"When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence ..."

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Martin Luther King Embraced America's Founding Principles

"When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir...."

Martin Luther King, Jr., while far from politically conservative, embraced the core principles of the American Founding. He believed that by returning to those principles, all people would have the same opportunities to determine their own legacy. He challenged the country to live up to our founding ideals.
Dr. King's faith in our founding principles has great implications for those who cast doubts on the Declaration and Constitution as documents that support freedom and equality for all.

Almost since the Founding itself there was a debate about whether the Declaration of Independence and Constitution are pro-slavery or racist documents.

Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison famously burned a copy of the Constitution, declaring it a "covenant with death." In Dred Scott v. Sanford ([link removed]) (1856) Chief Justice Taney ruled against Scott on the argument that the signers of the Declaration and Constitution, bound by the prejudices of their time, had assumed black Americans were members of an inferior race undeserving of any civil rights.

There was also, however, a contrary view, namely that the Founding documents were conceived so as to defend the natural rights of all human beings, no matter their race, even if the Constitution failed to so fully at the time. Although Frederick Douglass initially agreed with his fellow abolitionist that the Constitution was a pro-slavery document, he later declared a change of opinion. ([link removed])
"The ground having been directly taken, that no paper ought to receive the recommendation of the American Anti-Slavery Society that did not assume the Constitution to be a pro-slavery document, we felt in honor bound to announce at once to our old anti-slavery companions that we no longer possessed the requisite qualification for their official approval and commendation; and to assure them that we had arrived at the firm conviction that the Constitution; construed in the light of well established rules of legal interpretation, might be made consistent with its details with the noble purposes avowed in its preamble; and that hereafter we should insist upon the application of such rules to that instrument, and demand that it be wielded in behalf of emancipation."

In other words, the Constitution lays out the ground rules of freedom for all Americans—and that people of good will should fight to see that those ground rules are followed and that there is an even playing field for everyone.
Martin Luther King Jr. placed himself firmly as the heir to this tradition, arguing that, as imperfect as the Founding was, the Constitution and Declaration imply a promise to recognize the civil rights of all Americans.

"When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men—yes, black men as well as white men—would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
—Martin Luther King, Jr. from his famous 'I have a Dream' speech
August 28, 1963
If you would like to learn more, click below to peruse a collection of works by Jack Miller Center faculty partners and others on Martin Luther King, Jr., the Civil Rights Movement, and more.

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Civil Rights Collection Highlights
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Who Was a Better Citizen, Martin Luther King or Malcolm X?

JMC faculty partner Diana Schaub compares the differing ideologies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X on the Claremont Institute’s The American Mind with Charles Kesler.

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Wilfred McClay, “The Church of Civil Rights.” ([link removed]) (Commentary 117.6, June 2004)

William Allen,
“Our Civil Rights Rest on Fundamental Arguments, Not Racial Ones.” ([link removed]) (Law & Liberty, June 2, 2014)

Andrew Trees,
“Civil rights movement, as Dr. King knew, was work of thousands.” ([link removed]) (Chicago Sun-Times, January 15, 2018)
Explore the entire collection of writings and other resources here >> ([link removed])
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Our impact is expanding. As of this fall, one million students have been taught by a JMC fellow. Help us ensure many more young citizens learn about America's history and its founding principles.
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About the Jack Miller Center

The Jack Miller Center is a 501(c)(3) public charity with the mission to reinvigorate education in America's founding principles and history. We work to advance the teaching and study of America's history, its political and economic institutions, and the central principles, ideas and issues arising from the American and Western traditions—all of which continue to animate our national life.

We support professors and educators through programs, resources, fellowships and more to help them teach our nation's students.

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