Saturday, May 27, 2017

Race Bias Task Force Dedication



In 1993, The Minnesota Supreme Court Task Force on Racial Bias in the Judicial System issued its final report.  It was dedicated to United States Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who had died just a few months before the report was issued.  The dedication was important to read then, and its message is just as important to us today.  It is reprinted below.[1]

DEDICATION
Justice Thurgood Marshall

The death of Justice Thurgood Marshall saddens and diminishes us all. The passing of this great Justice, lawyer, and man, has left a tremendous void in the struggle for equal justice in the law.

No one can deny that Justice Marshall was the greatest lawyer of the Twentieth Century. As an attorney, to a greater extent than any single member of his profession, he knocked down the racist walls of segregation in American society. As Justice on the United States Supreme Court, he was the champion of the rights of the excluded and oppressed.

Justice Marshall was America’s great Constitutional watchdog, insisting that this nation live up to its most sacred principles.

Justice Marshall is a constant reminder to all of us that we must continue to create institutions that make the principles of our Constitution meaningful in the lives of ordinary citizens.

In that spirit, the Task Force adopts Justice Marshall’s July 4, 1992 challenge to America:

“I wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant memories. .. and that liberty and equality were just around the bend. I wish I could say that America has come to appreciate diversity and to see and accept similarity.

But as I look around, I see not a nation of unity but of division – Afro and white, indigenous and immigrant, rich and poor, educated and illiterate.

Even many educated whites and successful Negroes have given up on integration and lost hope in equality. They see nothing in common – except the need to flee as fast as they can from our inner cities.

But there is a price to be paid for division and isolation, as recent events in California indicate. Look around. Can’t you see the tension in Watts? Can’t you feel the fear in Scarsdale? Can’t you see the alienation in Simi Valley? The despair in the South Bronx? The rage in Brooklyn?

We cannot play ostrich. Democracy cannot flourish amid fear. Liberty cannot bloom amid hate. Justice cannot take root amid rage. . . . We must go against the prevailing wind. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and
the mistrust. We must dissent from a government, that has left its young without jobs, education, or hope. We must dissent from the poverty of vision and the absence of moral leadership. We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.

The legal system can force open doors, and, sometimes, even knock down walls. But it cannot build bridges. That job belongs to you and me.

We can run from each other, but we cannot escape each other. We will only attain freedom if we learn to appreciate what is different and muster the courage to discover what is fundamentally the same. Take a chance, won’t you? Knock down the fences that divide. Tear apart the walls that imprison,
Reach out; freedom lies just on the other side.”


[1] To see the full report, including the dedication, click here. 

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