Decapitating Jim Crow Monument: A Movement to Forming a More Perfect Union
By: J. Patrick Flomo
Contributing Writer
The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
September 2, 2017
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| Robert Lee Statue, Charlotteville |
The Charlottesville awakening has reignited the Organic nature of the constitution (the Liberal view) as opposed to the Divinity scripture text (Originalist view) of the Constitutional interpretation (in this case) the First Amendment (freedom of expression and assembly) --- the fundamental principle of the American Constitution, i.e. Charlottesville v Jason Kessler. The ACLU supported Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler in court (because the First Amendment protect all speech) after city officials tried to revoke his protest permit (CNBC).
The drama we see unfolding on the American political stage (aside from President Trump’s disastrous and deviant press conference), consisting of the Charlottesville episode with the Jim Crow statues and Dred Scott v. Sandford (the Supreme Court reaffirming the status of blacks in Americas) as the principal character, is a manifestation of the lived American Constitutional Project. We see the Jeffersonian constitutional creed: “All men are created equal,” Lincoln’s Birth of New Freedom and a New Nation, and King’s Dream Speech: “--- little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers,” (racial integration) weave together to fulfill the prophecy of the American Constitution – A More Perfect Union.
The American Constitution was born out of uninhibited free exercise of vigorous public debates by the PEOPLE September 19, 1789. Out of this process of how the constitution came alive, America has come to symbolize the pantheon of Democracy.
The debates and fights over the Confederate monuments and the legacy of Dred Scott (the Taney Court decision-- interpretation of the constitution) are the manifestation of America’s unwritten constitution as well as a textual constitution. The Jim Crow monuments (erected after reconstruction and during Civil Rights struggle in the 1950s and 60s) are anathema to the principle of Lincoln’s American. The celebrated individuals (the so call Confederate heroes) had committed “treason” against the Union by abrogating Article VI --- the supremacy clause of the constitution. The core principle of the ratification of the Constitution (the formation of the United States – states were free to join the Union, but once in you cannot get out) was a “union of indivisibility.” The continued historical celebration and veneration of the men who shredded the constitution and destroyed the Jeffersonian America is an affront to spirit and the text of the constitution. The statues are a continual representation of white supremacy and racism that defies the basic American creed and value: “All Men Are Created Equal,” a creed enshrined in the constitution.
The constitution is the great American equalizer (with the Supreme Court as the interpreter) ; as a result, it is the most politically contentious issue in America. The process is sometimes violent (e.g., the Charlottesville tragedy) and sometime peaceful (the Civil Rights March on Washington). The fight over the obliteration of the honoring of men who blasphemed the Constitution is a constant struggle to fulfill the preeminence purpose of the Constitution: “We the people of the United States, to form a more perfect Union.”
Contribution
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About The Author: J. Patrick Flomo can be reached at: zamawood@gmail.com