Justice

This One Comic Perfectly Demonstrates Progress in America

June 26th 2015

Editor's Note: This cartoon originally circulated around the Internet with incorrect attribution. It has been corrected here.

A mash-up of a cartoon from Hartford Courant editorial cartoonist Bob Englehart perfectly sums up what has been a momentous week in American history. A week that started with the Confederate flag being removed from state government sites around the country ended in the Supreme Court ruling that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to be married.

Confederate Flag Gay Pride FlagCagle Cartoons - caglecartoons.com

On Wednesday, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) lowered Confederate flags that had been flying at Alabama's capitol grounds. In South Carolina, where 9 Black people were killed in the attack on Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, the state's governor, Nikki Haley (R), called on her state legislature on Monday to remove a Confederate flag from a Civil War memorial located at South Carolina's capitol. The National Park Service has removed the flag from its sites. And, in the private sector, several companies have decided to stop selling (and even manufacturing) Confederate flags.

Then on Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a right to marry under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This strikes down state-level bans on same-sex marriages and requires that all 50 states issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The historic decision culminates a long, state-by-state fight by advocates for LGBT marriage rights.

For more on the long struggle for LGBT rights, check out this video:

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