Chauncey K Robinson, social media editor of People's World spent five days in Connecticut where she was guest speaker at the 45th People's World African American history Month events in Hartford and New Haven, "The Great Migration: Then and Now". She also appeared on two radio shows and visited Nelson Pinos in sanctuary. Following are her remarks to the two events:
The Narrative of
Struggle and Resistance
By: Chauncey K. Robinson
I’m happy to be joining
here with you all today to celebrate Black History month and within
that, the resilience of a people. As someone who helps in writing
stories for a living, both fiction and non-fiction, I think narrative
is very important. The stories we push to be told can greatly
influence the movements of today.
It’s important to make
the connection to the struggles we’ve been through in the past to
the trials and tribulations we face today, not only as individuals,
but as a movement of peoples, cultures, and histories, intertwining
towards what is hopefully a brighter and stronger future together.
The quote on the flyer for
this event from the famous Civil Rights activist Ella Baker says, “We
who believe in freedom cannot rest,” and that is because our
journey is a long one, but a righteous one.
We are in turbulent
political times. We currently have a president and White House
administration that is focused on emboldening a base fueled by
hatred, bigotry, fear, and paranoia.
Through outright, not so
subtle, racist rhetoric, the current administration has continued to
paint a picture of an America (and a world) deeply divided. Painting
a false picture that only a certain group of people deserve
protection, just rights, job security, and a fulfilling way of life.
Through continued lies, hateful rhetoric, and fake government
emergencies, many people, especially working people of color, have
seen an upheaval and threat to our ways of life.
According to an analysis
from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, over the past
four years, the number of hate crimes reported to police have
continued their dramatic rise—reaching the highest level the United
States has seen in a decade. There has been a reported 17 percent
increase in hate crimes from the previous year alone.
Trump and his
administration have constantly tried to scapegoat real issues
plaguing working people, such as poverty, unemployment, and a growing
wealth gap, on the idea of the ‘other’- which is usually coded
language for people from marginalized groups.
Most recently we’ve seen
this with the targeted attack on the rights of undocumented people
living in the United States. Fake emergencies are being called to
build a Wall that will do nothing to solve any of the systemic issues
in this country, while children are torn away from their families,
resulting in traumatizing experiences that will forever haunt them.
Yet, this targeting of the
‘other’ is not a new strategy or tactic by those that seek to
oppress and exploit people of color and working people as a whole.
The very struggle of Blacks in this country has been one of
combating, and rising above, adversity and severe exploitation.
From the days of brutal
slavery, to the Great Migration where over six million
African-Americans moved out of the rural South in order to find new
economic stability, all the way to now where the fight against
systemic racism continues, the story of Black people in this country
serves as a symbol for hope, courage, and resilience in the face of
oppression.
It is a narrative that we,
those who advocate for equality and true freedom, must take ownership
of, and promote, in the face of ‘fake news’ and rhetoric that
seeks to make us forget our past struggles and triumphs.
They want us to forget,
because they hope we won’t stay diligent in not only the fight for
our equality, but the fight for the freedom and justice for all,
including those part of their own great migration now, seeking a
chance for safety, security, and a better way of life here in the
United States.
Since the theme of the
event is The Great Migration then and now in relation to Black
History month, as a journalist who focuses on culture and art, I
wanted to bring highlight to one of the great movements born out of
the Great Migration of African Americans in the early 1900s. That
being the Harlem Renaissance.
Spanning throughout the
1920s, the Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual, social, and
artistic explosion that took place in Harlem, New York. It was known
as the "New Negro Movement". One of the things this
movement included was the new Black cultural expressions across the
urban areas as African-American made their way out of the South into
the Northeast and Midwest United States.
Harlem was the city in
which the largest chunk of that migration ended up. The feeling of
many historians is that the Harlem Renaissance was considered to be a
rebirth of African-American arts.
To first put it into
perspective as to why the Great Migration occurred, that gave birth
to the Harlem Renaissance, it’s essential to understand the
disenfranchisement that African-Americans were going through after
the attack on, and eventual defeat of, Radical Reconstruction. Events
don’t happen in vacuums.
Radical Reconstruction is
the time period after the Civil War when freed enslaved
African-Americans were gaining rights and representation in
government. This was combated and attacked by the ideals of white
supremacy that sought the continued disenfranchisement of Blacks,
post-slavery.
