(ThyBlackMan.com) James Brown had a way of reminding us to take pride in our Blackness. We can use some of that today. As an international music icon, James Brown emerged as one of the founding fathers of funk with a musical style that often profoundly influenced R&B, jazz, and rock. Becoming a leading voice in the Black community during turbulent racial times, he was affectionately known as the “Godfather of Soul. He used his platform as a performer to promote social change and political activism.
As the Black community was attacked internally and externally, his inspiring messages of Black pride and hope touched on self-doubt, inequality, fear, and intimidation. “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” was a song that resonated with Blacks of all ages and became an anthem of the Black Power movement. Brown wrote the song after feeling that the Black community had lost its pride.
When we think of the “Godfather of Soul,” we don’t associate him with being a lifelong Republican. A fact that outraged many Black Americans, particularly when he endorsed Richard Nixon for re-election. Brown supported Nixon based on their shared belief in individualist policies and the notion that hard work, and hard work alone, would be the key to success for Black Americans. The self-taught musician was a staunch Black Republican and believer in the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” philosophy. By gaining Nixon’s confidence, he found it necessary to use his platform to explain the plight of Black America to the president.
Today, we find ourselves entering a turbulent era reminiscent of our dark past. At times, Trump is compared with Nixon as a president governing through fear and intimidation. Fear is complex, particularly when fear drives silence. Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is one of the few Senate Republicans willing to stand up against the bullying tactics of President Trump.
During Trump’s second term, she has shown a willingness to break with the president by criticizing his policies, opposing some of his Cabinet nominees, and voting to overturn his tariff on Canada. She is also willing to speak publicly about the challenge of governing in fear. Recently, Murkowski spoke about how the threat of political retaliation from President Trump is real. It makes her anxious when she speaks out about the presidential executive orders and cuts to federal agencies. “We are all afraid,” Murkowski told a summit of nonprofit and tribal leaders in her native Alaska.
Trump has created an environment of fear, control, and manipulation in Washington, making clear that those who oppose him politically will pay a price. Most Republicans in the House and Senate play it safe by bowing down to the president, remaining silent, and abdicating their oversight duties as members of the legislative branch. As Trump instills fear in those who cross him politically, he has created an executive branch that resembles an organized crime syndicate. As a felon within the White House, Trump has become a type of “godfather” or crime boss who will abuse the significant power and influence that comes with his elected office.
Fear has two sides. As Trump causes those under his influence to work in fear, he, too, is fearful. He fears the Black vote and its potential when it performs at full strength. He is afraid of Black Power because he can’t control and manipulate it. He is fearful of the heritage and legacy of the Black community because of its resiliency and its ability to overcome hardship. He hates Barack Obama because his success and rise to power represent a timeless blueprint for people of color to follow when it is fully executed.
He is fearful of the educated Black women because most are not cowards who will bow down to a “godfather.” Trump is afraid of Black history because if young Blacks tap into their heritage, they cannot be stopped. He fears how a powerful “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” message can re-engage and ignite a young generation within the Black community to get involved and resist. Most of all, those who support white supremacy are fearful of the legacy of Blanche Bruce, even though most people don’t know who he is. The story of Blanche Bruce is a major reason Black history is being erased. At a time when white leaders are perpetuating fear while at the same time being its victim, Bruce’s story kills the notion that whites are a superior people.
Blanche Bruce was born in slavery and later became the first elected African American to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate. In 1874, while Mississippi remained under postwar military control, the state’s progressive Republican-dominated state legislature elected Bruce to the U.S. Senate. Several years earlier, that same legislature sent the U.S. Senate its first African American member when it elected Hiram Revels to fill out the remaining months of an unexpired term.
At the 1880 Republican National Convention, Bruce became the first African American to win any votes for national office at a major party’s nominating convention with eight votes for vice president. He served by advocating just treatment and civil rights for both Blacks and Native Americans while opposing policies excluding Chinese immigrants. Much of his time and energy was devoted to fighting fraud and corruption in federal elections. Once the conservatives gained power in the Mississippi state legislature, they passed a new constitution disenfranchising Black voters. All former Confederate states eventually did the same, excluding Bruce and other Blacks from the political system and keeping him from returning to the Senate.
Blanche Bruce is an inspiration and an example of the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” philosophy, which is not a conservative principle. Progressives have always lived by it; we just want the barriers removed.
Written by David W. Marshall
Official website; https://davidwmarshallauthor.com/
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