African-American History

As we stand at the dawn of the 21st Century, all Americans can feel proud of what our nation, through its awesome political process, has done to help other residents of this “global village” turn to the light of human rights. However, there is much more to be done, and our successes point the way.

Through the millennia, humans have evolved to a “higher” state and our laws have evolved accordingly-moving from “The Divine Right of Kings” to the “democratic rights of the people.” The calendar pages of the 20th Century seemed to turn not just on technological progress, but on the sometimes painful progress the human family made in ensuring the rights of its members. Our nation’s history serves as a shining example. In 1948, Hubert Humphrey argued before those assembled for the Democratic National Convention that it was time for the Party to move from state’s rights to human rights. {The} Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision in 1954 provided the legal principle of and legal foundation for “equal protection under the law.” Brown paved the way for 1964’s Civil Rights Act, 1965’s Voting Rights Act and 1968’s Open Housing Act. The Civil Rights Movement, with its emphasis on equal rights for all, fueled struggles for equality for the disabled as well as gays and lesbians. Clearly, the women's movement also benefited. The 1970’s ended with a U.S. President who was essentially economically and socially conservative. However, Jimmy Carter’s lasting contribution is his legacy of the important role of human rights in foreign policy. Nelson Mandela and South Africa were freed because of the importance of the human rights struggle. Democracy was brought to the Philippines, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia), Haiti, Nigeria and elsewhere because of human rights struggles.

By the time of his death in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was fighting to codify new economic rights. By the 1970’s, my father, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., was making significant strides in this area-moving Americans from Civil Rights to “silver” rights. What good does it do to have the right to use any hotel or lunch counter you desire, or affirmative action laws opening doors to any institution of higher learning, if you can’t afford to go? Obviously, even with all the progress already made, there is still a long way to go.

We must consciously continue the dynamic evolutionary process through which humanity’s laws have been developed from Urukagina’s Code of 2350 BC, the oldest known set of laws, to the present. “Founding Father” Thomas Jefferson understood this, writing: “I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.” President George W. Bush’s “strict constructionist” approach to the Constitution flies in the face of this dynamic, “liberal construction” and history of the development of law. It is the duty and privilege of those of us who do understand to advance new rights.

We must honor but build upon our successes of the past. The successes we must now strive for are to codify into law what we have evolved to understand are fundamental human rights-yes, "inalienable rights." Among them-- health care of equal high quality, sanitary and affordable housing, public education of equal high quality, full employment, equal voting rights and a clean, safe and sustainable environment. "The question before us should not be if, but when?"  I encourage you to join me in making the answer "soon!" I understand this to be my responsibility as an American. Our Constitution mandates us to build a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the genera1 welfare and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

You may still wonder why? Dr. King gave the best answer: “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar: it understands that a society which produces beggars needs restructuring.”