How Four Landmark Amendments Reshaped the U.S. Constitution’s Ideal of Birth Equality: A Program Moderated by Christopher Duggan

Renowned constitutional scholar Akhil Reed Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, discussed his latest book, “Born Equal. Tracing the transformative period from 1840 to 1920.” 

The September 11^th program was sponsored by the Concord Museum as part of its monthly speaker series. Professor Amar appeared in conversation with Smith Duggan founding partner, Chris Duggan, who is on the Museum’s Board of Directors and a member of the Events Committee.  

Professor Amar discussed how the continuing American constitutional conversation in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, spurred by the Civil War, led to guarantee of birth equality and birthright citizenship and reshaped the U.S. Constitution through four landmark amendments, the 13^th, 14^th, 15^th and 19^th.  From the abolition of slavery to the expansion of suffrage, he illuminated the fierce debates and visionary leaders – Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Abraham Lincoln and more – who redefined American democracy.  These people and events form the core of his new book, Born Equal, the second in Professor Amar’s planned trilogy on American constitutional history.

In addition to being a noted trial and appellate lawyer, Chris Duggan serves as a governor of the Concord Museum, an advisor to Revolutionary Spaces in Boston and sits on the Board of Directors of the Charitable Irish Society, the oldest Irish organization in the Americas.  He is a frequent lecturer for the National Constitution Center, a resident member of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts and the founder of the James Otis Lecture Series, program for high school students in which leading scholars and practitioners teach aspects of American law, legal history and biography.

A video of the entire program at the Concord Museum is available here.