Isaac Newton Farris Jr.’s remarks 60th-anniversary March on Washington

Sixty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela fought for Democracy and against segregation. Today, the fight is not just about electing officials but ensuring a judiciary that upholds equality and liberty for all.

60 years ago my uncle, Martin Luther King Jr., stood here and gave a historic speech for the cause of American Democracy and within a year American blacks, united with American whites, were able to bring down and crush the walls of legal segregation and discrimination in America.

60 years ago another man, Nelson Mandela, voluntarily took a historic trip to prison for the cause of South African Democracy where he endured 27 years of humanitarian service behind bars before South African blacks, united with South African whites, were able to bring down and crush the walls of South Africa’s constitutionally mandated segregation and discrimination.

The game-changing difference for America was that Martin Luther King Jr. Was nonviolently armed with the world’s most powerful weapon, the American Constitution. 60 years ago Martin Luther King Jr. also had a Supreme Court that recognized and acknowledged the founding father’s original intent and the American Constitution’s guiding principle that all human beings are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Nelson Mandela didn’t have a nonviolent constitutional weapon and to make matters worse he had a South African Supreme Court that was infected with racial cancer. 60 years later my fellow Americans fortunately we still have Martin Luther King Jr.’s most powerful nonviolent weapon for equality, peace, and prosperity, the American Constitution, but unfortunately America is now burdened with Nelson Mandela’s cancer-infected Supreme Court.

The only difference is America’s Supreme Court is not infected with racial cancer, America’s Supreme Court is infected with ideological cancer.

There will be much appropriately said today about what America’s president, congresspeople, and senators should do, and if tomorrow they were to do everything we suggested here today as my aunt, Coretta Scott King, would say it won’t be worth a hill of beans because America’s ideologically cancer-infected Supreme Court will rule what they do unconstitutional.

A national right-to-abortion bill codified by the House and Senate and signed into law by the president tomorrow would be ruled unconstitutional the day after tomorrow by the current cancer-infected Supreme Court. Any law passed by the House and Senate to restore the true power of the Voting Rights Act will be ruled unconstitutional.

And you may have heard just the other day the ideological cancer infecting the Supreme Court caused it to decide that it’s unconstitutional to racially integrate colleges and universities. All of this damage to American Democracy is done by 6 Supreme Court Justices who claim all their deliberations and decisions are based on the theory of originalism.

Well, originalism is not a bad theory but the Supreme Court is not changing Democracy to autocracy based on 1776 originalism. The Supreme Court is changing Democracy to autocracy based on 1619 originalism.

It is 1619 originalism that says American people of color and American women have no human rights that American society is bound to respect. It is 1619 originalism that says the American Constitution does not allow the government to stop a citizen from carrying a gun concealed on their body but the American constitution does allow the government to force a woman to carry a fetus concealed in her body.

Protest for abortion rights in Washington, D.C., June 26, 2023. | CREDIT: UNSPLASH/HARRISON MITCHELL

None of this is the founding fathers’ 1776 originalism that declares that all human beings are created equal and therefore are entitled to life, the liberty to vote, the liberty to love who they choose, the liberty to worship or not worship a god of their choice and the pursuit of happiness wherever they may find it.

The 1619 originalism cancer is so malignant within the Supreme Court that 2 of the Justices have declared themselves untouchable and not accountable to legislative oversight or legislative regulation.

2024 can’t be just about electing politicians, 2024 has to be about the removal of the 1619 originalism cancer from within the Supreme Court. The suggestion of adding more Justices to the Court or an 18-year term limit will not cure the ideological cancer.

When a doctor discovers cancer in a human body the doctor doesn’t suggest adding cancer-free organs to the body while leaving the existing cancer in the body, or that one should wait 18 years before the cancer can be removed. What the doctor will do is suggest immediate surgery to cut out and remove the cancer.

The 1619 ideological cancer within the Supreme Court must be removed in 2024. And any person running to be elected or reelected to the House and Senate should not receive your vote if they are not willing to remove the 1619 cancer from the Supreme Court.

Martin Luther King Jr. in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963. | CREDIT: UNSPLASH/HISTORY IN HD

60 years ago Martin Luther King Jr. along with Americans of goodwill and Americans of all stripes marched on Washington to demand that the United States finally make real America’s founding fathers’ great dream of true Democracy for all people regardless of race, religion, or sex.

Today, 60 years later, we march on Washington to demand that America remain a true Democracy for all and not become a true autocracy for the privileged few. We demand that the 1619 ideological cancer be cut out and removed from the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Neil Gorsuch, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett what you are doing to destroy American Democracy in your ideological attempt to create American autocracy, will not stand!

The wall of racial segregation and racial discrimination erected when you decided that it was unconstitutional to racially integrate colleges and universities, will not stand!

CREDIT: ISAAC NEWTON FARRIS JR.

The wall of repression erected when you decided that it was constitutional to deny women the right to choose will not stand!

And the wall of economic exploitation erected when you decided that America’s corporations are people too, and are entitled to the same rights granted to human life will not stand!

Your ideological walls like the walls of Jericho will come tumbling down because American Blacks, American Whites, American Hispanics, American Asians, Native Americans, American Christians, American Jews, American Muslims, American Sikhs, American Buddhists, American Atheists, American Gays, the American Old and the American Young are united in Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent beloved community of universal brotherhood and sisterhood.

Where we will use the founding fathers’ 1776 originalism of true Democracy and the nonviolent resistance weapons of the American Civil Rights movement to bring down the Supreme Court’s Jericho walls of discrimination, misogyny, and exploitation.

Today, we declare and reaffirm a nonviolent war against and on all 1619 cancer-infected Supreme Court Justices. Your days of infecting the world’s greatest Supreme Court of Democracy are numbered and will come to a nonviolent but fatal end.

God bless all of you and god bless America.

GOING FURTHER

• March on Washington | Britannica

• Martin Luther King Jr. | Britannica

• Nelson Mandela | Britannica

Sources:

▪ Text: This piece was first published in Isaac Newton Farris Jr.PMP Magazine on 26 August 2023. | The author writes in a personal capacity.

▪ Cover: Unsplash/Unseen Histories. - March on Washington, D.C. | August 28th, 1963. (Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.)