The American Civil Liberties And The Aftermath Of World War I

From the beginning of America’s colonization the topics of both freedom and civil liberties have been highly negotiated. During the 1920s and the 1930s, America deeply struggled with the reformation of these said freedoms and liberties due to the aftermath of World War I. Many American citizens’ basic civil liberties were compromised during the war, and were replaced by attempts to limit the opposition of the war by using tactics such as propaganda to encourage support. After the war, Americans attempted to reform this void through various forms such as following constitutional rights, broadening education and creating both equal African American and women’s rights. These attempted transformations set the tone for the creation of a more racially and culturally diverse way of viewing the ideas of freedom and liberty. One of the hardest hitting attacks on civil liberties came from the Espionage Act and Sedition Acts in which Americans were punished for speaking how they wished about the war and for revolting against the war. These acts therefore attacked Americans’ civil liberties and freedoms and through this, the ACLU or the American Civil Liberties Union was formed. This union fought for the civil liberties of Americans as stated in the constitution and strived to maintain these and other civil liberties for the people, “ the principle of freedom of speech, press and assemblage embodied our constitutional law, must be reasserted in its application to American conditions…