Last week I wrote about the truth behind the Southern heritage that comes proudly wrapped in a battle flag which, for some reason, is often displayed as a decal on the rear window of a pick-up truck. The reality of that heritage is one of white supremacy and treason.
The true Southern heritage is much more inspiring and is one that more Southerners should be claiming for their own. Loudly.
If it weren't for the South, we would have no heroes like Martin Luther King, Jr or Medgar Evers. We would have had no Harlem Renaissance, led by writers like Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin and Zora Neale Hurston. Nor would we have been exposed to the intellect of W.E.B. DuBois or Marcus Garvey. Or the dance of Josephine Baker or the Nicholas Brothers. The music of Lena Horne or Duke Ellington.
Jazz. How much poorer would we be as a nation without a music to call our own? Its roots are planted firmly in the South. As are Southern gospel and the blues. The cultural wealth that has sprung from the South is stunning, and so much more than just the works of William Faulkner or Tennessee Williams, both giants in their own right.
Please join me below the fold.
Even greater than the cultural heritage, is the Southern heritage of a people who refused to give up. A people sold into slavery who lost family on a regular basis, given no options, no choice. They built a nation. The cotton they picked fueled an industrial revolution that changed the world. After the war, in spite of the overwhelming obstacles of the Jim Crow era, they kept going. They continued to produce literature, music, dance and art. Unrecognized, they continued to make contributions in science, medicine, and industry. And they never stopped fighting for their freedom or their franchise.
The sad truth is that they have never been able to stop fighting.
There is a new generation of young civil rights activists now on the scene, people like DeRay Mckesson, Johnetta Elzie and Bassem Masri, who are fighting this battle on social media as well as the streets. They stood as proudly facing down police as Martin Luther King, Jr. did over 50 years ago. Styles change, tactics change, but the basics remain, sadly, the same. From his letter from Birmingham City Jail, which was dated, April 16, 1963, but could have been written yesterday:
... when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society;
The
Dream Defenders, led by Phillip Agnew, (
and documented here at Daily Kos by JoanMar) in Florida have been spreading the word that #BlackLivesMatter since the shooting of Trayvon Martin.
We have seen the Moral Monday protests, led by the Reverend William Barber, spread from North Carolina to states across the South, and even as far north as Wisconsin.
“We must march, mobilize, litigate, agitate, legislate, and continue to be focused on these state capitols,” Barber says.
It doesn't seem to matter to them how often they are forced to fight the same battles. They still have no choice. Women like
Bree Newsome will always have to tear down the past in order to make way for a better future. And hopefully, white allies like James Ian Tyson will always be willing to stand with them.
It was decided that this role should go to a black woman and that a white man should be the one to help her over the fence as a sign that our alliance transcended both racial and gender divides. We made this decision because for us, this is not simply about a flag, but rather it is about abolishing the spirit of hatred and oppression in all its forms.
The most powerful heritage that they share with us is the faith in a better tomorrow, regardless of today's realities. But in order to change those realities, we must continue the battles that they have started. And it is at this stage that white allies can be most helpful. Bree Newsome may be able to climb a flag pole, and I can't, but I can knock on the doors of my white neighbors. And so can you. And it wouldn't be the first time that white allies have shown support by doing so.
Change may begin in the streets, but it must make it to the legislatures before it can be enshrined into law. As Meteor Blades, whose start as an activist can be traced back to registering Southern voters, put it:
But the great reforms have also required the passage of confirming legislation, statutory or constitutional. Which has meant convincing incumbents or electing challengers who are already convinced that a reform is the right thing—or at least the necessary thing—to do if they expect to remain in office.
There are four states whose legislatures are up for re-election THIS year. Not 2016, but in 2015, both houses in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Virginia are up for re-election. And in New Jersey, the General Assembly will face the voters in November.
Now, it might be more fun to debate the outcome of the Democratic primaries that do not even begin until next year, but now is the time to get busy working to take back the states. One precinct at a time.
In Virginia, there is a movement afoot to register 90 new voters in each of the state's precincts for a total of 250,000 voters. Denise Oliver Velez has written in depth about this movement, 90 for 90, here.
We need to start now. In Virginia, the voter registration supplies include not just voter registration forms, but forms for voter ID cards, and requests for the restoration of civil rights. If your state requires these, now is the time to start working on them.
It takes courage to continue to fight in the face of what must seem insurmountable odds. And yet it is a battle that every generation must accept. It is part of that Southern heritage, the refusal to give up, the willingness to continue a battle that, if all the gods smile upon your cause, might be won some generations hence. It may begin for you by picking up that phone over there, calling your local Democratic organization and volunteering your time and effort to make sure that what is won in the street is not lost in the legislature.