A Tool Kit for Human and Civil Rights Activists

A Guide for HCR Activists, Part 5 of 7

—NEA Human & Civil Rights

This is an excerpt from "Putting Our Values To Work: A Guide for the Association Human and Civil Rights Activist."

What are human rights?

Human rights are those rights that are essential to live as human beings. They affirm the dignity and worth of the human person. They are self-evident, inalienable, and universal.

To deny a person their human rights is to deny his or her humanity.

Human rights are spelled out in the Charter of the United Nations, the Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—all documents signed by the United States.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted and proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. Its 30 Articles are considered the most definitive statement of human rights for the modern world.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms every person's right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, as well as his or her freedom of opinion and expression; and freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

Significantly, the Declaration of Universal Human Rights extended human rights to the workplace. It specifically states that everyone has the right to equal pay for equal work. What's more, everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his or her interests. That's right, union membership is a basic human right.

The Declaration also states that everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of themselves and their families.

In addition, Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms education as a fundamental human right.

What are civil rights?

Civil rights are those rights guaranteed to citizens through a country's constitution, laws, and court decisions.

The Bill of Rights to the Constitution (Amendments 1-10) sets forth our basic civil rights as American citizens, including our freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition; protection against unreasonable searches and seizures; and our right to due process of law, trial by jury, and assistance of counsel.

Additional Amendments to the Constitution have extended civil rights to groups originally left out by the Founders. For example, the 19th Amendment (1920) granted women the right to vote.

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) would require that: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." ERA has been ratified by 35 states, and it needs three more to become law.

The framers of our Constitution saw civil rights primarily as safeguards against government tyranny. But as time went on, the realization dawned that freedom from the tyranny of slavery, poverty, ignorance, and economic exploitation was just as important. And so, gradually, civil rights were extended to people originally excluded in 1787 by Constitutional Convention—and the very idea of civil rights has been expanded to embrace what we think of today as human rights.

Is the right to an education a basic civil right in the United States?

There is no explicit mention of education in the Constitution, and the right to an education does not derive from the Constitution.

In fact, in "San Antonio v. Rodriguez" (1973), the Supreme Court held that education was not a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution, and it also rejected the claim that students were entitled to an equal education.

But the right to an education is entrenched at the state level and receives explicit recognition in most state constitutions. However, states still grapple with the issue of equitable and adequate funding for every child's education.

What's more, while the U.S. government is not constitutionally committed to the right to an education (that would require a Constitutional Amendment), the U.S. government, since the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965, has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in K-12 education.

NEA: Education is a human and civil right

For NEA, there are no ands, buts, or maybes about it. Public education is a fundamental human and civil right. Great public schools are a basic right for every child.

We believe public education is the gateway to opportunity. All students have the human and civil right to a quality public education that develops their potential, independence, and character.

We believe public education is vital to building respect for the worth, dignity, and equality of every individual in our democracy.

We believe public education is the cornerstone of our republic. Public education provides individuals with the skills to be involved, informed, and engaged in our representative democracy.

We believe public education is a necessity if our children and young people are going to thrive in today's increasingly competitive, winner-take-all economy.

In other words, for us, the right to a quality public education is the most basic of human and civil rights. Because it is the essential enabling right—the prerequisite to fully exercising all the other rights that are our birthright as human beings and American citizens.

Why focus on human and civil rights in this day and age? Education

NEA polling and focus groups show that we can cite many good reasons why public education matters, but none is more persuasive, more unassailable, more compelling with the public than education is a basic human and civil right.

Great public schools are a basic right for every child—this is the very foundation of our advocacy.

To deny any person, child or adult, his or her human and civil rights is to deny his or her humanity. But that is what our society does when it consigns children and young people to inferior schools—schools where teachers are under-qualified and overwhelmed, underpaid and overworked...schools where class sizes that are too large...schools without up-to-date text books or information technologies...schools that serve mostly poor and minority students.

The existence of achievement gaps among different groups of students is living testimony that the human and civil right to a quality education has not yet been achieved

We are educators—people who care deeply that every child and young person has the opportunity to achieve his or her potential—and therefore, we will not abide the denial of a quality public education, a basic human and civil right, to some students.

And in recent years, we have seen bullying and sexual harassment take a serious toll on student achievement. And sexual orientation and gender identity bias also impede student learning.

