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President of the United States of America

Barack Hussein Obama The Uhuru Movement in America "Consent of the governed" is a phrase synonymous with a political theory wherein a government's legitimacy and moral right to use state power is only justified and legal when derived from the people or society over which that power is exercised. This theory of "consent" is historically contrasted to the divine right of kings and has often been invoked against the legitimacy of colonialism.

The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. The Constitution is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government to the states, to citizens, and to all people within the United States.

The Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and ratified by conventions in each U.S. state in the name of "The People". The Constitution has been amended twenty‐seven times; the first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights.

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"whitewashing" whitewashing to achieve "the destruction of US imperialism and achieve a classless world: world communism

The United States of America (also referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, the States, or America /əˈmɛrɪkə/) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty‐eight contiguous states and Washington, D. C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south.

Elitism is the belief or attitude that some individuals, who supposedly form an elite — a select group of people with, intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes Crony capitalism is a pejorative term describing an allegedly capitalist economy in which success in business depends on close relationships p between businesspeople p p and ggovernment officials.

It may be exhibited by favoritism in the distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks, and so forth.

Crony capitalism is believed to arise when political cronyism spills over into the business world; self‐serving friendships and family ties between businessmen and the government influence the economy and society to the extent that it corrupts public‐serving economic and political ideals Cronyism is partiality to long long‐standing standing friends, friends especially by appointing them to positions of authority, regardless of their qualifications. Hence, cronyism is contrary in practice and principle to meritocracy. Cronyism exists when the appointer and pp is the beneficiaryy are in social contact;; often,, the appointer inadequate to hold his or her own job or position of authority, and for this reason the appointer appoints individuals who will not try to weaken him or her, or express views contrary to those of the appointer. Politically, "cronyism" is derogatorily used.

Democracy is a political form of government carried out either directly by the people (direct democracy) or by means of elected representatives p of the p people p ((representative p democracy). y) A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings: A Roman dictator was the incumbent of a political office of the Roman Republic. Roman dictators were allocated absolute power during times of emergency. Their power was originally neither arbitrary nor unaccountable, being subject to law and requiring retrospective t ti justification. j tifi ti Th There were no such h dictatorships di t t hi after ft the beginning of the 2nd century BC, and later dictators such as Sulla and the Roman Emperors exercised power much more personally and arbitrarily.

A government controlled by one person or a small group of people. In this form of government the power rests with one person. Such power is often obtained forcibly. A dictator usually takes away much of people's freedom.

In contemporary usage, usage dictatorship refers to an autocratic form of absolute rule by leadership unrestricted by law, constitutions, or other social and political factors within the state.

Meritocracy is a system of a aristocratic or oligarchical government or other organization wherein appointments are made and responsibilities assigned to individuals based upon demonstrated intelligence and ability (merit), (merit) evaluated using (frequent) institutionalised examination.

This is opposed to other value systems, where reward and legitimacy is based upon possession of wealth (plutocracy), origin (aristocracy) family connections (oligarchy), (aristocracy), (oligarchy) property, property friendship (cronyism), technical expertise (technocracy), seniority (gerontocracy), popularity (representative democracy), or other historical determinants of social position and political power.

A political family is a family in which several members are involved in politics, particularly electoral politics. Members may be related by blood or marriage; often several generations or multiple siblings may be involved.

Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives or friends, without regard to their merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos (meaning "nephew" nephew or "grandchild") grandchild ).

Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned; supply, demand, price, distribution, and investments are determined mainly by private decisions in the free market, rather than through a planned economy; and profit is distributed to owners who invest in businesses. Capitalism also refers to the process of capital accumulation Mercantilism ili The h period i d between b the h sixteenth i h and d eighteenth i h h centuries is commonly described as mercantilism.This period was associated with geographic exploration of the Age of Discovery being exploited by merchant overseas traders, especially from England and the Low Countries; the European colonization of the Americas; and the rapid growth in overseas trade. Mercantilism was a system of trade for profit, although commodities were still largely produced by non�capitalist production methods

Industrialism A new group of economic theorists, led by David Hume and Adam Smith, in the mid 18th century, challenged fundamental mercantilist doctrines as the belief that the amount of the world’s wealth remained constant and that a state could only increase its wealth at the expense of another state.

During the Industrial Revolution, the industrialist replaced the merchant as a dominant actor in the capitalist p system y and effected the decline of the traditional handicraft skills of artisans, guilds, and journeymen. Also during this period, the surplus generated by the rise of commercial agriculture encouraged increased mechanization of agriculture. Industrial capitalism marked the development of the factory system of manufacturing, characterized by a complex division of labor between and within work process and the routinization of work tasks; and finally established the global domination of the capitalist mode of production

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transport had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions starting in the United Kingdom, then subsequently spreading throughout Europe, North America, and eventually the world. The onset of the Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in human history; almost every aspectt off daily d il life lif was eventually t ll influenced i fl d in i some way.

Slavery (in the past, also called serfdom or thralldom) is a system in which people are the property of others. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, leave to refuse to work, work or to demand wages. In some societies it was legal for an owner to kill a slave; in others it was a crime

The Transatlantic slave trade peaked in the late 18th century, when the largest number of slaves were captured on raiding expeditions into the interior of West Africa. These expeditions were typically carried out by African kingdoms, such as the Oyo empire (Yoruba), the Ashanti Empire, the kingdom of Dahomey,[ and the Aro Confederacy. Europeans rarely entered the interior of Africa, due to fierce African resistance. The slaves were brought to coastal t l outposts t t where h th were traded they t d d for f goods. d

Censorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor.

Political censorship occurs when governments hold back information from their citizens. This is often done to exert control over the p populace p and p prevent free expression p that might g foment rebellion. Another version of censorship is the phenomenon of disinformation which uses "red herrings" to distract people from some other controversial issue Religious censorship is the means by b which hich any an material considered objectionable by a certain faith is removed. This often involves a dominant religion forcing limitations on less prevalent ones. Alternatively, one religion may shun the works of another when they believe the content is not appropriate for their faith. faith

The content of school textbooks is often the issue of debate, since their target audience is young people, and the term "whitewashing" g is the one commonlyy used to refer to removal of critical or conflicting events. The reporting of military atrocities in history is extremely controversial, as in the case of the Bombing of Dresden, the Nanking Massacre as found with Japanese history textbook controversies, the Armenian Genocide, The Holocaust (or Holocaust denial), the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, and the Winter Soldier Investigation of the Vietnam War.

Banned books are books to which free access is not permitted.

The practice of banning books is a form of censorship, and often has political, religious or moral motivations.

Book burning, biblioclasm or libricide is the practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, books or other written material. In modern times, other forms of media, such as phonograph records, video tapes and CDs have also been ceremoniously burned torched or tapes, and CDs have also been ceremoniously burned, torched, or shredded. The practice, usually carried out in public, is generally motivated by moral, religious, or political objections to the material.

Some particular cases of book burning are long and traumatically remembered ‐ because the books destroyed were irreplaceable and their loss constituted a severe damage to cultural heritage, and/or because this instance of book burning has become emblematic of a harsh and oppressive regime. Such were the destruction of the Library of Alexandria, the obliteration of the Library of Baghdad, the burning of books and burying of scholars under China's Qin Dynasty, the destruction of Mayan codices by Spanish conquistadors and priests, and in more recent times, Nazi book burnings, the burning of Beatles records after a remark by John Lennon concerning Jesus Christ, and the destruction of the Sarajevo National Library.

A chilling effect is a term in law and communication which describes a situation where speech or conduct is suppressed by fear of penalization at the interests of an individual or group. It may prompt self�censorship and therefore hamper free speech.

Since many attacks rely on libel law, the term libel chill is also often used. This is the same concept as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, or "SLAPP" suit.

Academic freedom is the belief that the freedom of inquiry by students and facultyy members is essential to the mission of the academy, and that scholars should have freedom to teach or communicate ideas or facts (including those that are inconvenient to external political groups or to authorities) without being targeted for repression, job loss, or imprisonment.

Freedom of the press is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published bli h d materials. t i l While Whil such h freedom f d mostly tl implies i li th the absence of interference from an overreaching state, its preservation may be sought through constitutional or other legal protections.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers frontiers" Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak without censorship or limitation, or both. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes used to indicate not only freedom of verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used. In practice, the right to freedom of speech is not absolute in any country and the right is commonly subject to limitations, such as on "hate hate speech speech"..

Today freedom of speech, or the freedom of expression, is recognized in international and regional human rights law. The right is enshrined in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.

B d on John Based J h Stuart St t Mill's Mill' arguments, t freedom f d off speech h is i understood as a multi�faceted right that includes not only the right to express, or disseminate, information and ideas, but three further distinct aspects: the right to seek information and ideas; the right to receive information and ideas; the right to impart information and ideas.

International, regional and national standards also recognize that freedom of speech, as the freedom of expression, includes any medium, be it orally, in written, in print, through the Internet or g art forms. This means that the p protection of freedom of through speech as a right includes not only the content, but also the means of expression

The notion of freedom of expression is intimately linked to political debate and the concept of democracy. The norms on limiting freedom of expression mean that public debate may not be completely suppressed even in times of emergency. emergency One of the most notable proponents of the link between freedom of speech and democracy is Alexander Meiklejohn. He argues that the concept p of democracyy is that of self窶身overnment g byy the people.

For such a system to work an informed electorate is necessary. In order to be appropriately knowledgeable, there must be no constraints on the free flow of information and ideas.

According to Meiklejohn, democracy will not be true to its essential ideal if those in power are able to manipulate the electorate by withholding information and stifling criticism.

Meiklejohn acknowledges that the desire to manipulate opinion can stem from the motive of seeking to benefit society. However, he argues, choosing manipulation negates, in its means, the d democratic ti ideal id l

Freedom of thought (also called the freedom of conscience or ideas) is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others' viewpoints. It is different from and not to be confused with the concept of freedom of expression.

The obvious impediment to censoring thought is that it is impossible to know with certainty what another person is thinking, and harder to regulate it. Many famous historical works recognize this. this The Bible summarizes in Ecclesiastes 8:8: "There There is no man that has power over the spirit, to retain it; neither has he power in the day of death."

