As an ever evolving society, all levels of government are obligated to constantly review and revise policies and laws that may be deemed unconstitutional and therefore have no place in today’s culture. The Civil Rights Movement opened the doors for African Americans and women alike to be viewed as equals and to be protected under the constitution. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the foundation for equal rights and helped move our nation toward a better future for all of its inhabitants. Although we have progressed immensely from an era of injustice and civil suffering, we must not forget the past wrongs that have since been corrected. In the short story, “The Train from Hate,” a seven year-old John Hope Franklin and his mother are thrown into a racial confrontation during their usual train ride to Checotah. Their train had stopped in such a way that only the coach reserved for white people was accessible for them to board. They boarded the “whites only” section of the train and were commanded by the conductor to leave immediately. His mother then shares a lesson in coping with the injustice that had just taken place. Franklin explains, She told me that the laws required racial separation, but that they did not, could not, make us inferior in any way. She assured me that the conductor was not superior because he was white, and I was not inferior because I was black... I remembered that I should not waste my time or energy lamenting the inability of some members of society to take me as I was. Instead, I would use my energies to make me a better person and to distance myself from the perpetrators and purveyors of hate and misunderstanding (Franklin 211).
The same hate and misunderstanding that is portrayed in Franklin’s story is still lingering in the law-books of today. The Civil Rights Movement helped liberate African Americans and women from oppression, but there are still other groups that to this day are being treated unfairly. As citizens of this great country, we pride ourselves on being called the “land of the free,” but is that really the truth for all Americans? To make this claim and not bear truth to its message, and to allow laws and policies to be implemented that restrict the natural rights that all humans are entitled to is not only unfair, but un-American and most importantly, unconstitutional. In the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, “any law that uplifts the human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust” (qtd. in King 216). The federal government must remove the state’s ability to create marriage laws and recognize same-sex marriage on a federal level. A defining characteristic and one unique to our country is the fact that America is considered to be the largest melting pot of cultures. Although homosexuality may not be considered a culture by definition, the homosexual community does hold vast numbers that are and will always be an important ingredient in that melting pot. Taking a part of who someone is and labeling it as unacceptable can have an unmeasurable negative effect on that person. In Claude McKay’s poem “Outcast,” he speaks of something in him being lost from his heart forever. He has been forced to walk the way of life as a ghost because western society has forced him to abandon his culture and accept his oppression. Taking away anyone’s right to marry the one they love is enough to destroy them inside. No human deserves to be destroyed for wanting to express their love for another. Our ability to love is what separates us from other species. Our ability to love is what makes us human.
The bonds of marriage are undeniably the most meaningful commitment two people can make to one another. The feeling one experiences the day of his/her wedding is a feeling that every human being has a right to feel. It is a feeling that no person should be deprived of and this feeling should be able to be shared