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Troy Everett
LBST 2101
Shep McKinley
13 December 2015
Final
All men are created equal. That phrase was used first by the great Thomas Jefferson,
over 200 years ago. The second paragraph of the U.S Declaration of Independence states the
following, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty and
the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Did America live up to this ideal of
Jeffersons during the Great Depression and Civil Rights movements eras? In my opinion, we
definitely did not.
The Great Depression in the United States, was the worst and longest economic collapse
in the history of the modern industrial world, lasting from the end of 1929 until the early 1940s.
Lecture 4B states that The depression was caused by a number of serious weaknesses in the
economy. Surprisingly, this time period, took a break from focusing as much on racial
segregation. Lecture 4B shows how society placed tension between the rich and the poor. The
majority of the country was divided by unemployed people and wealthy people. Some other
members of the poor category consisted of farmers. The countrys income was unevenly
distributed, in favor of the already rich community. Almost 40% of this nation was not affected
by this era because of their wealth. If all men were created equal, we would have never saw the
unemployment rate increase so abundantly. As far as Liberty, Equality and Power goes, this era
demonstrated failure in all three aspects. The country was not free to be employed. Inequality
lied within racial and social statuses. The government failed to regulate the country.
President Herbert Hoover took office in 1929. During the era, he was often blamed
because he failed to recognize the severity of the situation or leverage the power of the federal
government to squarely address it. The President slashed idea of government spending and
wanted to raise taxes. But in the face of a collapsing economy, this served only to reduce
demand further. Homeless people built shacks out of old crates and formed shantytowns,
which were called Hoovervilles. Hoover would not help the poor even though they could not
help themselves. In my personal opinion, this is because Hoover favored the wealthy and selfmade men. Hoover believed in individualism and self-reliance. That is no way to demonstrate
that all men are created equal. Especially if it is literally not the case. In this time period, people
who were born from poor families did not have the same opportunities as others. Therefore, in all
reality, one was not given the chance to be self-reliant and make something of yourself. Thus
creating a cycle of social inequality.
Brother can you spare a dime documentary, shows struggles of blacks and farmers during
the Great Depression. Black males were either shut out completely or had to settle for separate
and lower pay scales. While having to deal with not having economical support, farmers also
had to worry about the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl, also known as the Dirty Thirties, was a
period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the US and
Canadian prairies during the 1930s; severe drought and a failure to apply dryland farming
methods to prevent wind erosion (the Aeolian processes) caused the phenomenon.
Eventually deals had to be made to try and diminish the problem all men are NOT created
equally. Franklin Roosevelt created the programs known as the New Deal. The Programs of the

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New Deal also brought together a new, liberal political alliance in the United States. Roosevelts
policies won the support of labor unions, blacks, people who received government relief, ethnic
and religious minorities, intellectuals, and some farmers, forming a coalition that would be the
backbone of the Democratic Party for decades to come. If all men were created equal then there
would be no need for coalition of this sort.
Some more miscellaneous evidence that all men are not created equal is as followed.
Blacks began to flee the south in hope of a better lifestyle up north. Blacks were usually the last
ones to be hired, if they were hired, and we were the first to be fired. Furthermore, blacks would
be forced out of jobs to give to whites. Also, many men argued that women, especially married
women, should not be hired while men were unemployed. So sexism was also an inequality in
this era.
People who were affected by the great depression also suffered from psychological and
physical damage that the wealthy did not have to worry about. Poor farmers were evicted from
their land. A lot of Oklahoma natives moved out to California. Upon arrival, they were
discriminated against. Anyone not from California was not hired and called Okies.
The civil rights movement was a mass popular movement to secure for African
Americans equal access to and opportunities for the basic privileges and rights of U.S.
citizenship. Although the roots of the movement go back to the 19th century, it peaked in the
1950s and 1960s. This era focuses on how blacks were not created equal to whites. On February
12 1909 the NAACP was founded. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States. It is a shame that we
even needed this type of organization. Unless it were to advance the entire country together, not
just one race.
In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson issued executive order segregating work areas,
eating facilities, and bathrooms in government departments in DC. This became a sensation and
changed the world of all blacks and even some whites. In 1917 the country entered began a
World War I, and blacks were able to fight. However, they were not given the same work and
task as the whites.
Brown vs. Board of Education. This was the consolidation of five court cases Although
Thurgood Marshall raised a variety of legal issues on appeal, the most common one was that
separate school systems for blacks and whites were inherently unequal. Even though the south
was in the process of desegregating, whites were still fighting it.
Emmett Louis Till was an African-American teenager who was lynched in Mississippi at
the age of 14, after reportedly flirting with a white woman. I used this comment on my last
discussion module, however I feel that is shows how unequal blacks and whites were. "As long
as I live and can do anything about it, niggers are gonna stay in their place. Niggers ain't gonna
vote where I live. If they did, they'd control the government. They ain't gonna go to school with
my kids. And when a nigger gets close to mentioning sex with a white woman, he's tired o'
livin'."
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American Civil Rights activist, whom the
United States Congress called "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom
movement". She took her first stand by choosing to stay seated in the white section of the bus
instead of moving to the back black section.
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a Baptist minister and social activist who
played a key role in the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his
assassination in 1968. Inspired by advocates of nonviolence such as Mahatma Gandhi, King

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sought equality for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged and victims of injustice
through peaceful protest. King got his first big break basically, through Rosa Parks. A bus
boycott was to be constructed known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and King was asked to
speak. At the time he was young and unknown. However, he encouraged the crowd by saying
things like tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of lifes July and left standing
amid the piercing chill of an alpine November. Also in the book A Call to Conscience, Kings
emphasizes how times still havent changed. Hinting back to when Jefferson said All men are
created Equal. King stated But one hundred years later, the Negro is still not free. Also, Kings
speech, Ive been to the mountain top illustrates how King would love to see the country in the
future. Basically the way it would be if Thomas Jeffersons ideal of All men are created equal
was 100% accurate.
Overall, as you can see equality of all men was not reached in either time period. The
Great Depression displayed inequality between not only men of different races, but men of
different socioeconomic position as well. During the Civil Rights Movements equality was not
accomplished either. Throughout the many situations where inequality was seemed to be reached
there was always an event to counteract the progress that had been made.