ADJUSTING TO CHANGE

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”….English Poet John Lydgate

The World’s human population is an estimated 7.8 billion and spans nearly 200 countries worldwide. This means our world is filled with billions of individuals who differ in many ways to include their personalities, religious beliefs, and political views. Given these statistics, it would be fair to say that humans will never agree on everything. Environmental and biological factors also affect our ability to agree as well. This should therefore be of no surprise that when significant changes occur in our lives (either individually or collectively) it will not resonate well with everyone. An example of this is when a mob of rioters stormed the United States (U.S) Capitol building on January 6, 2021 in an attempt to overturn President Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election. The riot led to five deaths as well as the evacuation and lock-down of the U.S Capitol building.

The U.S .Capitol attack was not the first of its kind against political leaders in the U.S. or around the world. For example, shortly after Abraham Lincoln was elected to the presidency in November of 1860, seven southern states seceded from the Union and four more followed after his inauguration. The southern states who were opposed to new political and social changes were convinced that their way of life (which was largely based on slavery) would be threatened. Consequently, a Confederate sympathizer and well-known stage actor, (John Wilkes Booth), assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. just five days after General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate troops to Commanding U.S Army General Ulysses S. Grant. General Granted led the U.S. Army to victory during the American Civil War – a war that eventually resulted in the freeing of slaves.

At the time of Lincoln’s death, there was no modern day Secret Service. In 1865, the Secret Service, was initially established as a specialized branch of the Department of the Treasury to combat widespread counterfeiting (https://www.britannica.com/topic/US-Secret-Service). However, it wasn’t until 1902, that the Secret Service assumed the full-time responsibility of protecting the president after the assassination of President William McKinley (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-president-william-mckinleys-assassination-led-modern-secret-service-180964868/).

During the 2021 presidential inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden, Jr., nearly 25,000 troops were on guard at the U.S. Capitol in an effort to prevent security threats like the January 6th U.S. Capitol attack. This is believed to be the largest security presence of troops of any inauguration in American History.

History is filled with stories about individuals and groups who are opposed to the status quo and/or what they perceive to be “negative” changes. The following are significant political and social reforms that many individuals and groups were opposed to but that became defining events in the U.S. history.

THE WOMEN’S RIGHT MOVEMENT

On 01/20/2021, Kamala Harris became the first female, first black, and first Asian-American U.S. elected Vice-President. However, the journey towards this achievement had very humble beginnings before women even had the right to vote. Women’s right to vote became a reality after nearly a century of protests which gained more traction nationally in July 1848 during the Seneca Falls Convention. The focus of the convention was to discuss the social, civil, religious conditions, and rights of women.

The term “Suffrage” was commonly associated with the Women’s Rights Movement. “Suffrage” is derived from the Latin word, “suffragium”, meaning the right or privilege to vote. The Women’s Rights Movement began prior to the American Civil War (1861-1965). However, the demand for women’s suffrage began to gather steam in the 1840s.

In 1869, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). Activists of the organization, lobbied state governments to enact laws granting or expanding women’s right to vote in the U.S.

In February of 1890, National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was formed. The NAWSA was the merger of two existing organization, ( the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA)). The NAWSA was instrumental in the passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920 which granted women the right to vote. However, despite this achievement, widespread disenfranchisement and violence continued for people of color for decades to follow.

Opposition to voting rights for women may seen foreign in modern day American, especially when the opposition is being spearheaded by women. However, during the struggle for women’s rights to vote emerged the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS). The organization was formed in 1911 and was organized and led by Josephine Dodge. The NAOWS believed that women suffrage would decrease women’s work in communities and their ability to effect societal reforms. The organization disbanded in 1918 following the passage of the 19th Amendment.

LOVING V/S VIRGINIA

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (which guarantees equal protection of the law), was one of three amendments passed during the American Reconstruction era (1863-1877) to abolish slavery and establish civil and legal rights for Black Americans. The 14th Amendment helped to strength the Women’s Rights Movement and also has become the basis for many landmark Supreme Court cases, such as “Loving v/s Virginia”.

Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter, were an interracial couple from the town of Central Point in Caroline County, Virginia. They were longtime friends who had fallen in love. In June of 1958, they got married in Washington D.C. because interracial marriages were illegal in the state of Virginia. Five weeks after they had returned to their home state of Virginia, they were arrested in the early morning hours at their home by the local sheriff office. They were eventually indicated on felony charges of violating Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law, which deemed interracial marriages illegal.

There legal battle began in 1963 and with the aid of two young American Civil Liberties (ACLU) lawyers (Bernard Cohen and Philip Hirschkop). The two lawyers would go on to argue before the Supreme Court that the State of Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law was illegal under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The lawyers arguments prevailed and on June 12, 1967, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Virginia’s interracial marriage law violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling not only overturned the Lovings’ 1958 criminal conviction in Virginia, it also struck down laws against interracial marriage in more than a dozen states nationwide. This victory is now celebrated annually, as “Loving Day”, although it is not an official U.S. recognized holiday.

AMERICAN’S FIRST FEMALE VICE-PRESIDENT

U.S Educator and Clergyman Benjamin E. Mays (1895-1984) once said, ” We today, stand on the shoulders of our predecessors who have gone before us. We, as their successors, must catch the torch of freedom and liberty passed on to us by our ancestors. We cannot lose in this battle.”

Since 1967, the number of interracial marriage have increased significantly. Of the many widely-known interracial couples in the world is Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff (who is the the nation’s first “Second Gentleman”).

Throughout the centuries, there have been many battles fought and won in the name of civil rights and civil liberties. These battles will continue in an effort to help continually ensure equal protection under the law. As far as how Vice President-elect Kamala Harris feel about her achievements – she had this to say for the February 2021 issue of Vogue magazine….“I always say this: I may be the first to do many things—make sure I’m not the last”