Civics 101 is supported in part for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations,

all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states.

To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

One of the things that I like about the Declaration of Independence, though the more we visit it,

the more problematic things we find in it.

But one thing I can say I like about it is its directness.

Yeah, it does a lot in only 1300 words.

It's an argument. It's a solid argument in four parts.

First, a preamble saying what the document is, and a statement of human rights,

and the claim that when a government doesn't give you those rights, it's your job to alter or abolish it,

and then we get the grievances, and finally, the action, because of the above, we're ending this relationship.

And throughout this series, we have talked about the immediate criticism and accusations of hypocrisy in it.

And yet, it lives on. It lives on as this core of our American identity.

So what if you didn't just criticize it or call it a task?

What if you used its power of argument as a tool to fight inequality?

Right, in 1848 in America, probably every school child was forced to memorize this document.

Everyone knew the words, they all knew the rhythm, the cadence.

It would have been a deeply familiar text to them.

I'm Nick Capady-Chi.

I'm Hannah McCarthy.

This is Civics 101. Today is our third and final revisit to the Declaration of Independence,

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