As the final days of this year’s Black History Month coincide with the adjournment of Virginia’s 2017 General Assembly session, I see glimmers of hope for a bright future in the Commonwealth.  

Surely, Virginia has a long way to go before we can say that she unanimously stands for the common good of all people.

However, the silver lining I found throughout this legislative session is that her people will not allow attacks on democracy to go unopposed. I saw legislators and community members, Democrats and Republicans, Libertarians and independents, black, white, Latino and Asian people, Ph.D.s and no degrees being driven by justice — working to be different and better than her founding fathers, who saw Africans as subhumans and enslaved them to Jamestown in 1619.

Concerned individuals from across the state packed committee rooms in protest against bills that sought to dehumanize and disenfranchise citizens returning to the community after incarceration, like Sen. Thomas K. Norment Jr.’s bill, SJR 223, and bills that sent a xenophobic, unwelcoming and hostile message to immigrants, such as Delegate Charles Poindexter’s HB 2000.

Both bills harken back to Virginia’s dark history of Jim Crow, intolerance and exclusion — an era that those who worship the Confederate flags outside of their cars and homes may be proud of, but is an era that those of us who believe in equality and justice abhor.

Fortunately, the insidious SJR 223 died. However, HB 2000, died but was revived in a shady fashion and is headed to the desk of Gov. Terry McAuliffe where, hopefully, it will be vetoed.

As a descendent of enslaved people, I know that the formerly incarcerated, as well as undocumented people, deserve the pursuit of life, liberty and justice because every human being does. After witnessing multitudes of people marching on Capitol grounds, hearing chants from civic engagement organizations and hosting meetings with unlikely allies these last two months, I know that many others agree.

As James Weldon Johnson wrote in “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” “... Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won.”

QUAN WILLIAMS

Richmond

The writer is policy director for New Virginia Majority.