Black History Month Program Sponsored by Congressman Joe Crowley Co-op City, The Bronx
Thank you. I'm happy to join with my colleague, Representative Joe Crowley, and the residents of Co-op City in celebrating Black History Month 2004. It's ironic that this program should take place on February 23rd, W.E.B. DuBois' 136th birthday.
Over 100 years ago Dr. DuBois wrote in The Souls of the Black Folk: "the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line." Let us hope that 100 years from now it will not be written that the problem of the 21st century was also the problem of the color line.
It is also important to keep in mind that Black history is American history. When I speak of "our history" or "our struggle" I mean "our" as in our America.
In a sense, Black history is a chronicle of relentless effort to make America live up to its promise. In some periods of American history, Blacks appear to have believed in America more than America believed in itself. The African American struggle for inclusion has essentially been a struggle to expand American democracy and opportunity. Every gain in their struggle for equality has been a gain for all Americans.
Indeed, the record shows that Black Americans have been selfless in their contribution to America. Blacks have also been selfless in that whatever they struggled to achieve for themselves, they struggled to attain for all Americans. It is not a coincidence that it was the civil rights movement that gave impetus to the antiwar movement, encouragement to the women's movement, depth to the labor movement, a sense of mission to the anti-poverty movement, a model to the gay rights movement, and inspiration to human rights movements all over the world.
It is not a coincidence that the 14th Amendment and its notion of "equal protection" has become the cornerstone of American democracy. Nor, is it a coincidence that "We Shall Overcome" is the anthem of people struggling for freedom everywhere.
History is not made during one month but year round, year after year after year. Although history is made by the concerted action of millions, it is clear that a single individual can also change the course of history. The challenge before us today in honoring Black History Month is the challenge of making history.
As individuals, as a community, as a country, we are being called upon in 2004 do in our time the equivalent of what W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, Paul Robeson, Ida B. Wells, Mary McLeod Bethune, Thurgood Marshall, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and countless thousands of activists whose names we do not know did in their time.
After the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965 Dr. King once said, "We've got some difficult days ahead." And so, we do. We face a resurgent racism that seeks to undo historic civil rights gains. We face a president who uses "compassionate conservatism" as a fig leaf to cover up policies and practices that are profoundly discriminatory. We face an administration and a Congress controlled by a leadership that says it supports diversity and inclusion but opposes every measure designed to achieve diversity and inclusion.
We face a President who boasts of diversity in his cabinet but stacks the federal judiciary with appointees whose views are closer to the Confederacy than the Constitution. We face a White House and a Congress controlled by right wing radicals who like to profile Black cabinet members, then sanction racial profiling in the name of homeland security.
Yes, we have some difficult days ahead, particularly if George W. Bush wins a second term and Tom Delay retains control of the House of Representatives. We have to gird ourselves for a titanic election battle against an incumbent president who will have a $200 million war chest to spend on character assassination between the end of the primaries and the start of the Republican national convention. We have to gird ourselves for a Herculean struggle to end Republican control of the House and Senate.
We will need to draw strength and courage and inspiration from every source possible. African American history is such a source. For nearly four centuries now, African Americans have stood up to the powers that be. African Americans have shown the country how to make a way out of no way. African American history shows us how to overcome. Of the many indispensable contributions that African Americans have made to America, none are more relevant to the challenges we face today than the African American contribution to the expansion of American democracy.
The struggle against enslavement eventually made the country live up to the pronouncement in the Declaration of Independence that "all men [and women] are endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights, among them the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
The struggle against bondage eventually made the country add the other two-fifths to the three-fifths of a person classification of Blacks in the original Constitution.
The struggle for freedom eventually made the nation wage a civil war, issue the Emancipation Proclamation, adopt the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, create the Freedmen's Bureau, and undertake Reconstruction.
The struggle against Jim Crow segregation eventually made the Supreme Court in the Brown decision unanimously reject the "separate but equal" doctrine it imposed in Plessy v Ferguson.
The persistence of the struggle in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, sit-ins, freedom rides, Birmingham, the March on Washington, Mississippi Freedom Summer, the Selma to Montgomery march, eventually led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Black History Month 2004 challenges us to learn the lessons of this rich history. Black History Month 2004 challenges us to make history. Last year, this year, and next year, provide unique opportunities to do both.
