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RESOURCES & PARTNERS
No social struggle for justice exists in a vacuum. A movement brings many together, working in different ways toward a common objective. Those “many” may be political organizations, social activists, lawyers, writers, teachers, workers, politicians, or even poets and painters – the best quilts come in many colors. So, too, with the campaigns to reclaim our Republic and the noble principles for which it stands.
Know this: Dissent is an American virtue. It is the bedrock of our independence and our First Amendment freedoms. It has animated so many, from abolitionists to environmentalists, from civil rights activists to LGBTQ rights groups, and from those seeking religious freedom across all faiths, from Jews to Jehovah’s Witnesses. Protesting with signs, assemblies, petitions, or publications is a great American pastime. In its finer moments, it deserves our praise rather than the kind of condemnation so frequently spewed by Trump and his unpatriotic allies.
“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow.”
― Thomas Paine, The American Crisis (1776)
Whether it is with groups such as the ACLU, Indivisible, Democracy Now!, NAACP, and We Hold These Truths, or with movements such as Martyrs Day, the goal is the same: to work to bring about peaceful change through education, protests, and legal actions to restore the Republic bequeathed to us.
Remember Paine’s admonition: “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men [and women], undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”
TOOLKIT
Resources for you to get involved, craft social media posts and other ways to support the message.
CORE PRINCIPLES
- Speak out and don’t remain passive in the face of oppression
- Use First Amendment freedoms actively (speech, protest, organizing)
- Collective action increases safety and impact
- Protest should be ongoing, creative, and strategic—not one-day only
Social Media
Use social media to amplify your voice. Download our toolkit to help you create posts that reinforce the message, inspire action, and drive meaningful change.
Actionable Activist Moves
Download our list of ways you can get involved in making a difference.
A. PROTEST & PRESENCE
B. SUPPORT & DEFEND
C. COMMUNICATE & INFLUENCE
D. CREATE & AMPLIFY
E. ORGANIZE & SCALE
F. DEMOCRATIC ACTION
Read the Declaration of Independence Aloud
The Declaration of Independence is more than a historic document. It is a bold statement of the rights of the people and a declaration that government derives its just authority from those it governs.
Principally drafted by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration gave voice to ideas that had been stirring throughout the colonies. Thomas Paine was among the most influential voices of the Revolutionary era. In Common Sense, Paine wrote not only for political leaders, but for ordinary people. Using clear and powerful language, he challenged Americans to think for themselves, question inherited power, and consider whether a free people should govern themselves.
The Declaration carried these ideas forward. It proclaimed that all “men” are created equal, that they possess certain unalienable rights, and that government exists to protect those rights. These principles were revolutionary in 1776—and they continue to challenge and inspire us today.
Reading the Declaration aloud allows us to experience it as the people of the Revolutionary era may have: not as words silently preserved on a page, but as a public call to action, passed from one person to another and from one generation to the next.
We have divided the Declaration into easy-to-present sections so that people of all ages and backgrounds can participate. Each reader becomes a voice in a larger civic conversation, helping bring the ideas of liberty, equality, self-government, and the responsibility of citizenship to life.
We have also included a video showing how individuals of different ages and backgrounds presented sections of the Declaration during a local celebration of our nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026.
As Thomas Paine understood, great ideas do not belong only to scholars, statesmen, or the powerful. They belong to the people. By reading the Declaration aloud together, we honor the courage of those who declared independence and yearned for a better future for all Americans to have and preserve. And they did so “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence,” and thus they mutually pledged their “Lives, . . . Fortunes and . . . sacred Honor.”
Education
National Archives Lesson Plan
The following lesson plan is designed as an educational component of the Documented Rights Online Exhibit. It is designed to be a unit plan that requires students to research, analyze, and create a finished product using documents from the exhibit.
Essential Questions
What are our unalienable rights as humans?
Topic Specific Essential Questions
How have people struggled to have their rights recognized?
How has the federal government responded to these struggles?
Enduring Understanding
A variety of different individuals and social groups have used different legal methods to have their unalienable rights recognized by the Federal government. The success of protecting these rights has depended on a variety of outside factors.