The Meaning of Equality in America

Where did the idea that “all men are created equal” come from, and what did those words mean when Thomas Jefferson wrote them in the Declaration of Independence? What has equality meant in America over time—and what does it mean today? William Allen, emeritus professor of political philosophy and emeritus dean at James Madison College at Michigan State University; Erika Bachiochi, fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center; Ellen Carol DuBois, distinguished research professor at UCLA; and Jack Rakove, emeritus professor of history and political science at Stanford University, join to explore the idea of equality throughout American history. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.

This program is made possible through the generous support of Citizens.

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William Allen is emeritus dean at James Madison College and emeritus professor of political philosophy at Michigan State University. He has served as chairman for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, among other offices, and is co-founder of Toward A Fair Michigan, whose mission was to further understanding of the equal opportunity issues involved in guaranteeing civil rights for all citizens. He is the author of many books, including George Washington: America’s First Progressive.

Erika Bachiochi is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a senior fellow at the Abigail Adams Institute, where she founded and directs the Wollstonecraft Project. She has published articles in both academic and popular outlets, such as the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy and The Atlantic, and her newest book is The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision. 

Ellen Carol DuBois is Distinguished Research Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of numerous books on the history of women's suffrage in the U.S., including her most recent work Suffrage: Women's Long Battle for the Vote, and the leading textbook in U.S. women’s history, Through Women’s Eyes: An American History with Documents.

Jack Rakove is the William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies and professor of political science emeritus. He is the author of several books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution, and most recently, Beyond Belief, Beyond Conscience: The Radical Significance of the Free Exercise of Religion. He is also the editor of several books, including The Cambridge Companion to the Federalist. 

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.

Additional Resources

• The Declaration of Independence (1776)

• James Wilson, Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority

• Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

• Aristotle, Politics

• William Allen, The Witherspoon Institute at Princeton University, Natural Law, Natural Rights, and American Constitutionalism, "American Civil Rights Movements"

• William Allen, Law and Liberty Blog, "Our Civil Rights Rest on Fundamental Arguments, Not Racial Ones"

• Abagail Adams, Letter to John Adams (1776)

• Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Man

• Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

• Erika Bachiochi, The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision

• William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England

• Seneca Falls Declaration of Rights and Sentiments (1848)

• Ellen Carol DuBois, Suffrage: Women's Long Battle for the Vote

• Ellen Carol DuBois and Lynn Dumenil, Through Women's Eyes: An American History with Documents

• Jack Rakove, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution

• Melissa De Witte, Stanford News Service, "When Thomas Jefferson penned 'all men are created equal,' he did not mean individual equality, says Stanford scholar"

• John Locke, Second Treatise of Government

• Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “The Solitude of Self”: Speech to the House Judiciary Committee (1892)

• James Wilson, Lectures on Law, "Of Municipal Law"

• Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments

• Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws

• Erika Bachiochi, National Affairs, "The Contested Meaning of Women's Equality"

• Sarah Grimke, Letters on the Equality of the Sexes

• Don Fehrenbacher, The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics

• Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia

• Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail

• The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858

• Erika Bachiochi, Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, "Embodied Equality: Debunking Equal Protection Arguments for Abortion Rights"

• John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women

• National Constitution Center, America's Town Hall, "For Debate: Should the Equal Rights Amendment Be Revived?"

• John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration

Transcript

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