What the Declaration of Independence offers U.S. Social Movements

Presenter: Meg Mott

No other sentence in American history has done as much work as the one that begins "We hold these truths to be self-evident." Starting in 1777, when it became the basis of petition to end slavery in Massachusetts, to the 1960s, when Huey Newton used it to justify armed rebellion, the Declaration has provided the operating instructions for a free nation. Come discuss how people have used the Declaration to argue for social change and explore how the digital era has impacted protest movements.

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