Black History Month carries a deep sense of mourning this year. The Trump administration is systematically erasing the legacy and successes of the Civil Rights Movement and the Long Black Freedom Struggle in what seems to be an effort to return the country to the Gilded Age and Jim and Jane Crow. In practice and symbol, “Make America Great Again” means “Make America White Again.”
But this moment of peril also reveals a great vulnerability for Donald Trump and his MAGA movement. The Civil Rights Movement is the most successful pro-democracy movement in American history — and it provides a roadmap for how Trumpism can be defeated. That is why this history and legacy must be whitewashed and destroyed.
