WEBVTT

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(light piano music)

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- [Narrator 1] We're looking at an 1874,

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political cartoon by Thomas Nast.

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It doesn't have an official title,

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but it's often called
"The Union As It Was"

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or "Worse Than Slavery".

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- [Narrator 2] Political
Cartoons can be hard,

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because we've lost the visual language

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that they refer to and that everyone

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at the time would have easily recognized.

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- [Narrator 1] Contemporary viewers

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would have seen this in context

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in Harper's weekly magazine,

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a Northern newspaper that supported

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Abraham Lincoln, and the Republican party.

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- [Narrator 2] So at its most basic,

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we're seeing two figures,

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one facing us on the right,

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one with his back to us on the left,

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reaching out to one
another and shaking hands

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above a skull and crossbones,

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which sits at the top of a shield

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in which we see a black family,

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and scenes of violence behind that family.

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The figure on the left is clearly labeled

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as being from the White League.

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And he holds a weapon,

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as does the figure on the right

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who's clearly labeled KKK.

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And we can also recognize
him from his uniform.

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[Narrator 1] And smaller details here,

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also tell us a bit about what's going on.

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We can see that at the
bottom of that shield,

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there's an open book that
has the alphabet in it,

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and we see a school house

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that's got smoke rising from it.

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They represent efforts by
formerly enslaved people

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to get an education in the
years after the civil war.

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And then behind the kneeling woman,

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we see a man who's been lynched.

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So when we see these two figures,

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shaking hands above this scene of terror,

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it looks like a conspiracy
between the White League,

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which was an 1870s paramilitary group

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that openly crushed Black
political participation

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in the South and the KKK,

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- [Narrator 2] The federal
government has been able

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to some degree to quash
the activities of the KKK,

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but the White League and
similar organizations

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were born during this period.

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We see the figure from the
white league from behind,

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but he's not disguised in the way

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that the figure from the KKK is.

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The White League was
acting more in the open.

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People knew the names of, in many cases,

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Confederate veterans who are taking part

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in the White League and
similar organizations.

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- [Narrator 1] we see in
the upper left corner,

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a bayonet, a weapon that is affixed

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to the end of a rifle, that suggests that

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this man is a Confederate veteran.

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He has a weapon that
would have been issued

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by the Confederate Army,

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and has both the
equipment and the training

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to continue the fight to disenfranchise

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black voters in the South.

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And this cartoon drawn about a year

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after the Colfax massacre,

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which took place in Louisiana,

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in which more than 100
black militia members

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were slaughtered by the White League.

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This moment in the 1870s,

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is a really critical
moment for reconstruction.

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It's been eight plus years

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since the end of the civil war.

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There's a question of whether

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the federal government, whether the North

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is going to turn away from its commitment

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to African-American equality in the South,

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and allow white supremacy to reemerge.

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"This is a white man's government",

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was a statement from the
1868 democratic platform.

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And remember at this time, the democratic

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and Republican parties espoused

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different positions than they do today.

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The democratic party for the most part

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was associated with
slavery States' rights,

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and white supremacy in the South.

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And the Republican party was associated

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with national and federal government,

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and African-American rights.

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So in showing this is a
white man's government,

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Thomas Nast is trying to make a connection

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between the democratic party,

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racial violence in the South,

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and encourage his viewers to vote

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for the Republican party.

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- [Narrator 2] These
figures are represented

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sympathetically, and not at all

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like the kinds of caricature images

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of black figures that
we would see normally,

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in so many political cartoons

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and other images from the period,

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where they're represented

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with prominent jaws and wide eyes.

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And we often see these figures

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dressed in rags with bare feet.

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- [Narrator 1] Women are often depicted

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wearing kerchiefs on their head,

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which was a symbol of
black female subservience.

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You think of aunt Jamima, for example.

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So even though Nast, is trying

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to create a sympathetic image,

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he's still drawing on
elements, typical of racist,

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19th century depictions of black people.

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- [Narrator 2] So when
I look at this cartoon

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from a art historical point of view,

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I see two figures on
either side of a shield.

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And if we go back in art history,

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we can see that this was a common motif.

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Sometimes they could
be allegorical figures

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on either side, sometimes poutine,

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and those Renaissance images

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get drawn on for one of the early designs

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for the great seal of the
United States of America,

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where we see two figures representing war

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and peace on either side of a shield

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with stripes and above it stars,

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representing the United States.

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And we can follow this imagery

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to a print or which depicts on one side,

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Abraham Lincoln, on the
other George Washington,

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each with their hands on shield,

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representing the United States.

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This is a print made shortly after

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Lincoln staff, commemorating Lincoln,

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and aligning him with George Washington.

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An image that represents
the idea of national unity,

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but in Nasts' cartoon, that idea of unity

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is really conspiracy to commit violence,

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and to disenfranchise and control

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the labor of formerly enslaved people.

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- [Narrator 1] Viewers of the cartoon

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would immediately have recalled

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an earlier Nast cartoon
from during the war

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called "Compromise With The South.

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Nast, became nationally famous in 1864.

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At that time, some Democrats

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opposed Abraham Lincoln, and they wanted

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to make peace with the South

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to allow the Confederacy
to go its own way,

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and slavery to continue.

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And Nast, drummed up considerable support

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for Abraham Lincoln,
with this image showing

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how U.S. soldiers would have died

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in a useless war, had
the United States decided

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to make peace with the Confederacy.

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And that slavery would continue,

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as we see, with the image

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of the black family kneeling once again.

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And we can see that this is something

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that Nast, thinks is tragic

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by the figure of Columbia,

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an allegorical figure representing

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the United States, kneeling and weeping

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before this grave.

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- [Narrator 2] So once again, an agreement

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between white people that will have

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this terrible impact on a black family.

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And we see this in other Nast cartoons,

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for example, one called

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this is a white man's government.

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Where again, figures are shaking hands

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and a formerly enslaved person is being

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trampled on the ground beneath their feet.

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- [Narrator 1] In some ways we could see

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these cartoons as a
continuation of the same story.

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In 1864, the democratic party suggesting

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compromise with the South,

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in 1868, democratic party,

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working with Nathaniel Bedford Forrest,

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the founder of the KKK
to enact the platform.

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This is a white man's government.

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In 1874, the White League and the KKK

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working together to create a society

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worse than slavery.

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To this cartoon in 1876,

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which shows a black man being forced

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to vote the democratic ticket,

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because this white supremacy and violence

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has gone unchecked in the South.

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For me, the tragedy of
reconstruction is that

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it didn't have to end the way it did.

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Didn't have to end with another 100 years

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before the voting rights, Act.

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History is not a straight upward line

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of people getting more and more rights,

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becoming more and more free and equal.

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Those rights and that equality

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must be actively maintained.

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(light piano music)