Almost a week ago, the college had a visiting speaker, Chief Judge Solomon Oliver, come in to give a speech for Constitution Day. He gave a presentation called “Shoring up the Constitution: The Legacy of a African-American and his Quest for Equality”. He talked about the constitution as a wonderful legal document that our founding fathers had set up to be built upon that guarantee our freedom to guarantee our freedom. Of course though, this hasn’t been the truth for everyone since the country's inception. The speech focused on the history of using law to fight for equality by using the law to work towards freedom.
Judge Oliver talked a lot about the civil rights movement and what it was like growing up as a person of color in the 1960s and how he was affected by the racial tension at the time. He talked a lot about the environment that he grew up in, and the kind of environment for people of color in the south. It’s was a lot to take in at times when you remember how recent all of these atrocities were committed. Our nation had separated an entire population from one another until 1954 that reflected a clear comparison between race and class in our society, because of how poorly people of color were treated in comparison to white people. But at the same time, it was very inspiring to listen to Judge Oliver speak on the subject, and people that had combatted these issues on segregation before it could be repealed.
The concept of segregation was supposed to be ‘separate but equal’, and that both sides would be treated fairly. There are many flaws with this concept, mostly based on the fact that it’s simply unethical. Either way, trying to repeal these laws were strenuous and too rooted in the American system. Instead, a group of lawyers, one that Judge Oliver worked under, came together to tear at the inequities of segregation. To my understanding, it was a rigorous and repetitive process. What they had to do was look for something in our society that was separate but unequal, get the proper evidence to support the case, and then take that case all the way up to the supreme court to have it accepted. Each time they had to repeat this process without guaranteed results. To me it sounded exhausting to repeat the same process time and time again, but still inspiring to know that people actually worked through that together to overturn these injustices in our society.
At the end of the presentations someone asked Judge Oliver how he could support our Constitution after the years of oppression it permitted, it’s permittance of slavery, and it’s forced gender roles by restricting what woman could and could not do. He simply responded with the fact that he doesn't. He commented on the fact that it was outrageous that the United States had permitted so much atrocities and separation between people for so long. That really sparked some thought for me. I thought about how difficult it is for us to take a look at our Constitution and not find a problem with it. But it also made me think of a different aspect that I think Judge Oliver was trying to get at. It isn’t that our Constitution is an amazing document that gives us freedom, but gives us power to shape it and change it to correct its imperfections. Just like how the lawyers he talked about went through the judicial process to change inequality in the country. What is great about our Constitution is that we have the ability to change it and rewrite it as we grow. That is what Judge Oliver was trying to say in his speech about the constitution.
