Page 10 Portland Observer
Section II Thursday, February 23. 1978
Democratic Party in 1968; the
Freedom Now Party in 1963; and
the Peace and Freedom Party in
1968.
Professor Walton, in 1972. con
cluded: "Summing up. then, until
recently the American Black poli
tical party has for the most part
neen a by-product of the one-
party system prevalent in many-
Southern states, just as national
third parties have been by-pro
ducts of the national two-party
system.
Black parties so far
seem to be much more successful
on the local and district levels
than on the national and state
levels. Mainly instruments for
protest. Black parties express
the desire of Negroes to be
included in the mainstream of
American political life. Unique
primarily in their almost totally
ethnic composition, they are ba
sically small third parties created
because of the miscalculation or
neglect of the major parties. Like
other third parties, they will
arise when the need presents
itself, call attention to the diffi
cutties and aspirations and goals
of the excluded, and then per
haps...if they fail to overcome
internal or external organiza
tional difficulties, fade from the
political scene. Black political
parties, like third parties in
general, are part of a continuing
phenomenon in our political sy
stem and will probably appear
now and again for some time to
come.”
Black Nationalist
Another recurrent organiza
tional thrust in the Black Ameri
can experience has been the
persistence of Black nationalist
groups. Since the early 19th
Century, Blacks have debated
the wisdom of leaving this coun
try and attempting to set up a
nation of their own, either on the
African continent or in the Carib
bean. Some relatively recent
groups, most notably the Repub
lic'of New Africa and the reli
giously-oriented Nation of Islam,
called for certain states in the
United States to be relegated to
Blacks.
These groups have not been
optimistic that Blacks would be
able to achieve their full measure
of social, political and economic
dignity as long as they were a
subordinated part of the Ameri
can society. Marcus Garvey's
Universal Negro Improvement
Association, founded in 1916. was
undoubtedly the largest such
organization in the history of
Black Americans. Highly Black
nationalist, the UNIA ultimately
envisioned a sovereign Black
African empire, a free homeland
for Black peoples throughout the
world. At one point in 1926,
Garvey put his fellowship at six
million, although precise figures
remain unknown. He advocated
pride in being Black. Black com
munity control of political and
economic structures, and a
“back-to-Africa" goal.
Always
careful to point out that he was
not preaching hatred of whites,
Garvey simply concluded that
white and Black could not live
together as equals in the same
country. He foresaw extensive
cooperation am ong d ifferen t
races of the world, but only when
each racial group occupied its
own sovereign territory.
The UNIA established the Uni
versal Black Cross Nurses, the
Universal African Motor Corps,
the Black Eagle Flying Corps,
and the Black Steamship Line in
1923. Garvey was indicted on the
charge of using the mails to
defraud and in 1925 he was found
guilty and sentenced to five
years in jail. President Calvin
Coolidge pardoned him in 1927
and ordered him deported as an
undesirable alien. He died in
London in 1940, never regaining
the organizational heights he had
attained twenty years earlier.
Black Power
"Black Power" became a major
rallying cry for many Blacks in
the late 1960s. Although not a
new concept, it was seized upon
by some Blacks in an effort to
emphasize the necessity to con
solidate racial focuses. "Before a
group can enter the open society,
it must first close ranks." was an
important point made by some
Black power advocates. They
understood this to be a viable
political and economic strategy
employed by other ethnic groups
in the American pluralist society.
These advocates were not con
cerned with leaving the Ameri
can society, but rather with
developing organizational stra
tegies that would make the Black
Americans' struggle within the
society more meaningful. Several
consequences came from this
thrust: Black caucus groups
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developed in labor unions, among
Black students, in professional
societies, in the military service,
and in several other areas of
activity. Their primary goals
were to see that Black people
organized and ran their own
organizations, pushed for public
policies that protected the politi
cal and economic interests of
Blacks
on jobs, in schools, in
housing. A prominent and vis
able example of this approach
was the development in the early
1970's of the Congressional Black
Caucus, consisting of the 17
Black congressional represents
tives.
B E S T W IS H E S
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Points to Ponder
The Bicentennial celebration of
American Independence was the
occasion for considerable discus
sion of the concepts of freedom,
justice and equality. The story of
the political status of Black
Americans stands in stark con
trast to those concepts.
One
might justifiably ask the ques
tion: what manner of logic sus
tains a society that pronounces
one set of standards “for all" and
performs another "for some?" is
it not the case that what Gunnar
Myrdal once called “The Ameri
can Dilemma" is, in fact, “The
American Betrayal?" What
would the history of this country
have been if white Americans
had, in fact, been required to
compete openly with a vast seg
ment of Black citizens for the
political rewards and benefits
that a truly democratic society
should offer?
The fact is that, politically, the
United States has never been a
free and open society. Various
white groups obtained entrench
ed political power positions
without having to compete
in an open field. At the point
that the Lewis Adames of the
Black community were beginning
to learn the process and partici
pate in it, they were effectively
shut off. Black people were sent
to the courts not to the club
houses. How much more effec
tive and viable would Blacks be
in American politics today if they
had not been diverted by deceit
and racist state constitutions?
Black Americans are the only
citizens in the history of this
country who had to endure death
(literally) simply to establish the
constitutional right to vote.
(This was certainly not the his
tory ol the women’s suffrage
movement).
Even after the
passage of the 15th Amendment
in 1870, it stood 95 years before
the Voting Rights Act of 1965
moved Black suffrage perceptib
ly forward. (After the passage of
the 19th Amendment giving wo
men the right to vote, there was
no such subsequent history of
struggle.)
The American Bicentennial
was a time when many Ameri
cans reminded themselves of ma
xims they preferred to think
they lived by and have built their
society on.
One such often
repeated maxim is “law and
order". Unfortunately, the his
tory of this country's treatment
of Blacks in terms of politics is
not a history that upholds the
belief in “law and order”. South
ern states, after the 1890's, pro
ceded to enact constitutions of
and laws in clear violations of the
15th Amendment. The records
are filled with the language of
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\
IN I9b4 PRES JOHNSON NAMED
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