This gave way to the rigid
segregation system that we know as Jim Crow. Black communities were
terrorized by the KKK, other white supremacist organizations, and
lynch mobs. Because of this continued assault on their rights and
safety in the South, many African Americans made their way to what
they hoped would be greener pastures in the North, Midwest, and
Western states.
Yet, the experiences of
brutality, the failure of Reconstruction, and the hope for true
democracy didn’t leave those that migrated. This goes back to not
forgetting our history and experiences, but taking hold of them, and
giving voice and space to our experience.
There were many
groundbreaking works that would dare to show the complexity, layers,
and nuance of the African American experience during this era.
Such as the ground
breaking
“Three Plays for a Negro Theatre”
by white playwright Ridgely Torrence that gave Black actors the space
to convey complex, fleshed out, characters on stage that went beyond
Blackface and minstrel shows- that often depicted crude stereotypes
of African Americans.
Claude McKay, Jamaican
writer and poet, wrote the political sonnet If
We Must Die in 1919, that
spoke to the fighting spirit of Black people taking charge of their
struggles and combating oppression. The Harlem Renaissance put a spin
on many influential institutions that were part of African American
life and culture.
Such as religion. American
painter, illustrator and visual arts educator, Aaron Douglas, often
used his artwork to display Christian stories infused with Black
people, infusing this biblical imagery with Black struggle.
Music told the stories of
Black pain and triumph. Billie Holiday, the great “Lady Day,” an
American jazz singer whose famously brought mainstream attention to
the haunting song Strange
Fruit
which talked about American
racism, and the lynching of African Americans. Holiday once noted in
her biography about the groundbreaking song: “It reminds me of how
Pop [her father] died. But I have to keep singing it, not only
because people ask for it, but because twenty years after Pop died,
the things that killed him are still happening in the South.”
It was Holiday’s
insistence to keep singing this song that put her on the rader of the
notorious FBI racist Harry
Anslinger, the first commissioner
for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, who would go on the hunt for
Holiday seeking to destroy her career and livelihood, mainly because
she refused to stay silent through her art.
Great American poet,
novelist, and activist, Langston Hughes used his writing to explore
Black identity, and also the topic of sexuality and homophobia.
Hughes’ essay The
Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain
in 1926 called for Black artists and creators to stand in the truth
of their identity, rather than trying to aim to please white
sensibilities and “mainstream” audiences.
It should be understood
that during this time, the north, midwest, and western states weren’t
some sort of utopia for Black Americans who made the migration.
Racial tensions remained, oppression remained, race riots occurred,
and the ideals of white supremacy still threatened the ways of life
of African Americans and persons of color all over the U.S.
What’s to understand
from the Harlem Renaissance is that within that continued struggle,
art and resistance continued to produce a movement that is part of
the foundation we stand on today.
Organizations that fought
for true democracy and equality were active during this era as well.
W.E.B DuBois, leading American sociologist, historian, civil rights
activist, and greatly associated with the Harlem Renaissance, was one
of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP).
During this era the
Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) played a key role in the
labor movement, and the rights of workers in organizing unions and a
strong labor force. Which is of course connected to the struggle of
African-Americans during the Great Migration to find stable work and
livable wages. Something we still deal with today.
It was inspiring to get
into Connecticut and attend the Town
Hall meeting on Thursday in New
Haven, as hundreds of residents continued to hold the largest
employer in the city of New Haven, Yale University, accountable on
their agreement to employ local residents. Even Yale’s agreement to
do so three years ago came about through the pressure put on them by
the community to do better by the people. Fights like this are in the
vein of a long history of the fight for stability and livable wages.
During the late 1920s the
CPUSA helped to organize "Upper
Harlem Council of the Unemployed."
This nationwide day of action against unemployment brought 500,000
people into the streets. The CPUSA led the way during the infamous
case of the Scottsboro Boys--nine young Black men charged in 1931
with rape. The CPUSA, along with the NAACP, worked for the young
men’s defense, and against their racist convictions.
Progressive journalism
during this period advocated for equality, true democracy, and namely
the protection of the rights of African Americans. The official
publication for the NAACP, The
Crisis, came about during this
era in 1910, with one of the founders being W.E.B. DuBois.
