Saturday, Aug. 28, will mark the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom convened by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other deputies of the Civil Rights Movement. The same date also commemorates the murder of Emmett Till in 1955, as well as the 2008 Denver nomination of Barack Obama becoming the first Black president of the United States.
It is without doubt that at the time when King and others like the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., Rev. Joseph Lowery and Rev. Bernard Lafayette were fighting the stench of racism and Jim Crow laws, no one had any idea that one day a man named Barack Obama would be president. But Robert F. Kennedy predicted then that 40 years later an African American could be president of the richest nation in the world.
And so 47 years later what have African Americans gained in the fight for equality?
Is there economic parity?
Are civil rights laws been fully enforced to protects the rights of everyone, including those without access to political power and connections?
Has racism died?
Dr. King dreamed of a nation that would judge his children by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. Yet a few weeks ago, Shirley Sherrod became the latest victim of skin color politics orchestrated by the well oiled race baiting machine that made the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack look incompetent and his department look like a signpost that exists only in name, not in good deeds.
Because of the USDA’s history of battling with Black farmers, the Sherrod debacle only helped to deepen suspicion of Vilsack’s USDA in Obama’s America.
Even the national NAACP, the ought-to-know-better organization under the leadership of Benjamin Jealous, fell for the race-baiting trap in a way that insulted the integrity of other organizations that have long fought Jim Crow, and understood the tricks of those who try to fan the embers of race and racism.
For the first time we saw the national NAACP in the same bed with the race-baiters, calling on Sherrod to resign before they realized they were tricked into the bedroom of racism. In Catholic lingo this kind of hasty, cowardly and thoughtless way the national NAACP president reacted to Sherrod initially is an unpardonable sin.
My grandmother warned me as a lad to always “look before you leap,” good advice for Ben Jealous and his crew next time — that fairness demands hearing all sides to the story.
To make a decision without hearing the other party is anti-democratic, unbecoming of the foremost civil rights organization in this country.
Crucifixion before trial should not ever be part of our policy. King would be turning over in his grave to learn that a woman who has dedicated her life to the fight for racial parity reconciliation was repudiated by her own — the NAACP — based on false accusation.
The White House, in a rather dismissive, unthinkable way, dropped the ball, forcing the Black president to call and apologize to Sherrod over something his staff should have been schooled on.
That is why diversity and cultural relations are an ever effective ingredient for top decision makers in any government, company or management that seeks to enhance its standing among those it serves.
Despite the increase in hate speech, and the growing signs that racism is not going away anytime soon, I can still say without any qualms that in 2010 we live in Obama’s America that is pregnant with possibilities and opportunities as well as risks — if the right things are done to meet the demands of an economically stricken nation.
It is still not late for the Democrat-controlled US Senate to do what is right by Black farmers and give them the money they have been owed for ages. These same Democrats expect Blacks to flock to the polls like sheep to the slaughter in November, and yet behind the backs of African Americans they are refusing to move an inch to make what could be a historic economic remittance possible.
The Democratically controlled Congress is acting like the Republicans are in power. Blame the Republicans for everything and you will get the November vote.
No, it is the Democrats that are in power with a Democratic president who was given a huge and historic mandate in November of 2008 to right the wrongs of the past and the sins of the Republicans.
If the Democrats can’t do it, or are not willing to act on the charge that King gave on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial decades ago, then they should say that.
Whether they plan to act or not, Democrats and Republicans alike will be reminded of their obligation to the nation on Saturday when the Rev. Jackson, the United Auto Workers (UAW). Detroit Branch NAACP and a host of civil and community groups stage a mass demonstration for jobs, justice and peace.
In earlier interviews with Jackson, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition leader said Detroit is ground zero of the urban crisis and the disinvestment the city has endured.
Jackson said on Saturday that Detroit and the rest of Michigan need to make a bold statement about the deplorable economy that has left many people unable to provide essentials for their families.
While Jackson and the those who are “sick and tired of being sick and tired” are waging a street fight for a restoration of an ailing economy, conservative talk show host Glenn Beck and his followers will be at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for a “Restoring Honor” rally.
Call it a desecration of the symbolism of the March on Washington by individuals who push divisive politics and have sworn to see Obama fail.
But that will not stop Detroit where King first gave the “I Have a Dream” speech at Cobo Hall and marched on Woodward Avenue before heading to Washington.
Jackson says it is time to enact real change for working families and all of America, to call on our national leaders to do their part in rebuilding America.
Doing so, according to Jackson, means focusing on jobs: economic reconstruction driven by targeted stimulus, reindustrialization and trade policy that will create jobs, support manufacturing and put workers first.
Justice: enforcement of the law regarding workers’ rights, civil rights, industrial regulation, and creation of strong urban policy, fair and just education, economic and healthy policy.
Peace: ending the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, saving lives and redirecting the war budget to rebuilding the America.
Marches are good and based on time and location can illicit answers from politicians who understand, as Jackson put it, “how to count” numbers.
Democrats are in the “doghouse” this year as some put it and therefore a rally of this magnitude that also places emphasis on getting the vote out for November has the huge potential of impacting policy.
That is why hundreds of postal workers showed up with Jackson and Congressman John Conyers Tuesday afternoon downtown, emboldened with the same spirit that
is asking Washington to pick up the 3 a.m. phone call from Detroit.
Hope is that with the rally the dismal voter turnout in Detroit during last month’s gubernatorial primary will change for November.
We’ve always wondered if Detroit is angry enough and if it is, why doesn’t that translate into huge numbers of voters at the polls?
While it may be easy to blame voters for the lackadaisical response to voting in cities like Detroit, the indifference of politicians to the concerns of their constituents cannot be separated from this sad, self-defeating reality.
How many times has government failed Detroit?
How many times have we seen elected officials not do what is expedient for the betterment of the people but, instead, focus on what will line their pockets?
The arrogance that some elected officials have shown, elevating themselves to some sort of god-like position and above reproach, has been a major disappointed for the electorate, helping to fuel the light turnouts on election days. Especially in a climate where some elected officials feel that they have a birthright to political office.
Worst of all, some Democrats in powerful positions fail to push for programs that will alleviate the problems besetting the lives of their constituent members, under the guise that the Republicans are the problem instead of their own lack of political and moral fortitude.
The march in Detroit begins at 10:30 a.m. at 151 W. Jefferson Ave./UAW Center. Call Theresa Bullock at (313) 926-5361.