This Week's Column

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For the week of Sunday, June 8, 2008
© Janus Adams 2008

“ America’s Moment: What’s At Stake”

Barack Obama is the presumptive nominee for president; the first African American to win major political party endorsement. It’s history so big mere hyperbole won’t do.

Yet, exhilarating as it is, if Hillary Clinton’s inelegant response is any indication, amidst the celebration is cause for caution and a question: what kind of America are we voting to be?

First the celebration; assessing the magnitude of it all, many have cited historic anniversaries:

There are the “impact” anniversaries. 2008: the 40 th anniversary of the first election to reflect the impact of the Voting Rights Act. In 1968 more Blacks were elected to office than any year since the end of Reconstruction forced their expulsion. 1968 also brought the rise of the modern women’s movement.

There are the “poignant” anniversaries: the 40 th anniversary of ‘1968’ now immortalized as the year that changed everything – Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy assassinated; the War in Vietnam “came home” to America, forcing President Lyndon Johnson to bow out in defeat before his re-election race fully began.

And, there’s the proud “look how far we’ve come” anniversary: the 200 th anniversary of the end of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (1808). From the shackles of slavery to nomination for presidency; and still we rise!

But another anniversary, less known and more instructive –1868 – reveals that “800 pound guerilla in the room.”

The personae of 2008’s three finalists – John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Mr. Obama – embody the powerplays of post-Civil War 1868: defenders of the status quo (McCain) vs. former abolitionist (progressive) allies turned foes as suffragists (Clinton) demanded the vote for women and emancipated Blacks (Obama) demanded the vote for freemen.

After a two-year battle (the time since Hillary tossed her bonnet into the ring until now) the fifteenth amendment empowered Black male suffrage, leaving women disfranchised, and preserved White male dominance.

Another fifty-two year battle ensued until passage of the nineteenth amendment granted women’s suffrage in 1920. With that victory for women came attacks on Blacks and renewed enforcement of voter suppression.

Parallels for our times? Try this formula: anti-immigration rhetoric + “voter fraud” fever = race-based challenges to Hispanic voters (2004) and the “voter ID” campaign (2008).

Recalling 1868, “unity” is certainly the lesson. Sadly, Mrs. Clinton’s inelegant response to Mr. Obama’s win proved the highly-hyped “Dream Team” pure nightmare.

Witness the election night line-up. Speaking first, McCain chose as his election night venue Kenner, Louisiana: a town much-publicized for its refusal of refuge to Blacks fleeing Katrina. Witness McCain’s cynical opener: “Obama has been declared the winner by pundits and party leaders.” (“Declared” by pundits not “elected” by voters – expect McCain to inject affirmative action-bashing rhetoric into the frey.)

Speaking after McCain and before Obama, Clinton chose to vault personal politics over the respect due Obama’s victory. Favoring McCain’s status quo, she led her supporters down the road to defeat and away from their own stated interests: ending the war, restoring civil liberties, repairing the nation’s image abroad, and preserving not just women’s rights – but human rights – post-Bush presidency.

So what’s the takeaway from all this?

Post-1868, Reconstruction was supported minimally, ended prematurely, and White Supremacy won the day with emergence of the Ku Klux Klan – a group so politically-connected its unfettered reign terrorized Blacks, Jews, and other “undesirables,” and devised the race-based immigration policy haunting us still.

Had Mrs. Clinton taken a more inclusive, nuanced view of the situation, she might have recalled another anniversary – one she commemorated as First Lady.

1848 brought us the first Women’s Rights Convention. There, at Seneca Falls, the only person to demand full women’s rights as a human rights cause was a Black man – ex-slave, Underground Railroad conductor, abolitionist orator, and vice-presidential candidate – Frederick Douglass.

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