Category: Race

February 9 Hiram Revels

 

This Black History Month I’m Grateful for Hiram Revels

 

 

“The colored race can be built up and assisted … in acquiring
property, in becoming intelligent, valuable, useful citizens, without one hair
upon the head of any white man being harmed.”


– Hiram Revels

 

 

Hiram Revels is relatively unknown even to students of Black
American history. His name is usually evoked only when something unusual
happens: a Black person becoming a United States Senator.

 

In the 150 years
since the Emancipation Proclamation, fewer than ten Blacks have been Senators
and Hiram Revels was the first. Revels served Mississippi for a little more
than a year and had a relatively uneventful experience after controversy
surrounding his seating in the Senate abated.

 

The political universe of Reconstruction was vastly different
than our own but Revels established an important precedent. His dignified
service to his state and our country demonstrated that White fears of
incompetent Black leadership were absurd.

 

After his time in the Senate concluded, Revels continued to
have a valuable career, serving as the first president of Alcorn State, as a
professor and as a minister. We can only hope that our current Black Senators
give as generously to the world as Revels did.

 

Today I am grateful for Hiram Revels. You should be too.

 

 

FDO

 

 

 

February 8 Paul Robeson

 

This Black History Month I’m Grateful for   Paul Robeson


 

“As an artist I come to sing, but as a citizen, I will
always speak for peace, and no can silence me in this.”


-Paul Robeson

 

 

When Paul Robeson is referenced today, it’s usually as a
victim of politics. Robeson was viciously scapegoated by the US government during the Red
Scare of the 1950s. His political interests were used to destroy his
career and turn him into a social pariah. Robeson deserves to be remembered as a
pioneer and one of the great Renaissance men of the 20th
century. 

 

There was virtually nothing Paul Robeson could not do well. Taken
individually, his academic, athletic and artistic exploits are enough to make
Robeson important. Combined in a single person, Robeson’s life seems superhuman.
By the time he was 25, Robeson had graduated Rutgers as valedictorian, been
named a football All-American, completed law school and played in the NFL.

 

Robeson then embarked on one of the critical artistic
careers in Black American history. He combined unparalleled vocal talent with breathtaking
acting chops to perform in a dizzying array of styles and contexts. Robeson’s
performances as Othello, Emperor Jones and in Show Boat opened doors for Blacks
to entertain audiences without playing demeaning or stereotypical characters. Stars
like Sidney Poitier and Henry Belafonte were able to be viewed as strong, dignified
Black men because Robeson had already created that template.

 

Robeson used his wealth and status to advocate for a slew of
political causes. He supported trade unionists, civil rights groups, progressive
politicians, anti-Fascist and anti-lynching groups among many others. Robeson’s
fight for the end of colonialism eventually led him to embrace communism and spend
time in the USSR after which he became one of the most prominent Americans to
be blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Robeson had
numerous opportunities to salvage his reputation, rescue his career and
continue enriching himself monetarily. Instead, he willingly sacrificed himself
and his fortune, to stay devoted to his friends, comrades and beliefs. It can
be argued that few individuals suffered more from America’s anti-communist
excesses than Paul Robeson.

 

While his controversial politics discolors our collective memory
of him, Paul Robeson should be remembered as a fierce advocate for the freedom,
dignity and equality of all people. He broke the mold of what a Black person
could be and forced the world to acknowledge his gifts.

 

Today I am grateful for Paul Robeson. You should be too.

 

FDO

 

 

 

February 7 Sojourner Truth

 

This Black
History Month I’m Grateful for Sojourner Truth


 

"The Spirit calls
me, and I must go." 

 -Sojourner Truth

 

 

Sojourner Truth is rightfully revered as an American hero.
Truth was born into slavery but never allowed that condition to determine her
self-worth. Even before she joined the abolitionist movement, Truth was a
pioneer. She was one of the earliest Black American women to win a lawsuit
against a White man when she successfully sued to have one of her children
freed from slavery and returned to her.

 

Having lived as a northern slave, Truth had a very different
set of circumstances than most southern slaves and dictated an autobiography attesting
to her experiences. Soon after, she began traveling the country as a speaker,
advocating for the abolition of slavery and the expansion of rights for women.
Her most famous speech, “Ain’t I a Woman”, beautifully articulated the
intersection of gender and racial oppression she suffered.

 

For many northerners, Truth helped make the horrors of
slavery real for the first time. Combined with other speakers like Frederick
Douglass and books like Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Truth helped sow the seeds for
northern support for the Civil War. She even assisted the war effort by recruiting
Black men for the Union Army.

 

Sojourner Truth spent decades of her life fighting against
injustice and fighting for opportunity. She succeeded in changing her life, her
circumstances and her world.

 

Today I am grateful for Sojourner Truth. You should be too.

