
          Democracy at Home
          
            
              Johnson, Charles S., IIICharles S. Johnson, III
            
          
          Vol. 23, No. 3-4, 2001 p. 3
          
          Following the tragic
loss of thousands of lives in two of our most diverse cities, our
nation is struggling with feelings of suspicion, insecurity, and
fear. And many have responded by looking for scapegoats.  
          In Dallas, Texas, a Pakistani Muslim storeowner was recently shot and
killed.  An arrow was shot through the front window of a Muslim-owned
laundromat in Green Cove, Florida.  Four men in the Atlanta area
attempted to stab a Sudanese man, saying, "You killed our people in
New York.  We want to kill you tonight."
          But racial or
ethnically-based attacks such as we are currently experiencing are far
from new in the South. We have seen such times before.  One such time
was in the period immediately following the First World War, when
soldiers returned from saving the world for democracy only to be
confronted with an outrageous failure of democracy at home. In the Red
Summer of 1919, there were more than twenty-five race riots and
seventy-six lynchings in the United States. Two hundred African
Americans were killed in a single riot in Elaine, Arkansas.
          It
was against this background that an interracial group of Southerners
came together in 1919, determined to transform what we used to call
race relations. After working for more than two decades to end
lynchings and alleviate property, this group by the end of the Second
World War had embraced the strategy of pursuing equal opportunity
through research and action, and what emerged was the early Southern
Regional Council.
          The Council has always linked work for
racial fairness with the struggle for democratic rights. As we
continue to share our concern for the victims of the recent tragedies,
commend courageous relief workers, and express our convictions about
U.S. actions abroad, we must also continue working to strengthen
democracy at home. In light of the nation's sudden discovery last year
that our election system simply doesn't work in the way that we
thought it did, we must support the strongest possible election reform
legislation moving through Congress. Election fairness is a civil
right linked to national policy on every domestic and international
concern.
          We also cannot abandon our efforts to improve
race relations at home. It is critical to expand and intensify that
work, giving greater recognition to the increasing diversity of our
nation. In light of recent events, we must work to deter acts of hate
against innocent Arabs and Muslims as well as other immigrants. But
the recent grotesque Halloween activities on the part of fraternity
members at Auburn University and similar incidents at the University
of Louisville and the University of Mississippi remind us that we
cannot step back from efforts to heal longstanding racial divides and
end inequalities.  
          The U.N. World Conference Against
Racism held in Durban, South Africa may have dropped out of
consciousness since September 11th, but as long as inequalities
remain, we cannot sideline the struggle against racism.	
          Civil
liberties are fundamentally linked with civil rights. We should be
able to strengthen the government's ability to respond to terrorism
without denying the right to dissent. However, some of our national
leaders do not appear to share this belief. Under intense pressure to
respond to the horrific attacks, U. S. Attorney General John Ashcroft
and a number of members of Congress have taken a short-sighted view in
lifting protections for civil liberties, initiating changes that
directly affect immigrants and endanger the privacy rights of all
Americans. The "U.S.A. PATRIOT Act" (Uniting and Strengthening America
by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct
Terrorism), limits the role of the courts in checking law enforcement
authority, eases safeguards against the misuse of surveillance and
searches, permits incarceration of non-citizens on suspicion, allows
deportation and exclusion of non-citizens for beliefs and
associations, and interferes with the attorney-client
privilege. Unilateral executive orders which diminish the role of the
courts using military tribunals undermine democracy in the
process.
          Fear, suspicion, and distrust still live with us. The
kinds of recriminations that we've seen in the past months remind us
that, although we think we've come a long way since 1919, we still
have a long way to go. If we are to avoid another Red Summer, we may
wish to consider a little dose of interracial- and
interethnic-cooperation. Intergroup cooperation is the key to
broadening civic participation and preserving democratic rights.

          Justice, above all, is what we as a nation must
pursue. This has been recognized since the days that the Republic was
founded. Before the Constitution's signers wrote of domestic
tranquility, before they wrote of promoting the general welfare, and
even before they wrote of providing for the common defense, the
authors of the Preamble wrote of a goal to establish justice.

          The work of today's Southern Regional Council is in
the tradition of our nation's historic pursuit of justice. The new
realities which confront us as a result of recent events cannot and
will not deter us in our quest.	
          
            Charles S. Johnson, III, is president of
the Southern Regional Council and an attorney in the law firm of
Holland and Knight. 
          
        