Last week, Thursday to be exact, President Barack Obama pulled off another extraordinary event for a supposed lame duck—he had a White-House meeting with a 15-person-strong group of civil rights leaders covering two different generations—from freedom rider Rev. C.T. Vivian to millennials DeShaunya Ware (student leader from University of Missouri) and Brittany Packnett (co-founder of WE The Protesters and Campaign Zero). This kind of multigenerational civil rights strategy session in that kind of forum has not occurred since the days of former President Lyndon Johnson.
Although criticized wrongly by a Black Lives Matter leader in Chicago (Aislinn Pulley), as a sham gathering and photo-opp session for the president, the meeting actually produced strong intellectual stuff, according to those who did attend, and was a gathering very much worth attending.Ms. Pulley was invited but chose not to attend. The young BLM leader apparently has a lot to learn, including never miss an opportunity to put your advocacy forward when you have access to someone with clout who can support your cause. Also, don’t complain about the result, when you refuse to participate. Emotion is not analysis—the president does not need another photo-opp. He is not running for office and is hounded by reporters, when going to the restroom. He looks for less photo-opps, not more. The BLM representative undervalued her own cause by rejecting the meeting out of hand.Actually, young and old, we have made that same mistake too many times in the recent past, and should know better by now.
The president said he was “meeting with history makers and young people who were making history,” and that it was encouraging to see another generation continuing the struggle for justice, equality and economic opportunities. Issues discussed at the meeting included naming a replacement for deceased Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, getting criminal justice reform passed this year, and improving educational opportunities so that a pipeline can be created and sustained from community to college to jobs to counter the school-to-prison pipeline currently operating.
The gathering was part of the president and First Lady’s Black History Month celebration this year, and was in keeping with the 2016 theme, “Hallowed Grounds: Sites of African American Memories.” The presidential pair have tried to present a distinctive Black History Month series of events every year they have been resident in the White House.
Others in attendance at the gathering included Congressman John Lewis, former chairman of SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) and speaker at 1963’s March On Washington; Deray McKesson, another BLM activist; Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; Rev. Al Sharpton, MSNBC host and president of the National Action Network; Benjamin Crump, president of the National Bar Association; Carlos Clanton, president of the National Urban League Young Professionals; Cornell Brooks, president of the NAACP; Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League; Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition of Black Civic Participation; Rashad Robinson, executive director of Color of Change; Stephen Green, national director, NAACP Youth and College Division; Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; and Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Professor David L. Horne is founder and executive director of PAPPEI, the Pan African Public Policy and Ethical Institute, which is a new 501(c)(3) pending community-based organization or non-governmental organization (NGO). It is the stepparent organization for the California Black Think Tank which still operates and which meets every fourth Friday.
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