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CBC Members Stand Up for
Black Press, Jobs, Small Businesses, Vow to Escalate Protests if Black Economic
Woes are Ignored
By Hazel Trice Edney
NNPA Editor-in-Chief
WASHINGTON (NNPA) –
The 10 Black members of the powerful House Finance Committee are still being
applauded this week by the Black Press and Black leaders nationally for boldly
boycotting a committee meeting in order to force a $4 billion allocation to
benefit the Black community. They have told the NNPA News Service that they plan
to escalate protests if lawmakers continue to ignore the suffering of their
constituents, including advertising discrimination against Black newspapers.
“We’re out of the box, we’re
full speed ahead and we are not going to sit back and watch our communities
suffer in silence,” says U. S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), the ranking
Congressional Black Caucus Member on the Committee, who led the Dec.2 boycott.
“The 10 African-American
members of the Financial Services Committee have cooperated with the leadership,
we have cooperated with the administration, we have supported the bail out and
now we’re saying, what do we get for all of this cooperation? What are we
delivering to our communities? And the answer is little or nothing.”
Describing horrid conditions in
their districts that clearly illustrate disparate suffering in the
African-American communities, each of the 10 members – in separate interviews -
described what their constituents are dealing with and told why they must
continue to act.
“Members of the Congressional
Black Caucus are being bombarded with requests for assistance by minority
businesses that have no capital,” continued Waters. “The banks won’t lend them
any money. They’re either closing down or threatening to be closed down. The
joblessness is off the scale. Not only do we have long lines seeking
unemployment, but on Thanksgiving Day around the country - including the scenes
that came out of Atlanta and Los Angeles – there were thousands of people
standing in line for turkeys and turkey dinners. In Los Angeles, I walked a
four-block square place where they were giving out baskets. In that line were
the disabled. One lady was 94 years old.”
Joblessness, frustration,
hopelessness – the sentiments are synonymous from state to state.
“They’re going through a
tremendous, tremendous desperation effort,” said Rep. David Scott (D-GA). “Even
if you look at all of your own newspapers, advertising dollars are not there. We
sit here as Congress people with tremendous leverage and power. It was so
important for us to use that leverage.” Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Chairwoman of
the Congressional Black Caucus, is supportive of the Financial Services
Committee’s stance and said in a statement following remarks by President Barack
Obama on job creation and economic growth. “President Obama’s speech was another
sober reminder of the important work we must do to grow our economy and create
jobs. While we agree with the president that support for small businesses,
infrastructure investment and green jobs is essential, we also believe that much
more needs to be done, particularly for those Americans who are hurting most.”
What the 10 Black members did
was boycott the committee’s final vote on a broad-sweeping financial overhaul
bill. Instead, they were over at the White House trying to obtain greater
funding for economic advances in the Black community. The vote passed narrowly,
but the CBC’s action effectively forced $4 billion to the table to go directly
toward helping people keep their homes after they’ve lost their jobs. In
addition to the needs of Black businesses, home owners and the jobless, a news
release describing the boycott specifically cited the importance of spending
federal advertising dollars with Black newspapers. “Like other businesses,
access to capital has been a challenge for this industry as well. With declining
ad revenues, newspapers everywhere are struggling to survive,” the statement
said. Danny Bakewell, chairman of the 200-member National Newspaper Publishers
Association, was credited by several members for helping to spark the protest by
his firebrand lobbying around Capitol Hill. Bakewell said he is delighted at the
stance taken by the CBC, but much more must be done to recognize the power of
the Black Press to the nation. “We have been the backbone and the foundation on
which America was built. And in this case, what we are realizing is that we
continue to be the foundation on which many of these corporations make their
profits and develop their brands throughout the country and we’re not going to
continue to sit idly by and let them do that while the very fabric of our
community is crumbling from within. We’re serving notice on General Motors,
Ford, Toyota, and other automotive companies and the automotive industry that
there will be no more business as usual.”
Bakewell and NNPA Foundation
Chair Dorothy R. Leavell, as well as Mollie Belt, 2nd Vice Chair of NNPA and
Michael House, NNPA Marketing Chairperson, have begun a series of meetings with
corporations and have already made inroads. “We’ve met with AT&T. They have been
very receptive. They represent what we believe at this point we can say is a
good corporate citizen,” Bakewell said. “We’re not asking for a bail out or a
hand out, we’re asking for reciprocity and respect.” Bakewell explained that the
Black community, Black newspapers included, are being shortchanged for the
dollars they spend with businesses and corporations. “We’re asking what
percentage of the market share do we represent a company’s business, their
profit margin? If we represent one percent, we don’t expect to get anything more
than one percent. But, if we represent 50 percent, we expect to have 50 percent
of their resources and their effort going to strengthen their brand and building
their brand in our community.” In order to avoid legal ramifications, the
committee agreed to target the money toward communities with the highest
socioeconomic impact rather than by race. That includes most of the CBC
districts.
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NAACP Celebrates 100
Years
On February 12, 2009, the NAACP celebrated its 100th anniversary--which
coincided with the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth—marking another
milestone in the history of African American achievement in the United States.
The NAACP was formed partly in response to the continuing horrific practice of
lynching and the 1908 race riot in Springfield, the capital of Illinois and
birthplace of President Abraham Lincoln. Appalled at the violence that was
committed against blacks, a group of white liberals that included Mary White
Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard, both the descendants of abolitionists,
William English Walling and Dr. Henry Moscowitz issued a call for a meeting to
discuss racial justice. Some 60 people, seven of whom were African American
signed the call, which was released on the centennial of Lincoln's birth.
Since then, the NAACP has grown into being the nation's oldest, largest and most
widely recognized grassroots–based civil rights organization. Its victorious
legal battles and heroic protest methods that forcibly changed the abhorrent
everyday practices and policies of racism in America are legendary and
inspiring.
“The NAACP has successfully fought discrimination for 100 years and we are proud
of our achievements to date,” said NAACP National Board of Directors Chairman
Julian Bond. “Our founders could not have dreamed that our centennial would
coincide with the inauguration of the first African American president.”
“Our journey remains unfinished,” says NAACP President Ben Jealous. “African
Americans suffer disproportionately from the economic recession; we are seeing a
rise in hate crimes and police killings, there is still not a level playing
field in economic and educational opportunities for every community. The
audacious dream of America, a land where opportunity exists for all and where
every person is given a chance to reach their full potential, still remains
elusive.”
Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe said, “Hopefully the time will come when all
Americans and Texans can join the voices of Oswald Villard, Ida Wells Barnett,
William English Walling, Henry Moskowitz, W.E.B. DuBois, Mary White Ovington,
Moorfield Storey and John Hanyes Holmes when they said back in 1909: “Hence we
call upon all the believers in democracy to join in a national conference for
the discussion of present evils, the voicing of protests, and the renewal of the
struggle for civil and political liberty.” So, the NAACP goes on, its original
mission still intact 100 years later: "To promote equality of rights and to
eradicate caste or race prejudice among the citizens of the United States."
Across the country, NAACP units in over 1,200 communities will cut cakes,
reaffirm their commitment to the struggle ahead and celebrate the NAACP’s
historic journey toward equality.
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