When it comes to reporting on issues vital to the
African-American community, information can be woefully
inadequate. During the past week, the major press and cable
network coverage of the Martin Luther King Day celebrations
featured exclusively the events attended by the Reverends Jesse
Jackson and Al Sharpton - two liberal firebrands who took the
opportunity to bash the Bush administration whenever possible.
On CNN's "Crossfire" program, addressing the legacy of
Martin Luther King, Rev. Jackson focused instead on his own
debate with the Reverend Jerry Falwell on the war in Iraq and how
our soldiers are dying in an unjust war.
On MSNBC's "Scarborough Country," when the topic was
supposed to be civil rights, Rev. Jackson just had to say,
"President Bush got into Yale in part on negative
points."
On Fox News with Greta Van Susteren, Rev. Jackson noted:
"The issue of racial justice for African-Americans and
social justice for all Americans has not been addressed
meaningfully in the last four years."
In an article that appeared in Newsday on January 14, a filmmaker
and author, Norman Kelley, charged that there is a black
leadership void since the death of King and used as an example
Rev. Sharpton's continued access to political press.
"Despite his meager showing, lack of ideas and vote-getting
in the primaries, he was rewarded by the party for one thing and
one thing only at the Democratic National Convention: being an
entertaining, boisterous court jester." Ouch!
Perhaps Mr. Kelley is looking for leadership in all the wrong
places, because the real black community leaders don't always
have access to the major networks, and, even when they do, the
coverage may be misleading and distorted.
The Congress of Racial Equality has never received the public
recognition it deserves in its service to the minority community,
in large part because it takes seriously its position as a
nonpartisan organization. Democrats and Republicans were
celebrating its annual Martin Luther King Awards dinner Monday at
the New York Hilton.
It's a pity that the New York Post's Cindy Adams, who sat on the
dais at the black-tie affair, had to note in her column that
honoree Karl Rove was a no-show. It was an earlier column of Ms.
Adams's that made it appear that Mr. Rove was the primary guest.
He was not, and I'm surprised that she neglected to mention the
far more interesting honorees that evening.
In the program we received upon checking in for the event, Mr.
Rove's name is all the way at the bottom of the page, and he was
not a scheduled speaker. Ms. Adams, your Wednesday column made it
appear that Mr. Rove disappointed the crowd of 1,800 guests, when
actually he wasn't even missed.
The outgoing chairman of the Republican National Committee, Ed
Gillespie, stood in for Mr. Rove and graciously told me of his
plans to write a book, spend time with his family, and return to
the public-affairs firm from which he took a two-year leave. I
collected business cards from ambassadors, corporate CEOs,
philanthropists, and even a chess champion, and schmoozed with
the master of ceremonies, Sean Hannity.
Two of the guests seated at my table were noisily debating the
war in Iraq. They should have been paying attention to what was
being said by the guest speakers and the chairman of CORE, Roy
Innis. Not many Americans seem to care about the problems in
Africa, but Mr. Innis believes in activism and in seeking
solutions to the age-old problem of hunger and malnutrition
within the Dark Continent. A Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Norman
Borlaug, received the International Brotherhood Award at the CORE
affair. He has long been a pioneer in biotechnical research and
developed a short-strawed, disease-resistant wheat. Imagine an
Africa that doesn't need the actress Sally Struthers to beg for
it anymore.
Mr. Innis recruited the Monsanto Company, pioneers in biological
technology, to bring those advances to the Africans so that they
can feed themselves. CORE sponsored a very successful seminar
Tuesday at the United Nations on the subject of using
biotechnology to increase food production.
Another message we heard loud and strong was evidence that the
South is changing. The age of Jim Crow is over. He was seen
walking into the courtroom in Philadelphia, Miss., two weeks ago
to be indicted for the murders of three CORE workers, James
Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. It's taken 40
years, but when this Klansman, Edgar Ray Killen, is convicted,
that will be Jim Crow's end.
Unlike the negativity spouted by demagogues who need the status
quo on race relations to preserve their political clout, at the
CORE awards dinner we heard only of progress and visionary
solutions. You did not hear about it at CNN.