Freedom's Stony Road: The Primary Sources

This course considers the quest for freedom,along that "stony road" that the poet James Weldon Johnson tells us about, largely through primary sources, most of them either post-1865 or viewed through a post-1865 lens. Values are central to this discussion. What values are set forth by notable documents authored by African Americans, as well as in such documents as the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution? To what extent has there been a gap between theory in freedom and practice. How much have post-1865 constitutional amendments and court interpretations narrowed that gap?