When the announcement was made this week that Justice Anthony Kennedy is resigning from the Supreme Court, meaning the racist resident of the White House will now have the ability to attempt to shove the court backward into the days of Taney Court/Dred Scott villainy, a host of reactions ranged from “we are totally fucked” to “this was the fault of (insert a culprit),” to those listing all of the gains we have made over the last 50 years or so that can now potentially be undone.
What wasn’t surprising at all was the response from Congressman John Lewis.
He, like many veterans of the civil rights movement in the never-ending fight for justice and equality for us black folks (which we still don’t have), comes from a long and unbroken line of resistance.
John Lewis was part of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and young ‘Snickers’ were motivated by a woman who rose out of the virtual slavery of plantation sharecropping in Mississippi to inspire many of us to fight harder—no matter what. The star she followed was the precious goal of being able to vote.
That woman was Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer.
There are still far too many young people who know nothing about her. I met her once, for one day in 1964. She helped change the direction of my life. I think of her as one of my spiritual ancestors.
I was elated to find a documentary from Mississippi Public Broadcasting available online, which adds to the still too-skimpy body of accessible information about her. The video link is below, so pass it on.
Mrs. Hamer is emblematic of black women who have never, ever been turned from the path headed toward freedom—no matter what. They watch their sons and daughters killed, they have been ‘buked, scorned, raped, disrespected, sold off, had their children torn from their breasts—and have resisted and persisted for hundreds of years. They will let no one ‘turn them ‘round.’
I’ve written about her, and other sisters like her, here in the past, most recently in “How black women helped shape history and today's Democratic Party.”
Do not forget it was on the backs of activists like Mrs. Hamer that the modern Democratic Party was born, in a battle that drove out the Dixiecrats.
When confronted by what seem to be insurmountable odds, when events begin to
overwhelm and hope for the future seems to dim, I go back and drink from Mrs. Hamer’s well. I also draw deeply upon the legacy, strength, and power of my great-grandmother Millie Weaver Roberts, who was born into slavery in Virginia.
My family lived, survived, and fought back through Reconstruction, Klan attacks, and Jim Crow. I have continued that battle.
I am always amazed when people act as if enslavement was some very very distant history. For me, the blaring white supremacy of today is simply part and parcel of that heinous legacy, which will continue until many white folks let go of their denial about it.
My mom, Marjorie Weaver Roberts Oliver, took me with her to vote when I could barely walk. She made sure I knew that this was a right that our family had fought to secure, and that I must never, ever forget to use it.
I’ll be damned if I let another setback stop me from fighting back.
The abuse this country has heaped upon us black folks over the centuries, has not dimmed our persistence. There is no coincidence in the fact that we as “othered people” vote as a bloc for Democrats, no matter how flawed some may be. We do it because “deep in our hearts … we do believe ...” that voting is our only hope for survival, and that one day white folks will wake up and see that they are at risk as long as the rest of us are unequal.
Perhaps now is that woke time. I sure hope so. If not, we’ll keep fighting back alongside our Auntie Maxine.
I had planned to write about the burning and bombing of black communities like Rosewood, and calls for ‘civility’ for today’s piece. I will leave it for another Sunday, and I will continue to write about the deaths of over 4,000 of us in Puerto Rico—which has never yet sparked massive outrage. Ask yourselves: why?
I have to note that in spite of how this country continues to treat us (and other groups like Native, Asian, Latino, and Muslim Americans), we are not going away and we will not allow the abuses, hatred, and othering to stop us from trying to get the rest of you to wake up and step into a voting booth. Us old folks (and I count myself in that group) are also chiding our own youngsters who are being misled by those who are telling them not to vote, or that voting doesn’t matter.
And so I turn once again to the life and legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer and others who have led through action, and who sustained that action via deep faith while buoying us with song.
Yes: we sing. We replenish our spirits with music. We sing as we march, we sing as we weep, we sing as we bury our dead, and as we celebrate new births to step into the shoes of those who have left us.
Mrs. Hamer did not sing to make an album. Mrs. Hamer sang to give fellow activists the spirit to go out and fight, and perhaps to die, another day. Some of those songs are compiled on Songs My Mother Taught Me from Smithsonian Folkways.
That song tradition has been continued by Sweet Honey in the Rock. Here they are singing the words taken from another powerful black woman, activist and organizer Ella Baker.
Ella’s song
We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes
Until the killing of black men, black mothers' sons
Is as important as the killing of white men, white mothers' sons
That which touches me most
Is that I had a chance to work with people
Passing on to others that which was passed on to me
To me young people come first
They have the courage where we fail
And if I can but shed some light as they carry us through the gale
The older I get the better I know that the secret of my going on
Is when the reins are in the hands of the young, who dare to run against the storm
Not needing to clutch for power
Not needing the light just to shine on me
I need to be one in the number as we stand against tyranny
You do not have to come from a black church tradition, be religious, or believe in God to understand why the black church tradition has been a wellspring of strength and inspiration to get us through the dark nights of the ongoing oppression we face.
It’s no coincidence that the media will reference selected excerpts of speeches and writings of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who is dead and cannot continue to speak for himself, while they continue to ignore the man who is carrying forward his legacy with The Poor People’s Campaign: the Rev. Dr. William Barber.
When I begin to get mired in frustration about what we need to be doing—what our first priority should be—I go back and replay this speech/sermon delivered by the Rev. Barber in 2012.
There are two versions available of his speech, titled "If we ever need to vote, we sure do need to vote now!"
This is the edited one. The full version is here, and the transcript, supplied by TrueBlueMajority, is here:
If we ever needed to vote
I don't know if Republicans are going to show up
I don't know if Democrats are going to show up
but the sons and daughters of slaves we better the hell show up!
That's why we're here
We did show up. We will continue to show up. We are working to increase our numbers by fighting felon disenfranchisement, which has decreased our numbers—especially for black men.
Now is the time for white folks to buckle up and strap in for the ride of your lives. It’s a journey we’ve been on since we were dragged to these shores in chains.
Stand the hell up.
We are only 13 percent of the U.S. population and though we are mostly Democrats, this burden cannot and should not be ours to bear so heavily.
Join us at the ballot box.
Join us in song.
The Rev. Barber understands the power of song and always beside him is Yara Allen, who is one of the powerful voices of women singing for justice.
I can’t speak for those of you who don’t come out of my traditions. But I can ask: what are the songs and sermons or speeches that lift you up and give you the strength to move forward—no matter what?
My sermon of the day is: Get out the vote for Democrats.
Amen.