Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Marc H. Morial

Racial gap in COVID-19, flu vaccination is smaller, but there’s still work to do

2023-12-12T17:35:00-06:00

A man who works with the group Communities Partnering 4 Peace receives his first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Daley College on Jan 14, 2021.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

As the holidays approach, so does the risk of COVID and flu infection.

Unfortunately, only 16% of adults in the United States have received a COVID-19 booster vaccine as of last month, and only 38.7% have received this year’s flu vaccination.

The statistics for Black Americans are even more alarming, with only 10.7% having received the COVID booster and 33.5% the updated flu vaccine.

The racial gap has drastically narrowed since the first COVID vaccines became available nearly two years ago, when the vaccination rate for Black Americans was half that of white people in the United States. Still, by May of this year, only 50% of Black Americans had received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine, compared with 55% of White Americans.

In Chicago, city data show that only 6.1% of Black residents and 5.4% of Latinos, compared with 17.7% of whites and 12.2% of Asians, are up-to-date on their COVID-19 vaccination series.

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Vaccine equity has been a priority of the National Urban League and our nationwide network of affiliates since the first rollout. In response to the early drastic disparity, we commissioned a poll, in partnership with the Alliance of National Psychological Associations for Racial and Ethnic Equity, examining attitudes toward vaccination.

According to our findings, access, not hesitancy, was the primary driver of racial disparity in vaccination rates, contrary to the “blame-the-victim” media narrative that prevailed at the time.

Among those who were hesitant, the primary barrier was concerns about vaccine safety, much of it stemming from misinformation and conspiracy theories. We immediately recognized our challenge not only to advocate for equitable access to vaccines, but also to employ trusted messengers such as public health professionals, community leaders, and neighbors to address concerns about the vaccine’s safety.

Politics, race and vaccines

I was proud to join a group of trusted clergy in my own community who received the vaccine publicly in an effort to build trust.

That’s why we partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the ALL IN campaign, helping to inform Black Americans about the vaccines and to empowered them to make the best decisions for them, their family and their communities.

We enlisted our affiliates, including the Chicago Urban League, to use proven electoral outreach strategies, such as phone banking, neighborhood canvassing, or hosting telephone town halls, to engage Black and African American communities directly about vaccines. We trained trusted messengers to participate in text bank campaigns to inform communities on the recommended fall vaccine schedule, knocked on doors to extend invitations to local vaccine events, and offered their expertise to answer questions about the vaccines during local telephone town halls.

Thanks to the efforts of the National Urban League and other racial justice groups, vaccine hesitancy among Black Americans has declined. In fact, the primary the primary predictor of vaccine hesitancy is not race, but political party affiliation, according to a survey by KFF.

Overcoming vaccine hesitancy is just part of the battle. The structural and institutional racial inequities the National Urban League exposed in our State of Black America® report, “Unmasked” still persist. While the Affordable Care Act has drastically expanded health insurance coverage and narrowed the racial gap, 10% of Black Americans remain uninsured, compared with 6.7% of whites. Black Americans are 50% more likely to go without health care due to cost. Black children are nearly twice as likely to rely on emergency rooms as their only source of health care.

The most recent National Urban League Equality Index, a calculation of the economic and social status of Black Americans relative to whites, was 84.0% for health. Keeping up to date on vaccinations, especially during this holiday season, is one way we can work to bring the Index to 100%

Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League. He served as mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002 and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Georgetown University Law Center.

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Why the U.S. Supreme Court’s new code of conduct stinks

2023-11-22T05:30:00-06:00

The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The court recently unveiled an ethics code following a series of scandals over lavish gifts and luxury vacations received by some of its justices.

Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty

The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court think we the public are confused.

Just because the justices have committed a series of ethical transgressions, like accepting lavish gifts from benefactors with business before the court and failure to disclose those lavish gifts, we seem to have come to the erroneous conclusion that the justices “regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules.”

Perish the thought.

So, just to clear up this little “misunderstanding,” the justices issued a code of conduct that won’t curb corruption. Even worse, the code clearly is meant to justify the unethical practices that gave rise to this so-called “misunderstanding.”