Political correctness (adjectivally, politically correct; both forms commonly abbreviated to PC) is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, disability, and age�related contexts

Free will is the purported ability of agents to make choices free from constraints. Historically, the constraint of dominant concern has been the metaphysical constraint of determinism.

Choice consists of the mental process of judging the merits of multiple options and selecting one of them. While a choice can be made between imagined options ("what would I do if ...?"), often a choice is made between real options, options and followed by the corresponding action. For example, a route for a journey is chosen based on the preference of arriving at a given destination as soon as possible. The preferred (and therefore chosen) route is then derived from information about how long each of the possible routes take. This can be done by a route planner. If the preference is more complex, such as involving the scenery of the route, cognition and feeling are more intertwined, and the choice is less easy to delegate to a computer program or assistant.

Self�determination is the free choice of one’s own acts without external compulsion. In politics it is seen as the freedom of the people of a given territory or national grouping to determine their own political status and how they will be governed without undue influence from any other country.

Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption.

Neither are illegal acts by private persons or corporations not directly involved with the government. An illegal act by an officeholder constitutes political corruption only if the act is di tl related directly l t d to t their th i official ffi i l duties. d ti

Forms of corruption vary, but include bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, and embezzlement. While corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking, it is not restricted to these activities.

Bribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift given that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or other person in charge of a public or legal duty. The bribe is the gift bestowed to influence the recipient's conduct. It may be any money, good, right in action, property, preferment,, p p privilege, g , emolument,, object j of value,, advantage, g , or merely a promise or undertaking to induce or influence the action, vote, or influence of a person in an official or public capacity.

Extortion, outwresting, and/or exaction is a criminal offense which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person(s), entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced b organized by i d crime i groups. The Th actual t l obtainment bt i t off money or property is not required to commit the offense. Making a threat of violence which refers to a requirement of a payment of money or property to halt future violence is sufficient to commit the offense.

Exaction refers not only to extortion or the unlawful demanding and obtaining of something through force,but additionally, in its formal definition, means the infliction of something such as pain and suffering or making somebody endure something unpleasant Cronyism is partiality to long�standing friends, especially by appointing them to positions of authority, regardless of their qualifications.

Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives or friends, without regard to their merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos (meaning "nephew" or "grandchild").

Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors.

Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets, usually financial in nature, by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted. h h h b d Embezzlement is a kind of financial fraud. For instance, a clerk or cashier handling large sums of money could embezzle cash from his or her employer, a lawyer could embezzle funds from clients' trust accounts, accounts a financial advisor could embezzle funds from investors, or a spouse could embezzle funds from his or her partner. Embezzlement may range from the very minor in nature, involving only small amounts, to the immense, involving large sums and sophisticated schemes

Organized crime or criminal organizations is a transnational grouping of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. The Organized Crime Control Act (U.S., 1970) defines organized crime as "The unlawful activities of a highly organized, disciplined association Such crime is commonly referred to as the work of the Mob in the U.S. In US law, money laundering is the practice of engaging in financial transactions to conceal the identity, source, or destination of illegally gained money. In UK law the common law definition is wider. The act is defined as "taking any action with property of any form which is either wholly or in part the proceeds of a crime that will disguise the fact that that property is the proceeds of a crime or obscure the beneficial ownership of said property."

Immigration is the introduction of new people into a habitat or population. It is a biological concept and is important in population ecology, gy, differentiated from emigration g and migration. g Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. The movementt off populations l ti i modern in d ti times h continued has ti d under d the form of both voluntary migration within one's region, country, or beyond, and involuntary migration (which includes the slave trade, Human traffic in human beings and ethnic cleansing).

People who migrate are called migrants or more specifically, specifically emigrants, immigrants, or settlers, depending on historical setting, circumstances and perspective.

The pressures of human migrations, whether as outright conquest or by slow cultural infiltration and resettlement, resettlement have affected the grand epochs in history and in land (for example, the Decline of the Roman Empire); under the form of colonization, migration has transformed the world (such as the prehistoric and historic ) settlements of Australia and the Americas).

The main problem with push‐and‐pull theories is three‐fold: first, they state the obvious (i.e., people from poorer places will seek to go to richer ones); second, they are unable to explain the emergence of migrant flows (if push and pull were the only things in existence, people from the poorest countries would migrate to the richest ones, when in reality such flows are well‐nigh non‐ existent); third, they are unable to explain the stability of the emerging i patterns tt off migration i ti (i.e., (i once a flow fl from f country t A to t country B is established, it will stay on for a relatively long time, even if the initial conditions that had given the push and pull to the migration are not there

Seasonal human migration is very common in agricultural cycles.

It includes migrations such as moving sheep or cattle to higher elevations during summer to escape heat and find more forage.

Human labor often moves with fruit harvest, or to other crops that require manual picking.

While the culture of many crops (especially "dry" crops) has become entirely mechanized, others, such as fruits and vegetables still till require i manuall labor, l b att least l t for f harvest, h t and d some, such h as tobacco, still need manual labor for its culture. Much of this work was once provided by family members or boarding students, but these workers are less available now, and farms are larger. Today migratory workers provide much of the hand labor required in agriculture in the US and some other countries. Labor contractors arrange with farmers to provide the necessary help at the seasonal time, often with foreign nationals whose employment opportunities are more limited in their home areas. areas

Illegal immigration is the movement of people across national borders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country. Illegal immigrants are also known as illegal aliens to differentiate them from legal aliens. Conversely, illegal emigration refers to unlawfully leaving a country.

In law, an alien is a person in a country who is not a citizen of that country

Types of "alien" persons are: An alien who is legally permitted to remain in a country which is foreign g to him or her. On specified p terms,, this kind of alien mayy be called a legal alien of that country. This is a very broad category which includes tourists, guest workers, legal permanent residents and student visa resident aliens.

An alien who has temporary or permanent residence in a country (which is foreign to him/her) may be called a resident alien of that country. This is a subset of the aforementioned legal alien category.

An alien who is visiting a country (which is foreign to him/her) may be b called ll d a nonresident d alien l off that h country. This h is a subset of the aforementioned legal alien category.

An alien who is present in a country (which is foreign to him/her) unlawfully or without the country's authorization is known as an illegal alien of that country. co ntr [ An illegal alien commonly commonl refers to a foreign national who resides in another country unlawfully, either by entering that country at a place other than a designated port�of�entry or as result of the expiration of a non� immigrant visa. visa An enemy alien is an alien who is designated as an enemy.

In U.S. law, an alien is "any person not a citizen or national of the United States." The U.S. Government's use of alien dates back to 1798, when it was used in the Alien and Sedition Acts U.S. law makes a clear distinction between aliens and immigrants by defining immigrants as a subset of aliens.[ Although U.S. law provides no overarching explicit definition of the term "illegal alien," the term is used in many statutes and elsewhere (e.g., court cases, executive orders). U.S. law also uses the term "unauthorized alien."[U.S. immigration laws do not refer to illegal immigrants, but in common parlance the term "illegal immigrant" is often used to refer to any illegal alien. Because at l law, a corporation ti is i a person, the th term t alien li is i nott limited li it d to t natural humans because what are colloquially called foreign corporations are technically called alien corporations. Because corporations are creations of local state law, a foreign corporation is an out of state corporation. corporation

Naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship and nationality by somebody b d who h was not a citizen or nationall off that h country when h he or she was born.

In general, basic requirements for naturalization are that the applicant hold a legal status as a full�time resident for a minimum period of time and that the applicant promise to obey obe and uphold phold that country's laws, to which an oath or pledge of allegiance is sometimes added. Some countries also require that a naturalized national must renounce any other citizenship that they currently hold forbidding dual citizenship, hold, citizenship but whether this renunciation actually causes loss of the person's original citizenship will again depend on the laws of the countries involved.

The California Alien Land Law of 1913 prohibits "aliens ineligible for citizenship" (i.e., all Asian immigrants) from owning land or property, but permits three year leases. It affected the Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Korean immigrant farmers in California. It passed thirty‐five to two in the Senate and seventy‐two to three in the Assembly The Alien and Sedition Acts were ere four fo r bills passed in 1798 by b the Federalists in the 5th United States Congress during an undeclared naval war with France, later known as the Quasi‐War. They were signed into law by President John Adams. Proponents claimed the acts were designed to protect the Catholics from alien citizens of enemy powers and to prevent seditious attacks from weakening the government. The Democratic‐Republicans, like later historians, denominated them as being both unconstitutional and designed to stifle criticism of the administration, and as infringing on the right of the states to act in these areas. They became a major political issue in the elections of 1798 and 1800.

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil ggovernments,, but p politics has been observed in other ggroup p interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. It consists of "social relations involving authority or power" and refers to the regulation of a political unit, and to the methods and tactics used to formulate and apply policy.

Regardless of how civilized the world is, there are still large numbers of people living in the most primitive conditions.

All patriarchal societies are known by certain characteristic features: Male kinship is prevalent. Men are counted as kin because they are descended from the same male ancestor. ancestor Marriage is permanent. It is not until one woman is married to one man that certainty of fatherhood appears in society but it is not a general rule of patriarchal society for polygamy does exist in the earlier stages of social development.

Paternal authority is the ruling principle of the social order. In ancient Rome, the patria p p potestas extended to all descendants of one livingg male ancestor;; it comprised p control and punishment not to mention questions of life and death.

These features of the development of the patriarchal state of society are as common among the Jews as among the Arabs, among the Aryans as among the Dravidians and even among the Germanic and Celtic peoples.

The patriarchal state of society consists of two stages, tribe and clan. The tribe is a large group of hundreds of members who descend from one common male ancestor, sometimes from a fictitious character satisfying the etiquette that descent from the male is the only basis of society. The clan, on the other hand, is a smaller group reaching back into the past for only four generations or so to a common well�known male ancestor. The clan always breaks down into smaller units when its limit is reached.

