen. 367 00:20:53,335 --> 00:20:54,995 That's really the key thing. 368 00:20:55,087 --> 00:20:58,417 I think for so many people, so many African Americans, 369 00:20:58,507 --> 00:21:00,757 we've always thought of ourselves as citizens, 370 00:21:00,842 --> 00:21:03,802 always thought about the United States as being our country. 371 00:21:03,887 --> 00:21:07,097 The question's whether the country has thought about us that way back. 372 00:21:07,182 --> 00:21:08,932 [man] The United States Supreme Court 373 00:21:09,017 --> 00:21:11,517 is housed in this magnificent white marble edifice. 374 00:21:11,603 --> 00:21:13,563 Equal Justice Under Law. 375 00:21:14,231 --> 00:21:18,491 The language of the Constitution isn't always crystal clear. 376 00:21:19,152 --> 00:21:21,782 And that's one reason why we have the Supreme Court. 377 00:21:21,863 --> 00:21:24,493 Part of its job is to interpret, 378 00:21:24,574 --> 00:21:27,414 to help make sense of what the Constitution means 379 00:21:27,494 --> 00:21:30,004 and then hold us all accountable to it. 380 00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:31,830 It's our third branch of government 381 00:21:31,915 --> 00:21:34,835 and the ultimate authority of our judicial system. 382 00:21:35,460 --> 00:21:38,170 So, what did the Supreme Court have to say 383 00:21:38,255 --> 00:21:41,755 about who is or is not an American citizen? 384 00:21:43,719 --> 00:21:47,429 Eighteen fifty-seven, Dred Scott versus Sandford. 385 00:21:48,015 --> 00:21:51,055 Dred Scott's the worst decision ever made by the Supreme Court. 386 00:21:51,143 --> 00:21:53,603 The only debate is if it's the worst or second worst. 387 00:21:54,396 --> 00:21:57,356 Dred Scott is enslaved to a surgeon. 388 00:21:57,441 --> 00:22:02,281 The surgeon had brought Scott on a job from the slave state of Missouri 389 00:22:02,362 --> 00:22:05,162 into Wisconsin, which was a free state. 390 00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:07,910 Later, back in Missouri, the doctor died. 391 00:22:07,993 --> 00:22:11,003 Eventually, Scott goes to the Supreme Court 392 00:22:11,079 --> 00:22:14,999 arguing that once he had lived in a free state, 393 00:22:15,083 --> 00:22:18,633 he was no longer property, and became a free citizen. 394 00:22:18,712 --> 00:22:21,722 If the Court rules in favor of Dred Scott, 395 00:22:21,798 --> 00:22:26,138 enslaved people would have a clear path to become free citizens. 396 00:22:26,219 --> 00:22:29,309 If they rule against, the door is closed. 397 00:22:31,767 --> 00:22:35,687 "We think Negroes are not included, and were not intended to be included 398 00:22:35,771 --> 00:22:38,611 under the word 'citizens' in the Constitution, 399 00:22:38,690 --> 00:22:41,230 and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges 400 00:22:41,318 --> 00:22:42,988 which that instrument provides for 401 00:22:43,070 --> 00:22:45,570 and secures to the citizens of the United States." 402 00:22:45,655 --> 00:22:49,985 [Epps] The Court says, "We're going to go back to the framing of the Constitution 403 00:22:50,077 --> 00:22:54,247 and ask ourselves, 'What did those people intend in 1787?' 404 00:22:54,331 --> 00:22:56,001 It's obvious to me, 405 00:22:56,708 --> 00:22:57,878 Roger B. Taney, 406 00:22:57,959 --> 00:23:00,709 they didn't want Black people as part of their country. 407 00:23:00,796 --> 00:23:04,546 They didn't put it in the Constitution because it would never occur to them 408 00:23:04,633 --> 00:23:07,303 that anyone would be stupid enough to allow non-whites 409 00:23:07,386 --> 00:23:09,636 into the American body politic." 410 00:23:09,721 --> 00:23:14,431 "They had for more than a century been regarded as beings of an inferior order 411 00:23:14,518 --> 00:23:17,478 and altogether unfit to associate with the white race. 412 00:23:17,562 --> 00:23:20,112 And so far inferior that they had no rights 413 00:23:20,190 --> 00:23:22,440 which the white man was bound to respect." 414 00:23:25,612 --> 00:23:28,992 [Jones] Its rhetoric is bone-chilling. 415 00:23:29,074 --> 00:23:32,164 African Americans are indeed not citizens. 416 00:23:32,244 --> 00:23:34,254 Never were, never can be. 417 00:23:36,665 --> 00:23:39,575 It affirmed the idea that, no matter what their status, 418 00:23:39,668 --> 00:23:43,418 free or enslaved, Black people were not equal to white people. 419 00:23:43,505 --> 00:23:46,465 They were not fully human. They were not evolved. 420 00:23:47,551 --> 00:23:49,471 [Blight] The Dred Scott case announces 421 00:23:49,553 --> 00:23:52,813 that Black people can never be citizens of the United States. 422 00:23:52,889 --> 00:23:55,979 Dred Scott himself never even had the right to sue. 423 00:24:01,106 --> 00:24:03,606 [Epps] Frederick Douglass had insisted 424 00:24:03,692 --> 00:24:07,742 anti-slavery politics could operate in harmony with the Constitution. 425 00:24:09,406 --> 00:24:12,196 But the Court seemed to leave no way forward. 426 00:24:13,326 --> 00:24:16,076 They said, "No, the Constitution is completely pro-slavery." 427 00:24:16,163 --> 00:24:20,333 The Constitution is totally anti-Douglass, if you will. 428 00:24:21,460 --> 00:24:25,130 Citizenship, it's the locus of rights. 