Two Pieces of Good News

I saw two pieces of good nonlocal news in my local papers recently, one an international story and the other based in Washington, D.C.

The international story got only a photo and a caption, though it was based on this Associated Press article: Indigenous people in Brazil shed tears of joy as the Supreme Court enshrines their land rights.

In the case before the court, Santa Catarina state argued a legal theory being pushed by opponents of further land allocations for Indigenous groups. It said that the date Brazil’s Constitution was promulgated — Oct. 5, 1988 — should be the deadline for when Indigenous peoples to have already either physically occupied land or be legally fighting to reoccupy territory. They also claimed it would provide legal certainty for landholders.

Nine of the court's 11 justices rejected that argument.

“Areas occupied by Indigenous people and areas that are linked to the ancestry and tradition of Indigenous peoples have constitutional protection, even if they are not demarcated,” said Justice Luiz Fux, who cast the vote that established the majority....

Indigenous rights groups argued the concept of the deadline was unfair, saying it does not account for expulsions and forced displacements of Indigenous populations, particularly during Brazil's two-decade military dictatorship.

This was the photo that appeared in one of my local papers with a caption briefly explaining the Brazilian Supreme Court's vote:

Photo by Gustavo Moreno/AP

There are many other photos of Indigenous people celebrating in the linked AP story.

The second story was also an AP story, this time with the title Cathedral windows pay homage to racial justice. It told of the recent unveiling of four new stained glass windows at the National Cathedral, in Washington, D.C., which replace four other windows that had lionized Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.

The new windows, designed by Kerry James Marshall and created in stained glass by Andrew Goldkuhle, now portray Black people marching for civil rights, holding signs that say "Fairness" and "No Foul Play."

The Lee and Jackson windows were installed in 1953, donated by the Daughters of the Confederacy, the same organization that donated statues of Confederate generals all across the South. (1953, what an interesting year: Brown vs. the Board of Education was on the Supreme Court's docket from 1952 to 1954.) 

The old windows included a Confederate battle flag and "depicted Lee and Jackson as saintlike figures, with Lee bathed in rays of heavenly light and Jackson welcomed by trumpets into paradise after his death."

Photo by Nick Wass/AP