The lessons we learn in life are often based on the experiences of the past. Those who learn the lessons of the past aren’t bound to repeat them. In times of extreme conditions in our community, what we sometimes think might be an “overstretch” in the boundaries of civility are actually a mule’s stand for the sake of principal.

In the light of the “preachers row” rebuttal, “In Defense of Reverend Leonard Jackson,” I offer such a lesson. The year was 1934. The leading national voice of African Americans (called Negroes at that time), Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, then the editor of the NAACP’s The Crisis magazine, the most widely respected and (other than Marcus Garvey’s The Negro World) most widely circulated black periodical, wrote an editorial commentary that it might be time for Blacks to separate from whites to save themselves from starving to death during the Great Depression. It was considered a compromise position on segregation and shocked black leaders throughout the nation, including those in the NAACP, taken aback that DuBois would publish such a commentary in their magazine. The very thought of placating segregation for self-sufficiency was abominable. NAACP Board Chairman, Arthur Spingarn, immediately instructed Executive Director, Walter White, to fire DuBois.

But DuBois, who had come to national attention 30 years earlier, publicly critiquing the same position of the nation’s then leading black spokesperson, Booker T. Washington, in his timeless book, The Souls of Black Folk (1903), was considered untouchable by the rank and file NAACP members and the black middle class, nationwide. Then a lowly Howard Law School Law Professor by the name of William Hastie (the cousin of Charles Hamilton Houston, the architect of the 20 year effort to end Jim Crow), wrote an editorial response, published in the January 25th edition of The New Negro Journal. A scathing public editorial on DuBois’ stand, it read as follows:

DuBois read the commentary and submitted his resignation, stating he could do more to advance the interests of the Negro outside the NAACP than he could inside the NAACP. History tells us that DuBois’ segregation compromise was no more than a momentary lapse, and though in his sixties, DuBois - the most significant intellectual force of the 20th Century - would live another 30 years, providing intellectual fuel for global Pan Africanism.

The title of Hastie’s commentary was, “DuBois: Ex-Leader of Negroes.” When black leaders confronted Hastie on how he could be so uncivil to such a legendary figure as DuBois, he stated, “No Negro can ever afford any act contrary to good conscience — not for a single moment.” Segregation would be outlawed 20 years later, and William Hastie would go on to become the first black federal judge appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1937, dean of the Howard Law School, the first black on the federal Court of Appeals in 1949 and was on Kennedy’s “short-list” to become the first U.S. Supreme Court Justice five years before Thurgood Marshall was appointed. The point here is that Hastie was right about the absence of conscience. No black ever gets so large - so close to power - that they can act contrary to our interest and not be critiqued. And sometimes critique is uncivil.

Rev. Leonard Jackson is hardly DuBois, but the circumstance is the same. He found himself trying to defend a position that was indefensible. The black community has known for the past few years that Blacks were losing power in City Hall. Then, when he was challenged about it, not only did he make a puny half-truth (or half-lie) defense of the Mayor’s position, but he attacked the source that was defending our interest. His rebutters say that I “overstretched the boundaries of accuracy, let alone civility.” (BC Issue 250) I will admit to the latter, in the same way Hastie did so in 1934, to stand on a point of principal. As for the former, I believe that my source, who was directly in the fray, was more accurate than the one who stands in denial that any of it happened.

We’re all entitled to our own opinions, just not our own facts. Jackson, like DuBois, has given 30 years of service and certainly shouldn’t be judged by one momentary lapse. And I have nothing but a healthy respect for Chip Murray (who officiated at my wedding and that of my daughter). I don’t really know John Hunter, but he seems to be a nice enough guy, given the madness he’s had to endure over at First AME the past couple years. The point is, I know First AME and its politics because it was my church before I came into a real truth (Islam). My mama still goes to the church. I have a no problem with them closing ranks around one of theirs (Jackson). But a preacher’s mouth ain’t necessarily a prayer book and they do cover for each other (as in the Catholic Church covering for its molesting priests). God’s men aren’t always right. I chose to rally around Valerie Shaw and I stand by that.

Our community is in such dire straits because we engage in the politics of placation when we know the truth and choose to ignore it. We have people engaged in outright charlatanism and perpetuating a mass distraction to the truer advocacy interests of our community, yet we refuse to say anything for fear we’re being divisive or “airing dirty laundry” (which doesn’t apply in this case since this wasn’t just amongst Blacks). It’s why we continue to be compromised and regress.

I, for one, believe in the lesson of William Hastie. The absence of conscience is the biggest problem in the black community. When we are easily placated for the sake of individual self-sufficiency — be it a job, a contract, closeness to “mighty whitey” (or in this case, “mighty brownie”). Then we, like Esau, give up our birthright of equality for a “mess of pottage.” In this instance, it’s not being in the Mayor’s Office…but two doors down. It’s a commission in exchange for a department head. That’s the type of regression with which we’re supposed to be satisfied and about which we're supposed to be silently “civil”. I think not. At some point, we have to let people know when they’ve lost sight of the real fight. We can all be critiqued. Just know, placation is no substitute for conscience.

Your comments are always welcome.