The most obvious weakness of the new code is the lack of any enforcement mechanism. This is not an oversight. The federal judiciary’s code of conduct, from which the Supreme Court justices adopted theirs, calls on judges to “maintain and enforce high standards of conduct.” The Supreme Court justices excised the word “enforce” and called upon themselves merely to “maintain and observe” such standards.

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The justices seem to have taken every opportunity to dilute and defang ethical standards in their effort to prove they want to abide by them. Should Supreme Court justices “lend the prestige of the judicial office” to advance their own private interests or permit others “to convey the impression that they are in a special position to influence the judge?” Well, no — but only if they do it “knowingly.”

No penalties for misconduct

If a Supreme Court justice has reason to believe that another justice has violated the code of conduct, should they be obliged to “take appropriate action,” as other federal judges are obliged to do? The justices think not. They will be happy to take action in response to employee misconduct, but what their fellow justices do apparently is none of their business. Or ours.

While Supreme Court justices “have agreed to comply with the statute governing financial disclosure,” the code of conduct strongly indicates they don’t believe the statute applies to them and their compliance with it is strictly voluntary. The code of conduct for lower court judges explicitly instructs them to “make required financial disclosures … in compliance with applicable statutes …”

The Supreme Court justices didn’t even bother to finesse the lower court’s recommendation that judges “divest investments and other financial interests that might require frequent disqualification.” They just scrapped that one entirely.

They also threw out a caution against accepting outside compensation that exceeds “what a person who is not a judge would receive for the same activity.”

The Supreme Court justices don’t see themselves in need of a code of conduct; it sees the public it serves in need of gentle instruction. We, not they, are the problem.

The justices would like to clarify that Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito didn’t accept lavish gifts of travel from politically active billionaires who had business before the court or fail to disclose those gifts because they “regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules.” They did it because, according to the code of conduct, such behavior apparently doesn’t violate any ethics rules. We, the public, were just too uninformed to realize that.

As an effort at reform, the new code of conduct is worse than no code at all. It doesn’t discourage conflicts of interest; it condones them. It doesn’t clarify what should happen in cases of misconduct; it establishes that nothing should happen. Rather than remain silent and be thought corrupt, the justices decided to speak up and remove all doubt.

If the justices’ only intention in issuing a code of conduct was to dispel any misunderstanding about their attitude toward ethics restrictions, they may safely consider it a success. To those of us who were hoping for actual reform, it is a deliberate slap in the face.

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Politics is blocking solutions to big cities’ migrant crisis

2023-11-07T17:30:00-06:00

A migrant man sweeps the sidewalk of leaves and melting snow in a small tent community on Nov. 1, near a North Side police station in Chicago.

Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Photos

Here in New York City, where the National Urban League is based, sheltering the 125,000 migrants who have arrived since last spring has pushed the city’s shelter system past capacity.

Without changes in policy and federal aid, entire families could find themselves sleeping on the street and in the subways.

Many of these families have arrived here as a result of a cruel, politically-motivated stunt: Over the last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, both Republicans, have spent millions of dollars to transport asylum-seekers to New York, Chicago and other northern cities led by Democrats, endangering their health and safety.

As a result of the governors’ deceit, desperate people seeking refuge have landed in cities where they have no connections, where shelters and social services are overwhelmed and where, the governors hope, their political rivals will be blamed for the chaos.

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Their tactics recall the shameful “reverse freedom rides” of the 1960s, when segregationists coerced Black southerners to accept one-way bus tickets to northern cities with false promises of jobs and housing.

A surge of migration puts strain on cities

In truth, the roots of the migrant crisis are complex and demand complex solutions to address them. But as long as President Joe Biden’s adversaries believe they can exploit human suffering for political gain, they have no incentive to end it.

Former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump promises a return to the failed and brutal policy of family separation if he is reelected, and his allies in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year passed a proposal to resume construction of a border wall and eliminate the right to asylum for refugees who reach our border.

Recent history has shown these measures don’t work, and the politicians who are pushing them know fully well they don’t. In 2019, when Trump’s policies were in effect, the number of migrants arriving at the border hit a 12-year record.

In contrast, Biden’s border policies, including new lawful pathways for asylum-seekers, were accompanied by a 70% plunge in illegal border crossings earlier this year.

