Empowerment 2.0 Focuses On Three D’s: Defend Democracy, Demand Variety, Defeat Poverty
Marc H. Morial
“For greater than 100 years, this group has labored to carry our nation collectively in coalition within the collective combat for the liberty, rights, and justice of all individuals. … we all know we’ve extra work to do, being clear-eyed concerning the second we’re in – a second when state by state in locations like Texas and Florida, extremist so-called leaders assault hard-won rights and freedoms.” — Vice President Kamala Harris, Nationwide City League 2023 Convention
At my first Nationwide City League Convention in Pittsburgh in 2003, simply weeks after I grew to become President and CEO, I outlined a five-point Empowerment Agenda that advanced into the 5 Pillars of our motion: Employment, Schooling, Housing, Well being care, and Justice.
Twenty years later to the day, at our Convention in Houston, I launched a brand new section of advocacy and activism — Empowerment 2.0 — that builds upon the inspiration of the 5 Pillars by way of what I name the Three Ds.
The primary D is Defend Democracy.
We are going to, and we should, demand the complete restoration of the Voting Rights Act. We demand honest illustration in Congress and state legislatures and an finish to racially-based gerrymandering. We demand freedom of expression and freedom of speech, and we is not going to adjust to guide bans and warped lesson plans designed to erase us from historical past and pressure our LGBTQ brethren again into the closet. With 2024 across the nook, and states purging their voting rolls and placing up limitations to the poll field, we’re going to want an effort like by no means earlier than.
The second D is Demand Variety.
We insist on Variety, Fairness, and Inclusion in all points of American life, from our courtrooms to our lecture rooms and campuses, from our manufacturing unit flooring and building websites our C-suites and each office in America. We should degree the enjoying subject, so our youngsters and kids’s youngsters have an equal alternative to succeed.
The third D is Defeat Poverty.
The third D is Defeat Poverty. To be able to shut all racial revenue and wealth gaps, we are going to deal with closing gaps in training, well being care, housing and justice. For a nation with a $23 trillion economic system, the most important nationwide economic system in historical past, to have double digit ranges of poverty and much more individuals residing on the brink, is unacceptable.
The Twentieth-century civil rights motion of our fathers and grandfathers was a motion to defeat the white supremacist terrorism of Jim Crow. After I got here to the City League in 2003, we had been dealing with a brand new villain: James Crow, esquire, who wore a go well with and a tie as a substitute of a gown and hood, and spoke of “states’ rights” and “welfare queens” as a substitute of the N-word.
Twenty years later, we face the son of James and the grandson of Jim: Jimmy Crow. Not content material with suppressing Black votes, he seeks the facility to disregard election outcomes altogether. He rants about “substitute principle” and “Crucial Race Idea.”
We’re engaged in a battle for the way forward for this nation. It’s clear that the progress, exhausting fought, because the Brown resolution, is underneath assault on each entrance. From the Supreme Court docket to right-wing state legislatures, to cable speak exhibits, to the utterances of some Governors, presidential candidates, members of Congress and the US Senate — it appears they’re making an attempt to bend that ethical arc not towards justice, however backward to a darkish time, lengthy gone.
With the Three Ds as our battle cry and our clarion name, this era of City League leaders, companions, and supporters is ready to face the headwinds that lie earlier than us.
Morial is president/CEO of the Nationwide City League.