429 00:24:25,964 --> 00:24:27,304 After Dred Scott, 430 00:24:27,799 --> 00:24:30,389 Douglass can never be part of this community, 431 00:24:30,969 --> 00:24:33,099 never be an American citizen. 432 00:24:35,724 --> 00:24:37,524 So, the question then became, 433 00:24:38,101 --> 00:24:39,351 "What's the next step?" 434 00:24:49,029 --> 00:24:53,369 The South wants the stamp of national approval on slavery. 435 00:24:54,826 --> 00:24:56,326 They can't have it. 436 00:24:56,411 --> 00:24:58,711 [woman] Lincoln was a big critic of that case. 437 00:24:58,788 --> 00:25:00,248 That was partly what he ran on. 438 00:25:00,332 --> 00:25:03,292 If it were not for the reaction to Dred Scott, 439 00:25:03,376 --> 00:25:06,456 many people think that he would not have become the president. 440 00:25:06,546 --> 00:25:10,006 And you will be the greatest president in our history. 441 00:25:11,635 --> 00:25:13,795 [Suk Gersen] Lincoln also saw the country 442 00:25:13,887 --> 00:25:18,227 moving to fight over this question of the legality of slavery. 443 00:25:18,308 --> 00:25:21,188 [artillery fire] 444 00:25:24,523 --> 00:25:27,693 -[fireworks explode] -[cheering and applause] 445 00:25:27,776 --> 00:25:29,686 [artillery fire] 446 00:25:30,737 --> 00:25:33,817 So, Lincoln understands that slavery is bad, 447 00:25:33,907 --> 00:25:35,027 which is a good start, 448 00:25:35,116 --> 00:25:36,326 but… 449 00:25:36,409 --> 00:25:37,579 [sighs] 450 00:25:37,661 --> 00:25:38,791 …he says that, 451 00:25:38,870 --> 00:25:41,960 "If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, 452 00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:43,120 I would do so." 453 00:25:44,668 --> 00:25:48,048 If the Civil War is over slavery, 454 00:25:48,129 --> 00:25:52,759 then why doesn't Lincoln immediately free all the enslaved people in the South? 455 00:25:53,677 --> 00:25:56,927 Because his goal is preserving the Union. 456 00:25:57,013 --> 00:25:59,273 The South has just seceded. 457 00:25:59,349 --> 00:26:01,689 They're calling themselves the Confederacy now. 458 00:26:01,768 --> 00:26:06,478 Lincoln is not going to be the president that straight-up loses half the country. 459 00:26:06,565 --> 00:26:08,645 He has got to get the South back, 460 00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:12,569 and at this point, he'll do whatever it takes to win, 461 00:26:12,654 --> 00:26:16,164 even if it's at the expense of Black Americans. 462 00:26:16,741 --> 00:26:19,201 [Blight] In the midst of all the chaos, 463 00:26:19,286 --> 00:26:21,826 Abraham Lincoln invited a small group 464 00:26:21,913 --> 00:26:24,333 of African American leaders to the White House. 465 00:26:24,958 --> 00:26:28,128 He had stenographers and the press there to record this, 466 00:26:28,211 --> 00:26:30,961 and in effect Lincoln did not have a discussion with them, 467 00:26:31,047 --> 00:26:32,217 he gave them a lecture. 468 00:26:33,049 --> 00:26:35,389 [man] "Your race are suffering, in my judgment, 469 00:26:35,468 --> 00:26:38,348 the greatest wrong inflicted on any people. 470 00:26:38,430 --> 00:26:40,720 But even when you cease to be slaves, 471 00:26:41,224 --> 00:26:46,694 you are yet far removed from being placed on an equality with the white race." 472 00:26:48,607 --> 00:26:50,607 I do not like where this is going. 473 00:26:51,735 --> 00:26:55,405 "Consider what we know to be the truth. But for your race among us, 474 00:26:55,488 --> 00:26:56,818 there could not be war." 475 00:26:56,906 --> 00:27:01,116 He basically blames the presence of Black people in America 476 00:27:01,202 --> 00:27:02,332 for the Civil War, 477 00:27:03,204 --> 00:27:05,624 and then he wants to get them 478 00:27:05,707 --> 00:27:11,377 to endorse a plan to quote-unquote colonize freed Black people 479 00:27:11,463 --> 00:27:13,013 outside the United States. 480 00:27:13,089 --> 00:27:15,549 "There is an unwillingness on the part of our people, 481 00:27:15,634 --> 00:27:16,934 harsh as it may be, 482 00:27:17,010 --> 00:27:20,140 for you free Colored people to remain with us. 483 00:27:20,221 --> 00:27:23,021 It is better for us both, therefore, to be separated." 484 00:27:23,099 --> 00:27:24,599 Whoa, time out. 485 00:27:24,684 --> 00:27:28,564 You're Abraham Lincoln, right? The dude on the penny? 486 00:27:29,856 --> 00:27:30,896 Okay, keep going. 487 00:27:31,650 --> 00:27:34,110 He's saying, "We all understand 488 00:27:34,194 --> 00:27:37,414 that equality is what this country is supposed to be about, 489 00:27:37,489 --> 00:27:40,909 but, really, racial equality is not going to happen. 490 00:27:40,992 --> 00:27:42,952 So, get with the program." 491 00:27:43,036 --> 00:27:47,616 "The place I'm thinking about having for a colony is Central America." 492 00:27:47,707 --> 00:27:49,747 What? Wait. 493 00:27:49,834 --> 00:27:55,514 The enlightened, progressive president who ultimately ended slavery 494 00:27:55,590 --> 00:27:59,050 first wanted to send Black Americans to Costa Rica? 495 00:28:00,387 --> 00:28:01,467 ¿Por qué? 496 00:28:02,305 --> 00:28:05,345 Douglass is… He's outraged. 