January 22, 2014
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Progressive Change for New York City
Leading the fight against economic and social inequalities
by
M arc H. M orial
A new year brought
a new mayor and new
hope for progressive
change to A m erica’s
largest city. With the
inauguration of Bill de
Blasio, New York City,
recently viewed as an incubator of urban
innovations in the fights against crime,
terrorism and cholesterol, is returning to
its roots as a leader in the fight against
economic inequality.
In his inauguration speech, Mayor de
Blasio made it clear that he intended to
pick up the mantle of former New York
progressives like Franklin Roosevelt,
Frances Perkins, and Fiorello LaGuardia
“who challenged the status quo, who
blazed a trail of progressive reform and
political action, who took on the elite, who
stood up to say that social and economic
justice will start here and will start now.”
This is welcome news to the over­
whelming majority of New Yorkers who
swept the new mayor into office in No­
vember with 73 percent of the vote. It is
also good news to the National Urban
League, which is headquartered in Man­
hattan and has been leading the charge
across the nation for many of the progres­
sive ideas championed by Mayor de B lasio.
The priorities include his focus on job
creation for all New Yorkers, proposals
for more affordable housing, an expan­
sion of community health centers, and
reform of New York’s “broken” stop-
and-frisk policy that has unfairly targeted
young men of color.
The new mayor also joins the National
Urban League and a growing chorus of
progressive voices in calling for an end to
income inequality. We are especially en­
couraged by his plan to ask those earning
more than $500,000 a year to pay a little
more in taxes to provide the city’s chil­
dren with a critical educational foundation
by funding full-day universal preschool
and after-school programs for every
middle school student.
A native New Yorker, de Blasio got his
start in public service as an aid to New
York’s first African American mayor,
David N. Dinkins. He also served in the
Clinton Administration as a Housing and
Urban Development regional director and
managed Hillary Clinton’s 2000campaign
for the U.S. Senate. He represented his
Brooklyn neighborhood for eight years as
a New York City Councilman, and from
2010-2013, he served as New York City
public advocate, the city’s second-high­
est elected office.
Running a city the size and complexity of
New York is a daunting challenge, made
more so by the stark and often competing
interests of Wall Street and Main Street. But
Mayor Billde Blasio has rolled up his sleeves
and hit the ground running. He even shov­
eled his own walkway during the city’s first
major snowstorm.
New Yorkers, hungry for leadership that
understands the economic and social chal­
lenges they face every day, are hopeful they
now have a special champion and kindred
spirit in City Hall. We look forward to
working with the new Mayor on the pro­
gressive policies he shares with the Urban
League movement.
Marc H. Morial is president and chief
executive officer o f the National Urban
League.
The Martin Luther King Jr. You May Not Know
More than a
civil rights
leader
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cious and intractable cycle, and cate Americans on poverty issues
standing as formidable barriers to and recruit both poor people and
achieving the Beloved Commu­ antipoverty activists for nonvio­
nity, a brotherly society built upon lent social change.
and nurtured by love, nonvio­
The priority of the project was
lence, peace and justice. King to march on, and to occupy, if
B y B rian J.
posited that when we resisted any you will, Washington and to de­
T rautman
one evil, we in turn weakened all mand the Congress pass mean­
M o s t
evils, but that a measurable and ingful legislation to improve the
A m e ric a n s
lasting impact would require us to social and economic status of the
know Rev. Dr.
address all three.
poor, through directed measures
Martin Luther
King’s work to educate about such as jobs, unemployment in­
King Jr. as one
‘ and eradicate poverty was among surance, health care, decent
of the 20th century’s most re­ his greatest passions. In “The homes, a fair minimum wage,
vered voices for racial equality, Octopus of Poverty,” a statement and education.
the charismatic leader of the appearing in The Mennonite in
Alas, Dr. King was assassi­
American Civil Rights movement, 1965, King observed, “There is nated only weeks before the ac­
who gave the famous “I Have A nothing new about poverty. What tual march took place. And while
Dream” speech. Perhaps they is new, however, is .that we now the march went ahead as planned
even know a thing or two about have the resources to get rid of in May of 1968, it is thought that
his role in the Montgomery Bus it.” Accordingly, “the time has the lack of substantive change to
Boycott and the Birmingham Cam­ come for an all-out world war result was due in large part to
paign.
against poverty.”
King’s absence. Still, a positive
This knowledge by and large
He strongly believed “the rich outcome of the initiative was a
derives from compulsory educa­ nations,” namely the United heightened public awareness of
tion and mainstream media. It is States, had a moral responsibility the nation’s growing poor popu­
significantly less likely, however, to care for its most vulnerable lation.
that very many Americans know populations, noting that such “na­
Perhaps most controversial
much at all, if anything, about tions must use their vast resources were King’s positions on milita­
King’s radical and controversial of wealth to develop the underde­ rism and U.S. foreign policy. In
activities related to the issues of veloped, school the unschooled, “Where Do We Go From Here:
poverty and militarism, particu­ and feed the unfed.” King held, Chaos or Community ?” published
larly the latter.
“ultimately a great nation is a in 1967, King said of war and its
King highlighted three primary compassionate nation,” and main­ consequences: “A true revolution
forms of violence, oppression and tained that “no individual or na­ of values will lay hands on the
injustice in American society and tion can be great if it does not world order and say of war- ‘This
across the world: poverty, rac­ have a concern for ‘the least of way of settling differences is not
ism and militarism. He referred to these.”
just.’ He cautioned that “a nation
these as the “triple evils,” and
In late 1967 King announced that continues year after year to
considered them to be interre­ the Poor People’s Campaign, an spend more money on military
lated problems, existing in a vi­ innovative effort designed to edu­ defense than on programs of so­
cial uplift is approaching spiritual
death.”
King’s most pointed speech
against militarism was “Beyond
Vietnam: A Time to Break Si­
lence,” delivered at Riverside
Church in NYC on April 4, 1967.
To speak out in opposition to
the war, he acknowledged, was
personally necessitated, assert­
ing, ‘‘because my conscience
leaves me no other choice.” With
such a call to conscience, “a time
comes when silence is betrayal.”
In the speech King calls the
United States "the greatest pur­
veyor of violence in the world
today " and questions why money
is being spent to wage war on
foreign lands against foreign
people while the war on poverty
at home was being neglected,
financially and otherwise. The
major media of the time denounced
the speech and King lost a great
deal of support among his col­
leagues and the American people
for it.
We owe it ourselves and our
children and grandchildren, as
well as our communities and
nation to learn and teach about
and take up King’s efforts fo­
cused not only on ending rac­
ism but all three of the evils
against w hich he untiringly
stood. Only then will we find
ourselves closer to achieving
King’s dream of the Beloved
Community.
Brian J. Trautman writes fo r
PeaceVoice.
THE LAW OFFICES OF
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Patrick John Sweeney
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