Freedom and equal justice under the law requires constant struggle

by Rev. Jesse Jackson

(TriceEdneyWire.com)—On Juneteenth 2023, the nation enjoyed the new national holiday celebrating the freedom of the slaves at the end of the Civil War. This week marks the 10year anniversary of Shelby v. Holder and the impending decision of the Supreme Court on affirmative action in college admissions. The juxtaposition is a stark reminder that the struggle for equal justice for all is ongoing. Each step forward is met with furious reaction; each reconstruction with concerted efforts to roll back the progress. And today, we are once more in the midst of that reaction.

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June 19, 1865, was the day that US Major General Gordon Granger declared that the Emancipation Proclamation, that went into effect on Jan. 1, 1863, had freed all the slaves in Texas—an estimated 250,000. The proclamation, a wartime measure, was limited: it applied only to those states still in rebellion. Lincoln always gave precedence to the survival of the union over the question of slavery. With the proclamation, slaves in states that were not in rebellion—like Delaware and Kentucky—remained in bondage. And the news was slow to travel to distant slave states like Texas, even after the surrender of the Confederate armies under Gen. Robert E. Lee. The proclamation took hold only as US troops extended their victory. It took the passage of the 13th Amendment to end slavery throughout the United States. Needless to say, that profound reform was met with furious reaction. The plantation class in the southern states began a campaign of systematic violence to squelch Black freedom. The Ku Klux Klan, among others, spread the terror of lynching across the South. In the end, the federal government gave in. A political deal removed federal troops from the defeated Confederate states. A reactionary Supreme Court ratified “separate but equal” as constitutional. Segregation —legal apartheid—settled in across the South. Juneteenth marks not the triumph of equal justice, but a large step forward and the beginning of a new era of struggle.

One hundred years later, the civil rights movement rose up to demand equal justice. Blacks demanded the right to vote, and equal access to public accommodations. Finally, a Supreme Court ruled that segregation was a violation of the Constitution. With the leadership of Lyndon Johnson and Dr. Martin Luther King, the Congress passed legislation guaranteeing equal rights and the right to vote. Schools were ordered to integrate; public institutions were required to take affirmative action to ensure equal access and equal rights.

Then 10 years ago, the Supreme Court in the Shelby case, in a decision made by a slim majority of conservative justices, gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. This was one piece of a fierce reaction to the progress made. The Republican Party, beginning with Richard Nixon’s Southern strategy, grounded its revival on the politics of White resentment, abandoning its previous commitments to civil rights and voting rights. Today, Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis—the leading contenders for the Republican presidential nominee—compete to lead the reaction— what DeSantis now calls the “war on woke,” which has featured systematic efforts to suppress the vote, ban books, distort the teaching of history in public schools, and bring an end to affirmative action.

Once more a conservative majority on the Supreme Court is poised to rule on the next stage of the reaction— the responsibility of colleges to take affirmative action to ensure diversity in their student bodies. Having diverse student bodies—with students of different races, genders, religions, regions —is a self-evident benefit to education —and to the country. The claim is that this somehow destroys a “merit based” admissions process, but colleges all construct their student bodies, giving preference to alumni, to the wealthy, to the athletic, to those with special talents. It is preposterous to suggest that ensuring racial diversity is the one thing that discriminates against others.

What the freed slaves learned under segregation, what Blacks learned in the civil rights movement, what must be remembered today is that freedom and equal justice under the law requires constant struggle. The forces of privilege are always powerful. The reaction can always play on racial fears. We celebrate Juneteenth and Dr. King’s birthday as markers in that struggle, but not as the final victory. Another reaction is underway. To overcome it will require more education, more organizing, more struggle. We know from our history that progress is possible—but only if citizens of conscience are prepared to demand it.

On Independence Day: Thomas Jefferson and Clarence Thomas, a paradox of liberty

(TriceEdneyWire.com)—The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened its permanent home in 2016 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Among the museum’s many exhibitions is one that explored slavery and enslaved people in America through the lens of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello plantation. The exhibit, “Paradox of Liberty,” highlights two critical elements in American history. The first is the paradox of the American Revolution—the fight for liberty in an era of pervasive slavery.

