When he was invited nearly 30 years ago by the Niagara Falls Community Center to accept an expression of appreciation for his services, he stood on the stage at the Niagara Falls Convention Center and addressed the audience of about 100 local residents, warning us that the achievements we were celebrating then would soon be lost if we did not remain vigilant and continue to demand to be heard.
In his early 30s the day he graced the stage here, I remember he looked so young, like a teen-ager, clean-shaven, fresh, eager, full of enthusiasm and energy. He instantly became a role model for me and, no doubt, many others he touched that night.
He had already accomplished a lifetime of achievements that would benefit everyone who would come behind him.
He had served as the communications director for a group of several hundred students who, in 1960, formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), working on voter registration drives in rural Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas.
Leaving Morehouse one semester short of graduation in 1961 to work with a new "protest newspaper," the Atlanta Inquirer, he was elected in 1965 to a one-year term in the Georgia House of Representatives in a special election after court-ordered reapportionment, but the House refused to seat him because of his opposition to the war in Vietnam.
Incredibly, it took the United States Supreme Court's unanimous decision in December 1966 that he was illegally barred from taking his seat before he could assume his position after being elected three times.
In 1968 he was co-chairman of the Georgia Loyal National Delegation, an insurgent group which succeeded in the unseating of the "good old boys," hand-picked regulars to the Democratic Convention. He made history when he was nominated for vice president of the United States, the first African-American to be so honored by a major national party. He withdrew his name from nomination because he was too young to serve.
Elected to the Georgia Senate in 1974, where he remained until 1987, having served four terms in the House and six terms in the Senate, he had been elected to public office more times than any other black Georgian in history.
His path was clearly marked by a trail of accomplishments, with more than 60 bills that he sponsored or co-sponsored becoming law, including sickle cell anemia testing programs, set-asides for minority business enterprises, low interest loans to low income families and many other programs that were eventually replicated throughout the country.
Last week, standing on another stage more than a thousand miles from the former Niagara Falls Convention Center, he warned us again to speak up.
He quoted the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, who wrote:
"I do not wish to think, or speak, or write with moderation. ... I am in earnest. I will not equivocate. I will not excuse. I will not retreat a single inch. And I will be heard!"
He quoted Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's comments in the University of Michigan affirmative action case, saying that she acknowledged what we know to be true:
"Unemployment, poverty and access to health care vary disproportionately by race. Neighborhoods and schools remain racially divided. African-American and Hispanic children are all too often educated in poverty-stricken and underperforming institutions. Adult African-Americans and Hispanics generally earn less than whites with equivalent levels of education. Equally credentialed job applicants receive different receptions depending on their race. Irrational prejudice is still encountered in real estate markets and consumer transactions."
He pointed out that "racial disparities exist throughout the criminal justice system, including in the imposition of the death penalty." Noting that blacks and white use illegal drugs at roughly the same rates, he observed that "55 percent of all those in jail or prison nationwide for drug violations are black and 30 percent are Latino."
He says an estimated 12 percent of black men between the ages of 20 and 34 are incarcerated, the highest rate ever measured. Among white men in the same age group, the rate is 1.6 percent.
"Last month," he said, "the unemployment rate rose to 6.4 percent, the highest in nine years, and the number of employed blacks shrank while the number of employed whites grew. Unemployment for blacks in June was more than twice the rate for whites."
He said all of the above statistics only go to show why voter registration and turnout must be a top priority.
He said the NAACP helped increase the African-American share of the total vote by 25 percent -- 2 million more voters cast ballots in 2000 than did in 1996. Turnout in Texas increased 50 percent, in Florida by 60 percent, and in Missouri by a whopping 124 percent.
He quoted Martin Luther King Jr., who said, "You are what you do." What you do between now and Election Day next year will decide who you are and will decide what kind of world we live in. In closing, he recalled the comments of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone at the convention in Minneapolis last year:
"I do not believe the future will belong to those who are content with the present. ... The future will belong to those who have passion, and to those grassroots heroes who are willing to make the personal commitment to make our country better. The future will belong to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
"The future belongs to us," said Julian Bond, looking a little grayer, but as enthusiastic and youthful as he did 30 years ago on the stage of the Niagara Falls Convention Center.
To a standing ovation in Miami Beach, Fla., he exited stage right, promising again, "We will be heard!"
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | July 29 2003 |