Widening our focus from the 1619 Project last week, we continue to explore issues of race and equality in America. With statues being torn down, unrest in cities across the nation, and back-and-forth bickering on social media reaching a fever pitch, the bonds between citizens are rapidly fraying. Leading off our collection of curated pieces is an essay at Commentary by Kentucky State Professor Wilfred Reilly. Dr. Reilly argues that popular racial narratives wrongly push aside the complexity of human life “in favor of a simple and crude storyline.” Coleman Hughes writes at City Journal that though “police departments too often have tolerated and even enabled corruption,” the claim that there is an epidemic of “racist cops. . .killing unarmed black people” is “false.” History.com’s Elizabeth Nix discusses the history of Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19th, 1865 Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and announced that the slaves were free, two months after General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House. In his daily Great American Stories series, RealClearPolitics Senior Editor Carl Cannon explores why Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates said, "My hope this Juneteenth is that we never forget it." Finally, at American Greatness Mackubin Owens takes a look at Juneteenth and the Tulsa massacre of 1921, when white mobs killed hundreds of African-Americans and looted and ransacked black businesses. Owens contends that individuals who were part of the early Progressive movement, such as President Woodrow Wilson, rejected the principles of the Declaration of Independence and popularized theories of scientific racism, which had terrible consequences for African-Americans in the early twentieth century. Essential Reading Wilfred Reilly, Commentary George Floyd was brutally killed by police officers—probably murdered, in fact, in the technical legal sense... Michael Mukasey, Imprimis President Obama campaigned for office largely on the claim that his predecessor had shredded the Constitution. By the Constitution, he could not have meant... Michael Lewis, Imprimis This has been an extraordinary year for American monuments. The memorial at Ground Zero opened last September in New York. One month later came... In the News Angela Sailor, Washington Examiner Garrett Snedeker & Josh Hammer, Newsweek Kevin R.C. Gutzman, Law & Liberty Paul D. Miller, Arc Digital Jarrett Stepman, Daily Signal Samuel Gregg, Public Discourse Mackubin Owens, American Greatness Museum of the American Revolution Lindsey Burke & Angela Sailor, Daily Signal Patrick Glennon, Philadelphia Inquirer William B. Allen, American Greatness Andrew Bacevich & Danny Sjursen, Los Angeles Times Joel Keller, Decider Doug Stanglin, USA Today John Abbatiello, RealClearDefense Richard Reinsch & Daniel Mahoney, Liberty Law Talk Professor Daniel Mahoney discusses his tough-minded liberal response to the riots and the shared sympathy of elected political authority... Chris Flannery, American Story A poem comes to a poet, and he sends it orphaned out into the world, to take its chances. It never knows who or what it might inspire... Hadley Arkes, Juliana Pilon, & Daniel Mahoney, James Wilson Institute Prof. Hadley Arkes, Dr. Juliana Pilon, and Prof. Daniel Mahoney participate in an interactive Zoom webinar discussing... Adam J. White, Madison's Notes What is the Administrative State? Where did it come from? Is it a cause for concern or... Carl Cannon's Great American Stories 06/22/2020 I hope you had a good Father's Day weekend. If you're unfamiliar with the origins of the observance, you might ... 06/19/2020 It's Friday, June 19, 2020, the day of the week when I reprise a quotation intended to be instructive or ... 06/18/2020 On this date in 1983, Sally K. Ride, the astronaut with the dime novel name, made history aboard the space ... 06/17/2020 Forty-eight years ago today, five shadowy operators, one of whom told police he once worked for the CIA, were arrested ... 06/16/2020 On this date in 1858, a former one-term congressman from Illinois delivered one of the most momentous political orations in ... |