 

 

FDO

 

 

 

February 6 Jesse Jackson

 

This Black History Month I’m Grateful for Jesse Jackson

 

 

“Both tears and sweat
are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy;
sweat will get you change.”

-Jesse Jackson

 

 

In the last decade or so, the Reverend Jesse Jackson has
become caricatured for having a complicated personal life and making an absurd
statement about Barack Obama. However the 21st century image of
Jackson I’ll remember is this one.  The
picture doesn’t reflect the elation of a typical Obama supporter. The picture
represents an outpouring of emotion from a man who spent his entire adult life fighting
on the front lines of America’s race battles. And, in this picture, we can see
Jesse Jackson watching Barack Obama complete the journey Jackson began himself.

 

People often forget that Jesse Jackson was a civil rights
prodigy. While only in his mid-20s, Jackson became a trusted adviser to Martin
Luther King Jr., helping run Operation Breadbasket in Chicago and planning
national strategies. In the famous photo of the Lorraine Motel balcony upon
which King was assassinated, Jackson is one of the men surrounding King.

 

During the 1970s, Jackson worked to fill the void left by
King’s death and became the most prominent advocate for Black interests.
Jackson attempted to meld the interests of the old guard civil rights
community, the developing Black middle class and Black Power radicals by
emphasizing Black culture, pride, self-reliance and community. He also helped
develop the model of Black Expos which expanded into other communities across
the country.

 

Jackson’s obituary will most prominently highlight his 1984
and 1988 Presidential campaigns. Jackson was the first Black candidate to run a
national Presidential campaign that featured electoral successes.* Jackson did
so well in 1984 that eventual Democratic nominee Walter Mondale felt compelled
to choose someone who was not a White male in an effort to capture potentially
disaffected Jackson voters.#   

 

Even after failing to win the Presidency, Jackson stayed
engrossed in national politics, serving as Washington, DC’s shadow senator. Now,
the prodigy has become one of the elder statesmen of Black America; receiving
Jackson’s blessing is still greatly valued. He’s one of the strongest links between
the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement and the glories of an America in
which a Black person is President.

 

Today I am grateful for Jesse Jackson. You should be too.

 

 

FDO

 

 

*- Shirley Chisholm ran an inspiring campaign in 1972 but
never gained any traction. Chisholm demonstrated tremendous courage during her
short lived race and survived at least three assassination attempts.

#- His choice of Geraldine Ferraro was poorly received.

 

 

February 5 W. E. B. DuBois

 

 

This Black History Month I’m Grateful for W.E.B. DuBois

 

 

“The problem of the
twentieth century is the problem of the color line.”

 

-W.E.B. DuBois

 

 

This quote is from “The Souls of Black Folk”, one of the most
important articulations of the possibilities and struggles of Black people in
America. In it, DuBois coined the term “double consciousness”, creating a
concept that retains currency in Black communities a century later.  


W.E.B. DuBois provided us so many contributions that he’s
nearly impossible to characterize. He was a prolific author, renowned educator,
social activist, political philosopher and prominent anti-colonialist. In his
remarkably long life, DuBois served as a bridge between the worlds of Frederick
Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr.  


Early in his career, DuBois helped Blacks to shift away from
Booker T. Washington’s focus on schooling to learn skilled trades toward a
focus on academic knowledge based education.  His encouragement of artistic and cultural
accomplishment combined with his concept of a “Talented Tenth”* made DuBois a primary
inspiration for the Harlem Renaissance.


While it seems odd now, Dubois died as something of a social
outcast. This was largely because his politics were considered too radical by
mainstream Black Americans. By the early 1960s, he’d become convinced that Pan-Africanism
was the best way for American Blacks to respond to racial oppression in the U. S.
 In much of his writing and thinking,
DuBois anticipated and inspired the Black Power movement.  


DuBois is best known today as one of the founders of the
NAACP and Niagara Movement. As important as those developments have been, they
are only a small part of W.E.B. DuBois’ many legacies.

 

 

Today I am grateful for W.E.B. DuBois. You should be too.

 

 

FDO

 

 

*- the idea that it is the responsibility of the best and
brightest Blacks to work toward the improvement of their race, lifting others as they go

 

 

 

 

February 4 Rosa Parks

 

 

This Black History Month I’m Grateful for Rosa Parks


 

“I had not
planned to get arrested. I had plenty to do without having to end up in jail.
But when I had to face that decision, I didn't hesitate to do so because I felt
that we had endured that too long.”

 

-Rosa Parks

 

 

 

Today is the 100th birthday of the woman many describe as “the
mother of the Civil Rights Movement”, Rosa Parks.  That kind epithet acknowledges Parks’ role in
starting the Montgomery Bus Boycott which launched the national career of
Martin Luther King Jr. and is often seen as the first example of a new type of
civil rights struggle. At the same time, though, viewing Parks as a matronly figure reinforces the false idea that Parks was an accidental heroine.


