African American Politicians & Civil Rights Activists

African American Politicians & Civil Rights Activists — page 5
CHAPTER TWO FOUR LEADERS FOR FREEDOM We We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness So wrote Thomas Jefferson Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence Yet for centuries African Americans in the United States have had to struggle to break the shackles that have denied them these rights Each of the four black leaders discussed below chose a different route toward the cherished goal of full freedom for blacks in America DAVID WALKER AND HIS APPEAL David Walker was born in 1785 Under North Carolina law of the time he was free because his mother was not a slave As a young man Walker traveled through slave states observing the treatment of his people What he saw so greatly repelled him that he told himself If I remain in this bloody land I will not live long 8