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African Americans had a long struggle to ensure that they were included in the freedoms outlined in the Bill of Rights
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The New United States of America Adopted the Bill of Rights
December 15, 1791
There was one issue, however, that the Constitutional Convention did not resolve to Mason's liking. The founding fathers compromised, permitting the continuation of the slave trade through 1808. Mason wanted to stop the importation of slaves. Because of the inability of the founding fathers to resolve the slavery issue, among other problems, Americans struggled through a bloody Civil War. Yet, it would take another hundred years to remove a web of state and local laws that prevented African Americans from a fuller exercise of freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s helped raise the awareness of Americans to the injustice of segregation and discrimination.
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