Through an 18-year partnership with the NAACP Martha’s Vineyard branch, Howard University alumni group Bison on the Vineyard held a forum, “Political Future of America,” at the Strand Theater on Monday.
The “fireside chat,” sponsored by Bison on the Vineyard (BOV), was one of a handful of events held on the Island this past weekend, and is preceded by annual BOV events going back to 2006. Created by a group of Howard University alumni, BOV aims to harness the power of community networking among Howard University alumni and other historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) alums through various organized events and formal visits to Martha’s Vineyard.
Moderating the discussion was attorney Caroline Hunter, Oak Bluffs resident, leader of the Inkwell exercise group Polar Bears, and co-founder of the Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement.
Among Monday’s guest speakers were attorney Juan Thomas of the Chicago-based Thomas Law Group, and chair of the American Bar Association’s Civil Rights and Social Justice Section; attorney and author Junius Williams, former president of the National Bar Association; civil law practitioner, activist, and author Donald (“D.T.”) Temple, specializing in race discrimination cases; and Atlanta-based attorney, clergyman, and legislator Randall Mangham of Randall Alonzo Mangham LLC, and member of the House of Representatives.
The “Political Future of America” forum focused on the question, “Where will we be in 10 years?”
Williams referred to a clipped newspaper article from the New York Times that mentions a social agenda advisor to President Biden, that works “behind the scenes” to maximize understanding of social groups and interests — a position he deemed as a “symptom” of one of the problems facing the Black community in America. “Back in the day, we didn’t need someone like this to tell the President what we needed for his social agenda. We had organization,” Williams said. “People were not only mobilized because of an incident, but were organized for sustained progress.”
Williams said it’s problematic that individuals are now placed in positions to intercede to get beneficial social programs going, rather than through organized responses to the happenings within the current political climate.
Part of the problem, Williams said, is the current lack of united, organized efforts to have real issues addressed in wide-ranging and significant ways.
For example, Williams said, on the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965 and signed by President Lyndon Johnson, credit goes to the Black Americans that together, mobilized to ensure their voices weren’t left unheard.
“President Johnson was our intermediary,” Williams said, “he interceded because he knew the country could not stand the kind of organizational pressure we were putting on democracy.” But even now, due to various factors such as local gerrymandering, the right to vote is often suppressed in many areas where Black communities are systematically disenfranchised, which then prevents election outcomes from accurately representing the objectives of constituents.
To alleviate the inequities in a meaningful way, Williams said that it is up to individuals and groups to form collaborative initiatives to fight for needed change.
Thomas spoke of the infamous 1968 “Mountain Top” speech by Martin Luther King Jr. — the day before he was assassinated — and despite the more familiar lines, Thomas highlighted a less commonly circulated one: “We have some difficult days ahead.”
And “how right he was,” said Thomas. “I don’t know if he anticipated the Bakke decision 10 years later,” President Ronald Reagan’s war on drugs, or the now “continued assault on our democracy.”
Thomas said that Dr. King’s words are still true today — even now there are difficult days ahead. “This is a fight,” he said, “not just for democracy, but also a fight for our lives.”
Thomas said it is the freedom and livelihoods of Black Americans that are at stake. Efforts to suppress votes, and increased cases of police brutality, on behalf of the political right and hate groups nationwide, will, without intervention, render any progress made null in an attempt to “kill as many of us as they can. If not physically — politically, economically, spiritually, and psychologically.”
Thomas said the purpose of understanding this reality is to entice a fortification of Black thinkers and doers, to mobilize with clear missions and to move forward with a communal sense of direction.
“We need to have a broader political agenda than just our city, state, or neighborhood,” Thomas said. In thinking about the short term, he continued, it’s paramount for people to support Black candidates currently running for U.S. Senate seats. “Between now and November, it is critical that we get out the vote,” Thomas said. To have control of the Senate is to “maintain a semblance of democracy.”