NAACP Sees Progress
The year 2007 has become a turning point for African-Americans, according to The Crisis, the magazine published by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
In its first issue of the year, the magazine cites significant political gains by black Americans as a new and powerful phenomenon. It notes the election of Deval Patrick as governor of Massachusetts, a state where blacks make up only 7 percent of the population.
Patrick is a Harvard Law School graduate, has been a member of a major law firm and served as an assistant U.S. attorney general. He is the second African American to be elected governor of a state, after
Douglas Wilder of Virginia.
The Crisis also sees promise in the fact that the Congressional Black Caucus has 43 members, a record number, and in the surge of support experienced by Barack Obama as one of the three leading candidates for the Democratic nomination for president.
Four members of the Black Caucus also head House committees: Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chair of the House Judiciary Committee; Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., head of the powerful Ways and Means Committee; Juanita Millender-McDonald, D-Calif., chair of the Committee on House Administration, a position some call the “Mayor of Capitol Hill”, and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chair of the Homeland Security Committee.
These successes, of course, do not wipe out the troubles of other African Americans who continue to deal with grievous problems like the following:
Seventy-two percent of black males in their 20’s who lack high school diplomas are unemployed.
18.6 per cent of black males will go to jail at some point, compared to 4 percent of white males.
Black males have an unemployment rate of 8.6 percent, compared to the national average of 4.6 percent.
Black males aged 15 to 17 have a mortality rate from homicides of 34.4 percent, compared to 2.4 percent for whites in that age group.
Nevertheless, there is hope in the fact that black leaders are achieving significant power in government at many levels. Margaret Simms, vice president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, has cited numerous changes that could improve the lives of black citizens, including “a better educational system at the elementary and secondary levels, combined with job training programs.”
According to the article. “The top priorities for black Americans are domestic issues such as education, health care and the economy, above terrorism and national security.”
Given those priorities, it will be helpful to have an increasing number of black officials with significant roles in government.
The article notes that 2007 is significant in another way:
“This year will mark 150 years since the U.S. Supreme Court issued the infamous Dred Scott decision, in which it said that black people in the United States, whether slave or free, could not be American citizens.”
Surely no one at that time could have anticipated the recent gains made by the current generation of African Americans.
It is clear that the lives of all Americans will be better if the current crop of African American leaders can continue to make progress toward a more inclusive and healthier society for African Americans and for everyone.
