Why Do We Preserve Liberty?

February is African American history month and it always bring about discussions of slavery and other African American History. A millennial would assume they could not be a slave and truthfully, they couldn’t. Not because they lack the capacity to follow direction but because they have the general knowledge to know that it violates their rights as a citizen. John Adams once said, “liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.” Knowledge is defined as having a familiarity or awareness due to education or experience. We know, because of our ancestors have the knowledge and access to education to maintain our liberty. However, are we preserving that liberty?
In 1940, only seven percent of African Americans 25 years or older had completed high school (We the Americans: Blacks, 1993) and slavery was abolished in 1865. This was primarily because after slavery African Americans were left illiterate and segregated. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964, high school completion rates for African Americans began to rise and by 1990 to 63 percent (We the Americans: Blacks, 1993). The Civil
As technology continues to advance, our economy continues to shift towards a more service economy. The variations of education attainment are what causes African Americans to fail to effectively compete in the labor market; about 8 percent of African Americans are unemployed (Ryan & Bauman, 2015). That rate is higher than the rate of unemployment for all other races Whites, Native Indians, Asian, and Latinos. These are all races who also have a higher percent of education completion after high school. In society today, you need at least a high school diploma or equivalency certificate to qualify for most jobs. Also, companies that would most likely employ a skilled worker like an account manager would like for the individual to have some sort of degree or certificate in the