Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution

On December 18, 1865 the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution was declared to have been ratified by 27 out of then 36 states. This was the famous Amendment prohibiting involuntary servitude in the US:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The Dream...

On September 22, 1862 in the heat of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation (here):

That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

The freedom granted by the victory of the Union remained nominal when segregation and discrimination took the place of the servitude... It was only a hundred years later when Dr. King came to awaken the American conscience to enforce the true meaning of freedom... On August 28, 1963 he proclaimed the second 'Emancipation Proclamation'-- 'I have a Dream' speech, thereby denouncing any efforts to preserve the status quo and barricade the Civil Rights movement energized by him and his followers...
Today it is crucial to examine whether America has preserved the image that these noble men worked hard to create...