One Nation, In Progress

by Gabe Schlabach

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

—Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963

The United States’ journey towards racial equality has been both extraordinary and frustratingly slow. Considering the long history of slavery, legal segregation and discrimination in this country, it is impressive that U.S. society has improved to the point it has. But there is still a long road ahead.

The United States was founded under the assertion that all “all men are created equal.” While it is right to note that “all men” leaves out half the human population and was not originally applied to people of color, the importance of this statement should not be discounted. In an age of monarchies, the United States’ founding documents were revolutionary, and the country truly was a cutting-edge, “democratic experiment.”

Nevertheless, it was an experiment rooted in a society in which slavery was a driving economic force.

The abolition of this evil system was slow, contentious and ultimately bloody. The politics surrounding slavery make today’s hyper-partisan political discourse look like a hugfest. For example: in 1856, Senator Preston Smith Brooks (a champion of slavery) beat down a fellow senator, Charles Sumner, with a cane until it snapped. Sumner’s recovery took three years, but he could count himself fortunate: a civil war soon broke out that took the lives of more than 600,000 soldiers and injured at least 400,000 more.

Eventually, however, thanks to the efforts of countless abolitionists, slavery was ended.

Then came Jim Crow. “Separate but equal” laws were enacted in many states to divide people of color from whites. Militant racist groups, most notably the Ku Klux Klan, formed to intimidate people of color, murdering those who stood up to them.

But some continued to resist racial injustice, and change did come. It took another century, more lost lives, and more sacrifices. It took a Supreme Court willing to uphold the nation’s founding principles. It took strong leadership rooted in a deep faith in God. It took a mass movement of activists and regular folks working together. And it took the ability of millions of people across the country to recognize and reject injustices they had long ignored.

The most visible change came in the form of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, statements from the highest levels of government that the country’s founding principles apply to people of all races and ethnicities.

The result: race relations have undeniably improved. People of color are no longer barred from entering schools, professions, or voting booths on account of their skin color. And come January, the United States might well have its first African-American president. All these advances are praiseworthy.

Yet despite the progress that has occurred, whites are still far wealthier (on average) than people of color and hold far more institutional power. Gentrification is tearing apart many urban communities of color. De facto segregation remains. And overtly racist attitudes and actions still present themselves all too often.

The “democratic experiment” continues. The United States—a human institution— will never be perfect, but can be improved. We should celebrate how far the country has come, but we must continue working together to make it a more just place for all.