Friend,

Not far from my office at the Capitol, and just around the bend from the Lincoln Memorial, is a monument dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr. In advance of Juneteenth, I visited the memorial to reflect on King’s legacy and collect my thoughts about this fragile moment in history.

To state the obvious, it’s a trying time for those of us who are concerned about racial justice. President Trump has halted diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. He turned America’s refugee program into a backdoor for white Afrikaners to express racial grievances. His administration has weakened protections against racial discrimination in housing, employment, and healthcare. A recent executive order effectively censors the Smithsonian for exploring America’s racial history. The administration has cancelled federal oversight of the Minneapolis and Louisville Police Departments, which were responsible for the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Trump has cut funding for HBCUs and attempted to disenfranchise voters of color. I could go on and on.

Despite all this, the memorial reminded me of King’s powerful optimism. Engraved in stone is his conviction that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” It’s a reminder that progress takes time, and it’s not linear. After all, today marks the occasion that 250,000 enslaved people in Texas finally achieved freedom more than two years after President Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Advancing racial justice happens in fits and starts, but it’s made possible by many hands working to bend that arc.

We may be headed in the wrong direction right now, but I’m confident that your hands, mine, and many others will succeed in bending the arc toward justice once again.

— Jim