Where Are The Fourteenth Amendment Commemorations?

A centerpiece of my novel book is the commencement Bill of Rights Day, which marked the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the commencement x amendments. It was a major national festival, including parades, world readings, a exceptional prime-time radio show, as well as an address past times the President.

This twelvemonth nosotros volition celebrate the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. What is beingness done to score that momentous occasion? Not much. There is an academic conference hither as well as there, as well as closed to civic-minded organizations are organizing events. But at that spot volition be, equally far equally I know, no world recognition of this anniversary. It's shameful, exactly non surprising.

Not long agone a pupil of mine discovered an interesting fact. Aside from a newspaper written when he was inward middle school, Martin Luther King Jr. close never mentioned the Fourteenth Amendment inward his speeches or writings. The "I Have a Dream" spoken language refers to many American landmarks, exactly non to the Fourteenth Amendment. In King's era, of course, the Fourteenth Amendment was even as well as thence tainted past times the slander that Reconstruction Republicans were interested solely inward punishing the South. Today that Jim Crow history is history. Still, the Fourteenth Amendment is non getting its due.