During a speech yesterday at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia Senator Barack Obama confronted head-on the issues surrounding the recent revelations of the statements the long time minister of his church and former mentor had made about 9/11 and how blacks should “damn” America for its “continuing mistreatment of them”.

Senator Obama’s speech was both powerful and eloquent as he strove to explain and defend his 20 year relationship with the now retired minister of Trinity United Church of Christ, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, tying it to the still lingering cause and effect of the segregationist or Jim Crow laws enacted during the late 1800’s.

Last week a firestorm of controversy erupted around Senator Obama after the MSM reported some of what the Reverend Wright had been preaching from his pulpit at Trinity United Church of Christ on the south side of Chicago, the same church Senator Barack Obama and his family have been members of for 20 years. The Reverend had married Senator Obama and his wife, Michelle, baptized their children and the Senator “credited” Wright for the title of his book, “The Audacity of Hope”.

From ABCNews:

Sen. Barack Obama’s pastor says blacks should not sing “God Bless America” but “God damn America.”

“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people,” he said in a 2003 sermon. “God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”

In addition to damning America, he told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001 that the United States had brought on al Qaeda’s attacks because of its own terrorism.

“We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye,” Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.

“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost,” he told his congregation.

One of the questions aimed squarely at Senator Obama was whether he had heard the remarks made by Wright and if so, did he agree.

Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely — just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

Obama went on to call the Reverend’s remarks “divisive” and a “distorted view of America”.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice.

Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country — a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America, a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Rev. Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems — two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

While Obama roundly condemned Wright’s remarks as divisive and distorted he also defended the Reverend, calling him the man who had introduced the Senator to his Christian faith more than twenty years ago, a man “who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor”.

Obama described Wright as an ex-Marine, a minister to the sick, housing the homeless, providing day care services, scholarships, prison ministries, reaching out to HIV/AIDS sufferers.
Obama went on to speak about his first experience at Trinity United Church of Christ:

“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note — hope! — I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones.

Obama claimed he had never heard the Reverend speak in derogatory terms about any ethnic group nor treat whites with less than “dignity and respect”. Obama then compared Wright to his own white grandmother:

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother — a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Senator Obama went on to eloquently address the issue of race in America.

We can dismiss Rev. Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Rev. Wright made in his offending sermons about America — to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through — a part of our union that we have yet to perfect.

And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Senator Obama reminded us even though slavery was supposed to have been doomed by the Emancipation Proclamation, the black community soon faced overwhelming obstacles placed in their path for generations, the Jim Crow laws and segregation, which led to inferior schools which, according to Obama, is responsible for the “pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students”.

Legalized discrimination, blacks prevented from owning property, business and home loans, the exclusion from unions, police forces, firefighters, and the ability of the black family to “amass any meaningful wealth to future generations” could be traced back to the insidious effects of Jim Crow.

Obama spoke of the erosion of the black family, of shame and frustration from the inability to provide for one’s family and a welfare system which acerbated the problem. The lack of basic services, from trash removal to parks to play in, building code enforcement which “all helped create a cycle of violence, blight, and neglect that continue to haunt us”.

Obama said that this was the “reality of Reverend Wright and other African Americans his generation grew up with”.

For the men and women of Rev. Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years.

That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Rev. Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning.

That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change.

But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

Obama spoke about a “similar” anger within the white community, of resentment of hearing of an African-American “getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice they themselves never committed”, that “fears of crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time”.

Obama then blamed the Reagan Coalition and conservatives:

Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle-class squeeze — a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many.

And yet, while Obama’s word’s rang true in many areas, of the cruelness of generations of African-Americans who suffered because of Jim Crow segregation, the dig at the Reagan coalition and conservatives reminded us that Obama’s speech, while both powerful and eloquent was also a political speech, made by a politician running for office. It was Obama’s own party, the Democrats, who were responsible for the Jim Crow laws, enacted over a hundred years ago, the very same party whose segregation and racist tenets the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and “his generation” are still so bitter over.

