Over the years I have repeatedly written and lectured about the condition of Blacks when it involves the two major political parties. That old quotation is relevant, “the more things change the more they remain the same.”
There was a period of time that three Black ward chairmen had access to power, remember?
They were Jake Williams, 5th Ward; Bubbie Hairston, 13th Ward; and the all-powerful Dock Fielder Jr., 12th ward. Collectively they provided more jobs for Blacks than any three Black individuals throughout Allegheny County.
If you can recall in the early days that was all that politics meant to most people, the sophisticated term was economic salvation, the everyday term simply was to obtain a job. There were those who questioned what kind of jobs did they obtained, but I recall a Black retiree who lived in East Liberty described it best. One day he said to some who were teasing him about an issue and he answered by saying, “The so-called little job I had provided me with the capacity to buy a house, send my daughter to college and receive a pension check every month.
The jobs and the Black chairmen no longer exist, and current opportunities are being denied to Black voters who have been loyal to a Democratic Party that continues to prove it doesn’t give a damn about us. The local Republican Party resembles the White Citizens Council. How many Blacks do you know are active Republicans? I don’t know any.
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