Politically Considered: 50th Commemoration of the Supreme Court Decision of 1954

Politically Considered explores the motives behind the landmark Supreme Court decision of 1954, and assesses its meaning and value to American society. Mahmoud El-Kati cites the idea of Race and the function of white supremacy as the foundation of America’s racial problems. He further critiques the U.S. government’s inability, over many generations, to forthrightly address “The Negro question,” or what we would later come to define as the Civil Rights Movement. Both terms, El-Kati points out, speak to African Americans’ past and current conditions in the on?going struggle for full human rights in the American republic. He defines American democracy as a work in progress, not a finished product.

Politically Considered highlights the too often overlooked moral overtones of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. In this connection, he offers a compressed, yet moving mosaic of issues and heroic figures directly or indirectly related to the most impactful decision in the history of the court. Great names such as Charles Hamilton Houston, A. Phillip Randolph, Paul Robeson, Frederick Douglass, E. D. Nixon, W. E. B. Du Bois and Thurgood Marshall. El-Kati alludes to other critical decisions in American history: Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Grandfather’s Clause (1913), Dred Scott (1857), the Bakke and Weber decisions in the latter half of the 20th century. This book is a must read for everyone who wishes to understand this nation’s underbelly, and its stark failure to protect the rights and humanity of all of its people.

In short, this work is a bold challenge and plea for us to discover our moral compass, and break the silent covenant, so that we can drive America towards her better self.