497 00:28:06,393 --> 00:28:08,523 Part of what Lincoln is doing here is 498 00:28:08,603 --> 00:28:13,153 trying to get at that gnawing uncertainty in Black people 499 00:28:13,233 --> 00:28:17,283 that maybe we can't actually belong in this country. 500 00:28:17,362 --> 00:28:21,452 This is what African Americans fear might be their fate, 501 00:28:22,033 --> 00:28:24,243 if in fact they are not citizens. 502 00:28:24,744 --> 00:28:28,254 Douglass responded, "No, it is not the presence of Black people. 503 00:28:28,331 --> 00:28:32,751 It is slavery and the power that slave owners have, 504 00:28:32,836 --> 00:28:37,046 and the way it warps the whole society. That is the cause of the Civil War." 505 00:28:39,134 --> 00:28:41,434 [artillery fire] 506 00:28:41,511 --> 00:28:46,351 This was all in the midst, we have to remember, of all-out Civil War. 507 00:28:46,891 --> 00:28:50,731 -[shouting] -[gunfire] 508 00:28:51,730 --> 00:28:55,150 [Blight] And that summer, his side is not winning the war. 509 00:28:56,317 --> 00:28:58,857 [artillery fire] 510 00:28:58,945 --> 00:29:02,865 [man] In a war like that, you needed every soldier you could get. 511 00:29:02,949 --> 00:29:06,239 But the government kept insisting that Blacks couldn't be in the militia. 512 00:29:06,327 --> 00:29:08,577 They couldn't be in the regular army. 513 00:29:09,998 --> 00:29:12,288 "They're savages. They'll run amok. 514 00:29:12,375 --> 00:29:15,335 You give them arms, they'll massacre every white person they see." 515 00:29:15,420 --> 00:29:21,300 [rhythmic drumming] 516 00:29:21,384 --> 00:29:23,934 [as Douglass] "Why does the government reject the Negro? 517 00:29:25,305 --> 00:29:26,505 Is he not a man?" 518 00:29:29,601 --> 00:29:31,901 Our generals are calling for men. 519 00:29:31,978 --> 00:29:33,768 'Send us men,' they scream. 520 00:29:35,732 --> 00:29:38,032 I have implored the imperiled nation 521 00:29:38,109 --> 00:29:41,109 to unchain against her foes her powerful Black hand. 522 00:29:41,196 --> 00:29:43,946 Liberty won by white men would lose half its luster. 523 00:29:44,449 --> 00:29:47,289 Who would be free themselves must strike the blow." 524 00:29:51,289 --> 00:29:53,169 [Blight] Douglass makes the case 525 00:29:53,666 --> 00:29:56,836 that if Black men go to war and bleed for their country, 526 00:29:56,920 --> 00:30:00,840 that they could never then be denied the rights of citizenship. 527 00:30:00,924 --> 00:30:02,684 He makes that point explicitly. 528 00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:06,390 [Foner] He toured the country giving speeches. 529 00:30:06,471 --> 00:30:09,391 You couldn't win the war without abolishing slavery. 530 00:30:09,474 --> 00:30:12,314 You couldn't win the war without enlisting Black soldiers 531 00:30:12,393 --> 00:30:14,523 into the Civil War, into the Union Army. 532 00:30:16,064 --> 00:30:19,324 [Bonner] He's trying to manipulate Lincoln to invite Black people 533 00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:21,860 to join this fight against the slave owners. 534 00:30:23,196 --> 00:30:26,906 Douglass is convinced they will prove they are citizens, 535 00:30:26,991 --> 00:30:29,241 that they're deserving of rights, 536 00:30:29,327 --> 00:30:31,537 and that they're deserving of legal equality. 537 00:30:32,038 --> 00:30:33,538 [rhythmic drumming] 538 00:30:33,623 --> 00:30:36,793 [Foner] He couldn't at this point really conceive of the United States 539 00:30:36,876 --> 00:30:38,626 as a biracial society, 540 00:30:39,212 --> 00:30:43,802 but his views will begin to move forward very, very dramatically. 541 00:30:44,676 --> 00:30:47,926 Finally, Frederick Douglass' efforts work. 542 00:30:48,429 --> 00:30:52,559 Desperate for soldiers, Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, 543 00:30:53,059 --> 00:30:55,729 freeing enslaved Americans in the Southern states. 544 00:30:56,271 --> 00:30:58,691 Now Black men can join the Union Army. 545 00:30:59,232 --> 00:31:00,902 These Black soldiers get to prove 546 00:31:00,984 --> 00:31:03,704 what Frederick Douglass has been saying all along. 547 00:31:03,778 --> 00:31:06,408 They want to fight for their freedom. 548 00:31:06,489 --> 00:31:07,659 ♪ Our world ♪ 549 00:31:07,740 --> 00:31:09,990 ♪ Yeah, the whole world's ours ♪ 550 00:31:10,076 --> 00:31:11,906 ♪ Our world ♪ 551 00:31:12,495 --> 00:31:15,915 ♪ It's time we show 'em the power The world is ours, uh ♪ 552 00:31:17,375 --> 00:31:21,745 [Foner] The Emancipation Proclamation is a critical turning point in the war, 553 00:31:22,547 --> 00:31:28,087 adding, by the end, 200,000 Black men to the Union Army and Navy. 554 00:31:29,679 --> 00:31:34,519 It was not just a war of small battles and regular armies fighting. 555 00:31:34,601 --> 00:31:37,231 It was mass armies, both North and South. 556 00:31:38,521 --> 00:31:42,151 The Emancipation Proclamation is issued as a military order. 557 00:31:42,233 --> 00:31:43,823 It's to help win the war. 558 00:31:43,902 --> 00:31:45,452 ♪ This is our world ♪ 559 00:31:45,528 --> 00:31:47,198 [Ifill] We were supposed to be lazy, 560 00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:50,070 we were supposed to be cowardly and undisciplined. 