When Thomas Jefferson wrote in the American Dec... - JAMB English 1999 Question

  When Thomas Jefferson wrote in the American Declaration of independence that ‘all men are created equal’, he was not seeking to describe men’s endowments, but their political and legal rights. He was not saying that men do not differ from one another in the powers and dimensions of their bodies, minds and characters. He was asserting that despite variations and differences, they all possessed the right to equal political and legal treatment. We must however, ask of what real values are political and legal equality to a man who has no bread to eat , no clothes to wear, no roof to shelter him, no chance to earn a livelihood? What we understand as a democratic society must provide for its citizen’s minimum status protection in his deprivation, losses and fears.

  In our time, the nations of the democratic world have installed elaborate system of social security and welfare, ranging from compensation for industrial accidents to subsidize housing, unemployment insurance, old age pension, psychiatric care and national health services. It is encouraging that the democratic nations are making a serious effort to provide against the characteristic losses and disasters of human life.

  The evolving status of the Negro in America is attracting the attention of the champions of equality. Much has been written on the wrongs, injustice and inequalities of the coloured citizen of the USA and much remains to be said because the history of this struggle for human rights is still unfolding.