U.S. Government and Denying Freedom

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at three instances when the American government, despite the various civil rights documents in place, has withheld freedom from its citizens. This examples discussed are the case of women's suffrage, the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and Prohibition.

From the Paper:

"The year 1920 was not only the year women were granted the right to vote through the 19th Amendment; it was also the year the 18th Amendment took effect. Prohibition, making the sale and consumption of liquor illegal, went into law, and it was clearly a denial of one's freedom: the idea that the government could order a peace-loving, law-abiding, honest, hard-working adult male to eschew his normal cold glass of beer after work, was nothing short of an intrusion into a man's personal life. It clearly was a case of "Big Brother" trying to legislate morality, and in the process it created a huge underground crime system of bootleggers, gangsters and hoodlums. "

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