“It’s a free country.” That’s what we said on the playground as children, usually in defense of our right to say what we want. But America has never been a free country—at least not for everyone.
As adults, we know it is not always in our best interest to “speak freely.” In fact, it’s wise not to say everything that comes to mind—even if invited to “speak your mind.”
But choosing to hold your tongue and a government official tying it to your freedom are two different things. That’s a different conversation. Now, we’re talking about the First Amendment.
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects freedom of religion, both the establishment and free exercise thereof, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to peaceably assemble, and the right to petition the government. This amendment protects several fundamental rights by limiting the power of the government.
It was ratified as part of the Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791. But “freedom of expression” didn’t last long.
The American Anti-Slavery Society launched a massive petition drive in 1834, flooding Congress with calls to abolish chattel slavery in Washington, D.C. This campaign, a central part of the broader abolitionist movement, had significant effects on both the national debate over chattel slavery and the right to petition the government.
Southern lawmakers, fearful of the growing abolitionist movement, sought a way to stop these petitions and prevent the discussion of slavery in Congress. In 1836, the U.S. House of Representatives implemented a “gag rule” to block congressional dialogue on slavery and the constitutional right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
In 1835 and 1836, Congress even tried to ban the mailing of abolitionist writings. Southern legislators found loopholes in the Bill of Rights to frame anti-slavery speech as treason or libel, making it a criminal offense. Missouri banned abolitionist expression in 1837, prohibiting the “publication, circulation, or promulgation of the abolitionist doctrines,” with other Southern states adopting similar measures to limit free speech related to chattel slavery.
Lecture tours, which encouraged oppressed peoples to resist, and the mailing of newspapers increased. In response, pro-slavery mobs attacked more than 100 anti-slavery presses, one of which resulted in the death of Elijah Lovejoy in 1837, a martyr for freedom of the press and the abolitionist cause.
Famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who self-emancipated in 1838, argued, “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning.”
These rules automatically tabled or dismissed, without discussion, any petitions related to chattel slavery presented to the House of Representatives. Consequently, it ignited fierce debate, heightened sectional tensions between the North and South, and galvanized the anti-slavery movement. This went on until 1844 when it was repealed, ultimately strengthening the abolitionist movement it had intended to silence.
The gag rule backfired on its proponents. The debate it was meant to stifle instead spurred the abolitionist movement, drawing attention to the unconstitutional lengths proslavery apologists would go to silence dissent.
Do these tactics sound familiar? They should because this is not a new kind of suppression.
From chattel slavery to Black Codes to Jim and Jane Crow to mass incarceration and police brutality, African Americans have been living under domestic terrorism, authoritarian and white supremacist control for centuries. We have been the victims of extreme nationalism and the forcible suppression of our prophetic opposition.
Violent groups, not unlike the mobs in the 1800s, such as the White Citizens’ Councils and the Night Riders, were used to silence African American leaders and activists who were fighting for civil rights, using intimidation and violence to restrict free speech and assembly. Civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer was right when she said, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” Do you have ears to hear her now?
The right to voice one’s thoughts, opinions, experiences and needs is essential to individual empowerment and social change. An individual’s voice is a crucial tool for self-determination and autonomy.
Conversely, being gagged is a form of disempowerment that reinforces existing inequalities and harms both individuals and society. The denial of any individual’s voice strips them of semantic sovereignty and is dehumanizing.
The free exchange of ideas, including dissent and criticism, is a cornerstone of any democracy. Silencing opposing views is a historical tactic of authoritarians and removes a vital check on power, leaving leaders unaccountable and eroding public trust.
Further, a government that determines who can speak and who cannot is also regulating visibility, place/ social position, power, identity and justice. This is why we must clear our throats in our efforts at freeing speech from these minacious controls as German theologian Martin Niemöller has already warned us in “First They Came.”
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Director of The Raceless Gospel Initiative, an associate editor, host of the Good Faith Media podcast, “The Raceless Gospel” and author of Take Me to the Water: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church.