According to the Scottish historian W. F. Skene in volumen 3 of Celtic Scotland, the tribe or larger unit is the oldest. When the tribe breaks down, clans are formed. When the clan system breaks down, it leaves the households or families as independent units. Finally, with the withering away of patriarchal society, the family is dissolved and the individual comes into existence.

The origin of the State is to be found in the development of the art of warfare. Historically speaking, there is not the slightest difficulty in proving that all political communities of the modern type owe their existence to successful warfare. As a result the new states are forced to organize on military principles. The life of the new community is military allegiance. The military by nature is competitive.

No political institution is of greater importance than the institution of property. Property is the right vested on the individual or a group of people to enjoy the benefits of an object be it material or intellectual. A right is a power enforced by public trust. Sometimes it happens that the exercise of a right is opposed to public trust. Nevertheless, a right is really the creation of public trust, past, present or future. The growth of knowledge is the key t the to th history hi t off property t as an institution. i tit ti Th more man The becomes knowledgeable of an object be it physical or intellectual, the more it is appropriated. The appearance of the State brought about the final stage in the evolution of property from wildlife to husbandry In the presence of the State, husbandry.

State man can hold landed property.

The State began granting lordships and ended up conferring property and with it came inheritance. With landed property came rent and in the exchange of goods, profit, so that in modern times, the "lord of the land" of long ago becomes the landlord. If it is wrongly assumed that the value of land is always the same, then there is of course no evolution of property whatever. However, the price of land goes up with every increase in population benefitting th landlord. the l dl d The Th landlordism l dl di off large l l d owners has land h been b th the most rewarded of all political services. In industry, the position of the landlord is less important but in towns which have grown out of an industry, the fortunate landlord has reaped an enormous profit Towards the latter part of the Middle Ages in Europe, profit.

Europe both the State ‐ the State would use the instrument of confiscation for the first time to satisfy a debt ‐ and the Church ‐ the Church succeeded in acquiring immense quantities of land ‐ were allied against the village community to displace the small landlord and they were successful to the extent that today, the village has become the ideal of the individualist, a place in which every man "does what he wills with his own."

Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly l by b a group off persons. Depending d on the h nature of the property, an owner of property has the right to consume, sell, rent, mortgage, transfer, exchange or destroy their property, and/or to exclude others from doing these things. Important widely idel recognized recogni ed types t pes of property propert include incl de real property propert (land), (land) personal property (physical possessions belonging to a person), private property (property owned by legal persons or business entities), public property (state owned or publicly owned and available possessions) and intellectual property (exclusive rights over artistic creations, inventions, etc.), although the latter is not always as widely recognized or enforced.

Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, property titles, titles debts, debts and obligations upon the death of an individual. It has long played an important role in human societies. The rules of inheritance differ between societies and have changed over time.

Confiscation, from the Latin confiscatio 'joining to the fiscus, i.e. transfer to the treasury' is a legal seizure without compensation by a government or other public authority. The word is also used, popularly, of spoliation under legal forms, or of any seizure of property without adequate compensation.

Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority h i (via ( i mechanisms h i such h as legal l l systems)) can ultimately li l prescribe a conviction. Individual human societies may each define crime and crimes differently. While every crime violates the law, not every violation of the law counts as a crime; for example: breaches of contract and of other civil law may rank as "offences" or as "infractions". Modern societies generally regard crimes as offenses against the public or the state, distinguished from torts (offenses against private parties that can give rise to a civil cause of action). action)

In law, a sentence forms the final act of a judge�ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. The sentence generally involves a decree of imprisonment, a fine and/or other punishments against a defendant convicted of a crime. Those imprisoned for multiple crimes, will serve a consecutive sentence (in which the period of imprisonment equals the sum of all the sentences), a concurrent sentence (in which hi h the th period i d off imprisonment i i t equals l the th length l th off the th longest sentence), or somewhere in between, sometimes subject to a cap.

Asset forfeiture is a term used to describe the confiscation of assets, by the state, which are either (a) the proceeds of crime or (b) the instrumentalities of crime, and more recently, terrorism.

Instrumentalities of crime are property that was used to facilitate crime, for example cars used to transport illegal narcotics. The terminology used in different jurisdictions varies. Some jurisdictions use the term "confiscation" instead of forfeiture. In recentt years there th h been has b a growing i t d for trend f countries t i to t introduce civil forfeiture Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook o tlook that stresses "the moral worth orth of the individual". indi id al" Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so independence and self�reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own interests, whether by society, or any other group or institution. institution

Natural rights (also called moral rights or inalienable rights) are rights which are not contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of a particular society or polity. Natural rights are thus necessarily universal, whereas legal rights are culturally and politically relative.

Blurring the lines between natural and legal rights, U.S. statesman James Madison believed that some rights, such as trial by jury, are social rights, arising neither from natural law nor from positive law b tf but from the social contract from which a government derives its th i l t tf hi h td i it authority

It is a mistake to imagine that slavery pervades a man's whole being; the better part of him is exempt from it: the body indeed is subjected and in the power of a master, master but the mind is independent, and indeed is so free and wild, that it cannot be restrained even by this prison of the body, wherein it is confined Furthermore, every man is responsible for his own faith, and he must see it i for f himself hi lf that h he h believes b li rightly. i h l As A little li l as another h can go to hell or heaven for me, so little can he believe or disbelieve for me; and as little as he can open or shut heaven or hell for me, so little can he drive me to faith or unbelief. Since, then belief or unbelief is a matter of every one then, one'ss conscience, conscience and since this is no lessening of the secular power, the latter should be content and attend to its own affairs and permit men to believe one thing or another, as they are able and willing, and constrain no one by force

The right to what is in essence inalienable is imprescriptible, since the act whereby I take possession of my personality, of my substantive essence, and make myself a responsible being, capable of possessing rights and with a moral and religious life, takes away from these characteristics of mine just that externality which alone made them capable of passing into the possession of someone else. When I have thus annulled their externality, I cannot lose th them th through h lapse l off time ti or from f any other th reason drawn d f from my prior consent or willingness to alienate them "inalienable rights" were said to be those rights that could not be surrendered by citizens to the sovereign. sovereign Such rights were thought to be natural rights, independent of positive law

Social contract describes a broad class of theories that try to explain the ways in which people form states to maintain social order. The notion of the social contract implies that the people give up sovereignty to a government or other authority in order to receive or maintain social order through the rule of law. It can also be thought of as an agreement by the governed on a set of rules by which they are governed.

Civil society is composed of the totality of voluntary civic and social organizations and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society as opposed to the force�backed structures of a state (regardless of that state state'ss political system) and commercial institutions of the market.

Civil and political rights are a class of rights and freedoms that protect individuals from unwarranted action by government and private organizations and individuals and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.

Civil rights include the ensuring of peoples' physical integrity and safety; protection from discrimination on grounds such as physical or mental disability, disability gender, gender religion, religion race, race sexual orientation, orientation national origin, age, and individual rights such as the freedoms of thought and conscience, speech and expression, religion, the press, and movement.

Political rights include natural justice (procedural fairness) in law, such as the rights of the accused, including the right to a fair trial; due p process;; the right g to seek redress or a legal g remedy; y; and rights g of participation in civil society and politics such as freedom of association, the right to assemble, the right to petition, and the right to vote.

Civil and political rights comprise the first portion of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (with economic, social and cultural rights comprising the second portion). The theory of three generations of human rights considers this group of rights to be "first窶身eneration rights", and the theory of negative and positive rights h considers d them h to be b generally ll negative rights. h

Civil and political rights were among the first to be recognized and codified. In many countries, they are constitutional rights and are included in a bill of rights or similar document. They are also defined in international human rights instruments, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Unenumerated rights are sometimes defined as legal rights inferred from other legal rights that are officiated in a retrievable form codified by law institutions, such as in written constitutions, but are not themselves expressly coded or "enumerated" among the explicit writ of the law. Alternative terminology sometimes used are: natural rights, background rights, and fundamental rights.

Unenumerated rights may alternatively refer to a situation when an individual or group of people delegate limited powers to a government. "If a line can be drawn between the powers granted and the rights retained, it would seem to be the same thing, whether the latter be secured by declaring that they shall not be abridged, or that the former shall not be extended."

The Equal Protection Clause, part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, provides that "no state shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws laws". The Equal Protection Clause can be seen as an attempt to secure the promise of the United States' professed commitment to the proposition that "all men are created equal" by empowering the judiciary to enforce that principle against the states. As written it applied only to state governments, governments but it has since been interpreted to apply to the Federal Government of the United States as well

The Constitution creates the three branches of the national government: a legislature, the bicameral Congress; an executive branch led byy the President;; and a jjudicial branch headed byy the Supreme Court. The Constitution specifies the powers and duties of each branch. The Constitution reserves all unenumerated powers to the respective states and the people, thereby establishing the federal system of government.

The Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and ratified by conventions in each U.S. state in the name of "The People". The Constitution has been amended twenty�seven times; the first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights.

The United States Constitution is the oldest written constitution still in use by any nation in the world

The First Amendment (Amendment I)

to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the makingg of anyy law "respecting p p g an establishment of religion", impeding the free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.

The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment refers to the first of several pronouncements in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, stating that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion". Together with the law respecting an establishment of religion Together with the Free Exercise Clause ("... or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"), these two clauses make up what are commonly said as the "religion clauses" of the First Amendment.

The establishment clause has ggenerallyy been interpreted p to prohibit 1) the establishment of a national religion by Congress, or 2) the preference of one religion over another. The first approach is called the "separation" or "no aid" interpretation, while the second approach is called the "non‐preferential" or "accommodation" interpretation.

The accommodation interpretation prohibits Congress from preferring one religion over another, but does not prohibit the government's entry into religious domain to make accommodations in order to achieve the purposes of the Free Exercise Clause.

In 1878, 1878 the Supreme Court was first called to interpret the extent of the Free Exercise Clause in Reynolds v. United States, as related to the prosecution of polygamy under federal law. The Supreme Court upheld Mr. Reynolds' conviction for bigamy, deciding that to do otherwise would p provide constitutional p protection for a ggamut of religious beliefs, including those as extreme as human sacrifice.

