Were it not for Dr. King, Rosa Parks, and thousands of others who bravely confronted Jim Crow in the ’60s, blacks might still be sitting in the back of the bus in Birmingham and drinking from segregated water fountains. Indeed, many of the gains we now take for granted were achieved only by his moral leadership and dogged determination during the civil rights era.
But clearly something is happening to the black church, something that perhaps has Dr. King spinning in his grave. Some in the black church — its leadership — seemingly has lost their way.
We now have some members of the black clergy bickering back and forth in regards to who among them is willfully putting on blinders so they can support Donald Trump, a nascent crypto-fascist who recently stooped to a new low by mocking the disability of a reporter who is afflicted with a congenital joint disease, arthogryposis, which limits flexibility in his arms. At a rally in South Carolina Trump waved his arms around wildly, in a disgustingly mimicking manner, as he criticized something the reporter had written.
But some greedy black preachers will pretend it didn’t happen, just like they are pretending they don’t know about Trump’s history of discriminating against people of color in the apartment buildings he owns all over New York City — and all for a few pieces of sliver or gold. And all the while steadfastly maintaining their palms were never crossed.
Additionally, we have black clergy here in Cleveland pretending to be just as blind when it comes to the blatant unfairness of the criminal justice system. All they do is hold press conferences, as if that action alone is going to impact the problem.
A number of elderly local black preachers occasionally like to brag about how they marched with Dr. King, and at times I’ve been tempted to ask them, “Yeah, but did you go to jail with him?” Or when it came time for civil disobedience, did they just fade away out of sight, safely to the back of the line of protestors?
Now that we are faced with a new rights struggle against a blatantly unfair system of criminal justice — a struggle where lives hang in the balance — the black clergy has been content to allow young folks to carry the fight virtually alone. This is not how our great gains of the ’60s were achieved.
Not to take anything away from the dedicated young people on the front lines of the Black Lives Matter movement — they’ve done a magnificent job so far in terms of awaking America’s conscience to the wrongs of police brutality — but how much further along the road to fairness and justice would they — and we — be if the black church had stepped up and done its part?
Certainly it was young people that demonstrated at lunch counters all over the south in the ’60s, demanding to be served and taking the abuse they knew would be heaped on their heads, but the one thing they knew was that the black church had their backs. Sadly, young activists cannot say this today. The black church is — except for the aforementioned dog-and-pony press conferences — largely missing in action.
Those who wish to maintain the status quo in America have always attempted to denigrate efforts designed to bring about change, and they do so by characterizing the leaders of the movements as wild-eyed radicals, outside agitators, criminals and worse. However, that becomes much more difficult for racists to do when black church leaders are walking hand-in-hand with the young people as they demand change.
It could very well be that the black church is now too comfortable, all too willing to rest on its laurels and enjoy the gains made by a previous generation of activist ministers. Or it could be that the black clergy doesn’t believe it has a dog in this fight.
During the ’60s it was primarily church members being denied their rights; today it’s largely non-church members being gunned down in the streets. There could very well be a feeling among the black clergy of, “They’re our color, but not our kind.”
Since Emancipation, whites have warned members of the black church to “stay away from the bad Negroes, their plight is not your problem.” And all too often the leadership of the black clergy listened. This how the age of mass incarceration came into existence, because the black church stood silently by and allowed it to happen.
It wasn’t until Michelle Alexander penned her groundbreaking book, The New Jim Crow (which pricked the conscience of blacks and others) that the black church began to raise its voice — still somewhat meekly — against the practice of wholesale incarceration of young black males, often for relatively minor offenses.
However, this current battle is over the killing of young blacks, usually by white cops. And while black preachers are frequently called upon by law enforcement and city officials to act as peacekeepers when violence threatens to erupt over yet another unjust killing — and they usually step up and do their civic duty — this is not enough.
This doesn’t discharge their duty. Instead of simply being peacekeepers, black preachers also need to be change agents. They should be leading the young protesters in acts of planned, disciplined, peaceful civil disobedience. If that means going to jail, then they should do so with alacrity.
The failure of the black church to take on this leadership role will, over time, erode its moral standing and authority. Leaders, by definition, are supposed to lead. At some point the black clergy must step up to the plate and do something — or Dr. King will continue to spin in his grave.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.