Many of us now have an image of Parks as an old woman (she
lived into her 90s) who was so exhausted and worn down that by December 1955,
she just couldn’t muster the energy to move further back on the public bus she
rode home.  In reality, the actions Parks
became famous for were in no way accidental. Parks was a longtime community
activist and, in her early 40s, vibrant, strong and defiant. Parks was
perfectly aware that she would suffer the public humiliation of an arrest and
would likely suffer long term consequences for her actions. In fact, Parks was
fired from her job.


Part of what I hope folks can take a moment to acknowledge
is that when Rosa Parks began her personal fight against the segregation of the
bus system, she was doing it on her own. There was no plan to create a boycott
of the buses. There was no Montgomery Improvement Association. There was no
guarantee that Parks would even be supported by the Black community in
Montgomery. Rosa Parks fought against an unjust system, not because she knew
she would win but because she knew the system was unjust. For that she deserves
to be richly celebrated.

 

Today I am grateful for Rosa Parks. You should be too.

 

FDO

 

 

 

February 3 David Walker

 

This Black History Month I’m Grateful for David Walker

 


". . .they want us for their slaves, and think nothing
of murdering us. . ."


-David Walker

 

 

I know less about David Walker than any other person I’ll
write about this month. That’s in part because he died in 1830 and largely
because there are very few historical records concerning him. We know that he
was a free Black man who died at only 35 and under mysterious circumstances.
Even now, Walker’s contributions to the US are subtle and have generally been
condemned when noticed. That’s because David Walker was scary!

 

Walker’s main contribution to American life was his Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World.
The Appeal was the clearest possible
call for a violent revolt overthrowing slavery. It is not coincidental that Nat
Turner’s revolt followed soon after the Appeal nor is it coincidental that the
rights of free Blacks were limited in response to Walker.

 

While all these
individual elements were largely negative, Walker forced everyone in the
country to recognize the possibility that there would never be a strictly political
solution to slavery. Instead, while America crafted political agreements like
the Missouri Compromise that divided the country into slave and free regions,
some in the country were willing to force America toward change.

 

In some important senses, Walker’s descendants include
Turner, John Brown, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. All these men
eventually concluded that only violence would end the scourge of slavery in
America. Unlike those others, however, Walker remains marginalized in American
history. His early, prophetic vision of America’s future process did not come
to pass exactly as he imagined. Fortunately, much of his vision of America’s possibility
did.

 

Today I am grateful for David Walker. You should be too.

 

 

FDO

 

 

February 2 Stevie Wonder

 

 

This Black History Month I’m Grateful for Stevie Wonder

 

 

 “Just because a man
lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision.”

-Stevie Wonder


 

Stevie Wonder is a living legend in an obvious way. The
owner of 22 Grammy Awards*, legendary songs and albums Wonder has had profound
success as a musical artist. It was largely Wonder’s success in transcending
the racial and musical barriers of the 1970s that paved the way for the
unprecedented crossover stardom of Black 80s singers Michael Jackson, Prince,
Whitney Houston and Lionel Richie. While these accomplishments are amazing,
Wonder’s greatest legacy may well be found in the ways he’s used his celebrity to
bring attention to social concerns. 


With the possible exception of Coretta Scott King#, no
individual deserves more credit than Wonder for the creation of the Martin
Luther King Jr. federal holiday. Wonder’s birthday song for King has even
become the model for birthday songs in Black homes today.


By the early 80s, Wonder had developed an emphasis on
pan-African identity, themes and issues. Wonder wrote about African politics,
Third World life and helped break Bob Marley into the US market. He also participated
in events designed to raise awareness and money to combat hunger, poverty,
drunken driving, AIDS, and drug use.


Stevie Wonder was also deeply committed to the end of the apartheid
system in South Africa. He was one of the most prominent Americans to argue
that our country needed to deliberately disinvest from South Africa. Wonder
helped provide public forums for Nobel Laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu who had not
been widely known in this country.

 

The combination of Stevie Wonder’s sunglasses, head shaking
and broad smile have become a cliché as is his perpetual musical optimism. What
is not cliché is the sincerity of Wonder’s dedication to the causes of peace
and justice “all throughout the world”. 

 

Today, I am grateful for Stevie Wonder. You should be too.

 

FDO

 

*- the most for any male solo artist

#- check back later this month for more 

 

 

February 1 Frederick Douglass

This Black History Month I’m Grateful for Frederick Douglass

 

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

-Frederick Douglass

 

 

The accomplishments of Frederick Douglass are so numerous they seem mythological to many of us today. For a Black person, born a slave in the first half of the 19th century, to have become so accomplished was literally unimaginable until Douglass did it.

