Black nationalist thought occupied a respectable place in
African-American history as early as the 19th century, and is typified later in
such movements as the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the Nation of
Islam and the Republic of New Afrika.
However, the main theme of black “civic hope” by far has been the quest
for inclusion, acceptance and full citizenship rights.
Organizations were founded in the post-reconstruction period,
including religious, civic, professional and social groupings of Black America
that focussed almost entirely on equality. Equality was a fundamental value
that shot through these—not repatriation to Africa or revolution, but inclusion
in a non-racial, just America.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. best articulated this vision at
the 1963 March on Washington, when he spoke of a nation where his children
would “not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their
character”. It was as if, despite their actual experience of brutal oppression,
black people saw something in the stated ideals of the Republic with which they
could call their white compatriots to account. In his public orations, King
more effectively than any before him, “played back” to the power elite and to
the general population of the country the woeful contradictions between the
fact of Black dehumanization on the one hand, and the rhetorical proclamations
of the nation’s founding documents on the other.
By the time of his death, Dr. King had become more “radical”,
believing that a “revolution of values” was necessary if the nation were to
manifest its real promise; that America without a deep course change was structurally condemned to
perpetuate racism, poverty and violence.
Yet African Americans, by and large, were slow to embrace the
latter-day King, choosing instead to remain wedded to King’s earlier “Dream”.
What they presumed he saw from the “Mountaintop” in Memphis the evening before
he was assassinated, was equal opportunity and fair play for the Negro within
the existing American framework. And with the exception of the Black Panther
Party, and the demand for reparations by the Black Economic Development
Conference, virtually no black agency has veered from this ideal since. Blacks
seeking advancement in professional companies; blacks leading business
enterprises; and blacks seeking elective office became the most visible
preoccupations of a growing Black middle class. Meanwhile, the plight of the
suffering Black and poor masses, which concerned Dr. King the most by 1967,
continued unabated.
The harder beneficiaries of civil rights advances worked, the
stronger the backlash. By the late 70’s Affirmative Action had come and was all
but gone. Blacks were more segregated than ever. There were more local black
elected officials than ever, even as they we were more isolated and
ghettoized. A permanent wedge had
been driven between the Black haves and have-nots . Virtually all the
prescriptions for wholesale admission into the American mainstream had failed
us. Where would we go from here?
Black frustration over these imponderables may help to
explain the burst of emotion shown when Barack Obama was elected president in
2008. It challenged Black people to believe again that it was still possible
for them to be accepted as true Americans. It was a confounding event. From inside the community, it felt
surreal—as if something had happened that was beyond comprehension. Anyone who
dared to imagine the USA electing a Black president other than in Hollywood
fiction, still would hardly have dreamed it would happen when it did. Black
voters didn’t take Obama’s candidacy seriously until he won the Democratic
primary in Iowa, a state with a Black population of just over 9%. A “miracle”
might be in the works if white people were supporting Obama.That was the
beginning of a journey down an untraveled road. Where would it lead, we wondered?
So now, at the close of the President’s time in office, we
have answers. We have all been treated to a uniquely American civics lesson. We
know now, after Barack and Michelle have occupied the White House with their
precious family, not even the best and brightest, nor the most civil and
dignified are accepted. Though they have symbolized the best of Black America,
and despite their Ivy League degrees, they have taken onto themselves the
indignities, the insults and the attempted humiliation that was really aimed at the race as a
whole.
This may explain why the bond the Obamas evidently enjoy with
the black community has less to do with what the Obama Administration achieved
in terms of peace and prosperity for the nation and the world, and more to do
with how they have “represented” while in the White House.
Obama’s African American critics, therefore, may be missing
the point when they focus on the ills that persist among poor Black people
despite anything Obama has done while in office. Black baby boomers, in
particular, defend the president’s legacy because they believe it is too
significant to risk undermining. It is a strong affirmation of the civic hope
and confidence that America is certainly moving toward justice, however far off
it may be.
Pride in the First Family is palpable. The Obamas have become a
symbol of assurance that Black people, after all, are as much an integral part
of America as any other group. MLK and Barack Obama occupy different places
history, with different missions. However, the reverence with which they are
held among black people is rooted in the hope that America is capable of
perfecting itself.
And if Dr. King is right in saying “the moral arc of the
universe is long, but it bends towards justice”, Barack Obama has become an
icon of the struggle toward national perfection. He will be remembered not so
much for his specific accomplishments during his time in office; not for the fact
that he transformed the aims and functions of government; but for holding the
office at all—an office (the most powerful in the world) that was so evidently
reserved for white men.
African Americans doggedly hold out hope against hope that
one day, in
the words of Langston Hughes,
“America was never America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!
In the days ahead, though, this resolve will be tested, given
the troubling turn the nation is taking as we face the dawn of the post-Obama
years. If the lot of poor people and other marginalized groups turns out to be
as bad as is feared, Dr. King’s latter-day conclusions about the protracted,
systemic flaws that continue to infect the USA will certainly gain renewed
currency.
M. William Howard
November, 2016
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