The second element is the self-contradiction of the man who was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. When we look at national unity from patriotic and moral lenses, it can best be described by the paradox of five powerful words authored by Thomas Jefferson: “All men are created equal.” And yet Jefferson was an owner of slaves.

Jefferson was a complex man who was an oppressor (slave owner) while at the same time, he was oppressed by the British. He was a man who achieved a degree of freedom when the American colonies gained their independence from Great Britain. However, he chose not to extend independence and liberty to all his slaves when he denied their freedom after his death. There were over 600 enslaved men, women, and children during Jefferson’s lifetime on his Virginia plantation. Jefferson would set only two of them free.

David W. Marshall

Commentary

As the facts of Jefferson, the oppressor, are disheartening, he wrote those five powerful words from the perspective of being an oppressed citizen at the hands of King George III of England. As our nation celebrates Independence Day, we should remember that Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence to inform a “candid world” about the “long train of abuses” the American colonies were subject to the rule of King George III. It listed and explained, in point-by-point detail, the “patient sufferance of the colonies,” which justified their reasons for public protest. With an unsuspecting world being part of his written audience, Jefferson exposed the truth about the oppressor and the truth concerning the oppressed. The anger, humiliation, and pain oppressed people must endure (then and now) were evident in his words. He understood the divine rights of kings is the belief that the right to rule comes directly from God and is not derived from the people. It is believed that kings are not answerable for their actions to the people whom they are led to govern. As the author of the Declaration of Independence, a disrespected Jefferson was focused on King George III, who saw himself as superior to everyone. In his “No Justice, No Peace” message to the world, he made it clear that despite one man’s position as ruler and another as subject, in God’s eyes, Thomas Jefferson and King George III were both created equal as human beings. In principle, he stressed that the divine rights of kings were wrong. Despite being an oppressor, our primary focus, in this case, should be on the everlasting contribution of Jefferson’s written words rather than the hypocrisy of his immoral actions.

Jefferson’s words spoke for all oppressed people throughout all eras of time. To those considered “others,” he gave them fighting ammunition against men and women who considered themselves superior because of race, religion, class, level of education, gender, or for any unjust reason. Any type of injustice, unfairness, or social inequality cannot, in good faith, stand up against the moral weight of “All men are created equal.” Jefferson’s words were a deep commitment to human equality. They were ultimately used by future men and women to oppose slavery, justify the right of women to vote, end segregation, and fight income inequality. Despite Jefferson’s understanding that oppressed people will always need to be vindicated, as an oppressor and slave owner, he reminds us how America started and remains a nation filled with shameless hypocrisy.

The Supreme Court’s recent ruling in favor of striking down affirmative action and the consideration of race in college admissions is another example of self-contradiction, this time by Justice Clarence Thomas. While Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Ketanji Brown Jackson both benefitted from affirmative action, Justice Brown Jackson voted to uphold it, and Justice Thomas voted to strike it down. In the 1970s, Yale University followed an affirmative action policy to increase minority college admissions and achieve a goal of 10 percent minority enrollment. In 1971, Clarence Thomas was admitted to Yale’s Law School as part of its affirmative action program.

Thomas later became chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where he spoke of the importance of affirmative action. Thomas told fellow staffers at the EEOC that “God only knows where I would be today” if not for the legal principles of equal employment measures such as affirmative action that are critical to minorities and women in this society.” Thomas continued, “These laws and their proper application are all that stand between the first 17 years of my life and the second 17 years.” Both Jefferson and Thomas were self-centered men at times, but the contrast is clear. At least Thomas Jefferson gave future generations something to work with, while Clarence Thomas chose to take it away.

(David W. Marshall is the founder of the faith-based organization, TRB: The Reconciled Body, and the author of “God Bless Our Divided America.” He can be reached at www.davidwmarshallauthor.com)