To Frederick Douglass (born as property into a system of chattel slavery in the U.S. under the name Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey):

I begin this letter with the words you delivered in Chicago as a part of the World’s Columbian Expositionon Aug. 25, 1893, thirty years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation:

“The real problem has been given a false name. It is called Negro for a purpose. It has substituted Negro for Nation, because the one is despised and hated, and the other is loved and honored. The true problem is a National problem.

It has been affirmed on the one hand and denied on the other that the Negro since emancipation has made commendable progress. I affirm that no people emancipated under the same conditions could have made more commendable progress than has the Negro in the same length of time. Under the whole heavens there never was an enslaved people emancipated under more unfavorable circumstances, or started from a lower condition in life… 

There is no Negro problem. The problem is whether the American people have honesty enough, loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough to live up to their own Constitution.”

Today, 120 years after you offered testimony about black progress and an acute prognosis of America’s condition, I wonder: Are the advancements of black people in this nation the best measures for “progress”?

Yes, the Emancipation Proclamation functioned as a de jure policy — an executive order as opposed to a law ratified by Congress, undeniably — that named enslaved black people in the Confederate territories free. But it was limited in its power to end the de facto rule of racism or, rather, what scholars Moon-Kie Jung, João H. Costa Vargas, and Eduardo Bonilla-Silva have named the “[s]tate of white supremacy.”

White racial supremacy is a national problem, indeed. We have only to search our legal annals as evidence of the ways that racism birthed myriad laws. In fact, the condition of white supremacy (and desire for capital) made the transatlantic slave industry possible and the need for political intervention inevitable.

The Emancipation Proclamation was a measure designed to protect the Union, after all. It was not specially developed to end the project of human enslavement because politicos thought slavery was brutal and inhumane. It was not enacted solely to diminish the ideological and psychological force of white racism and capitalism that made possible the Emancipation Proclamation’s creation. As President Abraham Lincoln noted in response to an 1862 letter written by Horace Greeley, the editor of The New York Tribune, “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.”

Mr. Douglass, you were right. The “Negro” problem was not the real problem in 1863 or 1893. And, therefore, black advancement should not be the sole measure of progress in 2013. Progress is signaled by the alleviation of the problem(s) that stunt forward movement. It seems to me that structural racism — the very force that made it necessary to actually proclaim emancipation for black people who were otherwise imagined as property — is still very much a problem.

For example, you would be surprised, or not, to know that the number of black and brown people imprisoned in state and federal prisons in the U.S. is staggeringly high and connected to a range of structural inequalities and practices of institutional racism, which scholar Michelle Alexander documents in her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

You would be surprised to know that the rate of unemployment of black people in the U.S. in November 2012 was nearly double that of the national rate of U.S. citizens in total. And in 2010, the number of black people living in poverty (27.4 percent) was nearly double the amount of the national poverty rate (15.1 percent) according to the U.S. Census. And I could go on…

Without a doubt, there was and is a national problem, namely, a system of white supremacy that still organizes the social, political and economic life of the U.S. citizenry. And until we name it, the accounting of “progress” for the black and brown will be incomplete.

Sincerely,

Darnel L. Moore

Darnell L. Moore

Writer, educator, and activist

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A Letter to My Ancestor: Frederick Douglass

U.S. Representative  Hank Johnson  Posted: 01/01/2013 8:30 am

Dear Ambassador Frederick Douglass,

I write you today full of optimism that America, the nation that once enslaved our people, continues to advance toward justice, equality, freedom and fairness for all its people.

I’m pleased to report that the battle you so valiantly led in the 19th century for equal rights and dignity has yielded great results. Your sage advice to agitate at every turn continues to inspire great men and women into action, and with each passing generation the march toward freedom and equal opportunity is moving closer to full realization.

It has required tremendous sacrifice, but today our people have reached the pinnacle in all facets of American society — from the arts and sciences to academia, technology, business, and politics.

There is no level of achievement off limits or out of reach for African-Americans in this great country we call home.

I am especially proud to report that Americans have elected and reelected the first African-American President in the history — Barack Hussein Obama.

Born of a marriage between a Kenyan father and a Caucasian-American mother, President Obama excelled as a student, graduating near the top of his class from Columbia University and Harvard Law School. These two elite institutions, once off limits because of the color of your skin, are now open to all with brilliant intellects.

With much the same sense of duty to his fellow man as you, President Obama began his legal career in service, choosing to be a community organizer instead of taking a high-paying job at a prestigious law firm.

In his first term, President Obama passed legislation helping millions of Americans get access to affordable health care. He signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which requires equal pay for women. And he is responsible for new laws that protect consumers from predatory lenders.

It must cause you profound pride to know what your bravery and sacrifice paved the way and set the example for President Obama to become a great American president and leader of the free world.

As a member of Congress from the Deep South, I — and my other colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus — along with our great President — demonstrate the great progress we’ve made.

While I write today with much to celebrate, much work remains. The truth is that the ugly legacy of racism continues to impact the quality of life for all Americans, regardless of color. There are whites who feel superior to Blacks, and there are Blacks who feel inferior to whites, with each blaming the other for the growing difficulty that all people face in achieving the American Dream.

Most people seem unaware that corporate influence and wealth has taken over public policy, such that government policy now favors the wealthy few at the expense of the people. As more government functions are privatized, we find political leaders defunding the public school system, shifting government funds to the private, for-profit school industry.

And we see America’s prison population exploding, with America having a greater percentage of its people behind bars than any other nation in the world!

It’s no wonder that the income of the private for-profit prison industry is growing. I am sad to report that African-American males have disproportionately fallen victim to the voracious appetite of the prison industrial complex, from which it is nearly impossible to overcome the stigma of being an ex-offender.

Just as you fought so staunchly for women’s rights, we continue the fight for women to control their own bodies, and their own health.

Mr. Douglass, I’m pleased to report that your legacy and indeed your own descendants continue your work through the Frederick Douglass Family Foundation (FDFF) — 150 years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

I have had the pleasure of meeting your great, great granddaughter, Nettie Washington Douglass, who chairs the Foundation, and continues the difficult work you started. I proudly joined with her in urging President Obama to issue you posthumously the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

My vow is to continue raising awareness that all people are created equal, endowed by their creator with the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation, color, or wealth. It is my vow is to fulfill the courageous legacy you advanced more than 150 years ago. Brother Douglass, thank you for your work and inspiring legacy. I will strive to be worthy of your thoughts, words and deeds.

With warmest regards, I remain

Hank Johnson, member of Congress

 

Rep. Hank Johnson

U.S. Representative for Georgia’s 4th District

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