anuary 18, 2017
Page 7
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O PINION
Moral Courage: Standing Up for What is Right
Thank you
Sen. Booker
and Rep. Lewis
M arian W right e delMan
On Wednesday, Sen. Cory A.
Booker. D-N.J. and Rep. John
Lewis, D-Ga., joined the list of
speakers testifying before the
Senate Judiciary Committee
against the nomination of Sen.
Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. for At-
torney General of the United States. Both
were assigned to a panel at the very end of
the hearing process, a slot fellow panelist
Rep. Cedric L. Richmond, D-La., the head
of the Congressional Black Caucus, called
“the equivalent of being made to go to the
back of the bus.” Several of the committee
members supporting Sessions left before
Booker’s and Lewis’ important testimo-
ny began. But that didn’t deter them from
speaking out against the threat they see to
civil rights progress if Sessions becomes
Attorney General.
Congressman Lewis noted that he was
born in rural Alabama too, not far from
where Sessions grew up, but as a black
child he inherited a far different society:
“There was no way to escape or deny the
choke hold of discrimination and racial
hate that surrounded us.” He said, “A clear
majority of Americans say they want this
to be a fair, just, and open nation . . . They
are concerned that some leaders reject
decades of progress and want to return to
the dark past, when the power of law was
used to deny the freedoms protected by
the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and its
by
Amendments. These are the voices I repre-
sent today. We can pretend that the law is
blind. We can pretend that it is even-hand-
ed. But if we are honest with ourselves, we
know that we are called upon daily by the
people we represent to help them deal with
unfairness in how the law is written and en-
forced. Those who are committed
to equal justice in our society won-
der whether Senator Sessions’ call
for ‘law and order’ will mean today
what it meant in Alabama, when I
was coming up back then. The rule
of law was used to violate the hu-
man and civil rights of the poor, the
ism are still deeply embedded in our so-
ciety. This is proven by the thousands of
pages of evidence submitted to Congress
which verify continued voting rights dis-
crimination across our nation and in the
Deep South. Representing Alabama on this
Committee, Sessions had an opportunity
to lead. Instead, the senator turned a blind
eye to the persistent and consistent efforts
to make it harder and more difficult for
minorities, the poor, the elderly, and oth-
ers to exercise the right to vote . . . After
the Shelby v. Holder decision [the 2013
Supreme Court decision striking down key
provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act],
Those who are committed to equal
justice in our society wonder whether
Senator Sessions’ call for ‘law and order’
will mean today what it meant in Alabama,
when I was coming up back then. The rule
of law was used to violate the human and
civil rights of the poor, the dispossessed,
people of color.
--Congressman Lewis
dispossessed, people of color.”
In additional written remarks Congress-
man Lewis was even clearer about some
of his current fears: “Some people argue
that the 48 years of a fully-operational
Voting Rights Act simply erased hundreds
of years of hate and violence. This is not
ancient history; the scars and stains of rac-
minorities were in mourning as Sessions
was celebrating. He declared the decision
was ‘good news for the South.’ Alabama
and other states immediately adopted voter
ID legislation -- making it harder for mi-
norities to execute their right to vote. We
must face the truth. We are a multi-racial,
multi-ethnic country . . . [a]nd we cannot
avoid the fact that there is a systematic,
deliberate attempt to destroy the advances
of civil rights in this country and take us
back to a period when America declared
its greatness on one hand, but fostered the
worst kind of racial discrimination on the
other.”
Booker, born after the Civil Rights
Movement, made it clear that he feels
personally indebted to heroes like Lewis
who were attacked and some even killed
during the struggle to make America a
more just nation — and equally resolute
against moving backwards. He took the
courageous step of being the first sitting
senator to testify against the confirmation
of another senator. In his prepared remarks
he said, “I want an Attorney General who
is committed to supporting law enforce-
ment and securing law and order. But that
is not enough. America was founded her-
alding not law and order, but justice for all.