561 00:31:50,158 --> 00:31:52,948 And so to have African Americans serve, 562 00:31:53,036 --> 00:31:56,746 and serve nobly, was such a powerful riposte 563 00:31:56,831 --> 00:31:58,921 to those narratives that were being advanced. 564 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:01,500 ♪ They feelin' us now, uh ♪ 565 00:32:01,586 --> 00:32:05,716 [applause and cheering] 566 00:32:05,798 --> 00:32:07,878 [artillery fire] 567 00:32:09,260 --> 00:32:14,930 [Ifill] It was powerful for Black people to be on the front, to shed blood. 568 00:32:15,016 --> 00:32:17,016 [artillery fire] 569 00:32:17,936 --> 00:32:22,646 Black service in the military began to change white racial attitudes. 570 00:32:22,732 --> 00:32:26,992 Many, many Northerners, who had never thought about Blacks as being citizens, 571 00:32:27,070 --> 00:32:30,450 believed that, by their service in the Army, 572 00:32:30,531 --> 00:32:35,241 they have earned the right to be equal citizens of the United States. 573 00:32:35,828 --> 00:32:40,418 [Ifill] Two of Douglass' sons serve in the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry. 574 00:32:42,502 --> 00:32:46,382 [Blight] He saw the tremendous real and symbolic power 575 00:32:46,881 --> 00:32:51,181 of Black men putting, as he said, the label "U.S." on their belt. 576 00:32:53,262 --> 00:32:57,392 "We want a country which shall not brand the Declaration of Independence as a lie. 577 00:32:58,559 --> 00:33:01,809 The mission of this war is national regeneration." 578 00:33:02,897 --> 00:33:06,777 [Bonner] Since the start of the war, Douglass is saying that the war 579 00:33:06,859 --> 00:33:09,109 would not only transform Black people's lives, 580 00:33:09,195 --> 00:33:11,565 but transform the United States as a whole. 581 00:33:11,656 --> 00:33:13,866 "We are not fighting for the old Union as it was, 582 00:33:14,450 --> 00:33:16,790 but for something 10,000 times more important. 583 00:33:16,869 --> 00:33:20,959 And that thing, crisply rendered, is national unity. 584 00:33:21,833 --> 00:33:24,593 A unity of which the great principles of liberty and equality 585 00:33:24,669 --> 00:33:27,919 and not slavery and class superiority are the cornerstone." 586 00:33:28,006 --> 00:33:30,126 [Bonner] He's defining the Civil War. 587 00:33:30,216 --> 00:33:31,626 The country is destined. 588 00:33:31,718 --> 00:33:33,548 That it's essential that the country 589 00:33:33,636 --> 00:33:37,766 will live up to the creed of its founding documents. 590 00:33:39,434 --> 00:33:43,024 [Foner] The war must end not only with the defeat of the Confederacy, 591 00:33:43,104 --> 00:33:47,114 but with a new nation being created, one based now on equality. 592 00:33:48,026 --> 00:33:50,696 [birds sing] 593 00:33:50,778 --> 00:33:53,408 [Bonner] Part of the hardship of the Civil War 594 00:33:53,489 --> 00:33:57,039 is seeing how many people are dying, 595 00:33:58,286 --> 00:34:02,826 and Lincoln is having to grapple with the question of why. 596 00:34:07,295 --> 00:34:09,255 [as Lincoln] "Four score and seven years ago, 597 00:34:09,338 --> 00:34:12,718 our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, 598 00:34:13,217 --> 00:34:14,467 conceived in liberty, 599 00:34:15,720 --> 00:34:19,600 and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." 600 00:34:20,892 --> 00:34:24,152 A way to think about Gettysburg is that it's an echo 601 00:34:24,228 --> 00:34:26,768 of what Douglass has been saying. 602 00:34:27,356 --> 00:34:31,106 Emancipation is the definition of the war effort. 603 00:34:31,861 --> 00:34:35,871 "This nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom." 604 00:34:36,449 --> 00:34:39,579 Lincoln's most famous line here, "A new birth of freedom." 605 00:34:40,328 --> 00:34:44,288 That's something that Douglass had been saying since the start of the war. 606 00:34:44,373 --> 00:34:49,053 And that's rhetoric not that dissimilar from what Douglass talks about, 607 00:34:49,128 --> 00:34:53,128 national regeneration, a new birth of freedom. 608 00:34:53,216 --> 00:34:57,256 Both of them now are seeing the Civil War as creating something new. 609 00:34:57,345 --> 00:35:02,175 "And that government of the people, by the people, for the people 610 00:35:03,434 --> 00:35:05,484 shall not perish from the Earth." 611 00:35:06,896 --> 00:35:09,816 [Bonner] Part of what he's doing in Gettysburg is helping himself 612 00:35:09,899 --> 00:35:12,899 grapple with the tragedy, the human cost of the war. 613 00:35:12,985 --> 00:35:15,945 If this is a war about the Union, 614 00:35:16,030 --> 00:35:19,240 then maybe too many people have died. 615 00:35:19,325 --> 00:35:23,445 But if this is a war about emancipation, if this is a war for Black freedom, 616 00:35:23,538 --> 00:35:26,788 uh, then maybe Gettysburg is worth it. 617 00:35:29,961 --> 00:35:34,051 This is where I think Lincoln becomes so compelling, 618 00:35:34,132 --> 00:35:36,012 is that you really see… 619 00:35:37,301 --> 00:35:39,551 how much a person can change. 620 00:35:40,346 --> 00:35:43,516 For Lincoln to go from urging colonization 621 00:35:43,599 --> 00:35:46,889 to talking about Black people's future is incredible. 622 00:35:48,646 --> 00:35:52,186 [Foner] I think they came to respect one another very deeply. 