Volume 7 Issue 12…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…March 26, 2004

Hiram Rhoades Revels (1822-1901)

American clergyman and educator, Hiram Rhoades Revels was born a free man of African and Native American descent on September 1, 1822 in Fayetteville County, North Carolina (NC), a slave state. On March 8, 1838, Revels became an apprentice barber under his brother, Elias B. Revels, in Lincolnton, NC. His brother's death in 1841 ended his apprenticeship and left him to manage the barbershop, which Revels left to pursue his interests in religion and education.

Since blacks were denied education in the South, he traveled to Indiana, Ohio and Illinois. In 1844, he studied at the Quaker school in Liberty, Indiana and attended Knox College in Illinois. Ordained a minister by the African Methodist Church in 1845, Revels traveled extensively in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and Kansas. He eventually settled in Baltimore, Maryland, where he became principal of a school for blacks and pastor of a local church.

With the outbreak of the Civil War (1861), Revels supported the Union and assisted in organizing two black regiments in Maryland. In 1863, he joined the federal forces as a chaplain to a black regiment stationed in Mississippi. After serving for a year as chaplain, Revels accepted the post of Provost Marshal of Vicksburg and organized churches in the state. At the end of the war, he settled in Natchez. In 1868, he joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME).

Revels entered politics with his 1868 appointment by Mississippi's military governor to the position of alderman. He was elected state senator from Adams County, Mississippi in 1869. A Republican, anxious to avoid race friction with Southern whites, Revels supported legislation to restore the right of disenfranchised members of the former Confederacy to vote and hold office. In January 1870, he was elected to the US Senate to complete the unexpired term of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Revels, who took his seat on February 25, 1870 and served through March 4, 1871, was the first black to serve in the Senate.

After his brief term in the Senate, Revels was named president of Alcorn University, Mississippi's first black college. In 1873, he served as Secretary of State Ad Interim for Mississippi. Governor Adelbert Ames, originally from Maine, dismissed Revels from the Alcorn presidency in 1874. Revels actively participated in the 1875 political campaign to oust Mississippi's "carpet-bag" government. In a letter to President Ulysses Grant, which was published in the Jackson Daily Times, Revels defended his actions on the grounds that too many politicians in the Republican Party were corrupt.

In 1876, a Democratic administration returned him to the Alcorn presidency. Revels became editor of the Southwestern Christian Advocate (1876), a religious journal. He retired from Alcorn in 1882. Revels continued his religious work. While attending a church conference in Aberdeen, Mississippi, Revels died on January 16, 1901. (Sources: Great African American Political Leaders During Reconstruction, www.statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us and www.search.eb.com/blackhistory/)

Like Christmas, birthdays only come once a year. For the young at heart, especially children, the anticipation makes the year seems much longer than twelve months. The closer it gets to the actual day, the more anxious they become. The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is impatiently waiting his birthday in April. On Tuesday, he rushed home from school to ask another burning question. With a knack for pre-teen drama, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro inquired, "Grandma, may I have a present before my birthday comes?"

It's Hypocrisy, Not Democracy

By Steeleyes

They say they spread democracy

All they spread is a lie

A system where they distort the truth

And other people die

A political fix that obeys no rule

Except I get what I want

A dirty game for dirty minds

Lying sound bytes as a taunt

All done behind closed doors

Using the powers of state

Manipulating all your minds

To make you fear and hate

Together in secret we decide these things

And the tactics we will use

To manipulate opinion

To persuade you and confuse

And they call this democracy

That they do YOUR will

But the truth is otherwise

They treat you as a shill

You are an obstacle to their plans

One that they must get around

Lying to change your mind

To find what they want found

Using lies and propaganda

Leaving out what doesn't fit

They tell you it's democracy

But it's a pile of ****

And this is what they will export

To every foreign land?

To lie and cheat for selfish gain

Is that to understand?

Oh yes, what a wonderful world

It will surely be

When Bush has spread the word

"BE A HYPOCRITE, just like me!"

About Me: In reference to freedom and democracy, philosopher Theodore Adorno's quote is apropos. "People have so manipulated the concept of freedom, that it finally boils down to the right of the stronger and the richer to take from the weaker and poorer whatever they have left." Steeleyes' poem captures that hypocrisy. At www.you-poetry.com, he lists his occupation and interests as "survival." He signed this insightful work simply: "May all your poems act their rage."

