Still in Search of a "New Dawn"?
Looking back more than a half-century, to 1959, a time when Eric Lincoln's book about this nation's Black Muslims surfaced; I left Lincoln University in Missouri to take a long "trek" to San Francisco State College to continue my studies for a degree in Physics.
In the Bay Area, those (few) black students in area colleges were contemplating and debating the messages of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, and their competing approaches to "black advancement". Within a ten year period thereafter, both men were dead. Assassinated: as were also the Kennedy brothers (one the President of the United States, and the other our Attorney General). These four deaths, from what we have learned over the years, serve to explain a lot about the status, then and now, of this nation's black population.
We speak and worry today of chronic unemployment among black men in this country. In 1959, there was NO employment (except for menial jobs) for blacks throughout the corporate U.S. President Kennedy changed that in 1963; two years after I was commissioned as an officer in the United States Air Force. Black professional workers, before 1963, worked for government, or were doctors, lawyers, preachers, or teachers. I will always believe that the actions taken by the Kennedy brothers to end racial segregation and the agitation by both Martin and Malcolm for economic advancement for black citizens of this country were key causes for their deaths. Liddy Biddy Johnson gets more credit than he deserves for Civil Rights. Now that we know more of his connection with J. Edgar Hoover, the picture is becoming clearer.
In a speech in Selma, weeks before his death, Malcolm X spoke of the historic divide among blacks in this country. http://yeyeolade.wordpress.com/2007/04/05/brother-malcolm-x-lives/ Similarly, days before his death 3 years later, Martin Luther King addressed the economic plight of poor blacks during the garbage-workers strike in Memphis. If you check out my earlier blogs, you will find the views of E. Franklin Frazier on the subject of the historic black "divide". Today's Republicans have seized upon this divide to run their closet racist politics. Beginning with Daddy Bush' appointment of Clarence Thomas to replace Thurgood Marshall, on through the "use" of Condi and Colin by "W"; the "accommodationist" side of the "divide" has served the extreme Right well.
During my 20 years in the Air Force, I met officers (black, white, Hispanic) from every corner of this country. I was amazed at the differences geography made in determining who these people became. There is more than a single divide among blacks in this country. The same is true for whites and Hispanics. Region and age grouping also made a great difference, both then and now.
Samuel Jackson's role in "Django" can serve as the starting point for a serious debate among blacks? Nobody but blacks should participate in the debate! The best education, economic opportunity, and mental health of black children in this country depends on it.
Stay Vigilant! Give black kids (all kids-of-color?) A CHANCE!
Copyright© 2013: All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved: Williams LLC
No comments:
Post a Comment