Trump, high court remove gains in racial justice
With Donald Trump whitewashing history, combined with the Supreme Court’s recent decisions weakening the Voting Rights Act, we should recall Frederick Douglass’ historic speech, “What, to the Slave, is your Fourth of July?”
The Trump Administration continues to remove historic markers recalling Black history. The rationalization used for removal is that the markers cast the nation in a negative light. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth blocks promotion for senior Black and female officers.
The Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Louisiana v. Callais (Voting Rights Act decision) and Rucho v. Common Cause (“partisan gerrymandering” is constitutional) have taken us back 130 years to Plessy v. Ferguson (“separate but equal”). Lest there be any doubt, immediately following the Supreme Court’s announcement of its decision in Louisiana v. Callais, States across the old Confederacy began using “partisan gerrymandering” to dilute Black citizens’ votes by gerrymandering congressional districts to eliminate districts where Black citizens are in the majority.
These actions raise the question whether we still believe what Abraham Lincoln said at Gettysburg: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
ANTHONY L. COCHRAN, ATLANTA
U.S. turns away Afghans who protected our troops
Since 2021, approximately 1,100 Afghans have been stranded in Qatar, living in limbo. They were formerly covered under a U.S. statute, the Afghan Allies Protection Act of 2009, which allowed immigration to the United States for those who aided our troops during the war. However, Trump suspended it in November, 2025.
In February 2026, a federal court order forced the government to resume processing for backlogged visas.
The government justified the delays, citing shifting immigration bans of countries and the number of people admitted. Most of these are decreases, but not for white South Africans. That quota has been increased from 700 to 17,000.
Now the refugees in danger in their native country, due to aiding Americans, are told they will never be allowed into the U.S. They are given the option of returning to Afghanistan or to another country, to be determined. One proposed destination is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where there is civil war and Ebola.
This is worse than immoral. It is evil and endangers our troops in future military action. America will never be trusted again.
SANDIE WEBB, DECATUR
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