June 19, 2023

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - At first glance, the numbers don’t make sense. At one point there was approximately 700 Confederate monuments spread throughout 31 states and the District of Columbia. Yet, there were only 11 states which formed the Confederate States of America.

Historians have noted that most of the Confederate memorials were not built with the intention of honoring fallen soldiers, but to continue advancing the ideas behind White supremacy. James Grossman, the executive director of the American Historical Association, says the increase in statues and monuments was clearly meant to send a message.

“These statues were meant to create legitimate garb for White supremacy, Grossman said. “Why would you put a statue of Robert E. Lee or Stonewall Jackson in 1948 in Baltimore?” The Civil War was a culture war which ended in 1865 on the battlefield, but the war has never ended in the hearts and minds of those sympathetic to the Confederate cause.

In other words, the spirit behind the war still rages on. While slavery and Reconstruction, as distinct eras of our long and turbulent history ended over a century ago, the abolishment of slavery never ended racial hatred. Nor did the end of Reconstruction stop the unwillingness to grant people of color full rights as American citizens and as human beings.

The belief in White supremacy and the never-ending desire to defend it is not limited to the boundaries of former Confederate states.  Nor is it constrained by time. There are five major institutions in the United States: the family, education, government, economic and religion. The connection from our past history to our current events shows that each institution has found their unique way of preserving, defending, and advancing the Confederate cause of White supremacy. This would also include our U.S. Army.

Organizations such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy were influential in having roughly 1,500 symbols of Confederacy placed in public spaces.  These organizations totally ignored the act of treason when forces from the Confederate States of America attacked the United States military garrison at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, thereby starting the American Civil War.

Having major U.S. military installations in the South named after Confederate officers who supported the Fort Sumter attack is not only an insult to people of color, but to all true Americans. Nine southern Army bases were named after treasonous Confederate officers who fought against the Unites States Army to preserve slavery and White supremacy. The bases include: Fort Polk, Louisiana; Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia; Fort Lee, Virginia; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Gordon, Georgia; Fort Rucker, Alabama; Fort Pickett, Virginia; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and Fort Benning, Georgia.

Rather than covering White supremacy in ways to make it appear legitimate, it should always to be exposed in the manner it is presented along with highlighting its true intent.  Fort Benning was named after Henry Benning who, in a speech inviting Virginia to join the Confederacy, said Georgia had chosen to secede because “a separation from the North was the only thing that could prevent the abolition of slavery,” warning that if slavery was abolished, “then we will have Black governors, Black legislatures, Black juries, Black everything.”

 His comments were met with laughter, but Benning’s fears were materialized. It is only fitting that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, as the first Black to hold the highest civilian position in the Department of Defense, ordered changing the name of Fort Benning following a U.S. Army commission recommendation. Needless to say, not everyone is happy and the renaming issue is now being exploited to score political points.

Former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as GOP presidential candidates, understand the message behind honoring failed Confederates. Both men condemned the renaming of Fort Bragg to Fort Liberty and have vowed to restore the name as president. While Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are well known Confederate generals, I never heard of Confederate General Braxton Bragg until now. The reason behind his obscurity and insignificance comes from the fact that he was simply not very good. He was known for his incompetence, quarreling with key subordinates and losing major battles. As one historian describes, Bragg “had done as much as any Confederate general to lose the war.” Bragg was known for his ruthless style so much that one of his own soldiers tried to kill him.

Fort Bragg is one of the largest military complexes in the world, and sadly it was named after a Confederate slave-owner who historians called the South’s worst and most hated general. His incompetence didn’t matter nor did his cruelty, lack of leadership and betrayal to his country. As long as he and other Confederate officers proved to be staunch defenders and heroes of White supremacy, they were deemed worthy to be recognized by statues, monuments, schools, roads and even military installations. The culture war continues. Despite the name change to Fort Liberty, people vow to keep calling it Fort Bragg. We should be prepared that people will continue to passionately embrace the Confederate cause while rewarding those in positions of power despite their cruelty, incompetence and national betrayal.

