We were not able to achieve this settlement on our own.  Our work is built upon the work of others.

 A milestone many years ago was won by a civil rights attorney named Andrew Hamilton.  Still under British rule, in 1735, Andrew Hamilton persuaded a jury to acquit John Peter Zenger of criminal charges of seditious libel critical of New York’s royal Governor William Cosby on the grounds that truth is a defense against libel.

 It would not be possible without the July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence, with its eloquent assertion “all men are created equal” endowed with “inalienable rights.”

 My roots in this country are traced to John and Sarah Roberts who arrived on the first boat of Quakers that came to this new world aboard the ship Kent in 1677.  I would like to think that I have a connection to them and have continued the ideals that drove them to this land.   That road has not been without defeats and less than perfect individuals blazing that trail.

 Quaker’s from New Jersey, Delaware, Western Maryland and Western Virginia met with Pennsylvania Quakers in October 1783 and signed a petition delivered to Congress on October 8, 1783 pleading that Congress not permit the renewal the African slave trade after the Revolution from England, stating that it was “contrary to every humane and righteous consideration, an in opposition to the solemn declarations ofted repeated in favour of universal liberty” and was “so obvious an Evil.”  The petition failed. 

Patrick Henry who traveled through my farm in Louisa County said “I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil” and yet he held slaves.  In the summer of 1787, as the first governor of Virginia, he opposed the ratification of the Constitution without the Bill of Rights to safeguard the basic civil rights of the individual, that Virginian James Madison was principally responsible for drafting. The Bill of Rights, which was introduced to Congress in 1789 and adopted on December 15, 1791, includes the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

 The First Amendment text reads: 

 “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

 Over the last 200 years, the principles of these fundamental rights continue to be ironed out.  

 However, by 2020, it was well established that the freedom of individuals to oppose or challenge police action without thereby risking arrest is one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation from a police state explained Supreme Court Justice Brennan in Houston v. Hill, 482 U.S. 451, 461-63, 107 S. Ct. 2502, 2509-10 (1987). In another case, Supreme Court Justice Powell explained in a concurring opinion, “a properly trained officer may reasonably be expected to “exercise a higher degree of restraint” than the average citizen, and thus be less likely to respond belligerently to “fighting words.” Lewis v. New Orleans, 415 U.S. 130, 135, 94 S. Ct. 970, 973 (1974).  And yet these lofty ideals continue to be regularly violated. 

 As a society, we will continue to see failures, but we must continue to strive to meet the ideals, one decision and one act at a time. 

 As a civil rights attorney in Virginia, I will continue to seek to push the nation forward towards those ideals, holding government officials accountable when they ignore their obligations or infringe upon those liberties, as the Richmond City Police did to the peaceful protestors at Lee Circle on June 1, 2020. 

 But on July 4, 2022, I will raise a glass to the ideals adopted on July 4, 1776 by a group of flawed men, and the flawed men and women that followed them, all moving our nation towards these ideals of freedom and dignity. I will celebrate the incremental victories towards freedom, responsibility and dignity.  Happy 4th of July!