This is Jerry Goldman, the principal author of Chapter 16, "Equality and Civil Rights." This chapter should prove as engaging as its predecessor, Chapter 15. In this chapter, we confront foursquare the modern dilemma of government, freedom versus equality. Here are some points to bear in mind.

The call for equality was a consequence of the Civil War. But putting equality into practice required amending the Constitution with the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. (Later amendments would further the goal of equality.) African-Americans and their struggle for civil rights paved the road to equality. It was achieved piece by piece through a legal strategy that sought in case after case to remove the system of "Jim Crow" laws that kept blacks in obvious and subtle forms of subjugation. The best example of this strategy culminated in the cases we know as Brown versus Board of Education.

The cause of civil rights moved out of the courts and into the streets when blacks failed to achieve the guarantees that the legal system acknowledged. A powerful leader arose from the black ministry to become a modern-day Moses. Government acted with legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and with judicial supervision in support of controversial policies like affirmative action. The great risk is that by imposing equality for some parts of the population, government may necessarily deprive other parts of the very equality principle that belongs to everyone.

Other minorities have modeled their quest for equality on the path blazed by African Americans. Some have been successful; others not. Can you formulate a few reasons that might account for such success or failure? Today, the quest for equality now engages the substantial immigrant communities, many of whose members are here illegally.