The Court said (at page 162): "Congress cannot pass a law for the government of the Territory which shall prohibit the free exercise of religion. The first amendment to the Constitution expressly forbids such legislation." Of federal territorial laws, the Court said: "Laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious beliefs and opinions, they may with practices."

The right to freedom of speech is recognized as a human right under d Article l 19 off the h Universall Declaration l off Human Rights h and d recognized in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The ICCPR recognizes the right to freedom of speech as "the right to hold opinions without itho t interference. interference Everyone E er one shall have ha e the right to freedom of expression".Furthermore freedom of speech is recognized in European, inter�American and African regional human rights law.

Freedom of the press is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials. While such freedom mostly implies the absence of interference from an overreaching state, state its preservation may be sought through constitutional or other legal protections.

Freedom of assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests. The right to freedom of association is recognized as a human right, a political freedom and a civil liberty.

In the United States the right to petition is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the federal constitution, which specifically prohibits Congress from abridging "the right of the people...to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. grievances " Although often overlooked in favor of other more famous freedoms, and sometimes taken for granted,many other civil liberties are enforceable against the government only by exercising this basic right. right The right to petition is a fundamental in a representative democracy, such as the United States, as a means of protecting public participation in government.

The Second Amendment (Amendment II)

to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of g that p protects a right g to keep p and bear arms. The Second Rights Amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights. The American Bar Association has observed that there is more disagreement and less understanding about this right than of any other current issue regarding the Constitution

The militia of the United States consists of all able�bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.

A sovereign state (commonly simply referred to as a state) is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state

The right to keep and bear arms, often referred as the right to bear arms or the right to have arms, is the assertion that people have a personal right to "weapon(s)" for individual use, or a collective right to bear arms in a militia, or both. In this context, "arms" refers to a variety of weapons and armor and to "bear arms" meant to wage war

The Third Amendment (Amendment III)

to the United States Constitution is a part of the United States Bill of g It was introduced on September p 5,, 1789,, and then three Rights. quarters of the states ratified this as well as 9 other amendments on December 15, 1791. It prohibits, in peacetime, the quartering of soldiers in private homes without the owner's consent.

Quartering Act is the name of at least two 18th�century acts of the Parliament of Great Britain. These Quartering Acts were used by the British forces in the American colonies to ensure that British soldiers had adequate housing and provisions. These acts were amendments to the Mutiny Act, which had to be renewed annually by Parliament. Originally intended as a response to problems that arose during Britain's victory in the Seven Years War th later they l t became b a source off tension t i between b t i h bit t off the inhabitants th Thirteen Colonies and the government in London.

The Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV)

to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights which gguards against g unreasonable searches and seizures. The amendment specifically also requires search and arrest warrants be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. It was adopted as a response to the abuse of the writ of assistance, which is a type of general search warrant, in the American Revolution. Search and arrest should be limited in scope according to specific information supplied to the issuing court, usually by a law enforcement officer, who has sworn by it.

Search and seizure is a legal procedure used in many civil law and common law legal systems whereby police or other authorities and their agents, who suspect that a crime has been committed, do a search of a person's property and confiscate any relevant evidence to the crime.

The Fifth Amendment (Amendment V) to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. Its guarantees stem from English common law which traces back to the Magna Carta in 1215. For instance, grand juries and the phrase "due process" both trace their origin to the Magna Carta.

Due process is the principle that the government must respect all of the legal rights that are owed to a person according to the law.

Due process holds the government subservient to the law of the land, protecting individual persons from the state.

Due process has also been frequently interpreted as limiting laws and legal proceedings (see substantive due process), so judges instead of legislators may define and guarantee fundamental f i fairness, j ti and justice, d liberty. lib t

Double jeopardy is a procedural defense that forbids a defendant from being tried twice for the same crime on the same set of facts.

At common law a defendant may plead autrefois acquit or autrefois convict (a peremptory plea), meaning the defendant has been acquitted or convicted of the same offense

Self窶進ncrimination is the act of accusing oneself of a crime for which a person can then be prosecuted. Self窶進ncrimination can occur either directly or indirectly: directly, by means of interrogation where information of a self窶進ncriminatory nature is disclosed; indirectly, when information of a self窶進ncriminatory nature is disclosed voluntarily without pressure from another person.

The Sixth Amendment (Amendment VI)

to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights which sets forth rights related to criminal prosecutions. The Supreme Court has applied the protections of this amendment to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

A jury trial (or trial by jury) is a legal proceeding in which a jury either makes a decision or makes findings of fact which are then applied by a judge. It is distinguished from a bench trial, in which a judge or panel of judges make all decisions. decisions

The rights of the accused is a "class" of civil and political rights that apply to a person accused of a crime, from when he or she is arrested and charged to when he or she is either convicted or acquitted. Rights of the accused are generally based on the maxim of "innocent until proven guilty" and are embodied in due process.

The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right...to be confronted with the witnesses against him. him "

Speedy trial refers to one of the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution to defendants in criminal proceedings. The right to a speedy trial, guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment, is intended to ensure that defendants are not subjected to unreasonably lengthy incarceration prior to a fair trial.

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution establishes the right of the accused to a public trial.

The right to a public trial is strictly enforced, but is not absolute.

Trials may in exceptional cases be regulated. Closures are decided case‐by‐case by the judge evaluating a claimed danger to a substantial or legitimate public interest. But whatever the interest at stake, the likelihood of danger to that interest must meet a “‘ b t ti l probability’ “‘substantial b bilit ’ test t t

Right to counsel is currently generally regarded as a constituent of the right to a fair trial, allowing for the defendant to be assisted by counsel (i.e. lawyers), and if he cannot afford his own lawyer, requiring that the government should appoint one for him, or pay his legal expenses. However, this has not historically always been the case in all countries.

The Seventh Amendment (Amendment VII)

to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, codifies the right to a jury trial in certain civil trials. Unlike most of the Bill of Rights, the Supreme Court has not incorporated the amendment's requirements to the states under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Civil law, as opposed to criminal law, is the branch of law dealing with disputes between individuals and/or organizations, in which compensation may be awarded to the victim. For instance, if a car crash victim claims damages against the driver for loss or injury sustained in an accident, this will be a civil law case

The Eighth Amendment (Amendment VIII)

to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of g which p prohibits the federal ggovernment from imposing p g Rights excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishments.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that this amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause applies to the states. The phrases employed originated in the English Bill of Rights of 1689.

The Excessive bail provision of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution is based on an old English common law right of Englishmen and the British Bill of Rights. It is considered a fundamental right by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Generally defined, excessive bail means "an amount of bail ordered posted by an accused defendant which is much more than necessary or usual to assure he/she will make court appearances, particularly ti l l in i relation l ti to t minor i crimes." i "

Cruel and unusual punishment is a phrase describing criminal punishment which is considered unacceptable due to the suffering or humiliation it inflicts on the condemned person.

These exact words were first used in the English Bill of Rights in 1689, and later were also adopted by the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1787) and the British Slavery Amelioration Act (1798).

The Ninth Amendment (Amendment IX)

to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, addresses rights of the people that are not specifically enumerated in the Constitution.

The Tenth Amendment (Amendment X)

to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791. The Tenth Amendment restates the Constitution's principle of federalism by providing that powers not granted to the national government nor prohibited to the states by the Constitution of the United States are reserved to the states or the people.

The Founding Fathers of the United States were the political leaders who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 or otherwise took part in the American Revolution in winning American independence from Great Britain, or who participated in framing and adopting the United States Constitution in 1787�1788, or in putting the new government under the Constitution into effect.

The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, customarily referred to as the Articles of Confederation, was the first constitution of the United States of America and legally established the union of the states. The Second Continental Congress appointed a committee to draft the Articles in June 1776 and sent the draft to the states for ratification in November 1777.

The ratification process was completed in March 1781, legally f d ti federating th sovereign the i and d independent i d d t states, t t already l d cooperating through the Continental Congress, into a new federation styled the "The United States of America". Under the Articles the states retained sovereignty over all governmental functions not specifically relinquished to the central government. government

The United States Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire. Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration is a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after ft the th outbreak tb k off the th American A i R l ti Revolutionary W War.

The Thirteen Colonies were British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America, which declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America.

The colonies, whose territory ranged from what is now Maine (then part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay) to the north and Georgia to the south, were Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, N New H Hampshire, hi Vi i i New Virginia, N Y k North York, N th Carolina, C li and d Rhode Rh d Island.

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [ January 6, 1705[] – April 17, 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding g g electricity. y He invented the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove a carriage odometer, and the glass 'armonica'. He formed both the first public lending library in America and the first fire department in Pennsylvania.

George Washington (February 22, 1732 February 11, 1731]– December 14, 1799) served as the first constitutional President of the United States from 1789 to 1797, preceded by 14 other Presidents who were elected by Congress, Congress known as the "Forgotten Forgotten Presidents", and as the commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1783. His role in the revolution and subsequent independence and formation of the United States was significant, significant and is seen by Americans as the "Father of Our Country

John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American politician and political philosopher and the second President of the United States (1797–1801), after being the first Vice President of the United States (1789–1797) for two terms. He was one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States.

Adams came to prominence in the early stages of the American Revolution. As a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental C Congress, h played he l d a leading l di role l in i persuading di C Congress t to declare independence, and assisted Thomas Jefferson in drafting the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776). Jefferson was one of the most influential Founding Fathers, known for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States.

Jefferson envisioned America as the force behind a great "Empire of Liberty“ that would promote republicanism and counter the i imperialism i li off the th British B iti h Empire.

E i

John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American politician, statesman, revolutionary, diplomat, a Founding Father of the United States, President of the Continental Congress from 1778 to 1779 and, from 1789 to 1795, the first Chief Justice of the United States. During and after the American Revolution, he was a minister (ambassador) to Spain and France, helping to fashion United States foreign policy and to secure favorable peace terms f from th British the B iti h (the (th Jay J Treaty) T t ) and d French.

F h He H co�wrote t the th Federalist Papers with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.

