The Evolution Of Inequality In
In the United States, true equality has never existed. From the Declaration of Independence to modern times, the U.S. legal system has failed in any attempt at equality. The ideology of "all [men] are equal but some [men] are more equal than others" has been present throughout the history of the U.S. (Orwell). Inequality has always existed in the United States legal system and continues to exist today; however, the inequality presently in the system is not as blatant as what it once was, but the system has come to depend on inequality.
Since the very beginning of a legal system in the United States, there has been inequality. The Declaration of Independence declared that "…all men are ...
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strived for and failed to grasp fully.
After the establishment of independence in the United States, the development of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights ensued. The Bill of Rights was to establish the basic rights of every citizen of the United States, but failed to do so. The rights of white, male citizens were the only rights that were ensured by the Bill of Rights. The rights of blacks and the underprivileged were not even considered. The Fifth Amendment states, "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury…, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation" ("Constitution", Amendment V). These rights were often denied to those that were second class citizens or those people that were not even considered to be people, such as slaves. The rights ensured by the first ten amendments ...
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of the South. "[The Grandfather Clause]…provided that those who had enjoyed the right to vote prior to 1866 or 1867, or their lineal descendants, would be exempt from educational, property, or tax requirements for voting…[T]hese clauses worked effectively to exclude blacks from the vote but assured the franchise to many impoverished and illiterate whites" ("Grandfather Clause"). Jim Crow Laws were "any of the laws that enforced racial segregation in the U.S. South between the end (1877) of the formal Reconstruction period and the beginning of a strong civil-rights movement (1950s)" ("Jim Crow Laws"). Thus, Jim Crow Laws were a large part of black codes.
Jim Crow Laws included the statute ...
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"The Evolution Of Inequality In." Essayworld.com. February 22, 2006. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Evolution-Of-Inequality-In/41682.
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