Securing the Bag vs. the New Black Agenda

As Black establishment Democrats continue to accept campaign funding from special interests at odds with Black issues, Black progressives are taking power back for the people.

(Photo by Envato)

Black America was at a crossroads.

In 1972, 10,000 Black people convened in Gary, Indiana for the National Black Political Convention. The purpose of the convention was to develop a unified National Black Agenda amid calls for Black political independence. This was a time of great promise for the Black community—with the passage of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Acts after years of protest—but also crisis in light of the assassination of Black leaders such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., and the schism between the civil rights and Black Power movements.

The Gary Declaration at the 1972 National Black Political Convention proclaimed that “all truly Black politics must begin from this truth: The American system does not work for the masses of our people, and it cannot be made to work without radical fundamental change,” adding that Black people must accept the challenge of “redefining the functions and operations of all levels of American government, for the existing governing structures…are obsolescent. That is part of the reason why nothing works and why corruption rages throughout public life. For white politics seeks not to serve but to dominate and manipulate.”

The Gary Declaration posed a challenge to Black America: “Will we believe the truth that history presses into our face—or will we, too, try to hide? Will the small favors some of us have received blind us to the larger sufferings of our people, or open our eyes to the testimony of our history in America?”

If one of us is getting the bag, that doesn’t mean we all benefit. Our community must be discerning, demand transparency and responsibility from those who act in our name and ask how—and if—it liberates Black people.

We must lean into the Black radical tradition and advance policies that redistribute wealth and power in America, reform the government and replace racially oppressive, economically exploitative institutions that are rooted in chattel slavery and foundational to America. Black people must reject two-faced, compromised leadership and cultivate leaders who are accountable only to the community rather than white capitalists, oligarchs and moderates.

Black power is again at a crossroads.