Beginning of Essay
On September 21, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, a bill proposed by Republican Bob Barr of Georgia in order to prohibit the marriage of gay and lesbian couples.(CWA) Although this bill cannot be called "unconstitutional", by forbi ....

Middle of Essay
.... With the Civil War and Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, slavery was prohibited. Women gained the right to vote with the ratification of the Constitution's nineteenth amendment on August 26, 1920(Cooke, 157). Although African Americans gained suffrage through the fifteenth amendment in 1870 (Cooke, 151), it was not until the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that they were actually freed from discrimination by the government(Cooke, 150). Why is it then that in today's modern American society, an institution that prides itself on being "the home of the free and the land of the brave", a vast number of Americans are hiding beneath a shroud ....