In 2003, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Birmingham demonstrations led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and especially the 1963 March on Washington.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Brown decision, as well as the 40th anniversaries of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the founding of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and the murder of Chaney, Goodwin, and Schwerner.
Next year, the nation will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the 40th anniversaries of Bloody Sunday, the Selma to Montgomery march, and passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
These generational anniversaries should be used assess how far we have come on the basis of these breakthroughs and how far we still have to go. They furnish opportunities for reassessing strategy, tactics, resources, focus, and agenda.
Decades have passed since these events took place. The interests of the Black community have remained constant, but the victories and achievements of forty and fifty years ago fundamentally transformed the conditions under which we must struggle today. The problem is that the methods and means of struggle, which were relevant back then have not undergone a fundamental transformation appropriate to changed conditions.
Because of the accomplishments of the civil rights movement, African Americans have made great strides in all areas of life. Today, there are Black billionaires. Four decades ago there were none. Today, there are Black multimillionaires. Five decades ago there were none. Today, there are hundreds of Black millionaires. Four and five decades ago there were only a handful.
Today, Blacks are cultural icons and sports heroes. Our impact on popular culture is enormous. Young people all over the world wear the clothes, recite the beats, and repeat the names of African American hip hop artists. Black intellectuals are well-known public figures. Five decades ago, Black athletes were just breaking through racial barriers in professional and college sports. Black scholars were little known outside of the Black community. Black entertainers had to perform before segregated audiences, and often in segregated clubs and theaters.
Today, there is a large and socially diverse Black middle class. Although still under-represented in some professions, we now have a large and growing number of Black professionals.
Today, there are also Black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Blacks head major universities. It is not uncommon to have Black party chairs and cabinet secretaries.
Today, the buying power of the Black community, which exceeds $533 billion annually, is greater than the gross domestic products of most nations and even groups of nations.
Today, Blacks have the right to vote. Most candidates for national or statewide or citywide office court Black voters. When the Voting Rights Act was adopted in the 1965, there were fewer than 300 Black elected officials in the entire country. There were only five African American members of Congress'none from the South. Today, there are more than 9,500 Black elected officials nationwide, including 39 Black members of Congress'almost half from the South.
If every voting age African American were registered to vote, Blacks nationwide would constitute a voting bloc of 22 million voters. With this level of registration and a high level of voter participation, Black voters could be the balance of power in half the states and most of the major cities, including New York State and New York City.
Despite undeniable progress, there have been undeniable setbacks. African Americans are disproportionately represented among the poor, among those in poor health, among those without health insurance, among those who are poorly educated, and especially among those who are incarcerated. More Black men are in prison than in college.
Add to all of this the impact of an administration and Congress that favors the rich at the expense of the rest of us. Add the fact that the fate of affirmative action, redistricting, and voting rights is in the hands, hearts, and heads of a federal judiciary increasingly stacked with right wing ideologues appointed by President Bush. Add to this an administration and congressional majority that are indifferent to protecting the country against the negative side effects of globalization, including job loss, downsizing, and outsourcing.
Nonetheless, it still cannot be denied that the conditions that prevailed in the 1950s and 1960s have been transformed in whole or in part. The problem is there hasn't been a corresponding transformation of the means and methods of struggle the Black community employs. There hasn't been a corresponding reorientation of the focus of our struggle.
I am not one of those who believes that marches, demonstrations, and protests are no longer needed. However, I am one of those who believes we should not reduce our politics to protest. I'm one of those who believes we now have to focus on the politics of coalition- building and the politics of economic empowerment. We have to master strategies and tactics having to do with the expeditious exercise of institutional power and the expert deployment of community resources. We especially have to be wiser in the use of executive, legislative, and judicial power.
We are deep into a post-civil rights era. Some say it is the second phase of the civil rights movement. In any case, the epicenter of the African American struggle for equality has shifted to issues of economic parity, economic empowerment, and inclusion in the economic mainstream.
