March 22, 2015
Veteran White House Reporter Urges Blacks to Establish a Blueprint for Progress
By Joyce Jones
April Ryan says women, Hispanic and LGBT communities are now using the blueprint for success set by civil rights leaders years ago.
PHOTO: Roy Lewis/Trice Edney News Wire
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The late Dr. C. DeLores Tucker was the kind of woman who got things done, from fighting for civil and equal rights to doing battle with the hip-hop industry over misogynist lyrics.
In a keynote speech delivered at the Bethune DuBois Institute's 29th annual awards and benefit dinner, April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks for nearly two decades, urged the audience to honor Tucker's legacy by formulating blueprints of the Black community's needs and get things done.
As a political reporter and author of a memoire titled The Presidency in Black and White, Ryan frequently reflects on how leaders like Tucker, Mary McCloud Bethune, W.E.B. DuBois and others developed blueprints that among other things, gave her a "unique perch" in the White House briefing room and led to the election of Barack Obama as the nation's first African-American president.
But where, she wants to know, is that blueprint now?
It is a fact that African-American communities around the nation are plagued by a broad range of problems, from high unemployment rates to low performing public school systems. But as Ryan lamented throughout her remarks, there doesn't seem to be a collective plan of attack, which leaves those communities vulnerable to the whims of lawmakers.
"I have learned in my reporting at the White House, covering three presidents, that whenever the budget axe swings, they come after us," she noted.
According to a Gallup poll released last year, half of Black college students who graduated between 2000 and 2014 left school with more than $25,000 in student loan debt, compared to 34 percent of White students. In many cases, they are the first in their families to earn a college degree and most would not be able to do so without loans and grants.
In 2011, the U.S. Department of Education made it more difficult for parents to help their children fund their educations by changing a key eligibility requirement in the Parent PLUS loan program. As a result, HBCUs lost $155 million in PLUS loan funds in the 2012-2013 academic year and 17,000 students were ineligible for the loan because their parents' credit records were imperfect.
"That program changed and it caused millions of dollars to be out there lingering and Black folks couldn't send their children to school," Ryan said. "HBCUs lost millions of dollars because of the stringent new rules and who did that affect mostly? Us and our institutions that we built. One hundred and five HBCUs were screaming where's our money?"
But they didn't take the change sitting down and fought from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, from Capitol Hill to the White House, to get it reversed.
"I found out one thing covering this town is that you don't mess with God, you don't mess with Barack Obama and you don't mess with an HBCU," Ryan said to applause. "One person found that little loophole to create all of these problems and millions of dollars lingering out there and our kids not going to school. But because we fought, because we had that blueprint from C. DeLores Tucker and other civil rights leaders," the Education Department relaxed the rules.
These days, however, it seems as though African-Americans have lost their fight, Ryan mused, while other groups, including women's organizations, Hispanics and the LGBT community, are following the example set by the Black civil rights leaders decades ago.
"What happened to us going back to that blueprint -- that magnificent blueprint that we had? We are the greatest, greatest culture that had a blueprint that everybody's now following. In the 50s and 60s you had the blueprint," she said. "We shall overcome. We overcame the 50s and 60s with the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. People aren't fighting and pounding the doors and calling the White House anymore."
Since Obama's election, some African-American voters and leaders have not wanted publically criticize the nation's first Black president, although there has been plenty of private griping. But as Ryan noted, making their voices heard is not fighting him, it's fighting for their rights.
"Where are we? What have we done? We have lost that blueprint. And I'm saying this as someone who has covered the last three presidents and I see certain communities come and get what they want because they have successfully used our blueprint," Ryan said. "We have forgotten our blueprint."
As the nation prepares for the 2016 presidential election cycle, she warned, African-Americans must find their voices and demand more of the candidates who will presumably be asking for their votes. Give them a blueprint, Ryan urged.
In a passage in her book, Ryan recalls a soul food dinner she and other Black White House reporters shared with President Bill Clinton during his second term. At the time, he was trying to push through a race initiative but the Monica Lewinsky scandal made an already difficult effort even more challenging. So Clinton sought the Black reporters' input and in exchange they asked for an off-the-record sit-down, which became the dinner, to learn more about his thinking and motives when he crafted the policy.
"That night was the most telling and historic night we'd had. We asked him certain things about the race initiative and got into a question-and-answer session about [a] possible apology for slavery," Ryan recalled. "He said the reason why he wouldn't apologize for slavery was because Black people did not come together. For an American president to say that: Where is your blueprint? That was telling from a man who was supposed to be very conscious and concerned and [understanding of] the needs of a community."
The Congressional Black Caucus couldn't come together on the issue, black White House staffers couldn't come together on the issue, she added, and White staffers said, "This is not going to happen." Every president needs to get a blueprint from the black community so that he or she will understand what is needed.
In the last six years, Ryan has become the one White House reporter who can be counted on to ask a question about race. It may always be a prickly issue, but is one that cannot be avoided, Ryan said, because it colors everything. But if you're going to talk about race, you must also have a blueprint to get what you want. Black America needs more C. DeLores Tuckers, she said, and a plan.
"The squeaky wheel gets the oil in Washington," Ryan counseled, "And you make the difference when you make the noise."
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