by Major W. Cox
More than one hundred and thirty years have passed since Wendell Phillips, the prominent abolitionist, spoke of his generation being "chained" to the duty of eliminating race from American politics. Today, we remain securely yoked to that same duty. On a daily basis, I am reminded of the failure of Wendell Phillips generation to eliminate race from America’s politics.
Recently, a not so subtle reminder came from Selma, when Louis Farrakhan visited that city. Mr. Farrakhan, noted for his firebrand orations often laced with controversial protestations of white-racism, spoke to an overflowing crowd at a packed Selma church. While hundreds gathered at Selma’s Tabernacle Baptist church to hear Mr. Farrakhan’s message, only a few attended the scheduled rally for Racial Harmony nearby at the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Why are so many Americans attracted to Louis Farrakhan? Minister Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, fills a prophetic void in our society. He sets an agenda for the people society left behind. Mr. Farrakhan speaks to racial issues when other leaders will not or can not address such issues with credibility. No other political leader speaks to the issue of race with a voice as powerful as Minister Farrakhan.
Even the President is unable to manifest leadership in this arena where Minister Farrakhan seems to be so popular. President Clinton called for a national dialogue on race in a July 1997 speech in San Diego, California. He appointed a number of distinguished Americans to his One America Commission. The President charged the commission with the duty of conducting town-meeting style hearings at various locations around the country. Today, the commission is stalled in controversy over the disparaging remarks the Commission’s chairman, Professor John Hope Franklin, made in an interview about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Not even Jessie Jackson, two-time candidate for the democratic nomination to president, can match Farrakhan’s appeal. Recently Rev. Jackson traveled to San Francisco, California to lead a protest march across the Golden Gate Bridge. He led about 5,000 marchers protesting California’s Proposition 209, which eliminated affirmative action in the state. Ponder for a moment; why such a relatively few individuals turned out for this march at a time when many minority leaders labeled this legislation harmful to their communities?
Now contrast Rev. Jackson’s Proposition 209 protest march to Minister Farrakhan’s Million Man March on October 16, 1995 in Washington DC. On that occasion, by almost everyone’s count, Farrakhan summoned the largest crowd ever assembled at the Mall in Washington DC. The March provided national visibility for Mr. Farrakhan’s remarkable leadership ability. He silenced many of his critics with that historic day of peaceful (black male) reconciliation and atonement.
Today, the longtime, and often the only voice speaking to the issues concerning non-white Americans, the NAACP, is silent on relevant issues as they attempt to redefine the organization’s mission. At this year’s convention, the big issue among members was school integration. Some members wanted the organization to reconsider its position on that issue. For some reason, I thought the US Supreme Court settled the integration question 40 years ago with Brown v. Board of Education.
Speaking of many years ago, Alabama seems to be returning to the past. I have no way of knowing for sure, but it appears to me that Governor James’ appointments to his cabinet, as well his commission and board appointments, are nearly as white and male as they were during the time Jim Folsom and John Patterson held that office.
Allow me just one more reminder of our failure to eliminate race from our politics. Recently, Halycon Ballard, the state personnel director, wrote State Representative Alvin Holmes acknowledging irregularities in the way her department handled of the Alabama State Trooper examination booklets. Mrs. Ballard discovered the mishandling of the test booklets while investigating Rep. Holmes complaint that some white candidates may have had inappropriate pre-test access to the test booklets. Deja vu?
In the final analysis, Louis Farrakhan is not the deus ex machina many of his supporters wish him to be (someone who will resolve all of America’s racial problems). Instead he is an opportunistic bit-character, shrewdly acting on the traditional, political stage, playing to a legitimate, long-neglected constituency. He is playing on the same stage that voters all across America left vacant when they elected officials who either refused or were unable to address this constituency’s political concerns. Benign neglect on the part of "born-again color blind," white politicians, who "we" elected, created the political space where Minister Farrakhan exercises his power.
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Originally Published: 17 September 1997, Montgomery Advertiser
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