The United States was born of audacious ideals that all people possess unalienable rights, that liberty is inherent and that self-government can thrive in place of tyranny. From the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution, our founding documents proclaimed a vision that has inspired freedom movements across the world. This promise, imperfectly realized but persistently pursued, remains a testament to what we can become when we hold ourselves accountable to our highest principles.

Yet honesty demands we acknowledge what those same documents obscured. From the beginning, this nation has struggled to live up to its own creed. In some cases, we have even celebrated words and deeds that directly contradicted the ideals we claimed to hold sacred. The abolitionist Frederick Douglass, in

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