Bullying, sexual harassment, and bias based on sexual orientation and gender identity are human and civil rights issues.

Why focus on human and civil rights in 21st Century? History

There are other reasons as well to focus on human and civil rights.

American history teaches us that while human and civil rights are precious, they are also precarious. They can be taken away at any time.

The decades after the Civil War, after a brief burst of freedom, saw the brutal repression of the human and civil rights of freed slaves, African Americans, and this repression continued well into the next Century.

At this same time, the human and civil rights of Chinese immigrants were being severely and systematically restricted. They were denied the right to own property, the right to vote, and access to public services.

And if the 19th Century seems too distant, just look at the 20th Century. In times of fear and stress, human and civil rights get trampled.

At the beginning of the Great Depression, for example, the federal government passed the Deportation Act that gave counties the power to send great numbers of Mexicans and Mexican Americans back to Mexico. Policy makers thought this would solve the unemployment problem. It did not. County officials in California and the Southwest organized "deportation trains," and the Immigration Bureau made sweeps arresting anyone who looked Mexican, especially if they were involved in union activities. Many of those sent to Mexico were native-born U.S. citizens who had never lived in Mexico. Between 1929 and 1935, some 450,000 to one million Mexicans and Mexican Americans were sent back to Mexico, making this one of the largest forced migrations in U.S. history.

During World War II, tens of thousands of Japanese and Japanese Americans were rounded up by the federal government, their property was confiscated, and these people, citizens and non-citizens alike, were put into detention camps scattered throughout the West in remote locations.

During the Cold War, thousands of Americans—artists, writers, directors, broadcasters, and teachers—lost their jobs because of their alleged sympathies for the Communist Party. It was called "the Red Scare."

After 9/11, we saw people of Middle Eastern descent come under suspicion not because of anything they had done, but because of who they were and how they looked. Some were even incarcerated for long periods of time without benefit of a trial.

And in the current debate over immigration, we hear angry calls to "round them all up and send them back to where they came from."

History teaches that if you think your human and civil rights are secure and can never be taken away from you, think again.

Why focus on human and civil rights? Income and Health

Many children are growing up in poverty in the richest nation in the world; many children and adults do not have access to quality health care; many people work full-time but don't earn a living wage.

Income inequality in America has been growing for 30 years. The corporate elite are getting richer, and everyone else is getting either a few additional crumbs or poorer. For example, the real income (adjusted for inflation) of teachers between 1975 and 2005 rose only one percent! That qualifies as crumbs.

Contributing to this income inequality trend has been: (1) the decline of labor unions in the private sector due largely to successful anti-union measures, (2) the export of high-paying manufacturing jobs abroad, and (3) the growing political clout of the wealthy and the corporations, which has enabled them to bend the tax system to their own interests.

It has been said that a rising tide lifts all boats, but not if you don't own a boat.

The incomes of Black households today are 33 percent less than Whites; the incomes of Hispanic households are 40 percent less than Whites; and the income disparity between American Indians and Whites is even more glaring.

Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians are far less likely than Whites to own their own homes.

Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians are far less likely than Whites to have a college degree or to attend college.

In addition, Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians are less likely to have health insurance; they are less likely to have access to quality health care; and, most significantly, they have lower life expectancies than Whites. "Life," it is worth recalling, is the first of the "unalienable rights," cited in our Declaration of Independence.

Why does NEA give out human and civil rights awards?

Because there is still so much to do, and we truly believe in "liberty and justice for all."

Because there are people who think that all of the great human and civil rights battles have already been fought and won—and they are wrong!

Because by acknowledging those who work for human and civil rights, we lift our spirits and affirm our own commitment to human and civil rights.

Because by honoring those who work for human and civil rights today, we pay homage to the brave men and women who came before us and fought for human and civil rights.

Because it is part of our heritage—it is who we are: The National Education Association and the American Teachers Association, which merged into one Association in 1966, have a long and proud history of standing up for those whose humanity has been denied.

Related Resources

"Putting Our Values To Work"

1. Intro: Somebody Ought To Do Something
2. Frequently Asked Questions About Being an Activist
3. Tips for the Association Activist
4. Feeding the Activist's Soul
5. A Tool Kit for Human and Civil Rights Activists
6. The Activist's Library
7. The Activist's Cyberspace Resources