David W. Marshall is founder of the faith based organization, TRB: The Reconciled Body, and author of the book “God Bless Our Divided America”. He can be reached at www.davidwmarshallauthor.com

To Be Equal 
June 17, 2023
 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery.” - W.E.B. Du Bois 

Just a dozen years after Major General Gordon Granger’s Order Number 3 declared “an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves,” the last federal troops withdrew from former Confederate states. Their withdrawal ushered in a near-century of legally-enforced racial segregation, white supremacist terrorism, and second-class citizenship for Black Americans. 

Still, the celebration of Granger’s order, the holiday we celebrate on Monday as Juneteenth, endured. 

The Great Migrations spread the celebration of Juneteenth from Texas to the rest of the nation.  The June 19, 1968, Solidarity Day celebration – organized by Greater Washington Urban League Executive Director Sterling Tucker -- during the Poor People’s March on Washington may have played a role in popularizing Juneteenth. 

“My theory is that these delegates for the summer took that idea of the celebration back to their respective communities,“ the late African American folklorist William Wiggins Jr. said. “Because it was used to close the Poor Peoples Campaign, the idea was taken back by different participants in that march, and it took root around the country. It has taken on a life of its own.” 

Given this history, Juneteenth represents not a moment of liberation, but an ongoing journey of persistence and hope.   

As President Biden said when he signed the bill designating Juneteenth as a federal holiday, “Emancipation of enslaved Black Americans didn’t mark the end of America’s work to deliver on the promise of equality; it only marked the beginning.” 

The white supremacists who rejected the promise of equality during the Reconstruction era called their movement “Redemption” and referred to themselves as “Redeemers.” They undermined their political opponents and suppressed Black voters through a campaign of violence and intimidation. 

The white supremacists who reject the promise of equality today are banning books, distorting history, and clamping down on the mere suggestion of systemic racism and inequities. 

Among the nearly 700 measures that state, local and federal policy makers have introduced over the last two years was a little-discussed provision that would ban Illinois schools from “promoting the concept” that “meritocracy” and “a hard work ethic” are tools of oppression. In effect, the provision would stifle any suggestion that racial gaps in wealth or income, educational attainment, home ownership, civic engagement, or political representation are the result of anything other than merit and hard work.  

Distortion of history is a familiar tool of white supremacy, from the “Lost Cause” mythology that Black Americans had been content – even fortunate -- to live under a system of oppression, to the “anti-woke” mythology that the system of oppression doesn’t exist.  

Historian Elizabeth Hayes Turner described the earliest celebrations of Juneteenth as “a joyful retort” to “displays of Confederate glorification” and “valorization of the Lost Cause." 

Today, Juneteenth is our own “joyful retort” to the modern-day Lost Causers seeking to distort history and deny the presence of systemic and institutional racism.  
 
 

June 17, 2023

The interstates built in the 1950s and 1960s killed the vitality of the communities where people of color and the poor lived, from Overtown in Miami to the Hill District in Pittsburgh to the South and West Sides of Chicago. The disruption and segregation of those communities happened by design.

The harm continues to this day for the residents who remain in those neighborhoods. Because the highways run through their backyards, those people are at point blank range for the pollution from the millions of vehicles driving the interstates burning fossil fuels.

Transportation accounts for more than a quarter of the climate damaging gases this country makes, more than any other sector. An estimated 72 million Americans live in close proximity to trucking routes and they are disproportionately people of color or living with low incomes.

We have an unprecedented chance to change this longstanding disregard for so many Americans’ health and well-being, and we must grab that chance if we want to reduce vehicle pollution enough to reach our goal of cutting carbon emissions in half by 2030.

While heavy duty vehicles – think delivery trucks, garbage trucks, buses, and tractor trailer trucks – are only 6 percent of the vehicles in the United States, they produce a third of the climate pollution from transportation. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed new rules that would sharply reduce the carbon dioxide that heavy duty vehicles will be allowed to belch in their exhaust and pave the way for more trucks and buses that have no emissions.

The comment period for these new rules ended Friday, so the EPA needs to finalize them quickly. As we saw last year with other common sense air pollution standards for trucks that the EPA adopted, special interests and the politicians they support will oppose any regulations that have a chance to avert climate disaster. The EPA must stand up for communities most damaged by truck and bus pollution.