However, several factors have contributed to a surge of northward migration and have hampered efforts to alleviate the strain on cities. Venezuela’s imploding economy has driven an exodus of nearly eight million people. Hundreds of thousands more have fled rampant gang violence and political turmoil in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Unlike the migrants of decades past, nearly all of whom were Mexican nationals, those who arrive from Venezuela could not be deported until recent weeks because the U.S. had no agreement with their native country.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been working with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston to secure federal aid and funding to cope with the influx of asylum-seekers.

This aid is desperately needed in the short term. But only Congress can provide long-term solutions. Lawmakers could start with U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree’s, D-Maine, proposed legislation to reduce the period of time that asylum-seekers must wait to apply for a work permit.

Lawmakers could also expand the authority of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stationed at the border to process asylum-seekers at ports of entry. They could increase legal immigration pathways — the success of which was demonstrated when the Biden administration announced the parole program to allow migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the United States with a U.S. sponsor.

But these solutions require bipartisan cooperation. As Will Freeman, fellow for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, notes, “A border in chaos is good optics for rallying voters against the incumbent party.”

Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League and former mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002. He writes a twice-monthly column for the Sun-Times.

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Striking autoworkers are right: Focus on equity in transition to clean energy, electric vehicles

2023-10-25T06:24:00-05:00

Ford workers who are members of United Auto Workers rally outside the Ford Sequencing Center on South Burley Avenue on the South Side, Oct. 7.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Among the issues at stake in the United Auto Workers’ historic strike, the most significant is protections for workers amid the accelerating shift to electric vehicles.

The strike represents just one of the leading skirmishes in the renewable energy revolution that is poised to transform not just the auto industry but the global economy.

Historically, industrial breakthroughs have led to the exploitation, rather than the elevation, of Black Americans. The development of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin led to a nearly five-fold increase in the number of enslaved laborers in the south. Advances in medicine came at the expense of Black bodies, used without consent.

The automobile industry, at least for a time, has been an exception. As Black Americans fled to the industrial centers of the north during the Great Migration, Ford Motor Co. hired them at a time when few other companies were willing. The support of the Detroit Urban League and other Black civil rights groups were key to Ford’s recognition of the UAW in 1941. Over the next several decades, jobs in the auto industry helped to build a thriving Black middle class.

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Just as Black autoworkers potentially have the most to lose as the industry shifts to electric vehicle production, Black Americans as a group have the most to lose in a poorly-managed renewable energy revolution.

The wind, solar and battery storage industries already employ more than 500,000 Americans across all 50 states, and these sectors are expected to create between 800,000 and 1.3 million new jobs by 2030. But a failure to hold employers accountable to standards of equity and fairness could result in history repeating itself with an exploitive “race to the bottom.”

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The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, for example, attached no conditions for labor standards or equity for receiving funds. Tesla, which received one of the largest shares of funds awarded to renewable energy projects, has just been sued for racial discrimination by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. California’s Civil Rights Department also has filed a suit, alleging that Black workers are “severely underrepresented” in management positions at Tesla.

A wealth-creation opportunity

By contrast, the Inflation Reduction Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden last August, includes key provisions to help ensure the economic benefits of the clean energy transition are equitably shared.

Under the law, clean energy companies must pay prevailing wages and use registered apprentices. The Chicago Urban League, along with four other Urban League affiliates, is among the organizations connecting those registered apprentices with clean energy job opportunities through a partnership with the Center for Energy Workforce Development.

Similarly, the Biden administration has tied workplace rights and fair wages to a $15.5 billion package of funding and loans primarily focused on retooling existing factories for the transition to electric vehicles.

To be eligible for the Domestic Manufacturing Conversion Grants, projects must contribute to the president’s Justice40 Initiative, which aims to advance diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in America’s workforce and ensure every community benefits from the transition to a clean energy future.

Transitioning the U.S. economy to renewable energy is perhaps the greatest wealth-creation opportunity in American history. We are going to have to fight, as the UAW is fighting, to make sure that wealth isn’t funneled straight into the coffers of billionaires only to widen the racial wealth gap even further.

Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League and former mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002. He writes a twice-monthly column for the Sun-Times.

