Kansas abolitionists demanded equality. As a new regime of discrimination descends, will we?

Kansas abolitionist John Brown seizes the attention in the middle of John Steuart Curry's famous "Tragic Prelude" mural at the Kansas Statehouse. (Photo by Dave Kendall)

On the ground floor of the Kansas Statehouse, you can find a plaque bearing the grim visage of abolitionist John Brown. Alongside his face are printed these words:

I, John Brown, am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. 

Two floors up, you can see Brown depicted in the famed John Steuart Curry mural, a rifle in one hand and a Bible in the other, dead soldiers at his feet.

You don’t have to know much about John Brown as a historical figure to understand from these two examples that he was no incrementalist. He saw a gaping wound in society: the horror of chattel slavery. He decided that he would do something about it and led his fellow Americans in doing so.

We now live in a moment where the hard-fought gains of the Civil Eights era of the 1950s and ‘60s are being slowly but surely eradicated by a hostile U.S. Supreme Court and racist Southern state legislators. The Louisiana v. Callais decision, handed down only last month, allows Southern states to redraw electoral districts to eliminate the participation of Black voters.

Partisans will, of course object, that that’s by no means what the court ruled and by no means what is happening.

They are, of course, wrong. They are on the side of bigotry and injustice.

The response from those in the broad span from the center to the left and beyond has been confused and confusing. Democratic leaders have called for further gerrymanders, but time is tight before 2026 midterm elections. There is much consternation and denunciation of the court’s decision, a multitude of calls for thinking big about next steps.

What there is not, at least right now, is an actual agenda to restore the franchise to Black voters across the country. There is no easy solution; there is no easy answer.

Which is why I find myself thinking about John Brown.

There was no easy or simple answer to slavery. The United States fought a bloody and pitched civil war. More than 600,000 people died, which works out to about 2% of the country’s population at that time. An equivalent today would be 6 million deaths.

Brown died before the war began, tried and sentenced to death after leading a raid on the Harpers Ferry, Virginia, armory. He had earlier led anti-slavery forces during the “Bleeding Kansas” era, defending towns and attacking supporters of slavery. His connections to Kansas live on not only at the Statehouse, but in my hometown of Lawrence, where his name adorns a fancy bar.

A sign quoting John Brown is seen on March 7, 2023, inside the Kansas Statehouse. The sign is part of an exhibit about Bleeding Kansas. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

The struggle didn’t end with Brown, or with the Civil War. It continued through the Reconstruction era and its brutal transition into Jim Crow. Black people and their allies kept fighting for full equality as the modern Civil Rights emerged and triumphed. It continues today, as new clouds gather.

We must now decide, as communities and a state and nation, how to proceed.

A fundamental part of my work here at Kansas Reflector as opinion editor is advocating for shared dialogue and community engagement. I wholeheartedly believe that we must work together to find real solutions for our common problems. Most Americans, most Kansans, would agree.

Slavery has ended. Constitutional amendments safeguard advances in equality. While the situation appears dire, we have still come far. We must simultaneously recognize the astonishing promise of our 250-year-old nation and the impetus for action.

We have clearly not turned the page on racism once and for all. We do not live in a colorblind society. If the South did not retain profoundly racist instincts, why did legislatures in Louisiana and Alabama and Tennessee immediately target Black politicians and those who vote for them?

We have been visited by the old, dark evils of America. I worry that we are not prepared to face what that means. If we want to live with one another in a nation and state of true equality, where Black Kansans and Americans have the same rights and voice and status as white Kansans and Americans, we must be prepared to consider big changes.

Such reforms could include:

Admitting extra states to the union (hello, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico).

Adding seats to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Passing national gerrymandering and voting-rights reforms.

Expanding the U.S. Supreme Court from nine justices to 13 or more.

Creating term limits or mandatory retirement ages for justices.

Passing constitutional amendments to restrain corporate power.

I have been consistent about this. Back when Joe Biden was elected president, after four horrific years of TrumpI wrote a social media post calling for similar structural improvements. I wasn’t an opinion columnist then, but it seemed to me that Americans had a unique opportunity to ensure our nation wouldn’t suffer such volatile incompetence again.

National Democrats instead tried to restore order without realizing that ordinary politics had disappeared. More than a half-decade later, even more norms have been shredded. We cannot hope to tape the scraps back together, despite our best efforts.

We face a task so daunting that it makes one shiver to contemplate it. We must refashion this American Republic with liberty and justice for all. It doesn’t matter if you feel up to the job. It only matters that you’re alive here and now, in this moment, in the state where abolitionists fought for equality with their whole hearts.

We cannot silence ourselves or deny the necessity of enduring change. Each one of us has a duty to craft a future that all can share, regaining and finally fulfilling the promise of our nation.

Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.