Black History Month
I’m recuperating and I clearly have too much time to think.
How can we have a discussion about black history without discussing the 14th amendment? The 14th amendment came after the end of the Civil War. It represented a fundamental recognition that the Constitution was incomplete in providing for the citizenship of black Americans. It sought to extend the right and protections enjoyed by whites to those that were not. It said “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” On the face of it that should have ended the controversy and begun the process of building a united country. It should have but it didn’t.
The period of Reconstruction that was ushered in by the Civil Rights act of 1866 was effectively gutted by the US Supreme Court. That very same court then took to gutting the 14th Amendment. The first step was by declaring that the federal government had no authority to question state and local law regarding how a state dealt with local citizens. That interpretation meant that states were free to institute whatever local laws that they saw fit.
Secondly starting in 1875 and for the next two decades the Supreme Court continually held that the 14th Amendment did not extend to actions by individuals giving the Klan and other white terrorist groups license to conduct campaigns of terror.
The irony is that had the 14th Amendment been executed properly there would never have been a need for a black history month. History would be an honest and truthful rendition of Americas story rather than the made up fairytale children are taught today.
Frederick Douglass said “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.
Let that marinate in that space between your shoulders. We are living in 2021. Once again we are seeing bold attempts at disenfranchisement of the black vote. Lip service only for equal protection. A greater police response to Civil disobedience than to acts of insurrection. The definition of insanity is continuing to do what does not work.
THINK!!
EYES WIDE OPEN!!!