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Dr. Adam Seagrave ('05)
Dr. Adam Seagrave ('05)

Reflecting on the newly released Netflix documentary 13, which examines the legacy of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, alumnus Dr. Adam Seagrave (鈥05) has penned a for The Public Discourse about the broader question of how the U.S. lives up to its founding ideals, particularly with respect to African Americans. Just as the Declaration of Independence鈥檚 assertion that 鈥渁ll men are created equal鈥 did not beget immediate racial equality in the newly formed Republic, the Thirteenth Amendment鈥檚 eradication of slavery, closely followed by the advent of Jim Crow, failed to usher in real freedom for those it liberated from bondage.

Yet we 鈥渟houldn鈥檛 blame the Thirteenth Amendment for persistent racial injustice, just as we shouldn鈥檛 blame the Constitution for slavery,鈥 writes Dr. Seagrave, the Kinder Institute Associate Professor of Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri. 鈥淲hen it comes to nations, it is vastly better to be hypocritical than unabashedly immoral. The former possess a foundation for improvement in a way the latter do not, and this has been clearly evidenced in the real progress that has been made toward racial equality in the U.S.鈥

More such progress, Dr. Seagrave contends, can best be achieved by continued pursuit of the country鈥檚 founding ideals. 鈥淥pponents of ongoing racial injustices should build on the solid foundation provided by the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Civil War amendments rather than dismissing these documents and their authors as hypocrites,鈥 he writes. Likewise, he continues, 鈥淧rotesting American practice does not necessarily denigrate American promise 鈥 and the proper response to imperfect practice does not lie in the na茂ve indignation one hears so often on talk radio and other conservative media outlets, but in renewed attention to progressing ever more closely toward the American promise outlined in our founding (and re-founding) documents.鈥

A as the nation approaches Martin Luther King Day 鈥

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