From the Rise and Fall Of Jim Crow, PBS:

The Democratic Party was formed in 1792, when supporters of Thomas Jefferson began using the name Republicans, or Jeffersonian Republicans, to emphasize its anti-aristocratic policies. It adopted its present name during the Presidency of Andrew Jackson in the 1830s. In the 1840s and ’50s, the party was in conflict over extending slavery to the Western territories. Southern Democrats insisted on protecting slavery in all the territories while many Northern Democrats resisted. The party split over the slavery issue in 1860 at its Presidential convention in Charleston, South Carolina. Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas as their candidate, and Southern Democrats adopted a pro-slavery platform and nominated John C. Breckinridge in an election campaign that would be won by Abraham Lincoln and the newly formed Republican Party. After the Civil War, most white Southerners opposed Radical Reconstruction and the Republican Party’s support of black civil and political rights.

The South remained a one-party region until the Civil Rights movement began in the 1960s. Northern Democrats, most of whom had prejudicial attitudes towards blacks, offered no challenge to the discriminatory policies of the Southern Democrats.

While Senator Obama blamed a political culture rife with lobbyists and special interests, it is Senator Obama whose association with indicted lobbyist Tony Rezko has come under scrutiny.

According to Chicago Sun Times, Obama’s relationship to Rezko, under indictment for trying to collect more than $6 million in kickbacks and a $1.5 million attempted shakedown of a Hollywood producer, yielded more for Obama than an extended lot on his million dollar plus home in Kenwood Estates in Chicago.

Obama has admitted he provided an internship to a son of one of the un-indicted co-conspirators in the federal corruption case against Rezko. Obama provided the internship to the son of Joseph Aramanda at the request of Rezko. Obama also accepted a $11,000 contribution in 2000 from Aramanda.

Since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 effectively silenced the Jim Crow laws which had been in effect since 1896 and the Supreme Court ruling of Plessy vs Ferguson, it’s been the Democrats who have claimed “ownership” of all things pertaining to civil rights. And yet it took over 40 plus years for the Democrats to usher in an African-American candidate for the office of the President of the United States. Until now, and Senator Obama, every single Democrat ticket for the office of President and Vice-President have been rich white men.

In 2004, the top ticket was Senator John Kerry, a white Senator married to a billionaire heiress and a two term Senator, John Edwards, who had made his millions at a young age from defending medical malpractice suits. Both men, white and well-to-do.

These were the men who were the so-called representatives of the minority party, the Democrats.

The first black Secretary of State was Colin Powell, appointed by a Republican president, George W. Bush. The first black woman Secretary of State, Condaleeza Rice was also appointed by Bush.
The first black Senator was elected shortly after the Civil War and was a Republican from Mississippi elected in 1870, Hiram Revels. The first black U.S. Representative was from South Carolina, Joseph Rainey, elected in 1870. These two men were elected before Jim Crow, brought about by the Democrats, effectively and legally separated and discriminated against all black Americans, relegating them to less than second-class citizens.

Senator Obama spoke eloquently about the issue of race in this country but he failed to mention one key factor, that it was his party, that of the Democrats, who were instrumental in implementing the Jim Crow laws in the late 1800’s, that its effects still linger today in Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his generation of African-Americans.

Since the Civil Rights Amendment in 1964, the Democrat’s top ticket in the election for President have chosen white men, some of them, exceedingly rich, to represent the supposed party of minorities. Senator Obama himself has been under pressure to explain ties to a lobbyist and close friend, Tony Rezko, who is under indictment for federal corruption.

Senator Obama condemned the remarks his pastor and mentor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright had made which Obama claims were “divisive and disruptive” while defending Wright as a product of past generations of African-Americans still affected by the legacy of the Jim Crow Segregationist laws.

His speech was very eloquent and powerful until he blamed the Reagan Coalition and conservative politicians for “exploiting fears of crime”. which was a dig at Republicans. It was then that we were reminded by Obama that this wasn’t just a speech about race, this was a speech made during a race. Made by a Democrat, who may eventually run against a Republican, perhaps Senator Obama, if he could make his case to Americans why he chose to not disavow the “divisive and disruptive” teachings of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright until they were brought to light.

Time will tell if Obama succeeded.

By LBG

Image – Jim Crow Songbook
Image – Jim Crow sign
Source – Chicago Sun Times – Obama’s Rezko’s Ties Deeper Than Land Deal
Source – CNN – Transcript of Obama’s Speech
Source – ABC News -
Obama’s Pastor: God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11
Source – Yahoo News – Obama confronts racial division
Source – PBS – The Rise And Fall of Jim Crow Laws
Source - Jim Crow History
Source – Infoplease – Famous Firsts


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