REMEMBERING JANUARY 6TH

January 6^th. A date that all of us remember. And all of us remember it in different ways. The date of an insurrection to take over the government. The date of mob violence on the precise epicenter of American democracy. The day “patriotic” rioters built a gallows, tried to hang Mike Pence, and defecated on the floor of the nation’s capital. The day that the man that Americans had duly elected president instructed a violent mob to, “Fight like hell.” The day that ended Trumps climb to power and then became the day that ultimately led to Trump’s second term.

The day that a brand of citizens normally known for supporting law enforcement beat law enforcement officers with their own weapons. The day that “patriotic” rioter David Dempsey discharged a stream of pepper spray that burned the lungs, throat, eyes, and face of detective Phuson Nguyen. The day that Julian Cater shot pepper spray into the face of police officer Brian Sicknick, who then suffered a series of strokes and died. The Day that Patrick McCaughy pinned and beat Officer Daniel Hodges with the officer’s own riot shield. The day that Steven Cappuccio then used officer Hodges own baton to beat him, leaving him screaming through bloody teeth. The day that ultimately led to the death by suicide of four other additional officers who were defending America’s seat of Democracy.

However you remember January 6^th, there is no doubt that whichever side of the divide you were on, you remember it as a day that, at the time, you found to be unbelievable. “Am I actually seeing what I’m seeing?” Almost the same feeling we all had watching the Twin Towers come down. “Am I actually seeing what I am seeing?”

Me? I remember January 6^th as witnessing the only day ever…EVER…that the Confederate Flag, America’s unique symbol of racial hatred - similar to Nazi Germany’s symbol of racial hatred - ever flew in or over the nation’s capital. But not for want of trying.

I remember a lot of other dates as well. I remember June 2^nd, 1913 when Julian Carr, a prominent industrialist and supporter of the Ku Klux Klan, was invited to speak at the unveiling of Silent Sam, a statue of a Confederate soldier on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It had been placed there by the Daughters of the Confederacy.

Carr’s lengthy address made clear the symbolism of the statue. First, he credited Confederate soldiers with saving “The very life of the Anglo Saxon race in the South,” adding, “To-day, as a consequence the purest strain of the Anglo Saxon is to be found in the 13 Southern States — Praise God.” Making clear the supremacy of the White race again.

I remember April 12^th 1861 when Confederate general PT Beauregard fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina, thereby starting a war intended to keep America White. Keep America White again.

I remember March 21, 1861 when Confederate Vice President Alexander Stevens gave his very famous ‘Cornerstone Speech’ at the Atheneum in Savannah Georgia: “The new (Confederate) constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution African of slavery as it exists amongst us as the proper status of the negro (Italics are mine) in our form of civilization… Our new government is founded upon exactly the idea, its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.” Create a new America that is White again.

In more recent times, I remember June 29, 2023, when the United States Supreme Court struck down the use of affirmative action in college admissions. Make colleges predominately White again.

I remember June 25^th 2013 when the United States Supreme Court – the court of the American people - in their attempt to enact the American dream of making all politicians White again, gutted the Voting Rights Act by invalidating the coverage formula that made federal pre-clearance mandatory for certain states and jurisdictions. Pre-clearance had required federal approval before changing any voting laws for states with a history of racial discrimination.

I remember July 12, 2022 when Jason Van Tatten Hove, a former longtime spokesperson for the violent racial hate group the Oath Keepers – a hate group tried for seditious conspiracy – described to the January 6 United States House Select Committee To Investigate The January 6 Attack On The US Capitol - how he grew concerned as he witnessed an embrace of “straight up racism” within the Oath Keepers and described the resurrection with these words. “This (January 6^th) was all about race.”

I remember August 5, 2025 when Donald Trump announced plans to return the Confederate Monument, a monument to treason and sedition against America that had been removed in December 2023, back to Arlington national cemetery. Make those who gave “the last full measure of devotion” all White again. Not a surprising move for an American president who had described the violent White Supremacist groups who were complicit in the deadly Charlottesville riot that killed Heather Heyer as having “Some very fine people.”

I remember May 22^nd, 2024, when United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s White Christian Nationalist flags were first reported flying over his house in Washington DC and his vacation home in New Jersey. Rule in favor of White Supremacist again.

But here’s a date that I do not yet remember, but hope to someday. The date when America realized that of the many, many problems that this potentially great country has, if you peel back a layer, you find race. It’s been with us since before we were an “us”.