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We the People

The Forgotten Years of the Civil Rights Movement

We the People

National Constitution Center

History, News Commentary, News

4.61K Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2023

⏱️ 59 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week we are sharing an episode from our companion podcast, Live at the National Constitution Center. In this episode, prize-winning historians Kate Masur, author of Until Justice Be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction, and Dylan Penningroth, author of the new book Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights, explore the central role of African Americans in the struggle for justice and equality long before the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates. Resources: Kate Masur, Until Justice Be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction (2022) Dylan Penningroth, Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights (2023) Article IV, Section 2: Movement Of Persons Throughout the Union, Privileges and Immunities Clause, National Constitution Center’s Interactive Constitution 14th Amendment Privileges or Immunities Clause, National Constitution Center’s Interactive Constitution Dylan Penningroth, The Claims of Kinfolk: African American Property and Community in the Nineteenth-Century South (2003) Kate Masur, An Example for All the Land: Emancipation and the Struggle over Equality in Washington, D.C (2010) Brief of Professors of History and Law as Amici Curia in Support of Respondents, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard and UNC Questions or comments about the show? Email us at [email protected]. Continue today’s conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly. You can find transcripts for each episode on the podcast pages in our Media Library.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello friends. I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National

0:06.1

Constitution Center and welcome to We The People weekly show of

0:09.5

constitutional debate. The National Constitution Center is a nonpartisan nonprofit chartered by Congress to increase awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.

0:20.0

This week we're sharing an episode from our companion podcast live at the National Constitution

0:24.1

Center.

0:25.1

In this episode, Kate Missouri, author of Until Justice Be Done America's first civil rights

0:30.4

movement from the Revolution to Reconstruction, is joined by Dylan Penningbro,

0:35.3

author of the new book Before the Movement, The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights.

0:39.8

We explore the central role of African Americans in a struggle for justice and equality long before the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

0:47.0

Enjoy the ship.

0:50.0

Welcome, Kate Missouri and Dylan Penning Gra graph. It is such an honor to

0:54.8

convene you both and you both tell the story of how civil rights understood in

1:02.4

the antebellum era civil rights to

1:05.0

to contract, to sue and be sued, to give testimony and to travel,

1:12.0

were both exercised by free African Americans in the

1:15.9

anti-Bellum era challenged and suppress and ultimately led to the passage of the

1:22.0

14th Amendment which declared them to be among the privileges

1:25.0

or immunities of U.S. citizenship.

1:27.8

Cape Missouri, start us off in this amazing story.

1:29.9

You begin in the 1820s where Massachusetts is recognizing the rights of free blacks and

1:37.4

as is Ohio but at the same time these states are imposing restrictions on

1:41.4

free blacks including to travel and testify.

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