also been significant progress made when it comes to power distribution in the United States. Thanks to ready access to higher education and technology, anyone possessing both the aptitude and desire to take on a challenging career now has a chance to do so. The United States ratified the direct election of senators in 1913, thus giving voters more power. Progressive legislation in the late 1800s led to referendums and recalls, thus putting important voter initiatives on the ballot if legislators refused to act quickly.

While there are many changes yet to be made, the United States has achieved a great deal in terms of liberty, equality, and the distribution of power.

The United States has moved toward greater liberty and equality since the end of the Civil War. After that war, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed, ending slavery, granting citizenship to everyone born in the United States, and allowing all men to vote, respectively. The right to vote and the right to full citizenship was abridged for many Americans, however. In the South, Jim Crow laws created a segregated society and denied African Americans the right to vote. Asians, Latinos, and others were often treated as second-class citizens, and during World War II, Japanese-Americans on the west coast were forcibly removed to relocation centers—an unconstitutional abridgment of their rights as citizens. After these setbacks, the Civil Rights movement after World War II resulted in greater freedoms for African Americans, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Women, initially given the right to vote with the 19th Amendment in 1920, saw their roles expand during the Women's Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The Gay Rights Movement of the 1960s and beyond resulted in eventual gains for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and other people, including the right to marry for gay and lesbian couples. Many argue, however, that we are still not a completely free and equal society, as straight white men hold the majority of positions of power in government, business, and other realms. However, the general movement has been towards a freer and more equal society.

Significant progress has been evident in the United States when it comes to liberty, equality, and power from the time of Reconstruction after the Civil War to the present day.

One of the most demonstrative examples of increased liberty, equality, and power can be seen in greater political enfranchisement.  Simply put, more people have achieved the right to vote.  The passage of the Civil War Amendments (13th, 14th, and 15th) during Reconstruction did much to guarantee African- Americans citizenship and voting rights.  The Nineteenth Amendment during the Progressive Time period gave women suffrage, while the 26th Amendment in 1971 set the voting age at 18 years.  As a result of these Constitutional amendments, people who were previously denied the right to vote achieved it.  These actions demonstrate how increased liberty, equality, and power were ensured by bringing more members of the body politic into the political process.

Addressing issues of social marginalization is another way where greater liberty, equality, and power has also been displayed.  Following World War II, movements such as the Feminist Movement and the Civil Rights Movement brought greater attention to the narratives of women and people of color. Workers' rights movements brought more voices into the American narrative as did the social mobilization for those discriminated based on sexual orientation and identity.  Through moving these voices from margin to center, more people experienced greater liberty, equality, and power.  Naturally, this work is not finished.  However, I think that a strong case can be made that since Reconstruction, more Americans have been able to experience greater liberty, equality, and power because of wider political enfranchisement and social inclusion.

U.S. progress on liberty, equality and power since the time of Reconstruction following the Civil War until now is mixed. The 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, ostensibly prohibited states from denying any of its male citizens the right to vote on the basis of race. However, states were still allowed to use qualifications such as literacy tests and poll taxes that essentially accomplished the same thing. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution gave women the right to vote in 1920, although there were still obstacles for Black and other non-White female voters.

It was not until a full century after the Civil War during the Civil Rights movement that an organized grassroots effort was made to enfranchise Black voters. Poll taxes were eliminated for federal elections in 1964 via the 24th Amendment to the Constitution. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act that finally banned literacy tests.

The Voting Rights Act led to a substantial rise in registration of Black voters. Prior to its passage, an estimated 23% of eligible Black voters across the nation were actually registered. That metric climbed to 61% by 1969. The turnout of Black voters at the polls surpassed that of white voters for the first time ever in 2012 when President Obama stood for reelection.

One year after passage of the Voting Rights Act, a groundbreaking Supreme Court decision in the case of Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections prohibited poll taxes for state and local elections.

In terms of attaining actual legislative power, the first two Black politicians took office in 1870 when Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi was appointed to congress. That same year, Representative Joseph Rainey of South Carolina was elected. President Obama was elected to office in 2008.

However, a wide income and wealth gap persists to this day. According to the Brooking Institution,

At $171,000, the net worth of a typical White family is nearly ten times greater than that of a Black family ($17,150) in 2016.