From The Ramparts
Junious Ricardo Stanton
Where Do We Go From Here?
“In assault after assault, we caused the sagging walls of segregation to come tumbling down. During this era the entire edifice of segregation was profoundly shaken. This is an accomplishment whose consequences are deeply felt by every southern Negro in his daily life. It is no longer possible to count the number of public establishments that are open to Negroes. Ten years ago, Negroes seemed almost invisible to the larger society, and the facts of their harsh lives were unknown to the majority of the nation. But today, civil rights is a dominating issue in every state, crowding the pages of the press and the daily conversation of white Americans. In this decade of change, the Negro stood up and confronted his oppressor. He faced the bullies and the guns, and the dogs and the tear gas. He put himself squarely before the vicious mobs and moved with strength and dignity toward them and decisively defeated them. And the courage with which he confronted enraged mobs dissolved the stereotype of the grinning, submissive Uncle Tom. He came out of his struggle integrated only slightly in the external society, but powerfully integrated within. This was a victory that had to precede all other gains.” Martin Luther King Jr August 16th 1967
The motion picture Selma was released in selected cities a few weeks ago and released to wider distribution on Friday January 10th. My wife and I went to see it over the weekend. The film depicts only a few months of a larger more protracted and unfinished struggle by Africans in America for human rights, dignity and self-determination. The film focuses on Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., his inner circle and supporters as they grappled with disenfranchisement, brutality and racial oppression that existed for centuries but was being seriously challenged and beaten back on several fronts by aroused and energized Black people. I encourage younger folks to see the film to get an idea of what we have endured in this country, how we resisted and forced changes.
In a speech delivered in Atlanta Georgia on August 16, 1967 Dr. King provided a synopsis of what had transpired during the last ten years from the Montgomery Bus Boycott to August 1967. He talked about recent victories in Mississippi and the SCLC’s thrust towards economic empowerment with their Adult Education Project, their Tenant Union and Operation Breadbasket in Chicago, Cleveland and Atlanta. The economic thrust was based upon the concept of consumers organizing, asserting themselves and putting pressure on the stores, business and corporations for better treatment, employment and business opportunities. (You can read the full speech at: http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/where_do_we_go_from_here_delivered_at_the_11th_annual_sclc_convention/)
But King didn’t just give an update, he boldly asked the rhetorical question, “Where Do We Go From Here?” When you read or listen to that speech King’s answer may cause you to shudder because his words are still applicable today. “Now, in order to answer the question, ‘Where do we go from here?’ which is our theme, we must first honestly recognize where we are now. When the Constitution was written, a strange formula to determine taxes and representation declared that the Negro was sixty percent of a person. Today another curious formula seems to declare he is fifty percent of a person. Of the good things in life, the Negro has approximately one half those of whites. Of the bad things of life, he has twice those of whites. Thus, half of all Negroes live in substandard housing. And Negroes have half the income of whites. When we turn to the negative experiences of life, the Negro has a double share: There are twice as many unemployed; the rate of infant mortality among Negroes is double that of whites; and there are twice as many Negroes dying in Vietnam as whites in proportion to their size in the population. In other spheres, the figures are equally alarming. In elementary schools, Negroes lag one to three years behind whites, and their segregated schools receive substantially less money per student than the white schools. One-twentieth as many Negroes as whites attend college. Of employed Negroes, seventy-five percent hold menial jobs. This is where we are. Where do we go from here? First, we must massively assert our dignity and worth. We must stand up amid a system that still oppresses us and develop an unassailable and majestic sense of values. We must no longer be ashamed of being black. The job of arousing manhood within a people that have been taught for so many centuries that they are nobody is not easy.” Where Do We Go From Here August 16, 1967 Atlanta Georgia http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/where_do_we_go_from_here_delivered_at_the_11th_annual_sclc_convention/
King saw first hand the affects of systemic and institutionalized racism and propaganda. He was keenly aware of the wealth, health, education and employment gaps between Blacks and whites and he was formulating ideas and plans to address those issues. He was expanding upon what Black folks had done in Montgomery Alabama by withholding dollars and support to the bus company. He and SCLC began consumer selective patronage and boycott campaigns in Chicago, Cleveland and Atlanta and they were experiencing great success.