James Madison (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) was an American politician and political philosopher who served as the fourth President of the United States (1809–1817) and is considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

He was the principal author of the US Constitution, and is often called the "Father of the Constitution". In 1788, he wrote over a third of the Federalist Papers, an influential commentary on the C tit ti Constitution.

Th first The fi t president id t to t have h served d in i the th United U it d States Congress, he was a leader in the 1st United States Congress, drafting many basic laws, and was responsible for the first ten amendments to the Constitution (said to be based on the Virginia Declaration of Rights) and thus is also known as the "Father of the Bill of Rights“. As a political theorist, Madison's most distinctive belief was that the new republic needed checks and balances to protect individual rights from the tyranny of the majority. majority

Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757 – July 12, 1804) was the first United States Secretary of the Treasury, a Founding Father, economist, and political philosopher. Aide‐de‐camp to General George Washington during the American Revolutionary War, he was a leader of nationalist forces calling for a new Constitution; he was one of America's first Constitutional lawyers, and wrote most of the Federalist Papers, a primary source for C tit ti Constitutional l interpretation. i t t ti H was the He th financial fi i l expertt off Washington's administration; the Federalist Party formed to support his policies.

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America.

America They first rejected the authority of the Parliament of Great Britain to govern them from overseas without representation, and then expelled all royal officials.

Patriots (also known as American Whigs, Revolutionaries, Congress窶信en or Rebels) was the name the colonists of the British Thirteen United Colonies, who rebelled against British control during the American Revolution, Revolution called themselves. themselves It was their leading figures who, in July 1776, declared the United States of America an independent nation. Their rebellion was based on the political philosophy of republicanism, as expressed by pamphleteers p p such as Thomas Jefferson,, Alexander Hamilton,, and Thomas Paine.

They called themselves Whigs after 1768, identifying with members of the British Whig Party, i.e., Radical Whigs and Patriot Whigs, who favored similar colonial policies.

As a group, Patriots represented an array of social, economic, ethnic and racial backgrounds. They included college students like Alexander Hamilton, planters like Thomas Jefferson, merchants like Alexander McDougall, and plain farmers like Daniel Shays and Joseph Plumb Martin.

The Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress (also known as the Declaration of Colonial Rights, the Declaration of Rights, or the Declaration of Rights and Grievances) was a statement adopted by the First Continental Congress on October 14, 1774, in response to the Intolerable Acts passed by the British Parliament. The Declaration outlined colonial objections to the Intolerable Acts, listed a colonial bill of rights, and provided a d t il d list detailed li t off grievances. i The Declaration concluded with an outline of Congress's future plans: to enter into a boycott of British trade (the Continental Association) until their grievances were redressed, to publish addresses to the people of Great Britain and British America, America and to send a petition to the King.

The Intolerable Acts or the Coercive Acts are names used to describe a series of five laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 relatingg to Britain's colonies in North America. The acts triggered outrage and resistance in the Thirteen Colonies that later became the United States, and were important developments in the growth of the American Revolution.

Four of the acts were issued in direct response to the Boston Tea Party of December 1773; the British Parliament hoped these punitive measures would, by making an example of Massachusetts, reverse the trend of colonial resistance to parliamentary authority that had begun with the 1765 Stamp Act.

The Sons of Liberty was a political group made up of American Patriots that originated in the pre窶進ndependence North American British colonies. The group was designed to incite change in the British government's treatment of the Colonies in the years following the end of the French and Indian War. These patriots attacked the apparatus and symbols of British authority and power through both words and deeds.

The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act for a variety of reasons, especially because they believed that it violated their right to be taxed only by their own elected representatives. Protesters had successfully prevented the unloading of taxed tea in three other colonies, but in Boston, embattled b ttl d Royal R l Governor G Th Thomas H t hi Hutchinson refused f d to t allow ll the tea to be returned to Britain. He apparently did not expect that the protestors would choose to destroy the tea rather than concede the authority of a legislature in which they were not directly represented. represented The Boston Tea Party was a key event in the growth of the American Revolution. Parliament responded in 1774 with the Coercive Acts, which, among other provisions, closed Boston's commerce until the British East India Company had been repaid for the destroyed tea. Colonists in turn responded to the Coercive Acts with additional acts of protest, and by convening the First Continental Congress, which petitioned the British monarch for p of the acts and coordinated colonial resistance to them. repeal The crisis escalated, and the American Revolutionary War began near Boston in 1775.

The Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms was a document issued by the Second Continental Congress on July 6, 1775, to explain why the Thirteen Colonies had taken up arms in what had become the American Revolutionary War, and represents an important development in the political thought that went into the American Revolution. The final draft of the Declaration was written by John Dickinson, who incorporated l language f from an earlier li draft d ft by b Thomas Th J ff Jefferson.

Black nationalism (BN) advocates a racial definition (or redefinition) of black national identity, as opposed to multiculturalism. There are different black nationalist philosophies but the principles of all black nationalist ideologies are 1) black unity, and 2) black self�determination/ independence from white society. Martin Delany is considered to be the grandfather of black nationalism

Inspired by the apparent success of the Haitian Revolution, the origins of black nationalism in political thought lie in the 19th century with people like Marcus Garvey, Garvey Elijah Muhammad, Muhammad Henry McNeal Turner, Martin Delany, Henry Highland Garnet, Edward Wilmot Blyden, Paul Cuffe, etc. The repatriation of black American slaves to Liberia or Sierra Leone was a common black nationalist theme in the 19th century. Marcus Garvey Garvey'ss Universal Negro Improvement Association of the 1910s and 1920s was the most powerful black nationalist movement to date, claiming 11 million members. Although the future of Africa is seen as being central to black nationalist ambitions, some adherents to black nationalism are intent on the eventual creation of a separate black American nation in the U.S. or Western hemisphere.

The first being pre‐Classical black nationalism beginning from the time the Africans were brought ashore in the Americas to the Revolutionary period. period After the Revolutionary War, War a sizable number of Africans in the colonies, particularly in New England and Pennsylvania, were literate and had become disgusted with their social conditions that had spawned from Enlightenment ideas.

We find in such historical personalities as Prince Hall, Richard Allen, and Absalom Jones a need to found certain organizations as the Free African Society, African Masonic lodges and Church Institutions. These institutions would serve as early foundations to developing independent and separate organizations. By the time of Post‐Reconstruction Era a new form of black nationalism was emerging among various African‐American clergy circles.

Separate circles had already been established and were accepted

by African‐Americans because of the overt oppression that had been in existence since the inception of the United States. This phenomenon h l d to the led h birth bi h off modern d bl k nationalism black i li which hi h stressed the need to separate and build separate communities that promote strong racial pride and also to collectivize resources.

This ideology had become the philosophy of groups like the Moorish Science Temple and the Nation of Islam.

Islam Although, Although the Sixties brought on a heightened period of religious, cultural and political nationalism, black nationalism would later influence afrocentricity .

The Moorish Science Temple of America is an American religious organization founded in the early 20th�century by Timothy Drew.

He claimed it was a sect of Islam but he drew as well from Buddhism, Christianity, Freemasonry, Gnosticism and Taoism. Its primary tenet was the belief that African Americans had descended from the Moors (rather than sub�Saharan Africans) and thus were originally Islamic. The organization combined elements off major j religious li i t diti traditions t develop to d l a message off personall transformation, racial pride and uplift. Adherents to the religion are called Moors

The Nation of Islam is a religious organization founded in Detroit, Michigan, by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930. He set out with the goal of resurrecting the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of the African American men and women of America. The N.O.I. also promotes the belief that God will bring about a universal government of peace.[1] Mainstream Muslims consider the group to be a non�Islamic independent religion that h adopted has d t d Islamic I l i terminology t i l rather th than th an Islamic I l i sectt due d to t differing beliefs about God, race, and prophecy, among others.

Since 1978, Louis Farrakhan has been the leader of a reconstituted N O I the original organization having been renamed and N.O.I., dissolved by Warith Deen Muhammad. The N.O.I.'s national center and headquarters are located in Chicago, Illinois, which is also home to its flagship Mosque No. 2, Mosque Maryam. A meeting in 2000 gathered about 20,000 20 000 members. members As of 2005, the N.O.I. has been included in the Southern Poverty Law Center's list of active hate groups in the United States

According to the Nation of Islam the Tribe of Shabazz was an ancient Black nation that migrated into central Africa, led by a scientist named Shabazz. The concept is found primarily in the writings of Wallace Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad.

According to the Autobiography of Malcolm X, all the races except the black race were by�products of the Tribe of Shabazz

Black Power was a political movement expressing a new racial consciousness among black people in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Black Power represented both a conclusion to the decade decade'ss civil rights movement and an alternative means of combating the racism that persisted despite the efforts of black activists during the early 1960s. The meaning of Black Power was debated vigorously while the movement was in progress. To some it represented African African�Americans' Americans insistence on racial dignity and self�reliance, which was usually interpreted as economic and political independence, as well as freedom from European American authority.

The Uhuru Movement is the largest contemporary black movement advocating black nationalism and was founded in the 1980s in St. Petersburg, Florida. Composed mainly of the African People's Socialist Party, the Uhuru Movement also includes other organizations based in both Africa and the United States. These organizations are in the process of establishing a broader organization called the African Socialist International. "Uhuru" is th Swahili the S hili word d for f freedom. f d

The African Peoples Socialist Party (APSP) is a revolutionary organisation whose goal is to improve the living conditions of Black people in the United States and around the world. The Party was formed in May 1972 by the merger of three Black power organisations based in the US states of Florida and Kentucky. Omali Yeshitela, one of the original cofounders, leads the APSP as of 2010.

“The African People’s Socialist Party calls on all African revolutionaries in all countries to unite with us into one all‐African international socialist association which would enhance our ability to realize our historic mission to free and unite our people and motherland, and to defeat imperialism and issue in a new day of peace, freedom, and world socialism.

“The The African People People’ss Socialist Party calls on all African revolutionaries in all countries to unite with us into one all‐African international association, which would assume the tasks of: “1. Liberating and uniting all of Africa under a single, all‐African socialist state; “2. Uniting, coordinating, and giving general assistance and direction for the revolutionary struggles of all African people wherever they occur and whenever the aims of such struggles are consistent with the aims of the international association; “3. Achieving the objective consolidation of African nationality for all African people wherever we are oppressed and exploited throughout the world due to the machinations of imperialism.

