Four photos, four speakers and four communities came together to shine a light on one amendment that encompasses so many of our daily freedoms.

The Visions of Freedom presentation, which was sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists, captured the meaning of the First Amendment on Thursday in the Gallery of the Memorial Union. It brought a voice to the freedoms that have been stricken from people around the world and aimed to give its power back to the individuals who can make those violations a thing of the past.

The roster of speakers included Dione Somerville, dean of students; Warren Blumenfeld, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction; Claudia Marcela Prado-Meza, graduate student in interdisciplinary studies; David Ernesto Romero, graduate student in interdisciplinary graduate studies; and Barbara Mack, associate professor of journalism. Theyall had powerful images to show the difference that people can make just by keeping an open mind.

Somerville, who chose an image of Little Rock Central High School in 1957, spoke about the African-American female student in the photo who was shown weathering a storm of exclusion and hate.

She said that women such as the one in the photo blazed trails toward opportunity in education and allowed Somerville to “stand on the shoulders of those before me.”

“What I’m asking for is for people to think about freedoms of others,” Somerville said. “Racism is not an issue of the past … It’s something that’s with us today.”

Somerville’s analysis of the African-Americans’ struggle to obtain equality in education opened the doors for Prado-Meza and Romero to elaborate on the problems facing Latinos as well.

“For Hispanics and Latinos, living here in America is a luxury. The way you accept people, it’s as important as money or education,” Prado-Meza said.

Romero supplemented Prado-Meza’s statements by saying education for all people is essential, but providing Latinos and Hispanics with the necessary means would “create a fire that is impossible to extinguish.”

“When you go to class and when you interact with people, think about how you can be agents of change,” Romero said.

After hearing speakers who focused on differences in nationality, Blumenfeld took a look at prejudice from a different perspective.

Blumenfeld, a representative of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Ally Alliance, spoke on the history of the LGBT communities and all the changes that have occurred through the years. He said that, despite attacks he referred to as “brutal and senseless” on LGBT culture, including blame for the “breakup of the current American family” and a mainstream disregard for the history of the LGBT civil rights struggle, the LGBT community has grown to a level where individuals are “coming out like never before.”

Finally, Mack concluded that, in order for our society to grow, we must appreciate everyone’s freedoms and the rights that everyone deserves.

“The real question as to whether this nation can go on is on your shoulders,” Mack said to those in attendance.

“The need to question our government and to test our government, and to think and to realize that the Vision of Freedom we may have really tests our ability to envision who we as citizens… [and] sets the tone for how we’re going to lead our lives.”