War Profiteering

March 19, 2004 marked the first anniversary of the United States-led invasion of Iraq. The war has been a boom for military contractors. Revenues for multinational corporations doing business in Iraq dramatically grew more than 19% in 2003 over 2002.

Corpwatch, a California-based nonprofit organization (www.corpwatch.org) has launched a new War Profiteers website at www.warprofiteers.com to track military contractors profiting from killing. Corpwatch takes the position that, "Profiting from killing is wrong. What makes it even more outrageous is that taxpayers have to foot the bill. We intend to investigate these abuses and inform the public about what these companies are doing. This new website will be the premier place for the pubic to find out what is happening behind the scenes of the so-called war on terrorism."

An informed citizenry is fundamental to a democratic society. Did you know one in ten personnel in the Iraqi invasion come from private industry? This is a ten-fold increase over the 1991 Gulf War. Most of these employees are drawn from the biggest US military contractors. Halliburton Corporation and its subsidiary, Kellogg-Brown-Root, have won the most new work, more than $8 billion in contracts. Formerly headed by Vice-President Dick Cheney, Halliburton's military revenue in 2003 of $3.9 billion was a staggering 700% higher than the previous year!

Stay informed! Learn about the War Profiteers at www.warprofiteers.com. Know the new merchants of global conflict and learn how your tax dollars and your children's future are being spent enriching those who profit from killing. Among other things, the site features weekly updates, in-depth reports, a "Focus on Iraq" section that will provide the latest news on companies profiting from the occupation and much more.

Quotas

"The electoral law shall aim to achieve the goal of having women constitute no less than one-quarter of the members of the National Assembly and of having fair representation for all communities in Iraq, including the Turcomans, ChaldoAssyrians, and others." (Source: Chapter 4, Article 30 (C) of the interim constitution: www.cpa-iraq.org/government/TAL.html )

US-appointed Iraqi leaders passed an interim constitution. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, spiritual leader of Iraq's majority Shiite community, has called for direct elections, a provision not included in the interim constitution. In addition to indirect elections, the interim constitution, which remains in effect until ratification of a permanent one, preserves the status quo in the Kurdish region, creates a 3-member presidency and mandates that women make up no less than one-quarter of the transitional legislative body. This is a quota.

Proponents of the invasion and occupation of Iraq touted the need to "bring democracy to this troubled region of the world and free the Iraqi people" as motivations. The form of government established under the interim constitution is, like the US, a republic. In the US, the 3/5 Compromise codified slavery and created the Electoral College. This quota system limited black representation and assured the "mob" did not elect the nation's chief executive. When the US constitution was ratified (1789), blacks could not vote. Under the Electoral College system today, indirect election of the president minimizes the black franchise.

The Supreme Court's decision in Brown v Board of Education (1954) struck down Plessy v Ferguson's (1896) separate but equal doctrine. Inherent in that decision was recognition of the tremendous damage wrought by legal racial discrimination. Yet, efforts to desegregate public schools and integrate institutions of higher education were met with fierce resistance. All attempts to ameliorate the effects of slavery and Jim Crow segregation were labeled reversed discrimination by the white majority population.

A far cry from reparations, even mildly remedial affirmative action, which disproportionately benefit white women, has been disparaged for being a quota system. Whites voraciously proclaim quotas, preferences, and reversed discrimination are antithetical to the US constitutional guarantee of equal protection. Strict construction judges have ruled, in effect, that leveling the playing field by giving blacks a positive socioeconomic and political preference over whites violates the 3/5 Compromise, which remains the first law of the land.

One immediately sees the parallel hypocrisy in arguments advanced by opponents of racial preferences in college admissions. They see nothing inherently unfair in awarding prospective students legacy points based on their relation to an alumnus. Most of these legacies were established when blacks were barred from attending publicly funded colleges and universities.

Far more enlightened today, the US-led interim authority is so concerned about protecting the rights of women and assuring their representation in Iraq's new government that it embraces a quota for them in the interim constitution. One might ask, what is wrong with this picture when the US categorically opposes quotas at home to protect women and people of color?

Disgruntled feels: Genocide! The world condemned South African apartheid; the US remained its democratic ally. World leaders condemned the assassination of Palestinian spiritual leader Sheihk Ahmen Yassin; the US stood by its ally, the only Middle East democracy. The cycle of violence continues as Palestinians seek to avenge the murder of a half-blind quadriplegic. Israelis with superior weapons, financed with US tax dollars, have killed far more Palestinian than the suicide bombers. All Palestinians are legitimate targets, while Israeli soldiers traveling by bus and eating in restaurants are innocent victims of terrorism. There are similarities between Palestinians under Zionism, Native Americans during manifest destiny, Africans under apartheid and ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. Different names and locations, these are all examples of genocide.

