King's Legacy in 2003:
A Call for 'Vigilance and Agitation'

By Donald Temple
Special to SeeingBlack.com

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This year, on the 74th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it was reaffirmed once again that these are very serious times. With the unbridled influence of Messrs. Cheney and Rumsfeld, President Bush and Attorney General Ashcroft stated that the Administration would legally oppose affirmative action and race based admissions at the University of Michigan before the United States Supreme Court.

Of all times, on Jan. 15, Dr. King's birthday.

The case at issue, Grutter v. Bollinger, involves a White female's challenge to the University's affirmative action program and, specifically, whether the Supreme Court should overturn its 1978 Bakke decision, which allowed race to be used in school admissions. As the late Justice Thurgood Marshall noted in his concurring opinion in the Bakke case, race is a necessary factor to remedy past race-based discrimination: "It is because of a legacy of unequal treatment (read: past discrimination) that we now must permit the institutions of this society to give consideration to race in making decisions about who will hold the positions of influence, affluence, and prestige in America. For far too long, the doors to those positions have been shut to Negroes. If we are ever to become a fully integrated society, one in which the color of a person's skin will not determine the opportunities available to him or her, we must be willing . . .to take steps to open those doors. I do not believe that anyone can truly look into America's past and still find that a remedy for the effects of that past is impermissible."

I think that it is tragic that President Bush and Attorney General Ashcroft oppose raced based admissions in institutions of higher learning while embracing race-based disparities in crack-cocaine criminal sentencing, thus unapologetically supporting the long term admittance of unprecedented numbers of young Black men into so-called federal corrections institutions. Of course, they also ignore "legacies" at many prestigious universities that set aside a large number of slots in each freshman class for the children of wealthy and overwhelmingly White alumni. President Bush himself was the beneficiary of such a program at Yale University.

What is happening in America today seems all too familiar. Consider the reconfiguration and destabilization of traditional "American Democracy" over the last thirty 30 months. Consider the strong manifestation of a White supremacist and anti-democratic (fascist) agenda. Consider that the United States Supreme Court, influenced literally by the political affiliation of its appointees, put George Bush in the White House. A politically strained and poorly reasoned interpretation of the law negated the ultimate will of the people. Dangerous stuff. Justices Rehnquist, Scalia and "Clarence" predictably carried the conservative agenda. In one stroke, the court demonstrated its frightening capacity to compromise its integrity and circumvent its role of ensuring checks and balances.

More recently, in the face of war—one of the most despicable and horrendous actions that any nation or people can endure—our federally elected officials in the Congress compromised their duty and integrity by shamefully delegating their authority to declare war to the exclusive discretion of President Bush. Now, there is no proverbial check or balance on the Executive Branch, only a blind eye and a blank check to kill.

Enter the Homeland Security Act: detentions without constitutional protections, secret courts and suspension of due process under the guise of national security and "terrorism." This comes at a time when federal courts have heightened the burdens that must be overcome to prove excessive force. For example, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia, has ruled that it is okay for police to use limited violence in the exercise of its police functions so long as the victim is not seriously injured. This ruling sanctions police excessive force as long as the victim's arm or leg is not broken, or his head not fractured.

Similarly, the changing and more difficult burden of proof in race discrimination cases has encouraged disparate treatment in the employment arena and the resurgence of overt discrimination. For example, in a recent case in the Washington, D.C. area, a major food chain hired a White male with a high school education over a Black male with a law degree and more labor experience for a labor management position. Countless other stories like this epitomize the state in which we find ourselves.

The larger question: are these developments accidental or planned? One would be foolish to think that the course of these series of repressive actions are not planned. Do we think that the appointment by Presidents Reagan and Bush between 1980 and 1992 of more than 576 federal judges and less than 15 Black judges was an accident?

An even larger question is what are we going to do when the government legally absolves itself of any harm created by past discrimination? No more affirmative action in education, contracts or employment?

We successful African Americans enjoy a status gained by deep sacrifices of past generations, many named and unnamed heroes and sheroes. Simple God fearing Black folk destroyed Jim Crow, exercising countless courageous acts of civil disability and believing in their hearts that "We shall overcome." Yet many of us who enjoy the comfort of significant incomes, nice homes and cars have become intoxicated by our new found economic and educational status. I pray that we remember the vulnerability of the human spirit and not take our present status for granted. One only has to think back just 65-70 years ago to 1933 to 1938, to Nazi Germany and Adolph Hitler. This one-time homeless man, in an unthinkable, unpredictable way, almost conquered the world.

Is it inconceivable that there are devilish, destructive, duplicitous persons among us who would similarly attempt to dominate people based upon race? The lessons of the Jewish community in Germany and their failure to take Hitler seriously are instructive. None of us should be comfortable in this climate. None of us. We need to circle the wagons and learn how to better take care of each other. Dr. King use to always say "Negroes have to learn to stick together." Collaborative and strategic consumer spending and more cooperative ownership, increasing financial support for Black educational institutions and well-financed scholarship funds for deserving students must be at the core of any new empowerment strategy. We must support and develop independent Black-owned media and, lastly, we must continue to insist that the government compensate African-Americans for over 350 years of legally sanctioned past discrimination.

Dr. King once said: "Freedom requires constant vigilance." Frederick Douglass called for agitation. Vigilance and agitation, not silence, are the order of the day. Thank you Dr. King for yours.

Donald Temple is an attorney based in Washington, DC.

-- February 28, 2003

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