Three of the principles of
The Crisis was, and
remains, "to battle tirelessly for the rights of humanity and
the highest ideals of democracy. To tell the world the facts. To
expose injustice and propose solutions. To speak for ourselves.”
The predecessor for the
People’s World, the
publication I’m on the editorial board of, was also leading the way
on journalism for struggle, as The Daily
Worker. The publication, founded in 1924, was
often one of the first publications that wasn’t predominately
Black, that reported on issues concerning people of color, namely
African Americans.
The
Daily Worker reported on such cases as that
of William Bell, a murdered African American man, and his family’s
fight for justice. This was a lynching that took place in Chicago.
In 1944 The
Daily Worker was the first non-predominately
Black publication to report on the case of Recy
Taylor. A young Black women
fighting for justice after being raped by white men. The Daily
Worker interviewed Recy, and gave her a
platform to tell her story.
Spreading our narrative to
the world, and giving a voice to our struggle and our victories is
essential. This is what the Harlem Renaissance was able to do in
reflecting the time of the first Great Migration back in the early
1900s.
We continue that today, as
art, stories, and movements are building in defense of the the Great
Migration immigrant workers are doing now, and the continued fight
for racial and economic justice for all today.
As we go into the next
election year, we see that great strides have been made. Historic
happenings have occurred. Such as an unprecedented amount of women,
particularly women of color, even more specifically Black women, are
running for public offices, and winning.
In 2017 a number of Black
women took political offices, and we’ve seen a continued emergence
of Black women taking the center of the public political arena, such
as Stacey Abrams, to demand equality and justice for all.
Representation that looks like us is important, and we not only elect
those that support our struggles, but elect ourselves to tell our
stories, and lead the way for true democracy.
None of this today would
be possible, if not for the fights of our past. It influences our
present, and how we will learn from it shall determine our future.
As Civil Rights leader
Rev.
Dr. William Barber, of the Poor
People’s Campaign, which builds on the Poor People’s Campaign of
the 1960s, has said, we must “challenge the evils of systemic
racism, poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation, and the
nation’s distorted morality.”
As voter suppression,
often targeted towards communities of color runs rampant, it is
important to understand that we have less voting rights today than
when the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which we fought for, was passed.
The voter
suppression that happened in
Georgia, and other states in the recent midterm elections, is
connected to a larger anti-democratic effort underway across the
country. The rights of voters have been under attack since the
removal of a major provision in the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme
Court in 2013. This provision required that lawmakers in states with
a history of discriminating against voters of color had to get
federal permission before changing voting rules. Since the removal of
this provision, thus the gutting of the Voting Rights Act many of
these same states have implemented stricter voter registration rules,
often targeting voters of color.
Systemic Racism is still
going.
Legislative actions and legal decisions at the federal and state
levels has restricted the ability of people of color—especially
poor Black people, Latinx, and Native Americans—to participate in
the democratic processes.
The so called “tough on
crime” politics has led to increased policing of working poor
communities, along with a tenfold increase in annual spending on
prisons since 1976. Prisons, as we know, have become the new form of
modern slavery, as Blacks, Latinos, and people of color are placed in
prison at a higher disproportionate rate than their white
counterparts.
Federal spending on
immigration, deportation, and border policies has increased from 2
billion to 17 billion dollars, while deportations has increased
tenfold between the years 1976 and 2015.
Nearly 41 million
Americans live below the federal poverty line.
But we’ve fought this
before, and we can win again. It is through this understanding of
past battles and victories that we keep in the forefront what we are
deserving of now, and what we have always been capable of achieving.
We fought against Jim Crow
and severe oppression, but the fight continues. And it’s through
solidarity, and the joining together of peoples struggles that we’ll
build a bridge forward. We must hold dear to our history and our
stories, and continue to speak on, the horror and the hope.
As one of my favorite
writers, authors and anthropologist, Zora
Neale Hurston, who was also a
staple of the Harlem Renaissance, once said, “If you are silent
about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.” We
must give voice to our pain, our struggles, and our victories.
Black History month is
every month. Black History is American history. Don’t let them tell
you different. We celebrate and learn from our history, to continue
to fight for our future.
Thank you.
