One of America’s greatest blessings is the Declaration of Independence. Its preamble reads, “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.”
For years, America failed to live up to some of the noble principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence. One of these failures was tolerating legalized slavery. In 1865 the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery as a legal institution. But after slavery was abolished, many former slaves were denied some of their God-given rights in other ways.
For years women were also denied the right to vote. In August of 1920, 144 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote.