Black Journal; 55; The Black Political Convention. Part 1

The following program is from NET. It is possible that the first National Black Political Convention was more than a group of blacks interested in politics convening to discuss this issue. It was perhaps a final warning to the American political system. We will discuss the issues and dynamics that took place at Gary.

Was it really historic? Who are the new black leaders? Joining me in an analysis are Paul Delaney of the New York Times and Carol Morton of Black Journal. First, let's review a film version of what took place. Let us all stand and sing together the Black National Anthem, lift every voice and sing. Let us all stand and sing together the Black National Anthem, lift every voice and sing together the Black National Anthem. Let us all stand and sing together the Black National Anthem, lift every voice and sing together the Black National Anthem.

Let us all stand and sing together the Black National Anthem, lift every voice and sing together the Black National Anthem. Let us all stand and sing together the Black National Anthem, lift every voice and sing together the Black National Anthem, lift every voice and sing together the Black National Anthem. But whatever, I think all of us are saying this afternoon, that if the two major parties in this country fail us and reject us once again in 1972, then they must accept the consequences of that act. Now, Black people have broken out of the two-party mold before.

I might point out that this time the rupture might well be permanent. All of you remember the free soil party, the Virginia readjusters, the green backers, the populists, blacks tried them all. And in our search for political impact, we have held political conventions before. This is not the first time blacks have assembled to chart their political courts. And I just don't think the type of unity that Black people came here seeking for and you can see it in the minds and the eyes of the young people for the first time in their lives. And when you start talking about a political convention, you are talking about freedom. And this is why so many young black people have come for and near across this country with one thing in mind to achieve unity, but also achieve freedom for people who oppress people all over the world. And when you start dealing with that, you are dealing in a very dangerous area. And if you don't know what freedom is, then it pays all of the politician to get back in the Nile and keep their big mouth shut.

Well, despite the fact that this might look like some disunity, that is the so-called inconveniences which we've been experiencing. The fact that all of us are here is proof positive that we can do it and that we can respond. And I think this is a tribute not only to our self-knowledge of ourselves. And now it's also representative of our frustrations too, but it also serves too as a sign that there are still some of us who not only have hope in the so-called future, but that there are still some of us who are willing not to work within the system, but to work within a structure unlike the system, but to change it for better. I'm quite sensitive to some of the basic managerial and organizational problems that the conveners would have. And after we got beyond the real problem of credentialing and certifying credentials from the different delegations, I think it went relatively smoothly. And we in fact will have spent an entire day almost looking quite specifically at the different resolutions that have come forth from the state delegations. And so I think we did a very credible job. I'm quite pleased that we were able to accomplish over the last couple days.

But for myself, I hope that we will be able to get some satisfaction out of this convention because I feel it's something that's needed for the black people. Can you tell me what your overall impression of this black political convention has brought? Well, first of all, I'm very, very excited about it because I think so many black people coming together to deal with our question of survival in America. I think all of us have been involved in the political system and who realize is beyond the shadow of a doubt that the system is in fact taken us through a very systematic form of genocide through its political institutions. And when you can see the very, very diverse element that's here, all coming together because we realize that things are very, very bad. So I'm very excited about it. I think we're going to come out of here with some very, very positive results.

Mainly we can turn about black representation on a national level in terms of economics, in terms of having more political power, in terms of doing something to rid us of problems that affect us from a cultural standpoint. Specifically from an economic standpoint of you, we just want to learn to share the flag relative to programs of black people. We want to be able to come out and bring to the attention of this country what program that we feel that are relative to us, rather than having someone to tell us what's relative for us and what's good for us. This is the type of thing that you're going to see, the type they're going to be pushing the leadership on the brink and if they're not prepared to go to Pharaoh, if they're not prepared to go to the modern season, and if I have people who want freedom, then they better step aside because these young black people will walk right home. The one central question that could have torn this convention apart, I think has been smooth over and has not become an issue at all and that is what or not, this convention would endorse black presidential candidate, Shirley Chisholm, or Brooklyn.

