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Congressman
Elijah E. Cummings |
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Congressman
Elijah E. Cummings |
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(1/8/05 Baltimore AFRO-American Newspaper)
Honoring Shirley Chisholm's vision
by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
This week, as I passed the Chairmanship of the Congressional Black Caucus on to my colleague and friend from North Carolina, Congressman Mel Watt, I could almost feel Shirley Chisholm's presence with us in the room. I dared to hope that our work during the last two years would have made the first Black woman ever elected to the Congress proud.
I hoped that the Congresswoman would have felt a sense of accomplishment about the civil rights organization that she and twelve other great leaders worked so hard to found within the Congress of the United States itself.
I expressed that hope during my remarks because pride, when anchored in compassion and courage, can be a positive force – as Shirley Chisholm's own exceptional life revealed. It can be a force that sustains our commitment to a purpose far greater than ourselves – a power for good that helps us to persevere until we prevail against apparently overwhelming odds.
We need that strength now in this time of one-party rule in Washington, this time when our hard-won gains in civil rights – and democracy itself – are vulnerable.
That is why, in my remarks as their outgoing Chairman, I commended my colleagues for their courage in fighting for what is right.
I am proud of our ongoing mission to champion the work of essential federal programs like children's health insurance, Medicare and Head Start. We stood up for Head Start and all of the children it serves, and those who were threatening the program backed down.
That fight was an example of what principled determination can accomplish – even when the odds against success are long.
I am proud of the fact that we have been able to save many, many lives in far off lands like Haiti, Liberia and (God willing) Sudan. America should be a beacon of hope and humanity in the world.
I am proud that we spoke truth to power about the dangerous consequences of a "preemptive war of choice" in Iraq – long before others found the courage to see that truth. Although political opponents called us "unpatriotic" at the time, the whole world now knows that the concerns that we expressed were well-founded.
The CBC's tradition of pride, principle and purpose will hold us in good stead during the days and years to come – a period that promises to be difficult.
We will be pragmatic where we must; but there are fundamental limits to political compromise, limits that all too often are overlooked by those who advise the CBC to "go along" more to better "get along."
First and foremost among those factors is our life experience as people of color, people who know what it means to be poor.
Shirley Chisholm's father and mother were a laborer and a domestic worker – as were my own. Our new Chairman, Mel Watt, earned a law degree from Yale, but his childhood was spent in a house that had neither electricity nor indoor plumbing.
Those experiences are welded into our DNA. They define who we are.
From the hardships of our own lives, we understand that children should not be forced to live without the food, the shelter, the health care and the education that they need, especially not in the most affluent country in the world.
Public policies or official indifference that permit such neglect – for children or anyone else – violate our national conscience. They are immoral, in the eyes of both God and humankind. They cannot be condoned as part of any compromise for short-term political gain – and within our Caucus they will not.
A second, more strategic limitation upon short-term compromise is this.
As difficult as the immediate future may be for the progressive cause, in historical terms, the principle that every human being should be respected and fairly represented in our democratic system is gaining ground.
Consider this.
When Congresswoman Chisholm was first elected in 1968, she joined 12 other African American men serving on Capitol Hill. We now number 43, including 14 women.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus now represent 38 million Americans – more people than live in the entire State of California (and more than the populations of Florida and Ohio combined).
The 109th Congress will be the most diverse in history. Our growth in the CBC has been paralleled by similar gains among women and other ethnic minorities.
This progress, of course, does not negate the reality that the current one-party rule in Washington threatens the interests of the Americans we serve. Our duty to them is clear. We must do all that we can to limit the short-term damage and get America back on course.
That will require a sound political strategy, one that we have been developing for years.
During the last two years, we in the Congressional Black Caucus have strengthened our working alliance with the members of the Congressional Black, Hispanic and Asian Pacific Caucuses. During this upcoming Congress, we plan a continuation of that coordinated action, as well as a concerted outreach effort to the bipartisan Women's Caucus.
Like us, these women bring the experience of being neglected and excluded by the current governmental system with them to the Congress, whatever their political party or philosophy may be.
Therein, lies a promising foundation for constructive dialogue and mutual support. We are determined, however, to remain steadfast in the mission that Shirley Chisholm and 12 other representatives of the civil rights movement adopted for the Congressional Black Caucus back in 1968.
We will continue to give a voice to the voiceless. We will continue to fight for the millions of Americans who have been excluded or "neglected" by this nation and its current political leadership.
Our personal experience, our oath of office and our reading of history all demand that we stay the course, whatever short-term political obstacles may arise in our path.
Only when this nation finally realizes Shirley Chisholm's vision of equality and justice for all Americans will the work of the Congressional Black Caucus be done.
-The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.
