Rosa Park refused to vacate  the  seat in the colored section of the bus  for the white passenger when white-section was filled, for which she was arrested later(Bus is in Henry Ford museum).  We can imagine how much America has traveled since then and now it has Barack Obama who is the head of constitution.

Many sociopolitical scientists, researchers and human right activists might consider United States as template or reference for all these rights: Reproductive rights, immigration rights, civil rights, equal employment opportunity rights, marriage rights; but for such display on the actual screen, it had struggle, movements, sacrifices, lawsuits and politics behind the screen.Visit to this glorious place opened my *policy* eyes. National Archives Museum traveled me through sequence of shaping up of policies in the United States. Would you believe that United States was not different from any of conservative country  where women are still not even allowed to have driving license. Not so extreme, but till 1920,women didn’t have voting rights in this oldest democracy.
Immigration rights: United States is proud to be land of immigrants and land of opportunities. It is ,therefore,known for its diverse and dynamic society/community. One of pictures in museum  depicts how Irish workers as new immigrants  fought discrimination, long hours, and demand to work faster. It also have pages on display, collected  from the census schedule for Lowell , Massachusetts, 1860, which provides wealth of information for genealogists tracing family ties. It also helps in understanding the settling pattern of different immigrant groups. In my own observational research, I found people from Central America (especially Hondarus, Nicargua, Salvador and Guatamala) settled around Virginia and maryland. Recorded from immigrant case files,   a lady from HongKong was suspected as prostitute by immigrant officials,  and then she was kept under detention. After three appeals, she was granted entry.

Woman rights: Fight for suffrage escalated at the time of World War 1.  Women protesters were jailed in Virginia’s Occoquan workhouse (Fairfax county). Finally replying to women suffrage movement,  then President Woodrow Wilson endorsed  a federal woman suffrage amendment, and ultimately it became law in  August 1920.

Women didn’t have property right and she was subordinate to husbands. After marrying husband of different nationality, she was certain to lose her nationality. Museum mentions one case where a woman from Texas lost her citizenship after marrying the person from Czekoslovakia in 1941 (Continue)

Have you ever noticed Margaret Sanger Square in Manhattan? Yes, struggle of  Margaret Sanger is credited to the landmark judgement of  Griswold vs Connecticut when birth control in the United States was legalized. She is regarded as prominent figure in the fight for American woman’s right. It is also worth to write here that her mother was pregnant for 18 times in 22 years. I wish she was alive today , perhaps she would have provided useful guidance in Purvi Patel ‘s case.