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Laphonza Butler’s appointment makes the U.S. Senate looks a little bit more like America

2023-10-10T14:00:00-05:00

Newly appointed California Sen. Laphonza Butler, is seen during a re-enactment of her swearing-in ceremony to succeed the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Oct. 3, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

AP Photos

More than 2,000 Americans have served in the U.S. Senate in its 234-year history. Only three of them have been Black women. Only three openly LGBTQ members have served.

Laphonza Butler’s appointment to the Senate from California, by Gov. Gavin Newsom, is a small but critical step toward a legislative body that fully reflects the diversity of the nation it serves. Her unique perspective is desperately needed at a moment when extremists across the nation are engaged in an unprecedented crusade to suppress LGBTQ voices, erase Black history, criminalize reproductive health and weaken workers’ rights.

By any standard, Butler’s qualifications for the office are impressive. Her campaign for fair wages while president of SEIU California has led to boosted pay for at least 26 million workers, including 12 million workers of color and 18 million women.

As the head of Emily’s List, she helped elect nearly 500 defenders of abortion rights — 40% of whom are women of color — to local, state, gubernatorial and federal office last year.

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As a guest on the National Urban League’s State of Black America Podcast last year, Butler spoke powerfully about her vision for the country.

“An incredibly important indicator of how a leader is going to show up on behalf of their community when they are elected is whether or not they respect the right of women to make choices about their own health and their own bodies,” she said.

“And when they do, when they are positive in that position, they are more likely to support issues like child care, issues like paid family leave, issues like making sure that health care is more accessible and available. There are lots of issues voters should be concerned about, but at its core is the fundamental freedoms of this country and what we want this country to be for generations to come.”

A career in activism

Her commitment to economic justice is deeply personal. After her father died when she was just 16, her mother sometimes worked three jobs at once to support her family. Few members of the Senate — or any branch of the federal government — can speak from the experience of wondering where their next meal would come from.

A high-achieving student and scholarship recipient, Butler chose to attend the historically-Black Jackson State University, another biographical detail that sets her apart from the vast majority of her Senate colleagues. But it also puts her in such illustrious company as Vice President Kamala Harris, voting rights activist Stacey Abrams and fellow Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock.

She credits her Jackson State professors, SNCC activists and CORE organizers among them, for inspiring her to pursue a career in social justice and activism. The question she faced most often in the classroom, she has said, is “What are you doing for freedom today?”

The U.S. Senate still has a long way to go toward racial and gender parity. It remains 88% white in a nation that is about 60% white, and 75% male. The 25 women currently serving are the most in history, and together with the House, the 118th Congress is the seventh Congress to break the record for racial and ethnic diversity set by the one before it.

The National Urban League is encouraged not only by Butler’s record on economic justice and reproductive freedom, but also her support for tackling the climate crisis and reimagining the nation’s criminal justice system.

When she became the first mother to lead Emily’s List in its four-decade history, she said her own daughter “inspires me every day to show up and do the work to make sure every young girl knows they belong anywhere they choose to be.”

That includes the House, the Senate and the White House.

Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League and former mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002. He writes a twice-monthly column for the Sun-Times.

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Government shutdown threat shows GOP extremists have no interest in governing

2023-09-26T17:30:00-05:00

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy speaks with reporters in the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 26 in Washington, D.C. McCarthy is aiming for spending cuts to please right-win Republicans and pass a spending bill to avert a federal government shutdown.

Getty

Fear-mongering around crime failed spectacularly as a campaign strategy in the last midterm election.

Shutting down the federal government failed spectacularly as a legislative strategy during the last presidential administration.

That didn’t deter Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), from embracing both of these ill-fated plans of action, blithely convening a sideshow on crime in Chicago while their party continues recklessly steering the country toward a disastrous government shutdown.

It is undeniable that the United States currently is being held hostage by political performance artists who have no interest whatsoever in governing. GOP extremists in the House of Representatives are not only willing, but eager to disrupt vital services, endanger national security, crater the economy, and inflict needless hardship on the most vulnerable Americans — all to feed their own egos and raise their public profiles. Absent a coherent public policy agenda, their overriding concern is antagonizing their political adversaries and whipping up partisan hostility.

