As I woke on the day after Donald Trump's election back to the White House, I realized a painful truth—The country I love doesn't love me back. I sought a vision of a better country that cares for all, and instead it sent me a leader whose only concern is the destruction of anyone who disagrees with him.

During these moments of despair, whether after an election, or a Supreme Court case, or senseless political violence, I think of the courage it took for those who came before us to build a world they had never seen. I think of Thurgood Marshall, Constance Baker Motley, Charles Hamilton Houston, Pauli Murray—all those men and women who loved this country and pushed the nation to face its unfulfilled promises. They knew, as we know now, that a democracy cannot thrive under the weight of apartheid, hypocrisy, and segregation. They laid the foundation of justice, believing fiercely in what democracy could be, even as they lived in a land that denied them its promise.

And here we are, in a moment where the slide from democracy toward white supremacy and fascism has already begun. This is not a new story. We've seen it before—in Reconstruction's promise cut short, and now in the unraveling of........

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