Selected Key Events in Equal Opportunity: The American Experience in Perspective

Abstract

This presentation is subtitled "The American Experience in Perspective." It begins with a fresh look at the "Founding Fathers" who were slave-owners. Notably, George Washington owned over 300 slaves and Thomas Jefferson who, at certain points, was one of the largest slave-owners in Virginia. When the U.S. Constitution was ratified, nearly one-third of the new nation's population was enslaved. The presentation then reviews briefly the U.S. Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Nineteenth Amendment. This is followed by a summary of the "Golden Thirteen," the Tuskegee Airmen, notable contributions of three women, the enlistment and commissioning of black men in the Marine Corps, President Truman's Executive Order 9981, the Women's Armed Services Integration Act, Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Loving v. Virginia, the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and "Valor Knows No Gender," marking removal of the military's ban on women in combat. The presentation is for educational purposes only. It should not be used commercially. The views, opinions, and findings presented here do not necessarily reflect those of any government department or agency.