623 00:35:54,986 --> 00:35:57,196 They were both self-made men. 624 00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:00,370 Lincoln had one year of formal schooling. Douglass had none. 625 00:36:02,243 --> 00:36:07,213 Both of them had risen to prominence through their wits, through their mind. 626 00:36:07,707 --> 00:36:10,957 Whatever they became, they made themselves into, 627 00:36:11,043 --> 00:36:14,923 and I think they were kind of kindred spirits in that respect. 628 00:36:15,673 --> 00:36:17,973 [Bonner] Douglass is feeling really optimistic 629 00:36:18,050 --> 00:36:22,720 that he can continue to work with Lincoln toward a Black American future. 630 00:36:31,564 --> 00:36:34,194 On April 9th, 1865, 631 00:36:34,275 --> 00:36:37,525 General Lee of the Confederacy surrenders to the Union, 632 00:36:38,279 --> 00:36:41,369 marking the beginning of the end of the Civil War. 633 00:36:42,950 --> 00:36:45,330 Sometimes history appoints certain people, 634 00:36:45,411 --> 00:36:47,871 like Douglass, to be the voice of a movement, 635 00:36:48,664 --> 00:36:51,544 and when they can find an advocate like President Lincoln, 636 00:36:51,626 --> 00:36:53,626 who's willing to listen and change, 637 00:36:53,711 --> 00:36:57,261 its incredible to see what those leaders can accomplish together. 638 00:36:57,340 --> 00:37:03,050 Unfortunately, history can also cut those relationships tragically short. 639 00:37:04,889 --> 00:37:09,519 [man] In celebration of Lee's surrender, Lincoln gave a speech 640 00:37:09,602 --> 00:37:13,942 to say that African American soldiers who had served in the Union Army 641 00:37:14,023 --> 00:37:15,863 ought to be given the right to vote. 642 00:37:15,942 --> 00:37:18,992 One of the people in the crowd that day listening to the speech 643 00:37:19,070 --> 00:37:20,280 was John Wilkes Booth. 644 00:37:21,113 --> 00:37:25,203 Booth was upset at the idea of equal citizenship, 645 00:37:25,284 --> 00:37:28,964 and he turned to a friend and said, 646 00:37:29,038 --> 00:37:31,418 "That's the last speech that he'll ever make." 647 00:37:31,499 --> 00:37:32,459 [gunshot] 648 00:37:35,127 --> 00:37:41,717 [mournful music] 649 00:37:54,772 --> 00:37:55,692 [man sighs] 650 00:38:00,236 --> 00:38:02,656 Eight months after Lincoln's assassination, 651 00:38:02,738 --> 00:38:05,158 the 13th Amendment is ratified, 652 00:38:05,783 --> 00:38:07,743 finally abolishing slavery 653 00:38:07,827 --> 00:38:11,657 and permanently freeing every enslaved person in America. 654 00:38:11,747 --> 00:38:14,167 But freedom isn't the end of the story. 655 00:38:15,167 --> 00:38:19,127 We think of the assassination of Lincoln as a great tragedy, and it is, 656 00:38:19,213 --> 00:38:21,973 but the real tragedy is that his assassination means 657 00:38:22,049 --> 00:38:24,759 that the presidency passes to Andrew Johnson. 658 00:38:28,973 --> 00:38:31,273 [man] "This is a country for white men, 659 00:38:31,851 --> 00:38:36,771 and, by God, as long as I am president, it shall be a government for white men." 660 00:38:38,274 --> 00:38:41,614 [Ifill] He is reactionary, he is racist, he is bigoted. 661 00:38:41,694 --> 00:38:44,824 He is as far from Lincoln as the sun is from the moon. 662 00:38:45,448 --> 00:38:47,738 [Epps] He loved the idea of big rallies. 663 00:38:47,825 --> 00:38:51,155 He loved to get up and make long speeches, largely about himself. 664 00:38:51,245 --> 00:38:55,325 I think we've all seen political figures like this at various points in history. 665 00:38:57,043 --> 00:39:00,133 [Rahman] Once he becomes president, he more or less says upfront 666 00:39:00,212 --> 00:39:04,682 that his goal is to prevent the dilution of citizenship. 667 00:39:05,259 --> 00:39:07,969 [Blight] Frederick Douglass went to the White House 668 00:39:08,054 --> 00:39:09,514 to visit this president. 669 00:39:09,597 --> 00:39:10,807 It was a terrible moment. 670 00:39:10,890 --> 00:39:13,100 [Ifill] Andrew Johnson makes very clear 671 00:39:13,184 --> 00:39:15,854 that he thinks that Frederick Douglass is beneath him. 672 00:39:15,936 --> 00:39:18,186 He thinks Black people should be grateful to him. 673 00:39:18,272 --> 00:39:20,652 "I've owned slaves, and I have bought slaves, 674 00:39:20,733 --> 00:39:22,573 but I've never sold one. 675 00:39:22,651 --> 00:39:25,821 Practically, so far as my connection with slaves has gone, 676 00:39:25,905 --> 00:39:29,195 I've been their slave instead of their being mine." 677 00:39:29,700 --> 00:39:34,370 [Foner] After the meeting with Douglass, Johnson said to his secretary… 678 00:39:34,455 --> 00:39:36,075 "I know that damn Douglass. 679 00:39:37,291 --> 00:39:38,921 He's like any other nigger. 680 00:39:39,543 --> 00:39:42,053 He would sooner cut a white man's throat than not." 681 00:39:43,172 --> 00:39:45,132 You're not likely to get Andrew Johnson 682 00:39:45,216 --> 00:39:49,346 supporting vigorous enforcement of the rights of the former slaves, 683 00:39:49,428 --> 00:39:51,218 which of course he did not do. 684 00:39:53,933 --> 00:39:56,063 [man] I get it. Johnson's a racist, 685 00:39:56,143 --> 00:39:58,403 but a racist president shouldn't hurt Black people 686 00:39:58,479 --> 00:40:00,019 now that slavery's been abolished. 