Quill, wondered if you had ever come across the work of Bryan Stevenson?

He's an American lawyer, social justice activist, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a clinical professor at New York University School of Law

I'm reading a book by him called 'Just Mercy' which is the about how he got into law and the case that set him on the path he went down. Some of the facts in it are gob smacking. For example, it never occurred to me that in this century there was still a law in the US banning interracial marriage.

Alabama's state constitution still prohibited the practice until 2000. Section 102 of the state constitution read: 'The legislature shall never pass any law to authorise or legalise any marriage between any white person and a negro or descendant of a negro'.

'Even though the restriction couldn't be enforced under federal law, the state ban continued into the twenty-first century In 2000, reformers finally had enough votes to get the issue on the statewide ballot, where a majority of voters chose to eliminate the ban, although 41 percent voted to keep it. A 2011 poll of Mississippi Republicans found that 46 percent supported a legal ban on interracial marriage, 40 percent opposed such a ban and 14 percent were undecided.'

The above is from the book.

No wonder the Klan are marching, they never went away!

Sassy wrote:No wonder the Klan are marching, they never went away!

Absolutely, I've said since day one...America is a racist nation.  I don't say that vengefully, but descriptively (although I do have a bias against the south because of it).

Bryan Stevenson is a frequent contributor to MSNBC.  So far, I've found him a brilliant lawyer, with his heart (and nose) in the right places.   He brings great research materials.

He and I share the view that Barack Obama was a brilliant tactician, not at all as the RW paints him...passive and docile.  It's just that Obama knew when to keep quiet, and let it ride.  Cool-hand Luke, as it were.

Stevenson is brilliant on criminal matters, as well.  As the criminal charges rise against Trump and the Russo-Republicans around him, I notice that MSNBC is using him more and more frequently.  He's up there with the best.  I'm always pleased and attentive when he appears on a panel.

Well, I've nearly finished this book, so will be looking for another by him. He brings the trails and tribulations of being black in the American South to life, and has really opened my eyes, which were pretty open anyway, as to why there is still such a struggle for equality there.