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It would be a simple enough matter for Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to advance a clean continuing resolution that keeps the government functioning at the current level. Pathetically, McCarthy is unwilling to stand up to the most extreme members of his caucus and risk losing his position as speaker — a position that he has thus far squandered by pandering to conspiracy theorists and cynical opportunists.

The last government shutdown — the longest in history at 35 days, from Dec. 22, 2018 until Jan. 25, 2019 — cost the American economy at least $11 billion, including $3 billion in permanent losses, according to the Congressional Budget office. Then-President Donald Trump caused the shutdown, not because he didn’t get funding for the border wall he wanted, but because he was embarrassed by right-wing critics on television.

History will debate whether McCarthy’s dread of another humiliating floor fight over his speakership is an equally inane motive for inflicting chaos and hardship on the people he was elected to serve.

Legislation that funds the federal government expires this weekend and the government will shut down Sunday without action from lawmakers.

Saboteurs with a dismal vision for America

Meanwhile, a shutdown would mean at least 10,000 preschool children would be denied the education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services of Head Start, which is federally funded, and risk falling even further behind in school readiness. Small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs would lose a vital source of funding as the Small Business Administration is blocked from accepting, reviewing, or approving new business loans.

Infrastructure projects that provide employment, stimulate local economies, and rectify historical and structural inequities would grind to a halt. With the Occupational Safety and Health Administration forced to limit workplace inspections, workers would be increasingly vulnerable to career-ending injuries or worse. And low-income and underserved communities who suffer the health effects of hazardous waste and industrial pollution, with lax oversight, will lose the protections of the Environmental Protection Agency as inspections halt and cleanup of superfund toxic sites is further delayed.

This dismal vision of the future — and there would be more, since McCarthy has proposed significant spending cuts to get votes from the far right wing — may be exactly what the extremist saboteurs in the House of Representatives want to see. But it’s not what the American people want, and it’s not what any member of the House was elected to pursue.

McCarthy should summon the sense of duty that befits the office he’s so desperate to keep and pull the breaks on this imminent train wreck.

Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League and former mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002. He writes a twice-monthly column for the Sun-Times.

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Lawsuit against Fearless Fund will keep systemic racism in place

2023-09-13T06:09:00-05:00

Ayana Parsons (left), Jessica Alba and Arian Simone (right) at the Fearless Venture Capital Summit in Atlanta on August 18. Parsons and Simone launched the Fearless Fund to provide venture capital to women entrepreneurs of color.

Paras Griffin/Getty

In the world of venture capital, the Fearless Fund is a relatively small player.

In the last four years, it has invested $26 million and awarded $3 million in grants to about 40 businesses led by women of color. It’s a drop in an ocean of hundreds of billions: Last year, the value of venture capital invested in the U.S. was nearly $241 billion.

But it is a desperately-needed drop. Although women entrepreneurs of color have been founding companies at four times the rate of the overall population, only 0.1 percent — one tenth of one percent — of venture capital funds went to Black and Latino women founders last year.

But even that is too much for the anti-racial-justice extremists who are suing the Fearless Fund based on the ludicrous assertion that the system is rigged in favor of Black women.

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Edward Blum, who was behind the case that ended affirmative action in college admissions, has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the mockingly-named front group American Alliance for Equal Rights. The suit is the latest offensive in Blum’s well-funded and alarmingly successful crusade to preserve systemic racial inequities and the advantages they afford people like himself, and the anonymous backers who funnel him hundreds of millions through dark-money foundations.

Becoming ‘the investor I had been looking for’

It took Fearless Fund founders Ayana Parsons and Arian Simone, both Black women with a wealth of business experience, an estimated 300 meetings with potential investors to secure their first $5 million in funding.

Sadly, their experience is not unique. Black women business owners who apply for funding are rejected at three times the rate of white business owners. Only 3% of black women-owned companies mature and survive longer than five years.

The adversity that Parsons and Simone have faced has only fueled their resolve.

“I made a promise to myself that one day I was going to be the business investor that I had been looking for,” Simone said.

“We know that women such as ourselves have been marginalized, we’ve been overlooked, we’ve been underfunded, and unsupported,” Parsons said in response to the lawsuit. “We will not sit on the sidelines and watch idly by as Black and brown women are under attack.”

