April 17, 2016

April 17, 2016

To Be Equal 

Defending Democracy in the Fight Against Voter Suppression
By Marc H. Morial

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live.  Other rights, even the most basic, are illusory if the right to vote is undermined.” — The Supreme Court of the United States, Wesberry v. Sanders, 1964

In 2013, the Supreme Court stripped the Voting Rights Act of its power to stop states from creating and enforcing laws that would prevent eligible voters from exercising their constitutional right to vote. Under the dark shadow of the newly crippled law, our nation celebrated the 50th year anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 2015. In 2016, our nation will observe its first presidential election since the court effectively paved the way for states to usher in new, legal obstacles to the polls that would largely affect low-income people, the elderly, people with disabilities, students and communities of color.

Preclearance—which laid at the very heart of the VRA—required states with a history of discriminatory, race-based voter suppression to have any amendments in their voting laws “precleared” by the Justice Department. The Supreme Court, in all its wisdom, decided the preclearance provision was the stuff of a bygone era of racial injustice in American history. The court could not have been more flawed in its thinking. Since then, states have been hard at work introducing and passing countless laws that do what the VRA was created to stop: the calculated denial of the vote to targeted classes of Americans.

In our first election since Barack Obama became the first African American to be elected this nation’s president, 17 new states—from Texas to Rhode Island—will have new voting restrictions in place. While it is true that the days of poll taxes, literacy tests and grandfather clauses exist in the pages of our history books. The old strategy of voter suppression is not sitting somewhere collecting dust on a shelf. Voter suppression is alive and well and dressed in a new suit of modern tactics, with states passing laws strict voter ID laws, cutting back on early voting, denying ex-felons the right to vote and even closing polling places in communities of color.

In all, 22 states have new restrictive voting requirements in effect since the 2010 midterm election, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. That sobering number represents nearly half our nation’s states. It also represents hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of eligible voters being denied their protected right to a vote. We should not accept this current state of affairs as the last word on voting rights in our democracy.

April 17, 2016

Change We Can Disbelieve
By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq. 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Like me, many of my friends are enthusiasts of history and historical facts.  When possible, we'll sit and dissect what we understand of historical events and how they have shaped our current circumstance.  When lacking completely factual information, we may speculate, but rarely do we entertain theories that border the conspiratorial.  Our efforts are directed to greater clarification of the events of our past and present, and what we might ultimately expect from their occurrence in our future.

As a self-styled historian, I was surprised and delighted when one of my good friends gave me the opportunity to examine Republican campaign literature from the 1932 presidential election.  For those unborn or unfamiliar with the 1932 election, the Republican Party candidate was the incumbent, President Herbert Hoover.  The candidate of the Democratic Party was New York Governor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  The nation was in the grasp of the worst economic catastrophe in its history.

Much like in our recent pre-Obama past, during The Great Depression, citizens experienced widespread job loss, businesses failed and we stood on the brink of total economic collapse.  People were forced into homelessness and too many did not know from one day to another from where their next meal would come.  Many historians view this election as a pivotal point in the relationship between African Americans, who until that time had generally been loyal Republicans, and to the Republican Party.

The choice for African Americans and most Americans was in who they believed would be most successful in bringing The Depression to an end.  Unfortunately for Hoover, he embraced the belief that private individuals and institutions, not government, had the responsibility to provide direct aid and assistance to struggling Americans.  The depth of The Depression and its impact on the majority of Americans was fundamental to the 1932 election outcome.

The Negro and The Republican Party, a 1932 RNC campaign pamphlet, in part said, "Since the birth of the Republican Party the Negro has sat in its highest councils.  He has been among its directors and advisors...Under the administration of President Hoover the American Negro has persisted in the marvelous and commercial progress which has astonished mankind."  Criticizing their political opponents, Republicans said of Democrats, "The Democratic Party, two tongued and two-faced, forced the Negro out of the franchise...because he had refused to transfer his allegiance from the party of freedom to the party of slavery."

The political pabulum of Republicans did not convince African Americans to maintain their loyalties to that party.  Roosevelt's forward thinking policies and New Deal implementations played a significant role in stabilizing the American economy, providing the means for earning the basic commodities for life, and permanently bringing millions of new Black voters to the Democratic Party.

Reflecting on the 1932 election, I see several parallels with our current election cycle.  This time, as in 1932, Republicans seek to reject/abandon the social safety nets that protect the average citizen.  Paul Ryan, now Speaker of the House of Representatives and chief architect of Republican budgets, is a disciple of writer/philosopher Ayn Rand.  His policy and budget proposals incorporate her philosophy of "the virtue of selfishness."  She said the individual should "exist of his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself."  In other words, everyone for her/himself, sink or swim, etc.

