“It is one thing to espouse a creed of freedom and equality; another, altogether, to live it,” says a speaker in The American Creed.

The Creed in question, stating “that all men are created equal… endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights….” was first articulated by Thomas Jefferson in the American Declaration of Independence.

The TV documentary, The American Creed, tells the story of the struggle it took – and takes – to turn this Creed into deeds. A Creed tested in the fire of a Civil War; in the struggle for women’s rights and civil rights; through conflicts over immigration, jobs, and economic inequality; by the hunger and fear of the Great Depression; and by international conflicts.

The American Creed celebrates the Jeffersonian ideals through musical expressions of many textures: hymns, marches, and popular songs; with iconic images of national monuments; and evocative B&W archival footage of a struggling nation.

And while it is inspiring to encounter these sentiments set in stone, music, and lofty rhetoric, it is sobering to reflect that this Creed was not inevitable in its adoption, did not survive without struggle, and will continue only with vigilance and understanding.