Black America marches on to fulfill Dr. King’s dream
5th September 2023 · 0 Comments
The 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is an inflection point in Black America’s progress that calls for deep reflection and assessment by today’s civil rights drum majors for justice.
On that glorious day, August 28, 1963, millions stood in solidarity in front of the Lincoln Memorial to demand economic reciprocity, equal opportunities, and equality. The requests of Black America were accompanied by Black power and the Black vote.
The same held true for the Saturday, August 26, 2023, commemorative March. Led by Martin Luther King Jr.’s son and daughter, Martin III and his family, Reverend Dr. Bernice King, Reverend Al Sharpton, former New Orleans Mayor Marc H. Morial, NUL president & CEO, and a host of other civil rights leaders, Black Americans, and non-Blacks renewed their vows to seek equality and economic justice.
Black Americans have made great strides to throw off the shackles of second-class citizenry that bound the 1963 marchers.
According to Pew Research Center, in 2021, Black Americans comprised 12 percent of the middle class and 13 percent of the U.S. population. In 2021, 47 percent of Black adults were in the middle class. The median household income for Black households in 2021 was $46,400.
The U.S. Black population is young. The median age of Black people in 2021 was 33 years, five years younger than the U.S. population’s median age of 38. Roughly 30 percent of the Black population was under 20, while 12 percent were 65 or older.
Just under half of the U.S. Black population (45%) was younger than 30 in 2021. A similar share (43%) was between 30 and 64 years old. Indeed, following the 1963 event, Black America flexed its political muscles. Some African Americans entered presidential contests, including the late comedian Dick Gregory, Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, Angela Davis and others; several ran for Congress (Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to Congress in 1968), and the number of Black mayors increased exponentially.
On the social justice front, organizations like the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a civil rights organization founded in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy, and grassroots groups including the Black Panthers, Kwame Ture’s (Stokely Carmichael) All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP), and the Council for United Civil Rights Leadership (CUCRL) worked to preserve and ensure that Black America’s civil and constitutional rights were upheld.
Black mayors, governors, members of Congress, state officials, civil, criminal, federal district judges, state and U.S. Supreme Court justices; America’s first Black president, Barack H. Obama; first Black/Asian American Vice President Kamala Harris; first Black woman Chief Justice Bernette J. Johnson, Louisiana Supreme Court, and first Black woman U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson have beaten the odds and served justly and preserved Democracy.
Now, forces at work want the dream deferred, which Langston Hughes wrote about and captured by courageous Black Americans, out of reach for succeeding generations of Black Americans.
Black America is now in what Marc Morial calls the “Third Reconstruction.” The Civil Rights Movement of the 20th Century (the Second Reconstruction, which followed Reconstruction after the U.S. Civil War) is over. The Third Reconstruction, brought on by a whitelash following the election of President Barack Obama, is on fire with Whites trying to overthrow Democracy, hunting down Black people and murdering them, and white-dominated state legislatures and Southern governors colluding in the creation of discriminatory, oppressive laws, that are meant to erase Black progress and silence Black voices, have become the norm.
The Black population of the United States is growing. In 2021, an estimated 47.2 million people self-identified as Black, making up 14.2 percent of the country’s population. This marks a 30 percent increase since 2000, when 36.3 million Black people live in the U.S.
Not surprisingly, 56 percent of Black Americans live in the South. This is why whites are rushing to stop us from voting in Georgia, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, and other southern states where repressive, probably illegal laws are being passed to make it harder for Black people to vote. America’s white population is decreasing, and white power, supremacy, and superiority are with it. They refuse to share or give up the confederate ghosts that urge them to hold fast to power and domination.
Yes, the racial wealth gap is significant. White Americans hold 84 percent of the U.S. wealth but only makeup 60 percent of the population. Black Americans have four percent of the wealth but comprise 13 percent of the population.
Still, we are witnessing the emergence of generational wealth among some high-profile Blacks, some of whom are billionaires who employ other Black professionals. Jay-Z, Beyonce, Oprah, Tyler Perry, and others are closing the racial wealth gap.
In 1963, no Black professionals ran Fortune 500 companies. Indeed, it was not until 1999, when Franklin Raines became CEO of Fannie May (#26) and Lloyd Ward became CEO of Maytag (#379), that there were Black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Today, there are eight Black Fortune 500 company CEOs.
We’ve come a long way, but Black America has to continue the fight for justice, equality, and economic reciprocity. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told the crowd on August 28, 1963, that America had given Blacks a check that had been returned marked “insufficient funds.”
It is incumbent upon Black Americans to demand a fair share of the money they invest in America. Today, Black communities receive very little of the tax dollars they pay into city, state, and federal coffers.
For instance, how much money or infrastructure improvements do New Orleans’ Black communities receive from the taxes they pay and the billions generated from tourism built on the back of Black culture bearers?
How much of the taxes taken from New Orleans by the state of Louisiana are reinvested in Black communities?
We must continue to push for our fair share of the economic pie for living wages, better healthcare, affordable housing, and judicial justice.
But hope springs eternal. Torches of leadership are being passed to younger generations.
Gen. X., Z., and Millennials are rising to fight for their rights. Young Black people are joining with other ethnic groups to speak truth to power, to advocate for justice, and to run for public office.
Moreover, the U.S. Black population is young. The median age of Black people in 2021 was 33 years, five years younger than the U.S. population’s median age of 38. Roughly 30 percent of the Black population was under 20, while 12 percent were 65 or older.
Just under half of the U.S. Black population (45%) was younger than 30 in 2021. A similar share (43%) was between 30 and 64 years old.
So, despite the best efforts of those who would oppress us, they must learn that our strength and determination to overcome comes from adversity. And if the past is prologue, Black America will do it in the most ingenious, creative ways possible. We’re starting at the ballot box, owning our narratives, speaking truth to power, protesting, marching, and running.
We’re still awake!
This article originally published in the September 4, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
