By Zenitha Prince
Washington Bureau Chief
CINCINNATI (July 14) – It was a gutsy—some might argue calculated—move, but somehow Sen. Barack Obama pulled it off. After the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a respected member of the old civil rights guard, was recorded criticizing Obama’s speeches about personal and community responsibility among African Americans, the presidential hopeful threw down the gauntlet before a gathering of the oldest civil rights organization in the country.
“We can lead by example just as we did in the civil rights movement.”
“Now, I know there’re some who’ve been saying I’ve been too tough talking about responsibility. NAACP, I’m here to report, I’m not going to stop talking about it,” he declared Monday night to a crowded auditorium in Cincinnati’s Duke Energy Center. “As much as I’m out there fighting to make sure government is doing its job and the marketplace is doing its job…none of it will make a difference if we don’t, at the same time, seize more responsibility in our lives.”
Such responsibility is part of realizing the dream of opportunity that civil rights leaders fought for, he continued. “When we’re taking care of our own stuff, a lot of other people will want to join with us to take care of America’s stuff,” Obama said. “We can lead by example just as we did in the civil rights movement.”
Political analyst Jason A. Johnson said it was a refreshing change from the common political response. “He demonstrated something tonight that has been lacking in Democratic leadership, and that is backbone,” said Johnson, a professor of political science at Hiram College in Ohio. “He made it clear that he will take on all comers whether within his community or outside of it.”
What’s more, the crowd seemed to lap it up. When Obama challenged that African-American forefathers didn’t struggle and lose their lives to see Black children dropping out of schools and turning to gangs for support and called for parents to be more involved in children’s education, the crowd cheered.
When he said parents had to teach young women that their beauty was not defined by the images on the televisions screen and their young men to respect women and take care of their children, the crowd roared.
Judge Greg Mathis, a popular TV jurist and member of Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, said, “I believe Sen. Obama’s approach to discussing the conditions of African Americans and how we overcome the negative and destructive forces in our community, is balancing well.”
There were some, however, who questioned whether Obama was being fair in his censure of the Black community.
Emanuel Livingston, 37, from Cincinnati said he believed Obama’s tough talk was mere pandering to non-Blacks as a way of showing his impartiality and ability to be president for everyone. “If you’re going to issue tough love, issue it to everybody,” he continued. “Address what ails us all, not just the Black community.”
Mathis said for Blacks who don’t know much about him, Obama’s not “Black enough. And among Whites still fearful of “the other,” he’s too Black, tied, as he was, to a “radical Black church.” “But thank God we now know who he is,” Mathis said, “and what he’s done and so we’ll know what he will do in the future.” And if they didn’t know, Obama set out Monday night to tell them.
From the outset of his speech, he tied himself to the Black community and the NAACP, wielding the pronoun “we.” He noted how Black civil rights icons inspired him to eschew corporate America after graduating from Harvard and to go work for $40,000 a year in the public housing projects of Chicago.
And why, as a state senator, he introduced legislation helping ex-offenders and calling for video-taped interrogations, both legislation that affected African-American males.
“I have been working my entire adult life to help build an America where social and economic justice is being served,” he said. “That is the America the NAACP has been fighting for these past 99 years and that’s the America we have to keep fighting for because our work is not over.”
Obama then outlined his plan for advancing social and economic justice for African Americans and all Americans, including:
-Giving tax cuts to companies that keep jobs at home
-Giving tax cuts to the middle-class
-Making health care universally affordable
-Improving education by reforming No Child Left Behind, increasing teachers’ salaries, investing in early childhood education and providing $4,000 college credits in exchange for community service
-Addressing crime by investing in local police and in job training for ex-offenders
-Launching an “all hands on deck effort to end poverty in this country” and more.
Said Alice Huffman, president of NAACP California Conference and Democratic National Committee member, of Obama’s speech: “Every convention sends a message to America on the issues important to African Americans.”
Obama’s appearance at the organization’s 99th convention is also significant in its symbolism, Black leaders said. “It’s very historic to have the first African-American candidate for president address us on the eve of our centennial,” said Board Vice Chairman Roslyn Brock. “It speaks to the legacy of the NAACP’s fight to foster equality for all Americans.”
Added Judge Mathis, “When he accepts the nomination in August it will be the exact day, 45 years after Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. When he accepts the presidency and the oath of office it will be the same year the NAACP turns 100—that is not by coincidence; I think there’s something spiritual going on here.”
Obama, too, acknowledged what his presidency could signify to the civil rights community that “this is our time, 100 years after the NAACP was founded not only will we have social and economic justice for all but I’ll come back to you next year on that anniversary as the president of the United States and you and I will truly know that a new day has come in America.”