Simone serves as president and chief executive officer of Fearless Fund, while Parsons holds the position of chief operating officer. Between them, they have nearly 40 years of experience and expertise.

A self-described “serial entrepreneur” with an MBA from Florida A&M University, Simone pioneered a successful PR and marketing firm with billion-dollar corporate clients such as Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures and more.

Parsons also holds an MBA from Florida A&M, where she also graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in management. She previously served as the global head of retail, consumer goods and lifestyle industries at the World Economic Forum.

The National Urban League has joined in filing an amicus brief in the case, along with Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Action Network, NAACP, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, and LatinoJustice PRLDEF.

Perversely, Blum is suing the Fearless Fund under a post-Civil War law intended to protect Black Americans from racial discrimination. As our brief explains, Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 was explicitly designed to further the aims of the 13th Amendment by creating a remedy for discrimination against Black people that hampered their ability to enter into contracts and fully participate in the nation’s economy.

Programs like the Fearless Fund, which strengthen Black Americans’ rights to equal participation in the marketplace, are indisputably authorized under federal law.

If extremists like Blum and his backers have their way, even 300 meetings won’t be enough for women entrepreneurs of color to secure even a tiny percentage of the funding they need to succeed. As Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said, “They seek to kneecap any effort to undo entrenched racial inequalities and further cement the status quo of inequitable market access.”

Parsons and Simone are determined not to let that happen. “Activism is in our DNA,” Simone said. “We are not scared, we are fearless.”

Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League and former mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002. He writes a twice-monthly column for the Sun-Times.

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60 years after March on Washington, America needs honest talk on racial equality

2023-08-23T06:07:00-05:00

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. waves to supporters on Aug. 28, 1963 during the March on Washington on the Mall in Washington, D.C. The 60th anniversary of the march will be celebrated on Saturday, Aug. 26.

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In a nation where some extremists would like to distort the truth by referring to the transatlantic slave trade as “involuntary relocation of African people” and Rosa Parks’ arrest had nothing to do with her race, how will the story of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom be told?

Even now, the legendary words that Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke that day are repeatedly twisted into a perverse defense of systemic racism. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis invoked King’s dream in defense of his “Stop W.O.K.E.” law that is being used to stifle discussion of racism in classrooms. Long before “anti-woke” hysteria began sweeping through statehouses, President Ronald Reagan cited King’s dream in opposition to affirmative action in 1985.

If extremists succeed in purging our textbooks and our collective memory of the factual history of white supremacy, it’s not hard to imagine the March on Washington characterized as a congenial celebration of racial equality and harmony, and King’s “I Have a Dream” speech as a description of contemporary reality.

In the face of this grim but very possible future, the Saturday, Aug. 26 observance of the 60^th anniversary of the March on Washington — Not A Commemoration, A Continuation — takes on an even sharper urgency.

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As a successor to one of the original “Big Six” architects of the 1963 march, Whitney M. Young, Jr., it is my honor to be among the featured speakers on this upcoming Saturday. Young said back then that our national leaders will be measured “by the speed and sincerity with which they pass necessary legislation, with which they admit to the tragic injustice that has been done our country, and its Negro citizens, by historic discrimination and rejection.”

Far from admitting the tragic injustice of historic discrimination, the goal of “anti-woke” extremists is to preserve the advantage that systemic racism affords them by denying that it exists. Proposed “anti-woke” legislation in Illinois and other states including Texas, Iowa, South Carolina, Missouri and South Dakota would stifle the suggestion that racial gaps in wealth or income, educational attainment, home ownership, civic engagement or political representation are the result of anything other than “meritocracy” and “a hard work ethic.”

There is no greater threat to this goal than an honest discussion of the March on Washington, or an honest appraisal of the relative progress the nation has made since then.

Economic equity all but forgotten

The Economic Policy Institute report, “Chasing the dream of equity,” released this month to commemorate the anniversary of the 1963 march, finds that little progress has been made in removing barriers to the full equitable integration of Black Americans into the U.S. economy. Among its key findings: The racial wealth gap — a typical white family has eight times the wealth of the typical Black family — is a long-standing vestige of centuries of government policies that explicitly denied African Americans the opportunity to build wealth.

