The supreme court trusts America not to be racist. I don’t | Jamil Smith

The Callais decision is predicated on the idea that American leaders will act justly on their own.

That premise has already been proven hollow

Six supreme court justices handed down https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/29/supreme-court-louisiana-congressional-map-case-ruling">a ruling built, ostensibly, on the belief that the US has changed so much as to render the protections of the Voting Rights Act unnecessary.

No one should be that gullible.

In 1901, the same year my great-grandfather was born, George H White http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/speeches/george_white_farewell.html">rose to address the 56th United States Congress for the last time.

He was a Republican congressman from North Carolina – the only Black member of the entire body.

He was leaving because the state he represented had passed legislation making his re-election impossible.

Reconstruction had already been undone.

The powers that be had narrowed, then deferred, then erased the promise of multiracial democracy, written in the blood of Union soldiers and freed people alike.