
We the People of The United States, these are the first seven words of the Preamble to the Constitution. Does “We the People” really apply to everybody in the country? The Founding Fathers forged this legendary document in 1787 yet, slavery wasn’t abolished until 1863 and women didn’t get the right to vote until 1920. These are just two of the many obstacles that the Constitution didn’t tackle and the twenty-seven amendments are proof of that. Yes some new issues have come up that weren’t relevant in 1787, but many of the amendments dealt with problems that were around when the document was being forged. The problems have been dealt with over a huge period of time with lots of unrest. African American equality is still a huge problem in society today and a huge reason is because of the Founding Fathers catering to white male property and slave owners. These ideas are demonstrated in Jonathan Hennessey’s “The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation”. Using the theories and actions of Martin Luther King Jr., it becomes clear that the idea of democracy was an afterthought during a large portion of American history. Analyzing Hennessey’s comic and the role of Martin Luther King Jr. in legislation, the idea that the original Constitution favored rich white slave owners becomes clear as well as the fact that the modern constitution is a living document and the role of the American citizen is to protect the rights that it grants.

The main idea of the American Dream is social mobility. As taught in school, documents like the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are supposed to ensure the rights of citizens so that the American Dream can be possible. But, how has the United States differed from countries like England in that social mobility is not just possible but a main idea? Our country has made it well known that we differ in our core values that are rooted into society. Ideas such as hard work and perseverance have been a main idea in the road to being successful. The government has had the job of ensuring that every American citizen is treated equally and has the same rights. It has not always been the case, as time and time again we have seen certain groups of people being alienated from their rights. Michael Hendrix argues in his article “Is Social Mobility a Farce” that the ability to move social classes in society is much harder than taught in schools and preached in society. He describes the ability to move social classes in his article in one sentence, “Progress is actually a slow crawl upward for the poor and a gradual regression downward for the elite” (Hendrix 9). He looks at the studies of a professor at UC-Davis who used the last names of families to track the rich and poor across generations. His research concluded that social mobility is surprisingly low in America. Using the three-class system, he found in most cases that families rarely ever go from one to the other. These results may sound surprising, but looking into the views of average Americans at the time that the Constitution was being formed it is no surprise. Also, this idea that people stay where they are in society agrees with the argument that Hennessey believed that the Founding Fathers forged the Constitution in a way to keep rich white males on the top of society.

People often dismiss what the average person’s views were on the constitution at the time of its creation. A huge part of society was artisans and farmers. These citizens liked some ideas of a constitution like how a federal government would be established to promise federal protection and tariff protection. In the article “Ordinary Americans and The Constitution” by Gary B. Nash, he explains what these people were afraid of in the making of the Constitution. In his article he mentions a quote from George Bryan, an artisan at the time, which stated “aristocratic juntos of the well-born few, who had been zealously endeavoring since the establishment of their [colonial] constitutions, to humble that offensive upstart—equal liberty.” (Nash 9) His point is that people born into wealthy families are going to take advantage of the laws and rules stated in the document and be able to make big commercial enterprises that would drive family businesses. This very accurately predicts the future of America as big businesses have consumed the smaller ones and become too large. This situation goes hand in hand with Hennessey’s view that “The very idea of ‘we the people’ applied only to white rich men- and often exclusively to those rich enough to own land.” (Hennessey 9) Although the lower class of society was getting taken over, they weren’t being denied their rights. This would lead to a further separation of power that is still exists and is a problem in our society today. The wealth distribution is very uneven with a small percentage having most of the money.

More controversially, there is the Constitution’s dealing with African American rights and freedoms. Many believe that the Constitution was intentionally vague to prevent black Americans from getting rights. In reference to the vagueness of the Constitution, Gary B. Nash stated in the article “Ordinary Americans and The Constitution” that the Constitution didn’t help African Americans at all. His exact words were, “for the Constitution that began with the lofty words ‘“To create a more perfect union”’ did nothing to release them and their children from slavery.” (Nash 3) This vagueness showed, as slavery didn’t officially end until 1863 when Abraham Lincoln gave the Emancipation Proclamation. Even with the Emancipation proclamation segregation was a huge problem with all of the history that occurred after. Quickly after the 13th amendment to the constitution was ratified, it stated that slavery or involuntary servitude is a crime and perpetrators could be convicted. Alongside of other legislation like the eight civil rights acts passed since the Constitution was ratified have slowly ended racism. But to say that it is completely over is extremely ignorant, or to argue that it is the legislation that has ended it. Many of the laws passed were loosely followed if followed at all and there are instances in society where laws can’t reach the segregation.

A perfect example of segregation that has been a major problem in recent history is the housing market. Even with the Bill of Rights, all of the amendments, and eight Civil Rights acts, segregation in the housing market continued to flourish. Housing just one of the many industries where racism is able to live because laws can’t regulate where the issues are taking place. The problem was that relators would intentionally not show African American citizens white neighborhoods and white citizens would resent African Americans from moving into their neighborhoods because they thought it would lower the value of their houses. Instead, black citizens were forced to live in certain areas and there was no way to deal with this problem. If a citizen of color were to move into a primarily white neighborhood, then the white citizens would simply move somewhere else. The other problem was that landlords just would rent/sell to minorities, mainly African American and Hispanic citizens. This problem is statistically proven; according to the General Social Survey twenty-eight percent of white citizens support an individual homeowner’s right when selling a home to discriminate on the basis of race. Jamelle Bouie, the Slate magazine chief political Correspondent argued in his article “A Tax on Blackness” that segregation is just as bad now as it was in the past one hundred years. After analyzing the housing demographics in Chicago and Brooklyn as well as speaking to multiple landlords, his concluding statement was “Despite the laws we pass and the values we say we have, discrimination is part and parcel of how Americans do housing. It’s how it was 100 years ago, and it’s how it is now.” (Bouie 12) The housing market is just one specific example of how laws and amendments added and adapted into the Constitution have not shared the values of many Americans. 