The March on Washington galvanized support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed overt racial discrimination and segregation in schools and public accommodations. But the economic demands of the march not only remain unmet, they are all but forgotten. Among them were “A massive federal program to train and place all unemployed workers — Negro and white — on meaningful and dignified jobs at decent wages” and “a national minimum wage act that will give all Americans a decent standard of living.” The organizers of the march noted that “Government surveys show that anything less than $2.00 an hour fails to do this.”

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Instead, the value of the federal hourly minimum wage has shrunk. The minimum wage in 1963, $1.15, is worth $11.45 in 2023, when the minimum wage remains stagnant at an appalling $7.25.

On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963, King said that he had come to the nation’s capital to cash a check, “a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”

On Saturday, we will march to present that check, once again, to what King called “the great vaults of opportunity of this nation,” and we will not stop until the promise of equality is satisfied.

Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League and former mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002. He writes a twice-monthly column for the Sun-Times.

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If colleges won’t confront problem of abuse against student athletes, Congress must step in

2023-08-09T05:30:00-05:00

In this Sept. 2, 2017, file photo, Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald stands near the sideline during the second half of the team’s NCAA college football game against Nevada.

Matt Marton/AP Photos

“Being a college athlete was one of the greatest gifts of my life – it opened doors of opportunity and offered lessons I carry with me to this day. But it also opened my eyes to some deep, systemic injustices in the system – a system that, to this day, continues to put profits over athletes.” – U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey

Nearly a decade ago, when Northwestern University football players sought to form a union, head coach Pat Fitzgerald made an emotional appeal to dissuade them, asserting that “a third party” could not be trusted to protect the players’ best interests as well as he and his fellow coaches could.

Fitzgerald, who was fired last month, now stands accused of enabling and participating in a department-wide culture of hazing, racism, sexual violence, and psychological abuse.

Under Fitzgerald’s supposedly vigilant care, players allegedly were sexually assaulted by gangs of masked teammates while restrained, with the victims sometimes personally selected by Fitzgerald himself.

Players endured racist abuse, and were segregated by position based on racist stereotypes.

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As repugnant as Northwestern’s emerging history of abuse in its athletic programs may be, it is hardly unique or new. In recent years, student and youth athletes have broken their silence about the brutality and humiliation they have endured in service of a multibillion-dollar industry.

Former Ohio State University wrestlers alleged that U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, an assistant coach from 1987 to 1995, was aware of sexual abuse allegations against a team doctor and failed to intervene. Earlier this year, one of the accusers said Jordan pressured his aging parents to persuade him to retract his claim.

At least 14 Michigan State University employees failed to act after receiving reports of sexual abuse allegations against Dr. Larry Nasser, the U.S. women’s national gymnastics team doctor who raped and assaulted numerous young women and girls over 20 years.

These horrific incidents — and many others — paint a picture of a system in which coaches and university officials cannot be trusted to protect or advocate for the vulnerable young athletes who generate honor, prestige, and a steady gusher of revenue for the institutions they serve.

Legislation — and a union? — to protect student athletes

Though primarily aimed at protecting college athletes’ economic rights, proposed legislation in the U.S. Senate could offer them greater protection from physical and emotional abuse and sexual violence.

Among its other provisions, the College Athletes Protection and Compensation Act would set health, wellness, and safety standards to protect college athletes from serious injury, mistreatment, and abuse. The legislation would establish the College Athletics Corporation, which would have the authority to audit, visit and investigate schools — and unlike the NCAA or the universities themselves, the CAC would have subpoena power.

In the wake of the Northwestern revelations, the idea of a college players’ union is being revived. National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo contends that student athletes are employees under the National Labor Relations Act and entitled to the Act’s protections.

Even children too young to play college sports have been sacrificed to protect the reputation and money-making capabilities of college football. When a janitor at Penn State University witnessed assistant coach Jerry Sandusky sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy, he was too afraid of retaliation to report the incident to police.

The janitor later told investigators that reporting the incident “would have been like going against the president of the United States in my eyes … football runs this university.” The janitor wasn’t wrong. An investigation found that university President Graham Spanier, Vice President Gary Schultz, Athletic Director Tim Curley, and longtime head coach Joe Paterno had known about allegations of abuse by Sandusky as early as 1998. Three of the officials were convicted of child endangerment; Paterno died before facing any charges.