But he also realized Africans in America needed a boost in our personal and group self-esteem, we needed an injection of courage, gumption and purpose. Addressing the need to break down the vestiges of maladaptive psychology and behavior King said, “To offset this cultural homicide, the Negro must rise up with an affirmation of his own Olympian manhood. Any movement for the Negro's freedom that overlooks this necessity is only waiting to be buried. As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free. Psychological freedom, a firm sense of self-esteem, is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery. No Lincolnian Emancipation Proclamation, no Johnsonian civil rights bill can totally bring this kind of freedom. The Negro will only be free when he reaches down to the inner depths of his own being and signs with the pen and ink of assertive manhood his own emancipation proclamation. And with a spirit straining toward true self-esteem, the Negro must boldly throw off the manacles of self-abnegation and say to himself and to the world, ‘I am somebody. I am a person. I am a man with dignity and honor. I have a rich and noble history, however painful and exploited that history has been. Yes, I was a slave through my fore parents, and now I’m not ashamed of that. I'm ashamed of the people who were so sinful to make me a slave.’ Yes, yes, we must stand up and say, ‘I'm black, but I'm black and beautiful.’ This, this self-affirmation is the black man's need, made compelling by the white man's crimes against him.
Now another basic challenge is to discover how to organize our strength in to economic and political power. Now no one can deny that the Negro is in dire need of this kind of legitimate power. Indeed, one of the great problems that the Negro confronts is his lack of power. From the old plantations of the South to the newer ghettos of the North, the Negro has been confined to a life of voicelessness and powerlessness. Stripped of the right to make decisions concerning his life and destiny he has been subject to the authoritarian and sometimes whimsical decisions of the white power structure. The plantation and the ghetto were created by those who had power, both to confine those who had no power and to perpetuate their powerlessness. Now the problem of transforming the ghetto, therefore, is a problem of power, a confrontation between the forces of power demanding change and the forces of power dedicated to the preserving of the status quo. Now, power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political, and economic change. Walter Reuther defined power one day. He said, ‘Power is the ability of a labor union like UAW to make the most powerful corporation in the world, General Motors, say, ‘Yes’ when it wants to say ‘No.’ That's power.” ibid
What King was calling for was indeed self-empowerment, positive Black self-esteem, unity, assertiveness and Black Power! This may shock most of you reading this because we have been taught Martin Luther King was a mamby pamby idealist, or an accomodationist; he was nothing of the sort. He knew the potency of psychology, of an energized psyche, King knew what courage and inner dynamism could do, he saw it in his community as Black folks stood up in the face of biting attack dogs, fire hoses, horses, police beatings, bombings and threats; yet they still stood tall and kept on keeping on!
King was a radical whose challenges to the social order shook the status quo and forced them to accommodate him and his cause. It was because of his radicalism and successes, and his stand for peace, social justice and human rights, he was marked for death by the US government.
Here we are in 2015 looking at the same situations King addressed in 1967! High infant mortality, high unemployment, poverty, lack of self-esteem and empowerment and now a bourgeoning gulag system where Blacks are the bulk of those incarcerated. Events in Florida, Ferguson, New York City and Cleveland have shaken many of us from our slumber, roused us from a comatose state and now we must ask that same question, “Where do we go from here?”
Only unlike 1967 where King was coming off some impressive victories we have little to show for the marching, chanting and protesting because it was not focused on specific goals or objectives. There is no simultaneous court action or group oriented negotiations with the powers that be to back up the street protests! Marching and shouting “No justice no peace” probably will not work in 2015 because the powers that be don’t care, they have massive arsenals of military hardware and they plan to use it on us and we have nothing comparable to counter it ideologically or materially.
Lastly there is no real incentive for the government to move. In the 60’s the US was trying to present its bogus image to the world that it was the land of the free and home of the brave. TV images showing white police turning ravaging dogs on junior high and high school students and four girls being killed while attending Sunday School were shown around the world. Those pictures were not good PR for a bourgeoning empire trying to dupe the world into thinking is was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
2015 is different than 1967 in that institutionalized police abuse is not just aimed at Black people. More and more instances of police misconduct are happening to poor and middle class white folks to the point they are wondering whose side are the police on? (Visit http://www.policemisconduct.net and http://www.copblock.org for a new perspective on policing and what’s happening to white people.) Given it is becoming more and more obvious the US has devolved into a fascist police state and the corporate media is on their side King’s question “where do we go fro here?” is just as relevant today as it was in 1967.
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