I meant 1954 (to be precise).

1954 was when the Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education, the case kicked off the modern civil rights movement, which jump started the women's movement.

Here we go.

The story of American democracy in under 10 tweets.

1/ https://twitter.com/awrobinson79/status/1296317816136781824

America was founded as a liberal democracy, by which I mean , which sounds great. Except for one big problem.

Initially, "we the people" meant white mostly landowning men.

Only they had the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

2/

Slavery was legal.
Women were chattel.
Native Americans were not citizens.

You get the idea.

The governing philosophy of 19th century America was a hierarchy with white men at the top and black women at the bottom.

2/

The doctrine of paternalism held that women and all people of color were better off under the dominion of white men.

There was almost no federal government and almost no regulations.

On the frontier, white men could grab land.

3/

Wealthy white men could grab women.

You see, until fairly recently, rape was a property crime.

An unmarried girl was her father’s property. If a virgin was raped, the property damage was to her father.
If she was married, the damage was to her husband.

4/

Even after the Civil War, rape of a black woman wasn't recognized.

Women couldn't vote, and were barred from most professions.

After the Civil War, we got the 14th Amendment:

5/

Notice the part about how any "person" is entitled to "due process" and "equal protection of the laws."

African Americans thought wow! This is great!

Except that in 1896 the Supreme Court said that racial segregation doesn't violate the 14th Amendment.

6/

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) ushered in the Jim Crow era. Lyinchings were common. Blacks were segregated.

Women read the 14th Amendment and thought wow! This is great!

Except 19th century courts held that it didn't give women the right to vote.

7/

Not much really changed until for women or minority communities until 1954, when the Supreme Court held racial segregation illegal.

After 1954, women and minority communities began demanding equal rights.

8/

In the 1960s and 1970s, for the first time, women and minority communities tried to participate fully in American government and civic life.

We are still riding the backlash from Brown v. Board of Education.

MAGA means take America backward to a bygone era.

9/

"We the people" is the theme of the Democratic convention because the Democratic idea is that we are all included.

MAGA means go back to the patriarchy when white men could grab whatever they wanted.

I did it. In 10 tweets.

10/

I didn't mean that 1954 kicked off America's first civil rights movement.

I meant the modern civil rights movement.

I think our first national "civil rights movement" would have been the angry uproar over Andrew Jackson's Trail of Tears. https://twitter.com/DevinStump1/status/1296324065465192448

There were civil rights movements after the Civil War.

Actually, abolition was probably, technically, a civil rights movement.

But not until after 1954 did women and minority communities come close to achieving true civil rights (there was that brief period in the Restoration)

That was what I meant when I said America didn't actually have an expanding liberal democracy until after 1954.

I think that's also what Obama meant tonight when he distinguished previous generations from this one

HAHAH yeah. I'm tired.

Reconstruction not restoration. https://twitter.com/wm_hammons/status/1296328775005765632

After women got the vote, it remained hard for women to move into professions. The vote didn't fundamentally change the way women lived. That didn't happen until after the modern women's rights movement (and actually the birth control pill). https://twitter.com/csiswim/status/1296327992176783361