LAW DAY: Essay Contest
1st Place - Maggie Novak,
La Vista Middle School
(Teacher: Cody Redford)
Voting, the simple act of filling in a circle and the gigantic task of choosing the next president of the United States. Long ago and not so long ago the only people who could vote were wealthy, white, male property owners. There are several amendments related to voting but there is one in particular that caught my attention. The 19th amendment gives women the right to vote but the question is, was the amendment really necessary?
On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed and it stated “all men are created equal,” but what it really meant was all people are equal and should have equal rights. The 19th amendment “extended the right of suffrage to women.” This was a great step forward for our country and led us to where we are today, continuing to progress and being more inclusive, but it did not ensure equality. Some people argue that the 19th amendment only enforces the idea that women weren’t included in the constitution and created more of a struggle. However, during the time before this amendment, women fought hard for the right to vote, they got arrested and experienced violence. The 19th amendment was a hard earned right and has improved the quality of our nation. With this amendment women felt more comfortable advocating for equal jobs, wages, opportunities, and rights.
The 19th amendment gave women the right to vote. It paved the way for people like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Kamala Harris to have a role in our country’s government. This amendment and the others related to voting opened up many opportunities for individuals to have a voice. The 19th amendment and similar laws help us appreciate the rights we have been given and the choices we get to make.
2nd Place - Anuraag Ganti,
Peter Kiewit Middle School
(Teacher: Rebecca Begley)
Imagine a society where you could be sold on an auction block like you were cattle. You lived in small stick houses with dirt floors and there were cracks in the walls that let in the cold and wind. You had to wake up before dawn, feed and milk cows, then you would go work in the fields until sundown. This was the horrible life of a slave.
There were many abolitionists like Frederick Douglass who would risk their lives each day by giving speeches against slavery. However, for decades there was no change. The problem was that it contradicted the Constitution which said that the option of slavery was up to the individual states. Though people were starting to realize the problems with slavery. Then, on December 6, 1865, the 13th amendment was ratified. The thirteenth amendment stated that slavery shall not exist, except as a punishment of crime, in the United States. It had taken the deadliest war in American history to cause this change.
Immediately after the amendment was added to the Constitution, more than 100,000 slaves were freed from Delaware to Kentucky. However, there were still racially discriminatory measures like the Jim Crow laws. Nevertheless, we are making progress when it comes to segregation. According to ‘Black Progress’, in 1964 18% of whites said that they had a black friend, but now 86% of whites say they have a black friend.
3rd Place: Cooper Towles,
La Vista Middle School
(Teacher: Cody Redford)
To make a more perfect union, the Constitution must stand as one of two things in times of change. It can be a supreme law carved in a stone tablet, forever static. Or, it can be a rough draft written lightly in pencil, able to be changed whenever and wherever needed. In America’s history, the Constitution began more like a stone tablet and slowly morphed into the rough draft, most noticeably at the end of the Civil War in 1865. Previously, there had been two amendments added after the Bill of Rights but they were merely add-ons and were not impactful to everyday citizens. Before the Civil War, the Constitution was shining, fulfilling its purpose until it was realized that the Constitution was not shining on an entire class of people, the African Americans who were enslaved at the time. So a bitter Civil War was fought over slavery and shortly after it ended the 13th amendment was ratified, abolishing slavery forever. And so, as the United States’ first great change in history came to an end and as the smoke began to clear, the Constitution emerged clean and revised, protecting the rights of more citizens. As we look back on history, we can clearly see that the abolishment of slavery through the 13th Amendment brought us much closer to the more perfect union that was desired by the founders.
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