“Africans of the world, take history into your own hands!

“Af i “Africans off the h world, ld unite i to build b ild the h African Af i S i li Socialist International!”

Petit‐bourgeois (sometimes Anglicized petty bourgeois) is a French term that originally referred to the members of the lower middle social classes in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Starting from the mid‐19th century, the term was used by Karl Marx and Marxist theorists to refer to a social class that included shop‐keepers and professionals.

Though distinct from the ordinary working class and the l lumpenproletariat, l t i t who h rely l entirely ti l on the th sale l off their th i labor‐ l b power for survival, the petty is different from the haute bourgeoisie, (high bourgeoisie) or capitalist class, who own the means of production and buy the labor‐power of others to work it.

Though the petite bourgeois may buy the labor power of others, others in contrast to the haute bourgeoisie, they typically work alongside their own employees; and although they generally own their own businesses, they do not own a controlling share of the means of production. production More important, the means of production in the hands of the petite bourgeoisie do not generate enough surplus to be reinvested in production; as such, they cannot be reproduced in an amplified p scale,, or accumulated,, and do not constitute capital p properly.

The term black supremacy is a blanket term for various ideologies which hold that black people are superior to other races, most commonly the white race. Common manifestation is bigotry towards persons not of African ancestry, particularly white and Jewish people.

The basic aim of Black Muslim theology ‐‐ with its distinct Black supremacist account of the origins of white people ‐‐ was to counter white supremacy. Yet this preoccupation with white supremacy still allowed white people to serve as the principal point of reference. That which fundamentally motivates one still dictates the terms of what one thinks and does — so the motivation of a Black supremacist doctrine reveals how obsessed one is i with ith white hit supremacy

Also, the idea of white nationalism is considered racist, while black nationalism is promoted by the same people who criticize white nationalism.

Norm R. Allen, Jr., executive director of Council for Secular Humanism, calls black nationalism a "strange mixture of profound thought and patent nonsense".

On the one hand, Reactionary Black Nationalists (RBNs) advocate self‐love, self‐respect, self‐acceptance, self‐help, pride, unity, and so forth ‐ much like the right‐wingers who promote "traditional family values." But ‐ also like the holier‐than‐thou right‐wingers ‐ RBNs promote bigotry, intolerance, hatred, sexism, homophobia, anti‐Semitism, pseudo‐science, irrationality, dogmatic historical revisionism, violence, and so forth

Black nationalists strong "attraction for hardened prisoners and ex‐cons", their encouragement of black‐on‐black violence when black individuals or groups are branded as "Toms" , traitors, or "sellouts", the blatantly sexist stance and the similarities to white supremacist ideologies: Many RBNs routinely preach hate. Just as white supremacists have referred to blacks as "devils," so have many RBNs referred to whites.

Whit supremacists White i t have h verbally b ll attacked tt k d gays, as have h RBN RBNs. White supremacists embrace paranoid conspiracy theories, as do their black counterparts. Many white supremacists and RBNs consistently deny that they are preaching hate and blame the mainstream media for misrepresenting them. them (A striking exception is the NOI's Khallid Muhammad, who, according to Gates, admitted in a taped speech titled "No Love for the Other Side, Side " "Never Never will I say I am not anti anti‐Semitic Semitic. I pray that God will kill my enemy and take him off the face of the planet.")

Rather, they claim they are teaching "truth" and advocating the love of their own people, as though love of self and hatred of others are mutuallyy exclusive p positions. On the contrary, y, RBNs p preach love of self and hatred of their enemies. (Indeed, it often seems that these groups are motivated more by hatred of their enemies than love of their people.)

Afrocentrism, Afrocentricity, or Africentrism is a world view which emphasizes the importance of African people, taken as a single group and often equated with "Black people", in culture, philosophy, and history.

The roots of Afrocentrism lay in a reaction to the repression of Black people throughout the Western world in the 19th century and d as a backlash b kl h against i t the th scientific i tifi racism i off the th period, i d which hi h tended to attribute any advanced civilization to the immigration of Proto�Indo�Europeans and their descendants.

Part of this reaction involved reviewing history to document the contributions that Black people made to world civilization

The Back�to�Africa movement, also known as the Colonization movement, originated in the United States in the nineteeth century, and encouraged those of African descent to return to the African homelands of their ancestors. This movement would eventually inspire other movements ranging from the Nation of Islam to the Rastafari movement.

Black anarchism opposes the existence of the state and the subjugation and domination of people of color, and favors a non� hierarchical organization of society. Black anarchists seek to abolish white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, and the state.

Theorists include Ashanti Alston, Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, Kuwasi Balagoon, Kai Lumumba Barrow, Greg Jackson, Roger White, Martin Sostre and many former members of the Black Panther P t Anarchist Party.

A hi t people l off color l i a network is t k off non�white hit anarchists.

Anarchist People of Color is an American anarchist/anti‐ authoritarian group created to address issues of race, anti‐ authoritarianism and people of color struggle politics within the context of anarchism, anarchism and to increase/create political (safe) space for people of color.

Initially started as an e‐mail list and website by Ernesto Aguilar, APOC is inspired and influenced by such historical anarchists of color as Lucy Parsons, Parsons Lorenzo Kom Kom'boa boa Ervin, Ervin Ricardo Flores Magón, Práxedis Guerrero, Martin Sostre, and Luisa Capetillo.

The Anarchist Black Cross Network is a worldwide decentralized and egalitarian network of organizations committed to the original ideals of the Anarchist Black Cross movement �� of seeing prisons and the poverty, racism and genocide that accompanies them to be symptoms of a social order whose last days are near.

Anarchist Black Cross Network differs significantly with Anarchist Black Cross Federation, since it has no official joining procedure or strict t i t requirements. i t So S even a group that th t does d nott name oneself lf as Anarchist Black Cross may join as long as it does work in bettering prison conditions or working to abolish prisons all together. Anarchist Black Cross Network refers to that as defensive work (bettering prison conditions) and offensive work (abolishing prison system).

The Black Liberation Army (BLA) was an underground, black nationalist�Marxist militant organization that operated in the United States from 1970 to 1981. Composed largely of former Black Panthers (BPP), the organization's program was one of "armed struggle" and its stated goal was to "take up arms for the liberation and self�determination of black people in the United States." The BLA carried out a series of bombings, robberies (what participants ti i t termed t d "expropriations"), " i ti ") and d prison i b k breaks.

The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self‐Defense) was an African‐American revolutionary left‐wing organization working for the self‐defense for black people. It was active in the United States from the mid‐1960s into the 1970s. The Black Panther Party achieved national and international impact through their deep involvement in the Black Power movement and in US politics of the 1960s and 70s, as the intense anti‐racism of th time the ti i today is t d considered id d one off the th mostt significant i ifi t social, i l political and cultural currents in US history. The group's "provocative rhetoric, militant posture, and cultural and political flourishes permanently altered the contours of American Identity Founded in Oakland, California, by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton on October 15, 1966, the organization initially set forth a doctrine calling primarily for the protection of African American neighborhoods from police brutality. brutality But the Black Panther Party's objectives and philosophy expanded and evolved rapidly during the party's existence. The organization'ss leaders passionately espoused socialist and organization communist (largely Maoist) doctrines, but the Party's black nationalist reputation attracted an ideologically diverse membership.

Ideological consensus within the party was difficult to achieve, and some prominent members openly disagreed with the views of the leaders.

Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization (abbreviated WUO), was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their supporters. Their goal was to create a clandestine revolutionary party for the violent overthrow of the US governmentt and d the th establishment t bli h t off a dictatorship di t t hi off the th proletariat.

With leadership whose revolutionary positions were characterized by Black separatist rhetoric, the group conducted a campaign of bombings through the mid�1970s, mid 1970s including aiding the jailbreak and escape of Timothy Leary.

The "Days of Rage", their first public demonstration on October 8 1969, 8, 1969 was a riot in Chicago timed to coincide with the trial of the Chicago Seven. In 1970 the group issued a "Declaration of a State of War" against the United States government, under the name "Weather Underground

"Weather Underground Organization" (WUO). The bombing attacks mostly targeted government buildings, along with several banks. Most were preceded by evacuation warnings, along with communiquĂŠs identifying the particular matter that the attack was intended to protest. For the bombing of the United States Capitol on March 1, 1971, they issued a communiquĂŠ saying it was "in protest of the US invasion of L Laos." " For F the th bombing b bi off the th Pentagon P t on May M 19, 19 1972, 1972 they th stated it was "in retaliation for the US bombing raid in Hanoi."

For the January 29, 1975 bombing of the United States Department of State Building, they stated it was "in response to escalation in Vietnam.

Vietnam "

Widely‐known members of the Weather Underground include Kathy Boudin, Mark Rudd, Terry Robbins, Ted Gold, Naomi Jaffe, Cathy Wilkerson, Jeff Jones, Eleanor Raskin, David Gilbert, Susan Stern, Bob Tomashevsky, Sam Karp, Russell Neufeld, Joe Kelly, Laura Whitehorn and the still‐married couple Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers.

Most former Weathermen have successfully re‐integrated re integrated into mainstream society, society without necessarily repudiating their original intent.

Weatherman was referred to in its own time and afterwards as "terrorist."The group fell under the auspices of FBI‐New York City Police Anti Terrorist Task Force, a forerunner of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Forces. The FBI, on its website, describes the organization as having been a "domestic domestic terrorist group, group," but no longer an active [ concern. Others either dispute or clarify the categorization, or justify the group's violence as an appropriate response to the Vietnam war. In his 2001 book about his Weatherman experiences, Bill Ayers stated his objection to describing the WUO (Weather Underground Organization) as "terrorist."

