Professor David Goldfield, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

In this session, we discuss how the ringing words of Thomas Jefferson's "Declaration of Independence" — "We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal" — is an aspiration for America, but not yet a completed reality. We explore several key moments in moving our nation further down that road toward fulfilling Jefferson's declaration through the words and lives of the participants in this noble work from the Civil War era to the present.