Randall Kennedy, Despair is Not an Option, Am. Prospect, Sept. 20, 2017, at 1.
Abstract: A great many Americans, especially African Americans, are in a mood of despair upon witnessing a president of the United States winking at neo-Confederates, neo- Nazis, and Ku Klux Klansmen, and doing everything in his power to expunge the achievements of his predecessor, a man who came to be known less for his race than for his decency, dignity, and honor. Far too little notice, for example, was given to the remarkable May 19 speech by Mayor Mitch Landrieu explaining the decision of the New Orleans municipal government to remove from places of public honor three monuments celebrating Confederate generals and one celebrating the violent overthrow of the state's multiracial Reconstruction government. Folks numbering in the millions and of all complexions are selfconsciously engaging in countless acts of protest: marching, organizing study groups, volunteering legal expertise, donating money to institutions dedicated to the preservation of threatened values-the NAACP, the ACLU, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice-and resolving in numberless diverse ways to become more active, informed, influential.