Ayers wrote: "Terrorists terrorize, they kill innocent civilians, while we organized and agitated. Terrorists destroy randomly, while our actions bore, we hoped, the precise stamp of a cut diamond. Terrorists intimidate, while we aimed only to educate. No, we're not terrorists."[Dan Berger, in his book about the Weatherman, "Outlaws in America," comments that the group "purposefully and successfully avoided injuring anyone Its war against property by definition means that the WUO was not a anyone... terrorist organization.“ Bill Ayers, now a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was quoted in an interview to say "I don't regret setting bombs" but has since claimed he [During was misquoted. q g the p presidential election campaign p g of 2008,, several candidates questioned Barack Obama's contacts with Ayers, including Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Sarah Palin. Ayers responded in December 2008, after Obama's election victory, in an op‐ed piece in The New York Times We did carry out symbolic acts of extreme vandalism directed at monuments to war and racism, and the attacks on property, never on people, were meant to respect human life and convey outrage and determination to end the Vietnam war The responsibility for the risks we posed to others in some of our most extreme actions in those underground years never leaves my thoughts for long. The antiwar movement in all its commitment, all its sacrifice and determination, could not stop the violence unleashed against Vietnam And therein lies cause for real regret.

African�American history is the portion of American history that specifically discusses the African American or Black American ethnic group in the United States. Most African Americans are the descendants of captive Africans held in the United States from 1619 to 1865. Blacks from the Caribbean whose ancestors immigrated, or who immigrated to the U.S., also traditionally have been considered African American, as they share a common hi t history off predominantly d i tl West W t African Af i or Central C t l African Af i roots, t the th Middle Passage and slavery. It is these peoples, who in the past were referred to and self�identified collectively as the American Negro, who now generally consider themselves African Americans.

Between 1886 and 1898 Black farmers, sharecroppers, and agrarian laborers organized their communities to combat the rising tide of Jim Crow laws. As Black Populism asserted itself and grew into a regional force, force it met fierce resistance from the white planter and business elite that, through the Democratic Party and its affiliated network of courts, militias, sheriffs, and newspapers, maintained tight control of the region. Violence against Black Populism was organized through the Ku Klux Klan, Klan among other terrorist organizations designed to halt or reverse the advance of black civil and political rights.

The majority of African Americans descend from slaves, most of whom were sold into slavery as prisoners of war by African states or kidnapped by African, European or American slave traders. The existing market for slaves in Africa was exploited and expanded by European powers in need of labor for New World plantations.

The American slave population was made up of the various ethnic groups from western and central Africa, including the Bakongo, I b MandĂŠ, Igbo, M dĂŠ Wolof, W l f Akan, Ak F and Fon d Makua M k amongstt others. th O Over time in most areas of the Americas, these different peoples did away with tribal differences and forged a new history and culture that was a creolization of their common pasts and present

The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965.

They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, facilities with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were usually inferior to those provided for white Americans, systematizing a number of economic, economic educational and social disadvantages.

Some examples of Jim Crow laws are the segregation of public schools, public places and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms, restaurants and drinking fountains for whites and blacks. The U.S. military was also segregated. These Jim Crow Laws were separate from the 1800�66 Black Codes, which had also restricted the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans. State�sponsored school segregation was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education. Generally, the remaining Jim Crow laws were overruled by the Civil Rights Act of 1964[1] and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States Constitutional law that justified systems of segregation. Under this doctrine, services, facilities and public accommodations were allowed to be separated by race, on the condition that the quality of each group's public facilities were (supposedly) to remain equal.

The phrase was derived from a Louisiana law of 1890.

It was also the title of an anonymous article written in 1869, d t ili how detailing h people l had h d equall rights i ht but b t were separated t d because b of race

The Black Codes were laws passed on the state and local level in the United States, but mostly in the south, to limit the basic human rights and civil liberties of African Americans. Even though the U.S. constitution originally discriminated against African Americans (as "other persons") and both Northern and Southern states had passed discriminatory legislation from the early 19th century, the term Black Codes is used most often to refer f to t legislation l i l ti passed d by b Southern S th states t t att the th end d off the th Civil War to control the labor, movements and activities of newly� freed slaves.

In Texas, the Eleventh Legislature produced these codes in 1866.

The intent of the legislation was to reaffirm the inferior position that slaves and free blacks had held in antebellum Texas and to regulate black labor. The codes reflected the unwillingness of white Texans to accept blacks as equals and also their fears that freedmen would not work unless coerced. coerced Thus the codes continued legal discrimination between whites and blacks. The legislature, when it amended the 1856 penal code,, emphasized p the continuingg line between whites and blacks by defining all individuals with one�eighth or more African blood as persons of color, subject to special provisions in the law

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center�left in the U.S. political spectrum Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as The Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present right�wing organizations in the United States, which advocates extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy and nationalism.

The current manifestation is splintered into several chapters and is widely d l considered d d a hate h group.

The first KKK flourished in the South in the 1860s, then died out by the early 1870s. The second KKK flourished nationwide in the earl and mid 1920s, early 1920s and adopted the costumes cost mes and paraphernalia of the first Klan.

The third Klan emerged after World War II. Their iconic white costumes consisted of robes, robes masks, masks and conical hats. hats The first and third KKK had a well�established record of using terrorism, but historians debate how central that tactic was to the second KKK.

The first Klan was founded in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee by veterans of the Confederate Army. Although it never had an organizational structure above the local level, similar groups across the South adopted the name and methods. Klan groups spread throughout the South as an insurgent movement after the war. As a secret vigilante group, the Klan reacted against Radical Republican control of Reconstruction by attempting to restore t white hit supremacy by b threats th t and d violence, i l i l di including murder, against black and white Republicans. In 1870 and 1871 the federal government passed the Force Acts, which were used to prosecute Klan crimes. Prosecution of Klan crimes and enforcement of the Force Acts suppressed Klan activity. activity In 1874 and later, however, newly organized and openly active paramilitary organizations, such as the White League and the Red Shirts, started a fresh round of violence aimed at suppressing Republican voting and running Republicans out of office. These contributed to white conservative Democrats' regaining political power in all the Southern states by 1877.

In 1915, the second Klan was founded. It grew rapidly nationwide after 1921 in response to a period of postwar social tensions, where industrialization in the North had attracted numerous waves of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and the Great Migration of Southern blacks and whites.

The second KKK preached racism, anti‐Catholicism, anti‐ Communism, nativism, and antisemitism. Some local groups took p part in attacks on p private houses,, and carried out other violent activities. The violent episodes were generally in the South The second Klan was a formal fraternal organization, with a national and state structure. At its peak in the mid‐1920s, the organization claimed to include about 15% of the nation's eligible population, approximately 4–5 million men. Internal divisions, criminal behavior by leaders, and external opposition brought about a collapse in membership, which had dropped to about 30,000 by 1930. It finally faded away in the 1940s.

Lifting the Klan mask revealed a chaotic multitude of antiblack vigilante groups, disgruntled poor white farmers, wartime guerrilla bands, displaced Democratic politicians, illegal whiskey distillers, coercive moral reformers, sadists, rapists, white workmen fearful of black competition, employers trying to enforce labor discipline, common thieves, neighbors with decades�old grudges, and even a few freedmen and white R Republicans bli who h allied lli d with ith Democratic D ti whites hit or had h d criminal i i l agendas of their own. Indeed, all they had in common, besides being overwhelmingly white, southern, and Democratic, was that they called themselves, or were called, Klansmen

A free Negro or free black is the term used prior to the abolition of slavery in the United States to describe African Americans who were not slaves. Almost all African Americans came to the United States as slaves, but from the earliest days of American slavery, slaveholders set men and women free for various reasons.

Sometimes an owner died and the heirs did not want slaves, or a slave was freed as reward for his or her good service, or the slave was able bl to t pay in i order d to t be b freed. f d Free blacks in the antebellum period—those years from the formation of the Union until the Civil War—were quite outspoken about the injustice of slavery

Reparations for slavery is a proposal that some type of compensation should be provided to the descendants of enslaved people in the United States, in consideration of the coerced and uncompensated labor their ancestors performed over several centuries. This compensation has been proposed in a variety of forms, from individual monetary payments to land�based compensation schemes related to independence. The idea remains i highly hi hl controversial t i l and d no broad b d consensus exists i t as to t how it could be implemented. There have been similar calls for reparations from some Caribbean countries, and some African countries have called for reparations to their states for the loss of their population

The arguments surrounding reparations are based on the formal discussion about reparations and actual land reparations received

by African�Americans which were later taken away. In 1865, after the Confederate States of America were defeated in the American Civil War, General William Tecumseh Sherman issued Special Field Orders, No. 15 to both "assure the harmony of action in the area of operations" and to solve problems caused by the masses of f d slaves, freed l a temporary t plan l granting ti each h freed f d family f il forty f t acres of tillable land in the sea islands and around Charleston, South Carolina for the exclusive use of black people who had been enslaved. The army also had a number of unneeded mules which were given to settlers. settlers Around 40,000 40 000 freed slaves were settled on 400,000 acres (1,600 km²) in Georgia and South Carolina.

Reconstruction came to an end in 1877 without the issue of reparations having been addressed. Thereafter, a deliberate movement of regression and oppression arose in southern states.

Jim Crow laws passed in some southeastern states to reinforce the existing inequality that slavery had produced. In addition white extremist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan engaged in a massive campaign of intimidation throughout the Southeast in order d to t keep k Af i African�Americans A i i their in th i prescribed ib d social i l place. l For decades this assumed inequality and injustice was ruled on in court decisions and debated in public discourse.

Reparation for slavery in what is now the United States is a complicated issue. Any proposal for reparations must take into account the role of the, then relatively newly formed, United States Government in the importation and enslavement of Africans and that of the older and established European countries that created the colonies in which slavery was legal; as well as their efforts to stop the trade in slaves. It must also consider if and h how much h modern d A Americans i h have b benefited fit d from f th the importation and enslavement of Africans since the end of the slave trade in 1865. Profit from slavery was not limited to a particular region: New England merchants profited from the importation of slaves while Southern planters profited from the continued slaves, enslavement of Africans.

