On July 9, 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment gave blacks equal rights under the law and in 1870, they were given the right to vote.
Unfortunately, thanks to what is arguably the most shameful ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy vs. Ferguson, states circumvented the Bill of Rights by allowing Jim Crow laws providing "Separate but equal" facilities, housing, seating and even water fountains for non-whites, ushering in an era of racial segregation.
It wasn't until Brown vs. the Board of Education in 1957 that desegregation became a reality. It's amazing what can happen in 50, uh, 51 years.
Fifty years ago blacks were only beginning to mix freely with whites, despite extreme racial tensions. Today we have elected a black president. Look how far we've come.
America is a young country. I like to call our nation the "bratty teenager of the world." We are headstrong, determined and just arrogant enough to think that we know it all.
The truth is we don't know it all; we haven't got a clue. But, like all teenagers, we will have a coming of age - a dawn of realization - that will allow us to admit this and we will grow.
Look how far we've come.
1 comments:
The 14th Amendment has served its' purpose in that it protected the children of slaves, born in the US to automatically be citizens. That clause is being misused today by allowing children of illegals to be citizens by birthright. This was not the intent of the amendment, but the opinion of activist jurists legislating from the bench.
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