A review by onceandfuturelaura
My Country 'Tis of Thee by Keith Ellison

3.0

Low drama book by a guy who’s been involved in some grand drama. Appreciate that he pulls in the Powell Memo (shudder) and Hubert Humphrey’s magnificent convention speech in 1948 (“To those who say my friends, that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them we are one hundred seventy-two years late!”). This passage about voter suppression got me hard:

All I could think about was James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner threatened, beaten shot, and buried in 1964. They lost their lives fighting for all folks to have the right to vote freely. We owed it to their memories to make sure we didn’t turn back the clock on this issue.

An excellent point. That is the fight; do we welcome everyone into the franchise or do we allow people to be excluded. I know what side I’m on. I’m glad he’s on it too.