Social justice is also a concept that some use to describe the movement towards a socially just world. In this context, social justice is based on the concepts of human rights and equality and involves a greater degree of economic egalitarianism through progressive taxation, income redistribution, or even property redistribution. These policies aim to achieve what developmental economists refer to as more equality of opportunity than may currently exist in some societies, societies and to manufacture equality of outcome in cases where incidental inequalities appear in a procedurally just system.

A progressive tax is a tax by which the tax rate increases as the taxable base amount increases. "Progressive" describes a distribution effect on income or expenditure, referring to the way the rate progresses from low to high, where the average tax rate is less than the marginal tax rate. It can be applied to individual taxes or to a tax system as a whole; a year, multi‐year, or lifetime.

Progressive taxes attempt to reduce the tax incidence of people with ith a lower l ability‐to‐pay, bilit t as they th shift hift the th incidence i id i increasingly i l to those with a higher ability‐to‐pay.

In economics, redistribution is the transfer of income, wealth or property from some individuals to others. Most often it refers to progressive redistribution, from the rich to the poor, although it may also refer to regressive redistribution, from the poor to the rich. The desirability and effects of redistribution are actively debated on ethical and economic grounds.

Distributive justice concerns what some consider to be socially just with respect to the allocation of goods in a society. Thus, a community in which incidental inequalities in outcome do not arise would be considered a society guided by the principles of distributive justice. Allocation of goods takes into thought the total amount of goods to be handed out, the process on how they in the civilization are going to dispense, and the pattern of division.

Ci ili ti Civilizations h have a narrow amountt off resources and d capital; it l the th problem arises on how the goods should be divided.

Equal Opportunity, sometimes known as Equality of opportunity, is a term which has differing definitions and there is no consensus as to the precise meaning. In the classical sense, equality of opportunity is closely aligned with the concept of equality before the law, and ideas of meritocracy.

Equality of opportunity is in philosophical contrast against the concept of equality of outcome.

Equality of outcome, equality of condition, or Equality of results is a form of social justice rhetoric which seeks to reduce or eliminate incidental inequalities in material condition between individuals or households in a society. society This usually means equalizing income and/or total wealth to a certain degree by, for example, granting a greater amount of income and/or total wealth to poorer individuals or households at the expense of relatively wealthy individuals or households. households

Liberalism (from the Latin liberalis, "of freedom") is the belief in the importance of liberty and equality. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles but most liberals support such fundamental ideas as principles, constitutions, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights, capitalism, free trade, and the separation of church and state. These ideas are widely accepted, even by political groups that do not openly profess a liberal ideological orientation. orientation Liberalism encompasses several intellectual trends and traditions, but the dominant variants are classical liberalism, which became popular in the 18th century, and social liberalism, which became popular in the 20th century.

Left‐libertarianism (sometimes synonymous with libertarism, left‐ wing libertarianism, egalitarian‐libertarianism and libertarian socialism) is a term that has been used to describe several different libertarian political movements and theorists. theorists Left‐libertarianism, as defended by contemporary theorists such as Peter Vallentyne, Hillel Steiner, and Michael Otsuka, is a doctrine that has a strong commitment to personal liberty and has an egalitarian view concerning natural resources, believing that it is illegitimate for anyone to claim private ownership of resources to the detriment of others.

Some left‐libertarians of this type support some form of income redistribution on the grounds of a claim by each individual to be entitled to an equal share of natural resources.

The left–right political spectrum is a common way of classifying political positions, political ideologies, or political parties along a one‐dimensional political spectrum. The perspective of Left vs.

Right is a broad, dialectical interpretation of complex questions.

Left‐wing politics and right‐wing politics are often presented as polar opposites, and although a particular individual or party may take a left‐wing stance on one matter and a right‐wing stance on another, th the th terms t l ft and left d right i ht are commonly l used d as if they th described two globally opposed political families. In France, where the terms originated, the Left is called "the party of movement" and the Right "the party of order".

Progressivism is a political attitude favoring or advocating changes or reform. Progressivism is often viewed in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies. The Progressive Movement began in cities with settlement workers and reformers who were interested in helping those facing harsh conditions at home and at work. The reformers spoke out about the need for laws regulating tenement housing and child labor. They also called for better working conditions for women. women

In the United States, the term progressivism emerged in the late 19th century into the 20th century in reference to a more general response to the vast changes brought by industrialization: an alternative to both the traditional conservative response to social and economic issues and to the various more radical streams of socialism and anarchism which opposed them. Political parties, such as the Progressive Party, organized at the start of the 20th century and progressivism made great strides under American century, presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Lyndon Baines Johnson

In the United States there have been several periods where progressive political parties have developed. The first of these was around the turn of the 20th century. This period notably included the emergence of the Progressive Party, Party founded in 1912

by President Theodore Roosevelt. This progressive party was the most successful third party in modern American history. The Progressive Party founded in 1924 and the Progressive Party founded in 1948 were less successful than the 1912 version. version There are also two notable state progressive parties: the Wisconsin Progressive Party and the Vermont Progressive Party. The latter is still in operation and currently has several high ranking positions in state government.

Today, most progressive politicians in the United States associate with the Democratic Party or the Green Party US. In the US Congress there exists the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which is often in opposition to the more conservative Democrats, who form the Blue Dogs caucus. Some of the more notable progressive members of Congress have included Barack Obama, Dennis Kucinich, Barney Frank, Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown, Maxine W t Waters, J h Lewis, John L i and d Paul P l Wellstone.

W ll t

The Green Party of the United States (GPUS) is a political party in the United States, and similar in mission to many of the worldwide Green Parties. The Green Party of the United States, a voluntary association of state parties, has been active as a nationally recognized political party since 2001. Prior to national formation, many state affiliates had already formed and were recognized by their corresponding states. The Association of St t Green State G P ti Parties (ASGP) a forerunner (ASGP), f organization, i ti fi t first gained widespread public attention during Ralph Nader's presidential runs in 1996 and 2000. With the founding of the Green Party of the United States, the party established a national political presence becoming the primary national Green organization in the U.S. eclipsing the earlier Greens/Green Party USA which emphasized non窶親lectoral movement building.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) was established in 1991 by six members of the United States House of Representatives: Representatives Ron Dellums (D‐CA), Lane Evans (D‐IL), Thomas Andrews (D‐ME), Peter DeFazio (D‐OR), Maxine Waters (D‐CA), and Bernie Sanders (I‐VT). Then‐Representative Bernie Sanders was the convener and first. The founding members were concerned about the economic hardship imposed by the d deepening i recession, i and d the th growing i inequality i lit brought b ht about b t by b the timidity of the Democratic Party response at the time.

Additional House representatives joined soon, including Major Owens (D‐NY), Nydia Velázquez (D‐NY), David Bonior (D‐MI), Bob Filner (D‐CA), Barney Frank (D‐MA), Maurice Hinchey (D‐NY), Jim McDermott (D‐WA), Jerrold Nadler (D‐NY), Patsy Mink (D‐HI), George Miller (D‐CA), Pete Stark (D‐CA), John Olver (D‐MA), Lynn Woolsey (D‐CA), and Nancy Pelosi (D‐CA).

The Caucus describes its goals as "positively influencing the course of events pertinent to African�Americans and others of similar experience and situation," and "achieving greater equity for persons of African descent in the design and content of domestic and international programs and services."

The CBC encapsulates these goals in the following priorities: Closing the achievement and opportunity gaps in education, assuring i quality lit health h lth care for f every American, A i f focusing i on employment and economic security, ensuring justice for all, retirement security for all Americans, increasing welfare funds and increasing equity in foreign policy

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP and pronounced N‐double‐ A‐C‐P, is one of the oldest and most influential civil rights organizations in the United States Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination".

Its name, retained in accordance with tradition, is one of the last surviving i i uses off the th term t colored l d people. l

Senator Roland Burris

Party Democratic

Representative Sanford Bishop Corrine Brown G. K. Butterfield ‐ Secretary Andre Carson Delegate Donna Christian‐Christensen Delegate Donna Christian Christensen ‐ 2nd Vice 2nd Vice Chair Yvette Clarke ‐ Whip William Lacy Clay, Jr. Emanuel Cleaver ‐ 1st Vice Chair Jim Clyburn John Conyers, Jr. ‐ Dean Elijah Cummings Artur Davis Danny K Davis Danny K. Davis Donna Edwards Keith Ellison Chaka Fattah Marcia Fudge Al Green Alcee Hastings Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. Eddie Bernice Johnson Hank Johnson Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick Barbara Lee ‐ Chair Sheila Jackson Lee John Lewis Kendrick Meek ‐ Congressional Black Caucus Foundation "Foundation Chairman Gregory Meeks Gwen Moore

Party Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic

State Illinois House of Representatives

Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic

State ‐ Congressional District Georgia ‐ 2nd Florida ‐ 3rd North Carolina ‐ 1st Indiana ‐ 7th U.S. Virgin Islands ‐ At U.S. Virgin Islands At‐large large (non voting congressional delegate) New York ‐ 11th Missouri ‐ 1st Missouri ‐ 5th South Carolina ‐ 6th Michigan ‐ 14th Maryland ‐ 7th Alabama ‐ 7th Illinois ‐ 7th Maryland ‐ 4th Minnesota ‐ 5th Pennsylvania ‐ 2nd Ohio ‐ 11th Texas ‐ 9th Florida ‐ 23rd Illinois ‐ 2nd Texas ‐ 30th Georgia ‐ 4th Michigan ‐ 13th California ‐ 9th Texas ‐ 18th Georgia ‐ 5th

Democratic

Florida ‐ 17th

Democratic Democratic

New York ‐ 6th Wisconsin ‐ 4th District of Columbia ‐ At‐large (non voting congressional delegate) New Jersey ‐ 10th New York ‐ 15th California ‐ 37th Illinois ‐ 1st Virginia ‐ 3rd Georgia ‐ 13th Mississippi pp ‐ 2nd New York ‐ 10th California ‐ 35th California ‐ 33rd North Carolina ‐ 12th

Democratic

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton

Democratic

Donald M. Payne Charles B. Rangel Laura Richardson Bobby Rush Bobby Scott David Scott Bennie Thompson p Edolphus Towns Maxine Waters Diane Watson Mel Watt

Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic

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