 

A few highlights:

Douglass freed himself after illegally learning to read; worked as an abolitionist and suffragist; published The North Star and other newspapers; wrote multiple autobiographies; expanded benefits for Black soldiers in the Civil War; received nominations for Vice-President and President.

His autobiographies captivated the country and, for many Northerners, provided the first clear demonstration that Blacks could be the intellectual equal of Whites. Douglass was the first Black person to garner a truly national reputation, the nearly universal respect of Whites, and to be treated as an equal by an American President.

In fact, I consider Douglass to be the original president of Black America. He was the first person who could be said to have represented the most urgent interests of Blacks to the whole country.
It’s nearly impossible to conceive even now but Frederick Douglass was born as a slave and died as one of the most important people in the world.

 

Today, I am grateful for Frederick Douglass. You should be too.

FDO

Average Obama

 

I liked President Obama’s Osawatomie speech and recognize the obvious resonances it has with Teddy Roosevelt’s  New Nationalism  speech. That connection has been made in multiple places and is well worth reading and reading about. I think Obama's speech was the start of something else too. Something with great potential for Obama’s re-election campaign against Mitt Romney in 2012*. I mean the re-branding of the President as “Barack Obama, regular American.”

 

I believe that in this campaign Obama will try to present himself as a typical American with a very American story. Even though he has often been defined as an outsider, I don’t think that Obama has ever believed that to be true. Obama considers himself to be quintessentially American. That belief will be easier to spread to the public at large if Obama is running against Willard Mitt Romney.

(Much in the way that Obama’s middle name became a campaign issue, I’m convinced that Romney’s first name will be tossed about and made the subject of jokes. I assume the story about Mitt being named after George Romney’s best friend Willard Marriott is true. That’s not gonna be helpful.)

 

Obama’s campaign will work hard to present Romney as the embodiment of America’s elite. Romney is, after all, the son of a governor and was born into a highly affluent family. His own professional career has placed him squarely in the 1% as defined by Occupy Wall Street. In 2000, those would have been helpful characteristics but in the midst of our Great Recession, economic privilege is no longer perceived as indicative of inherent merit. Instead, his extraordinary level of privilege is probably a major detriment to Romney’s candidacy.

 

Obama’s own American story is well known and his recent speech cleverly emphasized his rootedness via his family of regular folks from Kansas. His single mom spent time on public assistance rolls and Obama only became an elite himself through educational attainment. He legitimately is a contemporary Horatio Alger. Even as an adult, his South Side of Chicago bona fides are clearly intact. Describing his career as working for the people of his community as opposed to having the people work for him will be a winning presentation.

 

And while folks often describe Obama’s rise to national prominence as meteoric, he will be able to define himself as a political plugger compared to Romney. Obama’s political career began in the Illinois State Senate before moving on to the US Senate and then the White House. He has been an elected official since 1997. Obama can reasonably describe himself as having climbed the political ladder, albeit with tremendous speed. Romney’s sole electoral victory was his one term as Massachusetts governor. In just those four years, Romney made many choices he has since disavowed. While I personally believe Romney’s Olympic experience is very impressive, I doubt that he’ll be able to use that time as a proxy for holding office.

 

There will likely be one other interesting area in which Obama can define himself as average and Romney as exceptional: religion. Obama’s Chicago church experience was a problem for him in 2008 but in 2012 it’ll be a big advantage. Jeremiah Wright is old news and the President has so comfortably and consistently invoked God that his religiosity seems safe, normal and generically American. Romney’s Mormonism makes him suspect in the eyes of many and makes him an outsider in the eyes of many more.  I don’t want to link to some of the vicious portrayals of Mormonism in the world of mainstream punditry but it’s very easy to find scary talk about Romney’s church. The ham handed “I’m a Mormon” campaign might have helped had it begun several years ago but in the short term it will likely make Romney (and Jon Huntsman) seem even more suspicious to non-Mormon conservative Christians.

 

In terms of family, work and faith, Obama can claim common cause with ‘the American people’ in ways that Romney simply can’t. It’s a strange world wherein the half-Black guy with the Arabic name can present himself as more authentically American than the White guy who looks like middle age Superman but I think that’s what we will begin to see in the next few months. Perhaps even more strangely, I think it’s gonna work.

 

 

FDO

 

*- I've been asked if any of this applies to the President if Newt Gingrich were the GOP nominee.

2 responses- 1- If Newt's the guy, Obama won't have much to worry about anyway. 2- Yes! Obama's team will paint a picture of the President, First Lady and their two young daughters compared to Newt's 3 marriages, adulterous affairs, Clinton era sexual hypocrisy, the cancer-ridden wife divorce story and late in life conversion to Catholicism. That's a lotta grist for the campaign mill.

 

Combine that with the difference between making lots of money by writing books about your family and making lots of money by using your government contacts to (almost) lobby for corporations and it's game over.