And critical to that is equal justice under
the law. Law and order without justice is
unobtainable . . . If there is no justice, there
is no peace. The Alabama State Troopers
on the Edmund Pettis Bridge were seeking
law and order. The marchers were seeking
justice -- and ultimately the greater peace.”
Booker added: “If confirmed, Senator
Sessions will be required to pursue justice
for women, but his record indicates that he
won’t. He will be expected to defend the
equal rights of gay and lesbian Americans,
but his record indicates that he won’t. He
will be expected to defend voting rights,
but his record indicates that he won’t. He
will be expected to defend the rights of
immigrants and affirm their human digni-
ty, but his record indicates he won’t. His
c ontinued on p age 14
Assessing President Obama’s Impact and Legacy
Arc of history
will judge him
favorably
M arc h. M orial
Throughout
our
history, the Nation-
al Urban League
has taken seriously
our responsibility to
hold the President of
the United States accountable to
the needs of urban America and
communities of color. During
the Great Depression, Executive
Secretary Eugene Kinkle Jones
served on President Franklin Del-
ano Roosevelt’s “Black Cabinet.”
Lester Granger, who headed the
League during World War II, is
among those credited with per-
suading President Harry Truman
to desegregate the Armed Forces.
Whitney M. Young advised pres-
by
idents John F. Kennedy and Lyn-
don Johnson and was instrumen-
tal in the passage of the landmark
Civil Rights Act. Urban League
Presidents Vernon Jordan,
John Jacob and Hugh Price
continued our engagement
with the Presidents with
whom they served to further
the work of civil rights and
secure support for Urban
League programs.
The first African-Ameri-
can Presidency quite naturally has
held special significance for the
National Urban League. In recog-
nition of Barack Obama’s unique
place in American history, we set
out to create a comprehensive
analysis of his two terms, which
we recently released to great na-
tional interest.
Any evaluation of the Obama
administration must first recog-
nize that he inherited the worst
economy since the Great Depres-
sion, and was faced with Congres-
sional opposition unprecedented
in its intensity and sinister nature.
Both his accomplishments and his
failures must be evaluated against
those conditions.
In creating our scorecard, the
National Urban League harkened
back to the famous question
Ronald Reagan asked the nation
during his sole debate against
President Jimmy Carter: “Are
you better off than you were four
years ago?” In this instance, the
question is, “Is the nation better
off than it was eight years ago?”
And, “Is Black America better off
than it was eight years ago?” The
answer to both questions is, un-
equivocally, yes.
President Obama is leaving of-
fice with an approval rating even
higher than Reagan’s, exceeded
only by Presidents Franklin D.
Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower
and Bill Clinton. During Obama’s
presidency, the economy has add-
ed 15 million new jobs, and the
jobless rate has dropped from 7.6
percent to 4.7 percent - and from
12.7 percent to 7.8 percent for Af-
rican Americans. The high school
graduation rate for African Amer-
icans has increased from 66.1
percent to 75 percent. There are
614,000 fewer long-term unem-
ployed. Wages are up 3.4 percent.
More than 16 million Americans
who were uninsured now have
health care coverage, with the
uninsured rate for African Amer-
icans cut by more than half.
Barack Obama’s passion and
steady hand made a huge differ-
ence in charting a progressive
course and positively impacted the
lives of ordinary Americans. Black
Americans felt both the pride of
his accomplishments and the pain
when it was clear his opponents
sought to diminish a great Ameri-
can. I am confident the long arc of
history will judge him favorably.
While we scored many of the
administration’s
achievements
with our highest rating, “Superi-
or,” President Obama’s tenure as
a whole had shortcomings due to
some notable missed opportuni-
ties and outright failures, such as
the economic development of ur-
ban centers, gun violence and the
foreclosure rate and bank closure
rate in communities of color and
low-income neighborhoods. On
these and other issues, we rated
the Obama administration “Fair”
or “Poor.” Our evaluation springs
from a consideration of his accom-
plishments balanced against the
conditions under which he served.
The National Urban League has
given the Obama Administration
an overall rating of “Excellent,”
our second-highest rating.
Marc H. Morial is president
and chief executive officer of the
National Urban League.