Yet more than a decade after the Sandusky scandal shocked the nation, colleges and universities continue to place their athletic programs above the welfare of their athletes.

If these institutions do not address the culture of violence on their own campuses, Congress must step in to establish oversight.

Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League and former mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002.

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Civil rights trailblazer, mentor, friend: Rev. Jesse Jackson is all of those

2023-07-25T15:00:00-05:00

Vice President Kamala Harris and Rev. Jesse Jackson at the Apostolic Church of God in Woodlawn during a service dedicated to Jackson as he steps down from Rainbow Push.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

It was the repeated refrain of a poem composed in the 1940s by Atlanta pastor and civil rights activist Rev. William Holmes Borders Sr. But Rev. Jesse Jackson’s call-and-response with a multi-racial group of children on Sesame Street in 1972 made it an anthem for a generation.

“I am — somebody.”

Jackson, who recently announced his retirement from the organization he founded, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, is not just a beacon of hope or a pillar of strength. He is a trailblazer, a mentor, a friend and an inspiration to me and countless others.

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As a teen-aged protégé of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson was an eyewitness to some of the most pivotal moments in civil rights history, including King’s tragic assassination 1968.

“It’s a hurtful, painful thought,” he said, “that a man of love is killed by hate; that a man of peace should be killed by violence; a man who cared is killed by the careless.”

Jackson’s tireless fight for voting rights, economic justice, and racial equality have left an indelible mark on our nation and have been a guiding force for the National Urban League’s work.

Of that generation who picked up the torch directly from King, only Jackson and Andrew Young remain, carrying it forward to illuminate the path toward justice and equality. When the assassin’s bullet stilled King’s voice, it was Jackson’s that thundered forth, resonating the clarion call for justice well into the 21st century.

In 1984 and again in 1988, I proudly traveled as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention to cast my vote for Jackson. His keynote address at the 1984 convention inspired a generation of young leaders — myself included — and continues to resonate today:

“This is not a perfect party. We are not a perfect people. Yet, we are called to a perfect mission,” he said. “Our mission: to feed the hungry; to clothe the naked; to house the homeless; to teach the illiterate; to provide jobs for the jobless; and to choose the human race over the nuclear race.”

His historic presidential runs were not mere campaigns — they were seismic shifts in the political landscape. Jackson ran with purpose, passion and an unyielding belief in the possibility of change. Finishing third in 1984 and second in 1988, Jackson shattered the glass ceiling for future leaders such as Barack Obama.

The National Urban League and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition share a common mission: to empower African Americans and other marginalized communities, promote economic and social justice and fight for equal opportunities for all. Our organizations have long been intertwined. in this shared mission.

Jackson founded People United to Serve Humanity, Operation PUSH, in Chicago in 1971 to promote the employment of Black Americans by companies operating in their communities, and to nurture Black-owned businesses. The National Rainbow Coalition was a political movement that grew from Jackson’s 1984 presidential campaign. Jackson merged the two organizations in 1996.

For more than five decades, Rainbow PUSH has served as a blueprint for multicultural coalition-building. Jackson advanced the idea that elected office was not just a position of power, but a platform to advance social and economic justice. He gave voice to progressive issues and served as a relentless catalyst for change, creating productive tension that spurred action.

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In his retirement statement, Jackson said, “I have been doing this stuff for 64 years. ... I’ve had a good run.” Indeed, he has. His life’s work has brought about significant change and progress, and his legacy will continue to inspire and guide us.

As we navigate this transition, we welcome his successor, Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III, a man of equal passion and commitment. Haynes, a longtime civil rights activist and former president of the National Baptist Convention USA, is poised to carry the torch forward.

Haynes has pledged to work tirelessly to build on the legacy of Jackson and to ensure that the Rainbow PUSH Coalition remains a powerful force for justice and equality. The National Urban League is proud to support him in this mission.

In the spirit of Jackson, let us continue to carry the torch of justice, to push for a world where everyone, regardless of their race or background, has an equal opportunity to thrive. Because, as Jackson has shown us, when we fight for justice and equality, we don’t just change the world, we create a new one.

Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League and former mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002.

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