Categories: commentary,
By Pat Stevenson
It is because the United States is a Democracy that people of color have had the platform to fight for and win civil rights in this country.
The NAACP was founded in 1909 by a group of white liberals and African American activists. The NAACP aimed to secure for all people the rights guaranteed in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution, which promised an end to slavery, provided equal protection of the law, and the right for all men to vote. The organization’s mission is to ensure the political, educational, equality of minority group citizens, and eliminate race prejudice. It was believed in the 1920s that the education of African American contributions, via the creation of Negro History Week, would raise awareness.
In the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement, led by Dr. Martin Luther King and others, dramatically expanded consciousness and awareness. The Black Lives Matter movement began in 2013, via social media due to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Black Lives Matter gained national recognition as it was the rallying cry used in street demonstrations following the 2013 deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. The Black Lives Matter movement returned to national headlines and gained international attention during the global George Floyd protest in 2020, when an estimated 15 to 26 million people worldwide participated in what was one of the largest movements in the country’s history.
Slavery ended after the Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865. It was in the early 1900s that Black people built communities with schools, banks, insurance companies, and other businesses they owned. These communities grew and became prosperous for a couple of decades. I believe there were at least 100 of these communities across the United States. However, around the 1920s, groups of white people began setting fires, bombing, and destroying these communities. Politicians began building highways right through them because they wanted the Black community to be reliant on them for products and services.
In the past few years, we have all heard about “Black Wall Street” in Tulsa’s demise in 1921, the Rosewood Massacre in Florida in 1923, and others; however, there are many more of these communities that were destroyed. African Americans today must understand that the gains we have made must be fought for every day and that we cannot take them for granted.
I was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1952. I witnessed water fountains, bathrooms, and movie theaters with postings “White only” and “Black only.” Our civil rights leader in Savannah was Josiah Williams. My family took me to churches and community centers to participate in protests. I learned all the civil rights songs when I was about ten years old. My family participated in the marches, and my grandmother took me to the Woolworths restaurant counter when it was integrated. I went to segregated schools in my elementary and junior high years. I attended my first integrated school, Andrew Jackson High in Queens, when I moved to New York. I had many family members who have lived here all their lives.
During my working career in media, I witnessed racial exclusion of Black media. When I was a media buyer, with the job of placing ads on radio stations, I had one boss who told us, “Do not place ads on any Black radio stations.” I asked why not when many of our clients’ stores were located in predominantly Black areas and were doing very well. He said, “Those stores should never have been placed in those locations.” I had to write him up and left the company. Several years later, the company was out of business.
As a media director, I was told not to include any Black radio stations in purchasing advertising for a car dealer whose location was in a predominately Black area in Chicago because they did not want to attract any more Black customers. Most people believe that “money matters.” I learned in my years in advertising as a media buyer that there are many people in this country who prefer Black people not to buy their products and services. On the other side, I have placed ads for corporations who have carved out budgets specifically for ads to be placed in Black-owned media – because they do respect and appreciate their Black customers. Bottom-line, if you see an advertisement from a corporation or business in Black newspapers or radio stations, you know these corporations and companies appreciate your business.
From 2021 to 2023, we have witnessed many of the gains of the Civil Rights movement being undone as politicians engage in tactics to make it harder to vote, more difficult to vote for people of color, and even engage in outright fraud. We have seen many books that were meant to teach Black history and about the accomplishments of African Americans and other ethinic groups taken off the shelves of schools. We are witnessing the undoing of Affirmative Action programs and African Americans in prominent positions being challenged and ousted. We are witnessing in “real time” a group of Americans who want to take us back. More than ever, in 2024, we must all vote. We must vote for the politicians who are committed to, believe in, and will fight for civil rights for all and Democracy. Black History Matters, Black Lives Matter, Democracy Matters!
