Living the Bill of Rights: How to Be an Authentic American

by Nat Hentoff

Overview

Nat Hentoff is one of America's most passionate and prominent writers about civil liberties and civil rights. In Living the Bill of Rights, he has taken what is too often thought of as an abstract issue and enlivened it by focusing on representative individuals for whom the Constitution is a vital part of life. As the late Supreme Court Justice William Brennan told Hentoff, Americans need to know how "American liberties were won—and what it takes to keep them alive." With characteristic eloquence, Hentoff covers the full range of American life in these inspiring profiles and stories about public and private heroes—Supreme Court Justices William Brennan and William O. Douglas, Dr. Kenneth Clark, and students, teachers, lawyers, and others who challenge assaults on the Bill of Rights.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520219816
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	12/01/1999
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	253
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Nat Hentoff is the author of many articles and books about jazz, politics, and education, including Free Speech for Me—But Not for Thee (1992). His syndicated column, "Sweet Land of Liberty," appears in the Washington Post and more than two hundred other newspapers, and he is a weekly contributor to the Village Voice. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

The Bill of Rights: The First Ten Amendments to the Constitution of the United 
States of America 

Introduction: "Tell them stories about how our liberties were won and what keeps 
them alive." 

1. Supreme Court Justice William 0. Douglas: "Bill's life, like his law, was free." 
2. Anthony Griffin: "If you take the First Amendment from the Klan, we, as black folks, 
will be the next to suffer." 
3. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, Part I: "The censorial power is in the people 
over the Government, and not in the Government over the people." 
4. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, Part II: "Schools cannot expect their students 
to learn the lessons of good citizenship when the school authorities themselves disregard 
the fundamental principles underpinning our constitutional freedoms." 
5. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, Part III: "The evolving standards of human 
decency will eventually lead to the abolition of the death penalty in this country." 
6. Dr. Kenneth Clark, Part I: The Last of the Integrationists? 
7. Dr. Kenneth Clark, Part II: Simple Justice and How It Got Lost: "I saw this white kid, 
and he was saying, 'Look, this segregation is increasing bigotry."' 
8. Color Coding: She Had to Leave the Room Because the Class Was Reserved for African 
American Students 
9. Individuals of Conscience Against the State.: "Those who won our independence by 
revolution were not cowards." 
10. Banning the Bill of Rights and the Rest of the Constitution from Our Prisons 
11. Nowhere in the Constitution Is There a Mention of God: The Continuing Battles for 
Freedom of Religion and Freedom from Religion 
12. Further Bold Adventures of Men and Women of Conscience 
13. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy: "The Constitution needs renewal and 
understanding each generation, or else it's not going to last." 
The Constitution of the United States of America 

Acknowledgments 
Index