687 00:40:00,106 --> 00:40:03,436 If you hated Black people so much, you shouldn't have joined the Union. 688 00:40:03,526 --> 00:40:04,356 Too late now. 689 00:40:05,486 --> 00:40:08,816 Hold up, just because you're free, doesn't mean you're a citizen, 690 00:40:08,906 --> 00:40:10,156 and without citizenship, 691 00:40:10,241 --> 00:40:13,541 Black folks have no recourse against Southern attacks on Black freedom. 692 00:40:13,619 --> 00:40:15,409 As soon as the 13th is passed, 693 00:40:15,496 --> 00:40:18,916 state legislatures across the South pass Black Codes. 694 00:40:18,999 --> 00:40:22,589 While the name Black Code sounds like an amazing new Shonda Rhimes show, 695 00:40:22,670 --> 00:40:24,130 uh-uh, it's anything but. 696 00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:26,340 We're talking about laws. 697 00:40:26,424 --> 00:40:29,434 See, many of these laws require Black people and only Black people 698 00:40:29,510 --> 00:40:32,680 to sign year-long labor contracts with white employers, 699 00:40:32,763 --> 00:40:35,353 and tax them up to $100 for taking employment 700 00:40:35,433 --> 00:40:38,143 as anything other than a farmer or servant. 701 00:40:38,644 --> 00:40:42,574 And they even force Black children into mandatory "apprenticeships" 702 00:40:42,648 --> 00:40:44,608 to keep them in the labor force. Kids! 703 00:40:45,401 --> 00:40:48,991 Sure, while the North is outraged, these Southern legislatures basically say, 704 00:40:49,071 --> 00:40:51,701 "What are you talking about? Black Codes aren't slavery. 705 00:40:51,782 --> 00:40:55,372 It's an entirely different word. [scoffs] It's two words, even. 706 00:40:55,453 --> 00:40:57,583 And look. They're getting paid now." 707 00:40:58,164 --> 00:40:59,004 Right. 708 00:40:59,081 --> 00:41:02,711 But guess what happens if a Black person refuses these new restrictions? 709 00:41:02,793 --> 00:41:05,463 What happened if they tried to exercise their freedom? 710 00:41:05,546 --> 00:41:08,296 Well, they could be taken to jail 711 00:41:08,382 --> 00:41:11,262 and surprise, surprise, forced into labor… 712 00:41:11,343 --> 00:41:12,553 without pay. 713 00:41:13,137 --> 00:41:15,557 The New York Herald Tribune even runs this headline: 714 00:41:16,348 --> 00:41:19,938 "South Carolina Re-establishing Slavery." 715 00:41:20,019 --> 00:41:21,229 Can you imagine? 716 00:41:21,312 --> 00:41:25,192 Black folks just fought, and won, an entire war for their freedom, 717 00:41:25,274 --> 00:41:26,734 and this is what they get? 718 00:41:29,904 --> 00:41:34,124 The 13th Amendment isn't gonna cut it. Question is, what will? 719 00:41:35,868 --> 00:41:39,788 Enter John Bingham, an Ohio Congressman. 720 00:41:40,498 --> 00:41:42,828 Bingham believes in freedom for everyone. 721 00:41:43,459 --> 00:41:44,419 True freedom. 722 00:41:44,919 --> 00:41:49,089 "I take exception to the abuse of the word 'nigger.' 723 00:41:49,173 --> 00:41:51,803 To me, it does not denote color of skin, 724 00:41:52,343 --> 00:41:57,103 but designates a class of creatures by the color of their souls. 725 00:41:58,349 --> 00:42:00,889 Those who set their feet upon defenseless fellow men 726 00:42:00,976 --> 00:42:04,146 and convert them into what we call a 'slave.' 727 00:42:04,730 --> 00:42:06,730 These man-stealers, 728 00:42:06,815 --> 00:42:09,645 though their skins be as white as the driven snow, 729 00:42:10,236 --> 00:42:11,486 are the real niggers." 730 00:42:13,822 --> 00:42:16,412 He's looking at what's happening in the South, like, 731 00:42:16,492 --> 00:42:18,622 "Y'all, it's not looking too good down there." 732 00:42:19,286 --> 00:42:24,326 He's like, "We have to do something. We have to amend the Constitution. 733 00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:27,670 Provide them equal citizenship." 734 00:42:28,254 --> 00:42:29,924 [Blight] John Bingham, among others, 735 00:42:30,005 --> 00:42:35,385 led the way to argue for and craft the heart of the 14th Amendment. 736 00:42:38,264 --> 00:42:42,104 What Bingham wants is to do exactly what Frederick Douglass called for 737 00:42:42,184 --> 00:42:43,814 in his Fourth of July speech: 738 00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:47,570 Make America live up to its promise, 739 00:42:48,357 --> 00:42:51,937 to expand American citizenship in the Constitution, 740 00:42:52,027 --> 00:42:54,067 to right the wrongs of Dred Scott 741 00:42:54,738 --> 00:42:58,908 and secure the blessings of equality for all in writing 742 00:42:59,660 --> 00:43:02,000 so no one can ever take them away. 743 00:43:02,079 --> 00:43:06,329 To do that, Bingham and a group of radical Republicans 744 00:43:06,417 --> 00:43:11,337 build 14 to include many of the rights that were denied to Black Americans. 745 00:43:11,422 --> 00:43:15,302 And they fight to make 14 a constitutional amendment. 746 00:43:15,884 --> 00:43:19,644 That's important, because they understand that they won't always be in charge. 