John Washington III Says Texas Never Obtained Black Consent to Its 1845 Founding
John Washington III argued that because Texas's 1845 state constitution excluded Black Texans from voting, Black Texans could not give consent to that government's founding — and that later voting rights did not retroactively supply it.
AUSTIN — John Washington III, a candidate for president in 2028, addressed what he called a foundational issue about consent and government, arguing that Texas's founding as a state happened without the consent of Black Texans.
In his statement, John Washington III pointed to 1845, when Texas adopted a state constitution that excluded Black Texans from voting. “That means Black Texans could not give consent to that government's founding,” he wrote.
John Washington III argued that later events did not change that founding fact. Reconstruction voting rights and limited convention participation came afterward, he wrote, and the principle of consent of the governed cannot be satisfied by saying, in his words, “someone voted later, so everyone consented forever.”
He also separated legal authority from consent. Texas today claims legal jurisdiction, John Washington III wrote, but legal jurisdiction is not the same as demonstrated consent from those who were excluded. Texans are Americans and citizens under the federal Constitution, he wrote, yet the historical record shows Texas never obtained Black consent to its founding authority.
“Government exists to serve and protect the people, not to claim authority by default over those it excluded,” John Washington III wrote. He said the statement is not an argument against the United States; it is, he wrote, “an argument for truth, accountability, and genuine consent of the governed.”