This time, instead of condemning Democrats for disenfranchising Black voters, Republicans have gone on record and publicly boasted that their voter suppression efforts would change election outcomes.  As one television pundit has expressed, the Republican message cannot win elections for them, so they cheat to win.

Like 1932, I see no substantive change in Republican ethos or practices I believe will improve the quality of life for African Americans.

(Dr. E. Faye Williams is National President of the National Congress of Black Women.  202-678-6788. www.nationalcongressbw.org)

April 17, 2016

Blackonomics

Black-on-Black Coalescence  (Part One) 
By James Clingman

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Coalition-building is the best way for Black people to make the kind of progress we need to make in this country, especially when it comes to economic empowerment.  Some have posited that Black people are swiftly becoming obsolete.  From the agricultural economy to the industrial and mass production economy Black folks, in some cases, had it going on.  Many individual Blacks did quite well with jobs and businesses in those areas.  As we moved through the technology/information economy and now into the knowledge-based economy, the rules for survival have changed.

Are Black people as a group becoming obsolete?  Someone said, “All the shoes have been shined and all the cotton has been picked,” which suggests that Black people are no longer needed by white folks, therefore, if we do not change our ways when it comes to business and job development we will indeed become obsolete.  Frederick Douglass, Booker T., and Garvey spoke of a time when we would have to consider the question of Black obsolescence if we did not awaken from our deep sleep and refuse to be dependent upon the largess of others for our sustenance.

The strength we gain from coalescence will bring about this much-needed change, and one major step is to reach out and connect with other likeminded people of African descent.  This should be done on a national and an international level, the closest area being just south of our country—the Caribbean.

One of the greatest Africans in modern history was born in Jamaica.  Of course, that would be Marcus Mosiah Garvey, who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).  Look across the Caribbean and you will find other Blacks who knew and followed through on solutions; they took action rather than merely talk about their problems.  They stood up against aggression, ignorance, and oppression.  They understood and followed through on the value of educating their people, and they subscribed to the lessons their elders left behind.

Haitian history shows us strength and refusal to submit to enslavement; it also shows us resolve and a willingness to help others, as in the case of Haitian soldiers going to Savannah, Georgia to fight against the British in the Siege of Savannah on Oct. 9, 1779, during the U.S. Revolutionary War. We also remember the irrepressible Toussaint L’Overture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and Henri Christophe, Haitians who led the only successful slave revolt in the western hemisphere.

Many Black people came to the United States from the Caribbean and brought with them the same spirit, the same dedication and drive, and the same resolute character that causes men and women to seek for themselves, as Richard Allen taught back in 1767.  Our Caribbean brothers and sisters have come with the determination to do for self, to rely on self, to cooperate with one another, and build an economic system within their own ranks.  This article is written in an effort to celebrate our people and establish relationships that will engender cooperation among our people.

Marcus Garvey instructed us to do one thing prior to taking on economic empowerment initiatives.  He told us to “Organize!”  He shared with us the truth about economic empowerment over political empowerment and how we should seek economics first.  He said, “The most important area for the exercise of independent effort is economic.  After a people have established successfully a firm industrial foundation they naturally turn to politics and society, but not first to society and politics, because the two latter cannot exist without the former.”

Lessons from Garvey and others have led a precious few of us to implement strategies that, in fact, will lead to economic empowerment; we need many more.  One such effort is the One Million Conscious Black Voters and Contributors (OMCBV&C), which was established on Garvey’s words, “The greatest weapon used against the Black man is disorganization.”  The OMCBV&C movement is underway, actively recruiting that critical mass of Black people who will take action rather than merely talk about problems.   The One Million will leverage dollars and votes to obtain reciprocity in the marketplace as well as in the public policy arena.

In the tradition of Marcus Garvey, the One Million is organized, cooperative, and supportive of one another.  It is entrepreneurial in its philosophy regarding ownership and control of income producing assets.  The One Million is molded in the very practical notion of using our own resources to help ourselves and our children.  We are committed, dedicated, sacrificial in our giving, and unapologetically Black as we pursue our ultimate goals of economic and political strength—in that order.

Black people, no matter where we were born or where we live, must appreciate the fact that we started out in the same place and our differences emanate from our experiences in the nations where our ships docked in the western hemisphere.

April 17, 2016

Revive the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
By Rev. Jesse Jackson