747 00:43:19,722 --> 00:43:21,722 The next guys might want it gone. 748 00:43:21,807 --> 00:43:25,097 Now, amendments are extremely difficult to pass, 749 00:43:25,185 --> 00:43:28,225 but they're also very hard to get rid of. 750 00:43:31,275 --> 00:43:32,525 [gavel bangs] 751 00:43:42,328 --> 00:43:44,458 -And Bingham succeeds. -[fireworks explode] 752 00:43:44,538 --> 00:43:48,418 In 1868, the 14th Amendment officially becomes 753 00:43:48,500 --> 00:43:50,000 a part of the Constitution. 754 00:43:52,546 --> 00:43:55,336 And it proves that the United States is on board 755 00:43:55,424 --> 00:43:59,224 with this new mission of equality for all. 756 00:44:03,349 --> 00:44:07,599 "All persons born or naturalized in the United States 757 00:44:07,686 --> 00:44:10,646 and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, 758 00:44:10,731 --> 00:44:13,031 are citizens of the United States 759 00:44:13,108 --> 00:44:15,148 and of the state wherein they reside." 760 00:44:15,944 --> 00:44:18,864 [Epps] If you look at the language, it's quite striking. 761 00:44:18,947 --> 00:44:21,117 "Person born in the United States," 762 00:44:22,034 --> 00:44:23,994 and there's no other restriction. 763 00:44:24,078 --> 00:44:26,958 It doesn't say a white person born in the United States. 764 00:44:27,039 --> 00:44:32,089 Therefore, people of African descent are citizens. 765 00:44:34,004 --> 00:44:38,054 "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges 766 00:44:38,133 --> 00:44:40,593 or immunities of citizens of the United States." 767 00:44:40,678 --> 00:44:41,928 [Epps] What this means 768 00:44:42,012 --> 00:44:45,642 is that the first eight amendments to the US Constitution, 769 00:44:45,724 --> 00:44:47,354 what we call the Bill of Rights, 770 00:44:47,434 --> 00:44:49,024 all citizens have those rights, 771 00:44:49,103 --> 00:44:52,563 and have them against state governments as well as the federal government. 772 00:44:52,648 --> 00:44:57,148 "Nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property 773 00:44:57,736 --> 00:44:59,736 without due process of law." 774 00:45:00,364 --> 00:45:02,664 [Bonner] Black people, from the Antebellum Period, 775 00:45:02,741 --> 00:45:05,661 have been trying to use courts to get what they want. 776 00:45:05,744 --> 00:45:09,374 They want to be able to defend themselves against violence. 777 00:45:09,456 --> 00:45:11,576 And now the 14th Amendment says that, 778 00:45:12,126 --> 00:45:14,586 yes, you can go to court if something happens. 779 00:45:15,796 --> 00:45:18,716 "Nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction 780 00:45:19,299 --> 00:45:21,889 the equal protection of the laws." 781 00:45:23,262 --> 00:45:28,182 -[joyful music] -[applause and whistling] 782 00:45:29,268 --> 00:45:32,598 [man] Citizenship becomes so clearly delineated 783 00:45:32,688 --> 00:45:34,308 that citizenship was automatic, 784 00:45:34,398 --> 00:45:37,778 that full citizenship, not three-fifths, not conditional-- 785 00:45:37,860 --> 00:45:41,450 The moment you breathe that first breath of American air, you're an American. 786 00:45:41,530 --> 00:45:46,660 If you are born here, you are born with all of the liberties 787 00:45:47,619 --> 00:45:50,499 and the protections of US citizenship. 788 00:45:51,373 --> 00:45:53,383 [Foner] It overturns the Dred Scott decision, 789 00:45:53,459 --> 00:45:55,539 which said Black people could not be citizens, 790 00:45:55,627 --> 00:45:58,957 no matter where they were born, even if they'd been here for generations. 791 00:45:59,465 --> 00:46:02,545 The 14th Amendment is absolutely pivotal. 792 00:46:02,634 --> 00:46:06,974 in moving us from a white male nation 793 00:46:07,556 --> 00:46:10,426 into a future in which there was a possibility 794 00:46:10,517 --> 00:46:13,017 for diversity within our democracy. 795 00:46:14,062 --> 00:46:18,482 [Ifill] The 14th Amendment also includes the first time that the word… 796 00:46:18,984 --> 00:46:21,614 "equal" is used in the Constitution. 797 00:46:24,323 --> 00:46:26,993 And it becomes enshrined in our Constitution. 798 00:46:27,910 --> 00:46:30,910 In a lot of ways our country wasn't founded in 1776. 799 00:46:30,996 --> 00:46:34,876 It was founded when John Bingham and the Congress passes the 14th Amendment 800 00:46:34,958 --> 00:46:36,918 because that's the modern Constitution. 801 00:46:42,466 --> 00:46:45,546 [Bonner] Douglass and others recognize that the 14th Amendment has 802 00:46:45,636 --> 00:46:48,886 changed the way the nation's laws will work. 803 00:46:48,972 --> 00:46:51,232 It's not viewed uncritically, 804 00:46:51,308 --> 00:46:54,188 but it is cause of tremendous celebration. 805 00:46:56,980 --> 00:46:59,070 This is a moment of incredible optimism. 806 00:46:59,983 --> 00:47:03,283 [Ifill] African Americans are filled with this excitement 807 00:47:03,362 --> 00:47:05,662 about what it means to be full citizens. 808 00:47:06,281 --> 00:47:08,281 After the passage of the 14th Amendment, 809 00:47:08,367 --> 00:47:12,997 there is this belief and excitement that we've hit the reset button 810 00:47:13,580 --> 00:47:16,880 on a badly mismanaged project… [chuckles] 811 00:47:16,959 --> 00:47:20,249 …and America is now going to step into her own. 812 00:47:20,337 --> 00:47:24,087 One of the biggest successes is the flourishing of Black education. 