| I apologize in advance if what I am about to write offends anyone and I invite Councilman Ron C. Rice to completely disassociate himself with me if what I am about to write causes him or the congressional run in CD10 that he is currently exploring any difficulty. The following are my thoughts and my thoughts only and should not reflect on anyone with whom I have any relationship of any kind.
For as long as I have studied the civil rights movement, more often than not as part of a larger study of United States history, I have never completely understood nor been comfortable with the celebration of only one of its leaders, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., either on the merits of his own spectacular leadership or even as a symbol of the civil rights movement as a whole. Whether MLK Jr. deserved such an honor is not the point of my question as much as whether a day focused on one man is sufficient enough of a forum for the recognition of something as massively inspirational as the civil rights movement.
These feelings became even more acute when I first watched Laurence Fishburne's phenomenal one-man performance of the life of Thurgood Marshall recently and came to the conclusion that Marshall's contributions to the civil rights movement were just as important as MLK Jr.'s if not moreso and his birthday is just as deserving of celebration as MLK Jr.'s if not moreso.
This statement is not meant to diminish the recognition of MLK Jr. as much as it is meant to uplift the recognition of lesser-known civil rights leaders like Marshall. But it is for this reason that I believe that the national holiday known as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day should be renamed Civil Rights Leadership Day. |
| I believe that a national holiday celebrating all of the people who played a role in the broader and deeper fight for civil rights will allow for a broader and deeper conversation about civil rights than the current holiday which celebrates the life of one truly exceptional as a symbol of the larger battle for civil rights that has been and continues to be fought today.
By recognizing not only MLK Jr., but also Thurgood Marshall, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, and the countless other leaders of the 20th Century American civil rights movement as well as Ghandi, Jesus of Nazareth, Moses, Ted Geisel (I had to include him, because I just finished reading my children "The Sneetches") and other past civil rights leaders as well those people who are fighting for civil rights today like Steven Goldstein the story of the civil rights movement will become more diverse, more dynamic, and more resonant with a broader and deeper cross-section of our society-at-large.
So what does this have to do with New Jersey's 10th Congressional District? At some point in the weeks to come, those of you who are not familiar with Newark Councilman Ron C. Rice will quickly learn far more about him as he continues to explore and hopefully announces a congressional run in CD10 against its incumbent congressman, Donald Payne.
This will undtoubtedly be a complicated race for progressives to engage, because on the surface, Payne would appear to be as progressive in terms of his voting record as any congressman in the state, including Blue Jersey favorities, Rush Holt and Frank Pallone. However, as one delves deeper into the nuances of this race and the differences between Payne and Rice, you will learn that it has far less to do with how they would vote on issues and far more to do with the kinds of leaders that one has or has not been and the other has been and will continue to be.
With the lone exception of the crisis in Darfur, there has not been a single issue that Donald Payne has been a leader on during his 20+ year congressional career. Instead, he and his brother, William Payne, have spent most of their political careers maintaining a fiefdom within the city of Newark's power structure that he intends to pass down to his son, Donald Payne Jr., when the time is right for them.
Conversely, Councilman Rice, the son of LD28's State Senator has refused to trade on his father's name, taken very public stands in opposition to his father's position on important progressive issues like marriage equality and needle exchange, and ran for city council in 2006 as a member of the Booker Team, which was running against the slate that his father inherited from the city's disgraced former mayor, Sharpe James.
While it is important to note that Payne was one of very few Democrats in the country to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act and is a co-sponsor to the repeal legislation, when members of Newark's LGBT community were victims of hate crimes in recent years, Donald Payne was neither seen nor heard from, but Rice was both standing beside them and up for them.
In every way imaginable, Ron C. Rice has been as much of a leader in the city of Newark and CD10's community-at-large as any of the aforementioned models of leadership who would be celebrated on a Civil Rights Leadership Day and while it is likely that the name of today's holiday is not going to be changed anytime soon, the one way that we can recognize the kind of leadership that Rice has exhibited and Payne has not is to help Ron win the upcoming primary election in CD10 this June. |
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