Black feminist attorney Florence Kennedy held a caucus in Chicago last night and the discussion among this group was whether or not they should even push for endorsement for Mrs. Chisholm. The feeling on the part of the sisters there was that this would be too divisive and because it might be too divisive, they thought that they would back off. Resolution came from Ohio and several of the states which were synthesized as follows. Whereas the purposes of the National Black Political Convention are the development and adoption of the National Black Agenda and arriving at a common accord on the problems from which all Black Americans suffer, therefore be it resolved that the National Black Political Convention does not and will not endorse any candidate for election to the office of President of the United States at this time.

I'd like to move that resolution. Resolution heard that assembly is their second, is the motion to adopt a resolution. Ohio, Mr. Chairman, Ohio, second that motion. Ohio, seconds the motion that the National Black Political Convention not be not endorse at this time any candidate for President of the United States. Is there, can we move the question? Louisiana, Louisiana. Again, Mr. Chair, the reason of the allegations submitted a resolution which is all probably the purpose call for a third party.

The convention finally decided not to back any political candidate for President. This move obviously eliminated a debate over Shirley Chisholm's candidacy. A decision to form a third party was also temporarily postponed. The question that constantly arises concerning the National Black Convention here, meeting here in Gary, Indiana, is will it be meaningful? Will it leave here with a bill of particulars that it can bring to the upcoming White Convention, the Democrats and the Republicans, and force them to speak to the needs of Black people? There is also a corollary question that's being asked.

As what are not, these many Black people can get together and, in fact, come to any common ground on anything. And there are many people, including many delegates themselves, who don't believe that this can be done. However, like Mrs. King said, Mrs. Martin Luther King, who came here not too long ago and she was interviewed on a panel discussion. And they asked her about this unity bit and she says, well, what we're seeking is unity, not uniformity. Okay, now, to give you a reestablishment of exactly where we are, we have had a roll call of states and certified the number of delegates in those states that can vote. We have also adopted the rules which should be in your package. We have also voted to establish an ongoing structure as stipulated in the New Jersey and California resolutions. We've also voted to name 50 State Chairman plus the District of Columbia plus the Chairman of National Organizational Representatives in a floor caucus to see that that structure is implemented.

Paul, what do you think the real significance of the Convention was? I think the real significance of the Convention was the further politicalization of black people. I think the people attending this Convention will take this unity thing back to their communities and do the homework and the groundwork that they failed to do in the past like getting out to political organizations within their communities. This year, beginning this year, much more political awareness on a local level as a result of this Convention. Well, there obviously will be more political awareness among blacks as a matter of fact there is now. I wonder, though, if that's going to be translated, there's one thing talking politics and there's another thing when you have to ring doorbells, register voters, take people to the polls and these kinds of things.

In either of your view, do you see that as a potential? This is the problem. I think this is the problem that the leaders are going to have to deal with. As you recall, we've had a lot of failures because of the inadequate campaigns and adequate campaigning. For example, I think the reason Andy Young isn't in Congress today is because of that. If the machine, if the Andy Young campaign could have gotten out more black voters, he would have been Congress today. This is what the black leadership is going to have to realize and to come up with devices and methods to assure at least a healthy black turnout. Carol, what did you observe as a general convention tone or theme? I think one of the most discernible results was that so many black people over 8,000 could get together and work under some guise of operational unity, work towards meeting black people's political needs. I think that was one of the foremost results of the convention.

Also, when you mention operational unity, we really have now two seriously black and white people address ourselves to Imamo and Medi Baraka, who is the author pretty much now of operational unity. And I would say that at this point is showing operational unity. What do you think of that tone? I think somebody commented to Baraka as a matter of fact that he seems to be much more of a politician than a poet. And I think that was very true during this convention. Somebody else has commented that only Baraka could have held that convention together as it was held together. Do you see this as his acceptance generally, his emergence as a real force to be reckoned with in black America? I think so. I think what Baraka has done is merely put on a national level what he had done in Newark, which resulted in the election of Kenneth Gibson and his mayor. And I think he sees this as an opportunity now to do the same thing on a national level. And with the result, more black politicians, a black politics is a matter of fact.