813 00:47:24,842 --> 00:47:26,342 People in the South 814 00:47:26,426 --> 00:47:28,676 build up institutions 815 00:47:28,762 --> 00:47:31,602 for their own education because of the importance of literacy. 816 00:47:31,682 --> 00:47:36,982 Black people spend a few million dollars of their own money for education, 817 00:47:37,062 --> 00:47:40,522 and these are people in the South who had no money. 818 00:47:40,607 --> 00:47:47,107 [emotional music] 819 00:47:47,197 --> 00:47:48,697 [Ifill] Frederick Douglass, 820 00:47:48,782 --> 00:47:51,792 you just say his name, and to me it's like a prayer. 821 00:47:52,828 --> 00:47:55,618 He was remarkable in that he had an aptitude 822 00:47:55,706 --> 00:47:57,746 that could not be contained. 823 00:47:57,833 --> 00:48:01,673 He didn't want Black people to just be free from slavery. 824 00:48:01,753 --> 00:48:04,093 He wanted them to be full citizens. 825 00:48:04,172 --> 00:48:07,052 What an extraordinary man and human being. 826 00:48:11,013 --> 00:48:13,473 [as Douglass] "I seem to be living in a new world. 827 00:48:16,894 --> 00:48:19,024 Who could have imagined what has occurred? 828 00:48:20,522 --> 00:48:24,442 The great triumph of justice and liberty, not only for the slaves emancipated, 829 00:48:24,943 --> 00:48:27,453 but a Civil Rights bill, the right to vote. 830 00:48:28,614 --> 00:48:30,914 All for a class stigmatized but a little while ago 831 00:48:30,991 --> 00:48:32,701 as worthless goods and chattel, 832 00:48:33,493 --> 00:48:36,413 but now regarded as men, 833 00:48:37,331 --> 00:48:39,421 recognized as such before the law." 834 00:48:44,671 --> 00:48:46,211 [narrator] Frederick Douglass. 835 00:48:47,799 --> 00:48:49,179 Enslaved person, 836 00:48:49,927 --> 00:48:50,757 fugitive, 837 00:48:51,303 --> 00:48:52,853 free non-citizen, 838 00:48:53,597 --> 00:48:54,427 citizen. 839 00:48:55,557 --> 00:48:58,057 But his incredible journey doesn't end there. 840 00:48:58,143 --> 00:48:59,483 Throughout his long life, 841 00:48:59,561 --> 00:49:02,061 Frederick Douglass would continue to champion the rights 842 00:49:02,147 --> 00:49:05,437 of Black Americans, women, and immigrants, 843 00:49:05,525 --> 00:49:09,235 and the impact of his fight has echoed through generations. 844 00:49:11,073 --> 00:49:11,913 Even today. 845 00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:16,910 -[alarm beeps] -[cheering and applause] 846 00:49:16,995 --> 00:49:21,875 [protesters sing] ♪ Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na, hey, hey… ♪ 847 00:49:21,959 --> 00:49:24,749 [news anchor] These images show the crane and a flatbed truck 848 00:49:24,836 --> 00:49:27,376 removing the statue of Roger B. Taney 849 00:49:27,464 --> 00:49:29,634 in the wee hours of the morning Friday. 850 00:49:29,716 --> 00:49:36,516 [emotional music] 851 00:49:39,434 --> 00:49:41,854 So he said Blacks were so far inferior 852 00:49:41,937 --> 00:49:45,397 that they had "no rights which the white man was bound to respect." 853 00:49:48,235 --> 00:49:50,985 So we asked that night for forgiveness and… 854 00:49:51,905 --> 00:49:54,155 the Scotts embraced us and forgave us. 855 00:49:55,200 --> 00:49:58,410 There were people in my family who said, 856 00:49:58,996 --> 00:50:01,116 "I don't know if I want to meet those people." 857 00:50:01,206 --> 00:50:06,706 And the unexpected and impromptu apology was given. 858 00:50:07,629 --> 00:50:10,339 I have cousins who were in tears. 859 00:50:10,424 --> 00:50:11,764 When that starts to happen 860 00:50:11,842 --> 00:50:14,682 and you get to level of understanding and relationship, 861 00:50:14,761 --> 00:50:16,261 other things become possible. 862 00:50:16,346 --> 00:50:17,926 We can all do something like that. 863 00:50:19,224 --> 00:50:25,984 [emotional music continues] 864 00:50:29,109 --> 00:50:32,779 If the Scotts and the Taneys can reconcile, can't you? 865 00:50:36,074 --> 00:50:38,794 [Stevenson] We talk about equality a lot in America. 866 00:50:38,869 --> 00:50:40,449 We talk about justice. 867 00:50:42,664 --> 00:50:45,794 We have a Pledge of Allegiance that has these words, 868 00:50:46,793 --> 00:50:51,423 and the 14th Amendment was intended to make that vision real. 869 00:50:51,506 --> 00:50:53,546 What we didn't account for… 870 00:50:54,217 --> 00:50:59,467 is how unprepared we were to actually embrace true equality. 871 00:51:00,140 --> 00:51:02,770 I pledge that I will never accept the false teachings 872 00:51:02,851 --> 00:51:04,981 that all races equal or the same. 873 00:51:05,062 --> 00:51:06,312 [screaming] 874 00:51:06,396 --> 00:51:08,816 -[woman] No justice! -[protesters] No peace! 875 00:51:08,899 --> 00:51:11,399 [screaming] 876 00:51:11,485 --> 00:51:15,525 All we say to America is, be true to what you said on paper. 877 00:51:20,368 --> 00:51:24,118 As soon as the 14th is ratified, it's attacked. 878 00:51:24,206 --> 00:51:27,496 In the courts, in the streets, even in our history books. 879 00:51:28,043 --> 00:51:31,253 Why haven't we learned the story of the 14th Amendment? 880 00:51:31,713 --> 00:51:34,883 Because there are a lot of people out there who fought very hard 881 00:51:34,966 --> 00:51:36,716 to make sure you'd never know. 882 00:51:37,844 --> 00:51:40,854 [contemplative music plays throughout]