The stricter rules should add momentum to changes already happening in that part of the economy. Manufacturers like Daimler, Ford, Navistar, and Volvo have pledged to increase the number of zero emission trucks they sell and big volume shippers including Amazon, FedEx, and Walmart have said they will cut their air pollution.

The available models of zero emission trucks are up more than a quarter from three years ago, and their cost is expected to drop 40 percent in the next four years. Seventeen states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have agreed to a plant to boost zero emission truck sales with an initial target of 30 percent by 2030.

Beyond the new federal rules, we have extraordinary incentives that are part of the historic infrastructure and clean energy packages that President Biden and Congress approved over the last two years. We’ve pledged to spend $1 billion by 2031 on zero emission heavy duty trucks and another $5 billion by 2026 on clean school buses. We must have the bigger stick of tougher regulation, but for the first time we have meaningful carrots from these incentives.

We’ve finally as a nation started to acknowledge the scope of the change it will take to preserve our fragile and already damaged planet. But the interest in the status quo is strong among those who gain from it like Big Oil companies reporting record billions in profits. We can’t turn our attention away now, assuming that recognizing the problem will undoubtedly lead to the right actions to address it.

Sixty years ago, neighborhoods in Manhattan, Washington and New Orleans fought back successfully against being divided and paved over by interstates. Finishing the job of ending the pollution from those highways’ traffic will take that same commitment on our part.

Ben Jealous is executive director of the Sierra Club, the nation’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization. He is a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania and author of “Never Forget Our People Were Always Free,” published in January.

May 7, 2023

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, or Independent, President Joe Biden needs to be re-elected regardless of whether you like him. During the 2020 presidential election, many people voted for Biden simply because he was not Donald Trump. The upcoming election in 2024 looks to be a rematch between Biden and Trump, with the risks and consequences being much greater than before. While we often encourage voters to be informed and objective concerning election issues and candidates, the United States has never had a presidential party nominee indicted in a criminal case or one who publicly suggested that all rules, regulations, and articles within the Constitution be terminated. Normally, those two issues alone would be enough negative baggage to prevent any candidate from being considered a viable party nominee.

The Republican Party of today is not what they claim to be, placing the nation at risk. In accepting Trump as the presumptive party nominee, the GOP is knowingly choosing a person who was twice impeached, disrespected veterans, POWs, women, minorities, mocked the disabled, dishonored a “Gold Star” family, discredited the CIA, cheated vendors, perpetuated the birther conspiracy, is tied to past tax evasion fraud, a Trump University scam, union busting, housing discrimination, multiple bankruptcies, white supremacy, colluding with Russia, and nepotism, not to mention several pending investigations and a civil rape trial. With all of Trump’s personal and political baggage, he remains a powerful force due to the many Republican enablers covering for him from their elected offices and the MAGA voters who see him as their cultural war champion.

Harris County, with its population of nearly 5 million people, is the largest county in Texas and the third most populous county in the nation. Its county seat is Houston, the largest city in the state and the fourth largest in the nation. Houston has become the most diverse city in the country. While the number of people in Harris County who identify as non-Hispanic white declined by nearly 3%, all other racial groups—including Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, and Alaskan Natives—increased. The changing demographics, along with the shifting electoral landscape of Harris County, is what scares the GOP. This once Republican stronghold, which now leans reliably Democratic, could turn Texas from red to blue in future presidential elections. Without Texas’ 38 votes in the Electoral College, the Republicans would be hard-pressed to win any future presidential elections without winning Texas.

Like 2020, the next presidential election is not about free and fair elections. The Texas Republican-controlled Senate passed a bill allowing the secretary of state to redo elections in Harris County, where several Democratic candidates gained strong midterm results. The Democratic candidate edged out the closely contested race for Harris County judge, the highest position in the county. The bill applies to all counties with a population over 2.7 million, of which there is only one, Harris County. If the House passes the bill and Gov. Greg Abbott signs it, the party claiming to be about free and fair elections has provided a built-in contingency if the 2024 election results in Texas fail to go their way.