If that is so, then we must adjust our focus and methods to the demands of a post-civil rights era. Focus now must be placed on accumulating economic clout, on exercising political power to achieve public policy and programmatic results that enhance the Black community's economic position. This must be done even as we fight to preserve and consolidate all that we have achieved in the realm of civil rights and political representation, even as we undertake protest actions when and where necessary.
We must take account of new realities. I would single out:
' globalization;
' pervasive technological innovation;
' massive immigration, which is transforming the composition of the Black community and the districts Blacks represent, as well as reshaping coalition- building;
' the participation of tens of millions of Americans, including millions of African Americans, in the stock market through 401k and 457 plans, IRAs, pension funds, and educational saving accounts;
' the dramatic expansion of the Black middle class;
' the indispensable need for quality education;
' the return of the era of debt and deficits which imposes a fiscal crisis on federal, state, and local government, and drastically limits what government is able to do;
' right wing Republican control of the White House, Congress, and federal judiciary;
A post-civil rights strategy pivots around what I call the Three E's: Education + Economics = Empowerment.
Education is the key to participating in the global economy as actors, not the acted upon. A quality education is the prerequisite to mastering information technology, leading diverse populations, managing personal finances, communication in a multi-cultural world, competing and cooperating with people across the globe, and making informed, independent judgments on public policy issues.
If the masses of Black children do not receive a quality education, our community will regress, not progress. Education is so vital that we cannot leave it to the public education system. As parents, as concerned citizens, as community leaders, we must become intimately and aggressively involved in the education of our children. We must hold the system, public officials, educators, our children, and ourselves accountable. Above all, we must restore education, learning, and the acquisition of knowledge to the place of esteem they once held in our community.
The Black community must enhance it economic clout. Otherwise it will always be more vulnerable than it should be to swings in politics and public policy. Independent economic development will give us the strength to better defend our historic civil rights gains.
Economic development starts with building wealth, accumulating equity, acquiring assets, and producing value. This is as true for individual African Americans as it is true for the African American community as a whole. This involves:
' drastically increasing Black home ownership;
' drastically increasing financial literacy;
' implementing "new markets" initiatives and empowerment zones;
' using public policy, the private sector, and internal resources to support and sustain Black entrepreneurialism;
' democratizing of access to credit and capital;
' democratizing government contracting and procurement;
' building economic development alliances of Black businesses, Black developers and contractors, Black corporate managers and executives, Black entrepreneurs, Black elected officials, Black appointees, Black labor leaders, churches, fraternities, sororities, community-based organizations, community economic development corporations, service providers, non-profits, and'
where and when possible'labor unions, major corporations and financial services institutions, universities, policy centers, and federal, state, and municipal government agencies.
Before closing I want to return to an earlier theme: The challenge of celebrating Black History Month 2004 is the challenge of making history in 2004.
In 2000, African Americans understood the danger of another right wing Republican administration, when 91 percent of Black voters cast their ballots against George W. Bush. That was a mass demonstration against George W. Bush. That was a protest action against George W. Bush. Black voters would have put Al Gore over the top had it not been for Republican suppression of Black votes in Florida.
But we know from history that what goes around, comes around. November 2, 2004 is the time for Black voters to do unto the Republicans what the Republicans did unto us. November 2, 2004 gives the entire country an opportunity to do unto the Bush Administration and the Republican congressional leadership what the Republicans have done unto America.
Defeating Bush depends on a huge turnout of Black voters. The ability of the Democrats to retake the Congress also hinges on Black turnout in key states.
For Blacks to meet this challenge requires putting substance over symbolism. If we universally rejected George Bush in 2000, why allow ourselves to be sidetracked into supporting candidates who don't have a chance of winning and who aren't even running to win in 2004?
Forty years ago, young Blacks (and whites) gave their lives to win the right to vote. Remember James Chaney, Andrew Goodwin, and Michael Schwerner? Today, we have to beg Black youth to register and vote.
Don't let it said that at this moment, with all that is at stake, Black voters abstained from battle. Don't let it be said that Black voters were absent without leave. Don't let it be said that Black voters allowed themselves to be sidetracked and diverted.
Let it be said that Black voters made a difference. Let it be said that Black voters used their ballots to conduct a massive demonstration on Election Day. Let it be said that Black voters made sure their votes were counted. Let it be said that Black voters made history.