Town Hall

Born Equal: America’s Founding Promise and the Fight for Equality

September 16, 2025

On the eve of Constitution Day, constitutional scholar Akhil Reed Amar of Yale Law School discusses his new book, Born Equal: Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840–1920, which explores the transformative amendments that redefined freedom, equality, and voting rights in the post–Civil War era. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderated.

Video

 

Participants

Akhil Reed Amar is the Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, where he teaches constitutional law at both Yale College and Yale Law School. He is the host of the Amarica's Constitution podcast and has been cited by U.S. Supreme Court justices across the ideological spectrum in over 40 cases. A leading scholar of constitutional law and history, he is the author of numerous landmark works, including The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760–1840.

Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.

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