Documents of Freedom

  • Resisting arrest

    Six decades before Guantanamo, Fred Korematsu refused to go quietly when the government tried to put him in a prison camp because of his race.
    By Gary Kamiya June 29, 2004

  • "I shall not burn my press and melt my letters"

    Newspaper publishing in the days of Ben Franklin and his grandson was a filthy, grinding business. Fighting for freedom of the press was an even more wretched a task.
    By David Talbot September 2, 2003

  • Lenny Bruce died for our sins

    Thanks to the martyred comedian, American culture is free to be a wild kingdom. But with his new anti-porn crusade, Attorney General Ashcroft wants to turn back the clock.
    By Gary Kamiya August 26, 2003

  • "Letter From a Birmingham Jail"

    The power of Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil rights call-to-arms comes from watching a great man grapple with the possibility that he's wrong.
    By Joan Walsh August 19, 2003

  • "On Liberty"

    John Stuart Mill's classic is all over the Web, because it reminded us that freedom requires reckoning with "heretical opinions" -- a message we need now more than ever.
    By Scott Rosenberg August 12, 2003

  • "Ain't I a Woman?"

    Sojourner Truth's impromptu personal oratory gave women's rights a voice of fire.
    By Laura Miller July 29, 2003

  • The Bill of Rights

    More than an indestructible wall limiting the power of government, the Bill of Rights is a testament of hope.
    By Roger K. Newman July 22, 2003

  • "The Fifth Modernization"

    Eleven years before Tiananmen Square, a courageous Chinese worker dared to call for democracy. He was imprisoned for 15 years, but his message defies iron bars.
    By Andrew Leonard July 15, 2003

  • "I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue"

    In "Areopagitica," Milton made a magisterial case not just for freedom of speech, but for freedom of soul.
    By Gary Kamiya July 8, 2003

  • Introducing "Documents of Freedom"

    From Milton to China's Democracy Wall, Salon's new series honors the milestones of human liberty.
    July 1, 2003

  • The presses must roll

    The Supreme Court's Pentagon Papers decision barred an imperious president from blocking publication of explosive government documents about an ill-conceived war. Today, journalists may not be so brave -- or judges so vigilant.
    By Gary Kamiya July 1, 2003
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