Footnotes by Jemar Tisby

In July, I'm going to be in group discussing the U.S. Constitution using the book "The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader." Your article came to my inbox at the perfect time. We will add the information to our discussion. I was never exposed to the Confederate Constitution. Thank you for your post. I definitely would like to see more pieces about documents most people skip. I am a paid subscriber, and I urge others, those who can afford it, to do the same. Financially supporting truth tellers is an act of nonviolent resistance. Reading and spreading the content of Jemar Tisby's posts is also an act of resistance.

Thank you Dr. Tisby! This editorial, "What I Learned from Reading the Confederate Constitution," is worthy of the Pulitzer Prize. I stand in awe of your scholarship and attention to detail. I opine, that every American, in so many ways, needs your determination, courage, strength and knowledge! Today!

It is absolutely none of my business, but I feel compelled to encourage you to reach out and share this editorial! I believe it could be soul changing! Racism across America is not in decline, rather, it is exploding and is, once again, the #1 moral crisis in America! Meanwhile, Alexander Hamilton Stephens Cornerstone Speech looms on the horizon.

I live in Sarasota Fl. I have been a frequent contributor to the Sarasota Herald Tribune, Tampa Bay Times and the Orlando Sentinel! Roger Brown is the Opinion Editor for the Sarasota Herald. He stands where you stand! Roger may be reached at roger.brown@heraldtribune.com or editor.letters@heraldtribune.com

Like Barbara, I have not only never read the constitution of the insurrectionists of 1861, I had never even had any idea they had a constitution. It's only recently I've read articles linking to documents proving maintaining slavery as the main component of their economy being the central and perhaps only reason for secession and war. All that AFTER the compromises that set in our national DNA the immorality that has infected and affected our national life for 250+years. I've been reading Eddie Glaude, Jr. new book AMERICA, USA, and he makes the point in many ways the "divided ( morally injured) soul of our nation" White supremacy, always the ideology of settler colonialism, was enshrined in the constitution and blessed by civil religion. Opposed to that worldview are the ideas of freedom and equality for all "men" which humans have interpreted as inclusive not exclusive. The civil war was joined long ago, IMO, before secession, and that war is still raging now that Project 2025 openly is striving to realize the dream of some ancestors to establish once and for all a white republic. Glaude writes these words p.74, "To be sure, original sin stains American madness--but it does not exhaust it. The true battle grows out of our repeated refusals to discover who we can be, to prefer illusion and fantasy over acceptance and responsibility...Whether we admit it or not during the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the nation, race rests at the center of the strange melancholy that haunts America."