(ThyBlackMan.com) When the U.S. Constitution was adopted in 1787, the words, “We the People of the United States in order to form a more perfect Union,” were written as the opening of the Constitution’s statement of purpose. The “We the People” reference is a statement of inclusion that sounds inspiring on paper, but it was not an accurate description of the level of equality and humanity practiced throughout society at that time. In 1787, there were unwritten exclusions to the Constitution’s original text.
The “We the People” reference did not apply to certain groups, such as Native Americans, Blacks, women, and poor whites. These marginalized groups were consistently denied inclusion as equal citizens deserving of rights. As decades and centuries passed, incremental steps toward inclusion were taken to make the nation a more “perfect union.” Those incremental steps, which were met with aggressive and cruel resistance, included the abolishment of slavery (13th amendment), defined citizenship (14th amendment), prohibiting race as a qualification for voting (15th amendment), prohibiting citizens the right to vote due their sex (19th amendment), ending school segregation (Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling), forbidding discrimination in public facilities (Civil Rights Acts of 1964), abolishing literacy tests and other forms of voter suppression tactics (Voting Rights Act of 1965), and prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing (Fair Housing Act of 1968).
“We the People” eventually evolved into becoming more inclusive in practice, thanks to individuals like Charles Hamilton Houston, who is known as “the man who killed Jim Crow.” Houston was an attorney who trained a generation of lawyers, including Thurgood Marshall, to systematically dismantle segregation laws in court. Despite the string of legislative victories that ended the legal application of the Jim Crow system, the legacies of cruelty, injustice, and inequality have never ended. There will always be a gap in society between the goal we are striving to achieve (an all-inclusive society) and our current position (a society that continues to embrace the exclusion of others). As we saw the gap start to effectively close with each incremental step taken, it gave us evidence and even hope that America has the willingness (under duress) to follow its moral compass. A society without a moral compass eventually evolves into a nation where wrong becomes right and what was once considered right becomes ignored.
You can change government laws, but new laws do not change a person’s hard heart and narrow mind. In its recent ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court seriously wounded the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in Callais v. Louisiana. The 6-3 conservative majority’s decision ruled to eliminate one of Louisiana’s two majority-Black districts, limiting the scope of the VRA provision that creates majority-minority districts. The decision opens the door to redistricting across the South that will likely decimate Black and Latino representation in Congress, as well as state legislatures and municipal governments.
Two nonpartisan election handicappers identified seven districts that could be at risk of being redrawn to favor Republicans following the Callais v. Louisiana decision. Both Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball, which is published by the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said the court’s ruling – which deemed Louisiana’s current map an illegal racial gerrymander and ordered it to be redrawn—could ultimately jeopardize all of the Democratic seats in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and South Carolina. In Alabama, where Democrats hold two of the seven congressional districts, both Reps. Shomari Figures and Terri Sewell could be at risk if the state were to redraw its map. The only Democrats representing Mississippi, Tennessee, and South Carolina –Rep. Bennie Thompson (Miss.), Rep. Steve Cohen (Tenn.), and Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.) –could be in jeopardy. Thompson, who represents Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District and is the only Black member of the state’s congressional delegation, said Black residents make up 38% of Mississippi’s population and should retain at least one House seat. He said the ruling “has moved us back over 60 years.”
For decades, a dedicated movement of conservative activists, legal scholars, and politicians campaigned to overturn Roe v. Wade. This effort involved building a conservative judicial majority, passing state-level restrictions, and securing federal judicial appointments. Ultimately, the goal was achieved with the Dobbs v. Jackson decision in 2022. Overturning Roe v. Wade was a 40 to 50-year concerted campaign focused on appointing “pro-life” judges.
Finish story here; America’s Moral Compass And The Supreme Court’s Attack On Voting Rights.