The housing market is one of the few specific examples of how racism and segregation continues to exist even though there were laws against it. America learned the hard way that the Constitution was a living document. One person considered to be the most important to helping African Americans diminish segregation is Marin Luther King Jr. He is the most iconic person when the topic of segregation is brought up and he definitely deserves it. If it weren’t for the his work and the help of others then I might not be able to write this essay. Martin Luther King Jr. took the ideas nested in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and helped apply it to everybody. Hennessey offers the idea in his comic that the ideas of the first seven articles were crafted for a completely different society than the one today. Using Hennessey’s comic to look back on how the ideas of the Preamble have affected society one would argue that he was completely right. Ideas such as establishing justice, promoting the general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty only applied to those with power. Although, what Hennessey’s comic doesn’t offer is how the transition happened so that these ideas applied to everybody.

One of the most iconic moments in Martin Luther King’s life is the Selma March. The reason it is one of his most iconic moments is the lasting impact that it has had on society. In the article “Selma to Montgomery: Martin Luther King and the march for freedom” by Katy Stoddard, she points out “An editorial called the violence perpetrated against passive protesters ‘a major blemish on the face of American society’ and ‘marvelled at the courage of Luther King and his non-violent cohorts’” (Stoddard 4). Calling the violence a “major blemish on the face of American Society” highlights how iconic and drastic the event was. This tragedy happened after legislation had already given African Americans rights, let alone the Constitution saying that everybody is created equal. The march seriously questioned the American ideology of democracy. The idea of democracy that the United States was found upon was non-existent when the Constitution was forged. The word democracy is completely absent from the Constitution and it was done that way on purpose. Since democracy wasn’t mentioned it allowed white property owners to control the elections and maintain power. Even though the Civil Rights act of 1964 gave African American citizens the right to vote, southern states such as Alabama weren’t letting black citizens vote. This was a huge problem because government officials would side with racist white citizens and help turn away black voters to help keep pro white lawmakers in office. This led to Martin Luther King Jr. organizing a march from Selma to Montgomery to get African American citizens the right to vote that they were entitled to. Even though this was a peaceful march, white segregationists and even local and state police attacked the protestors all while being broadcasted on national television. This goes to show that even laws are in place it doesn’t mean that people will follow them. The march had a lasting impact on society and made major changes in the previous legislation. Shortly after the march, the Voting Rights Act was established and this led to all African Americans obtaining the right to vote. The act also got rid of literacy tests and also made sure that there was a federal oversight of the voting process.

The need for the Constitution to adapt to new situations as society develops increases as time goes on. If it isn’t a living document then the very ideas embedded into it are lost in a sea of vagueness and confusion. Acting like society today is different from earlier and that problems such as segregation don’t linger would be foolish. These values are heavily touched on in Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. In the speech he talks about what African Americans have already endured and that the war that they have been fighting isn’t over. Martin Luther King’s speech shares the same ideas as when Hennessey states at the end of his comic, “To know the legacy of political exclusion that once existed is to have greater insight on the most unflattering chapters of the nation’s history” (Hennessey 13) and the unflattering chapters are what Dr. King preaches black Americans have already overcome. Unlike Hennessey however, Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t stop at the past, he looked into the future of what he dreamed America could be. Dr. King directly supports the idea of looking into the future as in his speech he stated “And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.” To be able to say that the American Dream is able to shift to all people of America shows how even American ideology is living. What that means is that ideas such as the American Dream can be altered to fit the current society. The fact that he was able to change how African Americans were treated shows how this dream led to the constitution adapting to modern society. 

Taking a look at the specific panels in Hennessey’s comic, it is clear to see how the ideas of a living Constitution and living ideology are present. The initial meaning of terms such as “Establish Justice” only applied to specific people. Hennessey proves this by having half of his comic that shows how the Constitution has affected society contain only white property owners. Hennessey shows how these rights were only available to a certain part of society even though the Constitution referred to everybody. Even though Hennessey argues that amendments helped society heal and mature from the original exclusion of rights, he needed to go into more detail about how the process isn’t complete yet. In today’s society, people are using many of the bills passed from people such as Martin Luther King Jr. to help obtain the rights that they also deserve. For example, the LGBT community is currently on the front foot of a battle of civil rights. At the end of Hennessey’s comic, it gives off the idea that everything has been settled and that society today has fixed all of the problems created or ignored in 1787. To think that even in 2016, America is dealing with civil rights issues is very hard to believe given the history that is present. Hennessey’s idea that to understand the exclusion that once existed is to look at the unflattering parts of history may be occurring right now. The need for the Constitution and legislation to be living and to adapt to current situations in modern society is vitally important so that the exclusion that once existed can be terminated. 