It is safe to say that had Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams won her race for governor of Georgia, the legislation known as SB-92 would never have been signed. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed the legislation that will create an oversight commission with the power to remove local prosecutors and district attorneys from their jobs. The measure comes as Fani Willis, a Democrat serving as the Fulton County district attorney, investigates Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. A special purpose grand jury has already recommended indictments in the matter, and Willis has said if there are charges, they would be announced this summer. Willis has opposed the legislation, warning that it would be “dangerous” to undo decisions made by voters. “This bill was never deemed necessary until a historic thing happened in 2020. And let’s just talk about it and tell the truth,” said Willis, who testified before the Judiciary Committee of the Georgia Senate and criticized the bill as “racist,” noting earlier this year that Republicans were pushing the measure after the number of minority district attorneys grew from five to 14 in 2020. Now that Republicans can remove a district attorney, will they retaliate if Trump is charged with a crime?

The Republicans are not the party of law and order when they constantly refuse to address the nation’s gun violence by supporting a responsible assault weapon ban. The country experienced another mass shooting, with eight victims killed in an Allen, Texas, mall. The GOP was not the party of patriotism when the Republican National Committee censured the two House Republicans who participated on the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 attack. Republicans are not the party of jobs creation when their proposed legislation to address the debt ceiling crisis includes eliminating over 100,000 American manufacturing jobs in the clean energy industry. Many of the jobs are in red states. If there is one word that describes the mindset of GOP leadership, that word would be purge. They are positioning themselves to purge votes, purge elected officials they disagree with, purge jobs, and remove the written history of Black Americans. The only way to effectively respond is to do our purging at the ballot box in numbers that cannot be disputed.

David W. Marshall is the founder of the faith-based organization, TRB: The Reconciled Body, and author of the book God Bless Our Divided America. He can be reached at www.davidwmarshallauthor.com.

May 7, 2023

Reality Check

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - For over 50 years millions of Black people in this country have held commemoration events on the days Brother Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. were assassinated and celebratory events on their birthdays. Doing so is very important. However, equally important is the need for us to learn from and act on the profound, productive, inspiring guidelines the Brothers left us on how to promote and protect our health, economic, political, educational, technological and communications interests in a country where overt white supremacy has once again become openly hostile.

One 1967 guideline from Brother Martin stated that “A second important step that the negro must take is to work passionately for group identity….group unity necessarily involves group trust and reconciliation. One of the most serious effects of the negro’s damage ego has been his frequent loss of respect for himself and other negroes. He ends up with ambivalence towards his own kind…. This plea for unity is not a call for uniformity. There must always be healthy debate. There will be inevitable differences of opinion. The dilemma that the negro confronts is so complex and monumental that its solution will of necessity involve a diversified approach. But negroes can differ and still unite around common goals. There are already structured forces in the negro community that can serve as the basis for building a powerful united front—the negro church, the negro press, the negro fraternities and sororities and negro professional associations. We must admit that these forces have never given their full resources to the call of negro liberation….But the failure of the past must not be an excuse for the inaction of the future. These groups must be mobilized and motivated….This form of group unity can do infinitely more to liberate the negro than any action of individuals. ~Please note Brother Martin italicized individuals. ~  We have been oppressed as a group and we must overcome that oppression as a group.”

Brother Malcolm was just as direct and solutions-oriented when he stated that “U.S. politics is ruled by special interest blocs and lobbyists. What group has more urgent special interests? What group needs a bloc, a lobby more than the Black man? Labor owns one of Washington’s largest non-government buildings—situated where they can literally watch the White House—and no political move is made that doesn’t include how Labor feels about it. A lobby gets Big Oil its depletion allowance….Twenty-million Black people should tomorrow give $1 apiece to build a skyscraper in Washington, DC. Every morning every legislator should receive communications about what every Black man and woman in America expects and wants and needs. The demanding voice of the Black lobby should be in the ear of every legislator who votes on any issues.”

We Black people in this country would not be such easy targets in 2023 if we had utilized the solutions-oriented guidelines provided by Brother Martin, Brother Malcolm and other serious leaders, including Brother Harold Cruse, Brother Lerone Bennett, Jr., sister Frances Cress Welsing, Sister C. Delores Tucker and Brother Hoyt Fuller. Fortunately for us it is better to be late than never. We still have time to follow the guidelines presented by some of our great master teachers.