Disgruntled says: US Rep. Henry Waxman has compiled a list of 237 quotes by George W. Bush and members of his administration uttered during the lead up to the war against Iraq. These quotes make it clear that Americans were being programmed to fear Iraq, because "it posed an imminent threat to US security, and it played a role in the 9-11 attacks." We now know, based on former White House insiders' accounts, including "Against All Enemies" by counter-terrorism coordinator Richard Clarke, Iraq was targeted for war before 9-11. US desire for an Iraqi regime change had nothing to do with UN resolutions. Connecting the dots, we see oil, water, Israel and petrodollars.

Disgruntled wants to know: On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow. The plaintiff, an atheist, filed suit against his daughter's school over the "one nation under God" phrase in the pledge of allegiance. The case boils down to whether or not the pledge, as is, violates the First Amendment separation of church and state clause. Ironically, the phrase was inserted in 1954, the year the Court handed down its decision in Brown v Board of Education. Proponents of the pledge interchange the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Therein lies the confusion. Will someone please tell these people the constitution is the law, conceived and written by mere mortals, whereas the Declaration of Independence is just a letter leaders of the thirteen colonies sent to Great Britain to tell King George III to take a hike?

Obama!

Edward William Brooke, III became the first black American to be elected to a full term in the US Senate (1967-79). He was the first black to win a Senate seat since Hiram Revels during Reconstruction, making him the second black in the history of the nation to hold that position. Carole Moseley Braun made history in 1992, when she became the first black woman ever to be elected to the US Senate and the third black American to earn that distinction. She lost her re-election bid in 1998. Today, there are no blacks in the US Senate.

Barack Obama's recent Democratic senatorial primary victory could change that dismal situation. Obama, who represents Illinois' 13th Senate District on Chicago's South Side, receives high praise among his legislative peers for his leadership style. The self-described "Skinny guy from the South Side of Chicago with the funny name," Obama received votes in large numbers from every Democratic Party demographic group, a statistic that should bode well in the general election.

A progressive, the 42-year-old Harvard Law School graduate touts his bipartisanship and believes liberal and conservative labels are outdated. A fiscal conservative, Obama "advocates for compassion and inclusion for people of all faiths, races and income levels, especially the disenfranchised and disaffected."

Should Obama prevail in November, he will become the fourth black to win a Senate seat. A symbol? Sure! It is difficult to ignore the only black in the US Senate! Since the early 1900s, US Census data have shown that blacks make up approximately 13% of the US population. There are 100 US Senators and 435 members of the House of Representatives. Given the number of blacks in the House and the absence of blacks in the Senate, as a demographic group, blacks are wholly under-represented. See www.obamaforillinois.com/ for more about Barack Obama and his run for the Senate.

On Expiring VRA

By Dot

For a number of years, the urban legend that blacks will lose their right to vote in 2007 has circulated around the Internet. A concerned reader recently asked for feedback on this matter. While the topic has been entertained several times before, perhaps there are others who missed The DISH take on this topic, so below is the gist of what we shared with our reader.

"If Congress does not renew the Voting Rights Act in 2007, will blacks lose the right to vote?" Ostensibly, the right to vote was granted males, including former male slaves, with ratification of the 15th Amendment (1870). Women did not get the right until ratification of the 19th Amendment (1920). Section 2 of the 15th amendment gives Congress the authority to pass laws to enforce it. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed to put teeth, if you will, in the 15th Amendment, because all manners of things were being done to prevent and/or neutralize the black vote. At or near its expiration in 1987, former President Ronald Reagan extended it for another 20 years, which brings us to 2007.

The relevant questions are, do we need another extension, and has it been effective? Sure to be the subject of much debate as its expiration nears, the Voting Rights Act (VRA) did not help blacks purged prior to Election 2000 in Florida. In Florida and states across the nation, it failed to ensure that all votes, once cast, are actually counted. In addition, VRA has failed to prevent racial gerrymandering in states across the south, even in Colorado. More important, it does nothing about the fact that the black vote is minimized in presidential elections because of the Electoral College system.

When the urban legend reaches your mailbox, I hope this explanation helps to clear up any misunderstanding. Bottom line, the Voting Rights Act (1965) did not give blacks the right to vote; it was passed to protect blacks in the exercise of the franchise.

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