"Hello everyone, and welcome to a special edition of Animalia Ambassadoria." Began Abby at the start of the podcast.
"With today being Martin Luther King Jr. Day," said Sarah, "We have a chance to talk about the Civil Rights movement in our country, both to revisit history, and to teach Animalians about how difficult it is to obtain freedom for certain races."
"We begin with the words that effectively founded this country," said Sophie, "'We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, and they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, and among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
The episode continued by explaining that, even though this country was founded on everyone having inalienable rights to freedom, the system of humans owning other humans continued well after the American Revolution. It also included information on Nineteenth Century "Civil Rights Activists" such as Fredrick Douglas, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman, and other conductors on the Underground Railroad.
There was also discussions on the events that led up to the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, and what would ultimately lead up to Lincoln's assassination, which would lead to the Reconstruction Crisis, which could be basically summarized as 'who is an American, and what are their rights?'. It would ultimately come to a close under the Rutherford B. Hayes administration, dooming blacks in the south to years of segregation and deprivation, and keeping the old South a white man's country for another hundred years.
They also talked about groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and how they persecuted blacks and tried to undermine the republican governments in the southern states. President Grant would effectively launch the first War on Terror against them, first by getting a series of anti-Klan laws passed, then by sending federal troops to crush the Klan, effectively.
The Civil Rights movement would gain steam and start moving again during the 1960s, when people like Martin Luther King Jr. began calling attention to the inequalities that blacks suffered and saying "Enough is enough", but they also took Christ's teaching about "turning the other cheek" to heart and not responded with violence. They also talked about 20th century Civil Rights activists, like Rosa Parks, and the struggles they encountered while trying to secure equal rights for blacks, such as better neighborhoods to live in, and equal opportunity for jobs. Another thing they talked about was student organizations such as SNCC, who helped end segregation on college campuses and neighborhoods.
They also had an interview with a converted African elephant Animalian, named Dean, whose family was driven out of Alabama by the Ku Klux Klan, and his own grandfather was part of the Civil Rights movement. He, accompanied with his bondmate Zynga, whom he bonded with during the Zoo outbreak, talked about the indignities his grandfather suffered just so the words of the Declaration of Independence would reach the blacks it had been denied to for so long. He also announced that, should the need arise, he was ready to lead another Civil Rights movement for Animalia as well.
All in all, the special talked about how some people would be willing to endure jail, and even risk death, to ensure the fairness and equality that the Declaration of Independence promised was able to reach all races, not merely whites.