Written By Kendesi Mohammed
I do not expect judges, lawyers, lawmakers, or the United States Congress to consistently do right by Black people. History makes that clear. Justice for our community has rarely come from goodwill or moral awakening. It has come through pressure, organization, sacrifice, and relentless advocacy.
Because of this reality, we must fight deliberately and lawfully to protect our children, our families, and the rights of our communities. We must fight to create jobs, build businesses, and put clear, enforceable laws in place that we can use to challenge discrimination, racism, and unequal treatment in court. These laws must be precise, accessible, and written so they cannot be twisted, delayed, or ignored.
Our children remain prisoners of systems that were never designed for their freedom. From underfunded schools to biased policing, from family courts to the criminal legal system, too many of our children are monitored, labeled, and discarded. Freeing them will require sustained effort through education, economic power, legal defense, and community discipline.
We must also speak honestly about accountability. Change does not come from silence or comfort. Systems only shift when those who benefit from injustice are confronted through law, public pressure, economic consequence, and moral clarity. Caring for our people means intentionally hiring competent and ethical professionals, including lawyers, educators, advocates, and organizers, who are willing and able to defend our communities with skill and courage.
History explains why skepticism is necessary.
Chief Justice John Marshall described slavery as contrary to the law of nature, yet he spent his life owning enslaved people and used his judicial authority to protect the institution. While privately acknowledging slavery’s injustice, he consistently prioritized property rights and state law over human freedom. He supported gradual change through colonization rather than emancipation and ruled against enslaved people seeking liberty. By the time of his death, Marshall owned nearly two hundred enslaved people, a contradiction between ideals and actions documented by the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.
This contradiction was not unique.
At least seven United States presidents affiliated with the Democratic Party or its direct predecessor, the Democratic Republican Party, enslaved human beings at some point in their lives. They include Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, James K. Polk, and Andrew Johnson. Even Ulysses S. Grant, who later served as a Republican president, had previously been a Democrat and briefly owned an enslaved man before freeing him. These facts reveal a painful truth. Political labels and lofty language have often existed alongside oppression.
The federal government itself played a foundational role in creating and sustaining slavery. The Constitution included the Three Fifths Clause, the Fugitive Slave Clause, and the Importation Clause. These provisions expanded the political power of slaveholding states and required the return of people who escaped bondage. Federal and state governments enforced slave codes, recorded enslaved people for taxation and representation, and later passed laws such as the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 to suppress abolitionist efforts. Slavery did not end because the system found its conscience. It ended after war, resistance, and immense loss, culminating in the Thirteenth Amendment.
This history matters because it shapes the present.
Blind faith in institutions built without us, and often against us, is not wisdom. The path forward must be rooted in self determination, legal literacy, economic independence, and organized action. Protecting our children, strengthening our families, and securing our rights is not optional. It is our responsibility.
Freedom has never been given. It has always been demanded and defended.
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