White Supremacy in the Capitol - Our Statement
On Wednesday afternoon, an armed and violent mob of white supremacists stormed our nation’s Capitol, penetrating an ineffective police line, scaling walls and breaking windows, terrifying legislators, staffers, and security guards, and breaching the core of our democratic government. What should have been a largely ceremonial certification of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s decisive electoral win became a harrowing and chaotic scene that will go down in history as a failed coup attempt, stoked and fueled by the months-long rants of an unhinged President, unwilling to accept defeat.
At Chicago Lawyers’ Committee, we are shocked that events got this out of hand, but in the end, we are not surprised. Yesterday’s events marked another low-point in President Trump’s tumultuous term, when the core principles of our democracy were stress-tested on a daily basis.
Make no mistake: The president and other elected leaders incited yesterday’s insurrection as a last ditch effort to hold onto power. For months leading to the general election, they worked to suppress and intimidate voters of color through restrictive laws and policies. In the weeks after, they used blatant deception and filed frivolous court proceedings in their attempt to throw out the ballots cast by voters of color. Since the origin of our voting systems, white political leaders have used similar strategies to maintain power. That is why our Election Protection team works tirelessly to protect and promote access to the polls.
Understand, too, that blatant white privilege--and an invitation from President Trump--allowed these insurrectionists to occupy the halls of Congress. Here in Chicago, we watched first-hand how Black Lives Matter protesters were treated by police last summer: Beaten with fists and clubs, arrested en masse, and held without access to an attorney. Yesterday, as a mob of Trump supporters defaced our democratic seat of power, some police officers stood by and took selfies.
Rarely have the two hands of racism and despotism worked so conspicuously to do each other’s work in America. But we have seen this before: Black voters made to pay poll taxes and take bogus literacy tests. Civil rights activists beaten and killed marching for the right to vote.
The civil rights movement responded to this violence with a promise: As long as we have a healthy, inclusive, representative democracy, we will defeat white supremacy. Yesterday that project was sorely tested. Today, Chicago Lawyers’ Committee is more devoted than ever to that ideal. Our voting rights work continues, and our democracy will prevail.