by Whitney Gresham
“Our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.” –Martin Luther King Jr. from The World House chapter of his book, “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?” published in 1967.
Given all the country has been through the past four years under the disgraceful Trump Administration, those prescient words from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are as wise and appropriate today as when they were first written 53 years ago.
This is especially in light of the recent insurrection and attempted takeover of the U.S. Capitol by a huge mob of Trump supporters made up largely of neo-Confederates, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and far-right militia members.
While the chaos occurred just two weeks before the historic inauguration of President elect Joe Biden and Vice President elect Kamala Harris, it also broke out just three weeks before the 34th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Black America should have been preparing to celebrate the first African American female – and HBCU graduate – elected as the Vice President of the United States – and getting rid of the most racist President in American history – the same week as MLK Day.
Instead, it had to witness a profane orgy of violent white radicalism instigated by the President of the United States. And this on the eve of the inauguration of a new president who was swept into office largely on the votes of African Americans.
Nevertheless, in spite of this appalling situation, as MLK Day nears, it is important for Black America to step back and reflect on what it managed to achieve over the past year in spite of Trump. And, most importantly, how it managed once again to save this country from itself.
By taking advantage of the right to vote which Dr. King and the late Congressmen John Lewis for which they sacrificed their live, Black America was the deciding factor in electing Biden and Harris to the highest offices in the land, while making the extremely dangerous and profoundly racist Donald Trump a one-term president.
While in the process, Georgia elected to the U.S. Senate the Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock as the first Black man or woman and Jon Ossoff as its first American Jew from its state. At the same time voters took out the two incumbent neo-Confederate senators who preceded them.
And, for the ultimate trifecta, their election gave the Democratic Party the two extra seats needed to take control of the U.S. Senate. President elect Biden and the Democratic leadership has promised that among their first legislative acts will be to push for the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Restoration Act and an anti-lynching bill. The current Republican Senate Majority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has been blocking both bills from coming to the floor for a vote.
All of this was made possible by the hard work and energy of the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and a myriad of grassroots organizations who led a massive statewide get out the vote effort which led to a record turnout of African American voters.
All of America owes her and the other voting rights champions a debt of gratitude for their commitment and dedication to the cause.
The nationwide mobilization of the Black vote and the clout it demonstrated in many ways is part of the fulfillment of the dreams of Dr. King and John Lewis and all those early Civil Rights leaders. It not only underscores the importance of the vote to the Black community, but it also illuminates the fact that far too often it is African Americans who show the most fealty to Democratic principles in this country. And precisely from whom so many white people from presidents to Supreme Court justices down to state and local officials try so hard to keep the vote from.
So, it’s important to distill the reason for all the chaos by Trump supporters down to its bare essence. And it comes down to three short words: Black voting rights. Or more precisely, the fear of Black voting rights.
Again.
The very reason Trump and so many of his militant supporters were upset to the point of violence in the first place was the failure of the state and federal courts to go along with his lies that President elect Biden and Vice President elect Harris were fraudulently elected.
His entire claim was largely predicated upon the lie that voters in major urban cities such as Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia and Milwaukee — all cities with large Black populations — engaged in election misconduct which resulted in his not receiving the number of votes due him.
There was never any evidence to support such claims. Just Trump and his maliciously racist supporters’ conjecture which went nowhere in the court system, both at the state and federal levels, where proof is required to prevail. In fact, his legal team lost in the range of 60 different lawsuits and appeals to that argument, including in many courtrooms headed by judges appointed by Trump and other Republican presidents.
The President, however, is a liar incapable of distinguishing fiction from fact. He followed the playbook of the old deranged segregationist politicians of the South who built their political careers upon oppressing African Americans and keeping their constituencies whipped up in a constant state of fear, anxiety and anger over racial progress during the 1940s, 50s, 60s and the 70s.
Like the segregationists King confronted, Trump is a privileged white male incapable of accepting the fact that he cannot always get his way. Couple that mentality with a cult-like following of supporters who are already bigoted and inclined to automatically believe the worst about African Americans and you have a very combustible situation.
Wrap those psychological dynamics in the politics of white grievance and anyone could have seen a violent confrontation brewing with thousands of these people called by Trump to Washington to protest Congress performing its Constitutional duties to certify the election results.
Just like the white mobs who attacked Dr. King and other civil rights activists and freedom riders who went into the south to register Black voters and advocate for desegregation, nether Trump nor his supporters possess the will or ability “to face the challenge of change” as King wrote in 1967.
The people cavorting through the halls of Congress were the psychological, political and moral spawn of the white mobs who violently resisted the civil rights movement. They also viciously discount efforts by Black Americans to have our say in how we are treated by school systems, police departments, and other institutions that receive our tax dollars, and businesses that accept our money.
It is no wonder one prominent former Republican strategist, Stuart Stevens, referred to the gang of U.S. Senators and Trump sycophants pushing to reject the certification of the Biden victory and nullify the votes of more than 80 million voters based on Trump’s lies, as the “Jim Crow caucus.”
Stevens, from Mississippi, and author of “It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump” told the journalist Jonathan Capehart that the 12 Republicans senators opposed to certifying Biden’s victory represent, “a new Jim Crow caucus.” He said it all was just an attempt “to discredit the votes of African-Americans.”
The whole ordeal reveals. yet again, the painful dichotomy of being Black in America: the constant struggle to assert our humanity, value, and rights as citizens, in the face of constant resistance from a large plurality, if not a majority of white citizens. But, also earning just enough quality victories — such as electing the first Black president and first Black female vice president to keep the faith. And, sometimes, even leveraging our collective voting power to often elect a white president who isn’t inherently hostile or indifferent to our ambitions. Which makes the effort worthwhile, in spite of the frustration, anger and exhaustion.
So, as MLK Day approaches, Black America must once again, in the spirit of Dr. King, continue to dig down deep enough “to face the challenge of change” even when that change seems to be a repeat of the same old history when it comes to combating racism, yet, we fight and keep our eyes on the prize, for a change although slow in response is progressing.
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