Is politics and either of your estimation the new thrust for black nationalism? Is this the ground in which they're going to work out this fervor and energy? I've always thought that blacks would have to move politically, decisively politically, more so than economically. I think there are some forces in the black community that think we can move economically. We should put economic as our main priority. But I think we're in a much better position to go politically and then accrue some economic power. Of course, there are many people who say that all institutions are basically political and that any economic development has to follow. Definitely. Tony, I think we ought to remember what Imam Baraka said first and later Mrs. Carretta Scott King said. And that was that at the convention the delegate should try to work for unity without uniformity. I think that's a very important thing to remember.

I think that was very, very much brought out. I was very much emotionally moved when Mrs. King was introduced. The way I observed it was that I think a lot of delegates there who would be identified as nationalists, who would be identified as enemies of integration and Mrs. King has to be a symbol of integration being that her husband was an author. In this standing ovation, this very emotional thing, these nationalists, so to speak, were saying to her that we love you. I think this is a credit again to Baraka and who I don't think he's compromised himself at all as a nationalist in getting nationalists to at least change tactics. In a position paper, he stated that we've got to be realistic and deal with this real thing as it is and move from there. And I think he will, his idea is to guide, to work with a system with what's there now, but never losing touch with his nationalism. What's there now in many people's opinions is very much an asset to black people.

The fact that black people are over 50% population in many, many cities, many towns really lends for the first time perhaps the hope of the political process to change the condition of black people. I think Baraka sees that very clearly. I think this convention can put sort of a fire and give a thrust to the movement of blacks within the inner city to become politicians and to become mayors and to run the city. The one thing that I'd like to point out was that I was personally rather dismayed and upset by the reporting generally in the white papers and television of what was going on there. I think it was highly distorted. I don't believe that a person could accurately by reading the papers that I was reading, which were mostly the Chicago area papers, could have gotten a real true perspective of what was going on. I can cite specifically Angela Parker. What papers does she write for?

The Chicago Tribune. Her leads were consistently negative. The emphasis in her stories and she is black. So we can't always say that white writers distort or don't understand what's going on. Her articles consistently spoke to divisiveness. One had said that Hatcher and Jesse Jackson were in a feud. That really wasn't true. Hatcher said that he would give the traditional parties one more chance. He didn't say that he wouldn't form a third party. Jesse Jackson said he would like to form a third party now. But he didn't say he wouldn't give the traditional parties another chance. So they weren't really arguing. They were just saying the same thing in a different way. But the theme more important than what Hatcher said or Jesse Jackson said was the fact that some 8,000 black people came together from every place, stayed in the same auditorium for two or three days. And at the end of it gave you Mama Groc a standing ovation. And at the end of it had only had what I would call a mini defection by two thirds of the Michigan delegation. I think the coverage of the convention was atrocious as a matter of fact. And I think the white press was looked upon this as possibly another demonstration.

And at a demonstration you send your reporters out and to look for the disruption. And there's a story. I think they missed the point of 8,000 black people being in Gary. And they missed the significance of this. And certainly so far very few papers have dealt with the future of this. And I don't think they know how. A lot of them just don't know how, frankly. But their coverage was, I think, very unfortunate. Which brings us, I would like to get anyone's review, Carol. How did you see the walk out by two thirds of the Michigan delegation? Well, the main reason that the Michigan delegation walked out was because they wanted more time to look over the proposed black political agenda. And what had happened was there were various factions who did not want more time. There was some who wanted 90 days. And there was some who wanted to compromise and said 65 days.

I don't think it was that important a thing. I think the most important thing was that so many black people stayed and so many agreed on the black political agenda. I think the Michigan delegation probably more so than any other delegation was composed of traditional labor union types. And the labor union types, this was a move by them. Hopefully they would start the walk out to delay consideration of this agenda that I wouldn't think labor could accept. But certainly the majority of black people at that convention could accept. Therefore, it was an important attempt to get a delay on accepting this agenda. And I think it was more by some labor types within the Michigan delegation. I have a copy of a press release issued by the Michigan delegation, which allegedly was released before they came back in after the recess, which would suggest that they had planned to walk out anyway. The last paragraph I would like to read of the walk out of the Michigan delegation says we specifically mentioned the four areas that they disagreed with.

