Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933 – 09/19/2020) was an important figure in the struggle for equal rights. She Followed in the tradition of Chief Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American on the US Supreme Court, who was chosen by his colleagues to become Chief Justice, and led the Court during the 1954 landmark decision against segregation (Brown vs. Board of Education).
Ginsburg’s contributions were mainly in the area of equal rights for women, changing views regarding “protection” of women, usually by assuming an outdated cultural view of men’s’ and women’s’ capabilities. One important decision allowed women to qualify for head of household benefits, breaking the assumption that women in a family were “secondary earners”, so only men qualified for these benefits. As most of us know, most single-parent families are headed by women, so this helped bring cultural assumptions in line with reality, while reducing systemic bias.
As we now struggle with the systemic racism in our society, it’s important to remember that there are Americans who fight successfully toward equal rights for all. The legacy of slavery has been part of American society since its founding; the creators of our US Constitution avoided the problem. Knowing it was a “deal-breaker” issue that would split the union before it was established, the founders supported slavery as it existed, with vague references rather than clear statements.
Less than a century later, slavery was a major issue leading to the US Civil War in 1861-65, and has continued in a variety of forms, such as sharecropping (which also included poor whites), and segregation. Presently, this unequal treatment extends to health care, employment, education, and our justice system. Adult males of color are far more frequently shot, killed, arrested, convicted and incarcerated, than their percentage of the population would anticipate.
She worked during the time of Dr. Martin Luther King’s ministry, and in a dissenting opinion regarding the striking down of a state voter rights law, had this to say about him, “The great man who led the march from Selma to Montgomery and there called for the passage of the Voting Rights Act foresaw progress, even in Alabama. ‘The arc of the moral universe is long’, he said, ‘but it bends toward justice,’ If there is a steadfast commitment to see the task through to completion. That commitment has been disserved by today’s decision” (to strike down the voting rights law).
In a quote, she described our progress,”…(in) the fall of 1936, when I entered law school…women accounted for less than 3% of the legal profession in the US, and only 1 woman had ever served on a federal appellate court. Today about half the nation’s law students and more than 1/3 of our federal judges are women, including 3 of the justices on the Supreme Court bench. …In my long life, I have seen great changes”.
Ending on a lighter note, she was often asked for good advice when speaking in public. “My savvy mother-in-law gave this advice on my wedding day, ‘In every good marriage, it helps sometimes to be a little deaf…When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out. Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.”
As you anticipate your choices and contributions to our world, please remember Marshall, King, and Ginsburg, along with anyone else whose contributions you value!
by Roy Tietze, Ph.D., 09/30/2020