Since our request for this minimum and sound position has been rejected, the Michigan delegation had no other alternative but to walk out of that convention in the fervor and hope that this dramatic gesture would cause the rest of the delegations to halt and rethink their positions while there was still time to do so. If that was a call for other delegations to walk out, it clearly didn't work because after they walked out, there was the unanimous chant of nation time. And I would like to say that I believe five years ago, if a move to walk out like that had taken place, the rest would have walked out with them. But everyone closed ranks. As a matter of fact, I think we have to really emphasize that all of the Michigan delegation did not walk out. Again, a tribute to Baraka, the theme of unity was pushed and it showed through everything that was done at that convention. People, there were other factions that would have wanted to walk out, but behind the scenes Baraka pushed the unity theme, pushed it and it worked. What did you think that a convention did to the candidacy of Shirley Chisholm, her decision to campaign in Florida and not to attend the Black Convention?

I think if Mrs. Chisholm had shown up in Gary, it could have been had a profound effect on the delegates. As it were, she did not show and the convention voted not to endorse a candidate. If she had shown, I think the leadership would have been in sort of a bind because the convention delegates would have, I think, overwhelmingly pressed for an endorsement. And I think by staying away and, of course, the poor showing in Florida, I think it puts some, there's a question of credibility now in the Black community, I think, with Mrs. Chisholm. Well, speaking of her showing in Florida, do you know what percentage of the Black vote she got as opposed to the other candidates? She got around 12 to 13 percent. And, of course, Hubert Humphrey, last figures I heard, had about 40 percent, which was three times more Black votes. This is the Black community, more Black votes in Mrs. Chisholm.

And, obviously, shows that the Black community in Florida, at least, certainly turned its back on Mrs. Chisholm overwhelmingly. Do you think that there would have been a different reaction from the Blacks in Florida if she had been acknowledged as the Black presidential candidate by that convention? I think so. I think it would have been, I think it would have, it might not have made her a winner in Florida, but I think it certainly in the Black community she would have had made much better showing. Now, there is the issue of busing, and I think that Roy Innis from Corps, who made the resolution against busing, which finally was passed, pretty much felt the tone of that convention. I would like to get your comments, I'd like to read his resolution. We condemn racial integration of schools as a bankrupt suicidal method of desegregating schools, based on the false notion that Black children are unable to learn unless they are in the same setting as white children. Carol, you have any reaction? Yeah, I think that's very important to see that at a convention with such a large diversity of people there, they had the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People represented.

They had the National Council of Negro Women, as well as the Congress of African People and other nationalists organizations. But such a diverse group of people there, and they should come up with something that is not for busing. I think that's very significant, that so large a group of Black people are against busing. That also means that very possibly, well, the results in Florida, for an example, the number of whites who were against busing, I think, was 76%, and the number of whites who were four quality education, which is the new code word for separate but equal, which is really what the Black Nationalists are saying, that do not put the money any more into white schools and let us hassle over going to your schools, let us put the money equally into our schools and build up our schools and make them firm, has really brought Black nationalism and right wing politics into the same household, saying the same thing.

I think it's going to, in the future, cause some conflict within the Black community, the Black community is going to have to resolve that itself because there was no question at the feeling of the majority of the conventionaries was against busing, obviously. I think the final form of the resolution was that we have to give the brothers in the south who cannot have their politics associated with some southern governors, although we are against busing, we have to say that they have to look at busing in an individual pattern in their particular areas. I'd like to thank you very much, Paul, for joining us, and next week we're going to have Imamu Baraka as our guest to further discuss the convention. And I think one very significant thing about the convention is the fact that the symbolism, the fact that the convention opened up with the Black National Anthem. I think there were many symbols of this.

Let us all stand and sing together the Black National Anthem, lift every voice and sing. Let us all stand together the Black National Anthem, lift every voice and sing. Let us all stand together the Black National Anthem, lift every voice and sing.

Let us all stand together the Black National Anthem, lift every voice and sing.