The safest bet for Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” is President-elect Barack Hussein Obama, although he will be standing on the shoulders of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. who, in 1963, was also Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” for spearheading the last leg of the drive for civil and voting rights. His last challenge was peace and prosperity.
Because I believe in the adage that “behind every great man is a greater woman,” I will not be casting my vote for President-elect Obama. A woman should be donning the magazine cover of Time for 2008.First Lady Michelle Obama gets my vote for runner-up. Her time for the magazine cover is 2009 with her husband or 2008 with O. O–Oprah Winfrey–is my individual choice for 2008. She not only launched Obama’s presidential campaign, but she also salvaged it after his primary loss in New Hampshire. Obama had won the Iowa caucuses. Oprah went to Bryce Stadium in Columbia, S.C., and the rest is history. Sen.Hillary Clinton was caught off guard. She was unable to play catch up.
In his run for the White House, Obama garnered over 70 percent of the votes of white women. Obviously, Oprah inspires white women. After the South Carolina primary, Blacks throughout the land, except New York, started to build an Obama steamroller. Rev. Al Sharpton would stand on the sidelines and watch Obamamania catch fire. While Oprah is not a Queen Nzingha nor a Yaa Asantewa, she was an important figure in the struggle to stop W’s shadow, Sen. John McCain, from getting the keys to the White House. In the process, she was able to secure a short-term lease for President-elect Obama, who whites insist is the first Black president of the United States. This is his-story.
Without Oprah’s support, Hillary Clinton would be planning her administration as the 44th president of the United States. She would probably designate Sen. Obama as her secretary of state and Michelle Obama would simply be standing by her man. It was a close presidential campaign, and Oprah was the difference.
Behind every human rights movement, incorporating the Black struggle, Black women have always been in its vanguard. Compare Winnie Mandela in South Africa. This covers a period from Harriet Tubman; Celia, a slave; and Sojourner Truth to Rosa Parks and Prof. JoAnn Robinson, who was the architect of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
In the meantime, there was also Ida B. Wells, Henrietta Moore and Callie House, who was imprisoned for demanding reparations. Afterward, there was Fannie Lou Hamer and Cong. Shirley Chisolm, the first Black presidential candidate of a major party. These are just some examples. On Sunday, November 9, CBS’ “60 Minutes” aired a program that gave three white males and one white female full credit for the success of President-elect Obama’s presidential campaign. This program neglected the Black struggle. White people apparently only had to wave the magic wand, and the Obamas were headed to the White House. This is not the Black recollection of historical facts.
I wrote about Melvin Tolson several years ago. He headed the debating team at Wiley College in Texas while Charles Hamilton Houston et al. were racking up legal victories in dismantling Jim Crow. Some of Houston’s plaintiffs were Tolson’s students. Others would become forceful advocates in the Black struggle.
Oprah had the audacity to tell this story on the big screen. “The Great Debaters” was released in December 2007, and it was playing at local movie houses at the start of the presidential primary. It said, “Yes, we can.” President-elect Obama would become the beneficiary of “The Great Debaters.” The Black community would become primed for prime time.
No Black person can ever expect to receive keys to the White House without mastering critical thinking and debating skills. But for his philosophy, Malcolm would have been a great presidential candidate. The absence of these skills can also spell doom to a presidential debate. The Speech and Debate Clause is also the central provision in the U.S. Constitution for legislative action. History has well documented the seven Lincoln-Douglas debates in Illinois involving slavery and its future. Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas were also chasing the same woman. Lincoln won Mary Todd’s heart and ultimately, the White House. Many times, politics involves more than a political philosophy.
By 1980, the United States was facing galloping inflation and a crisis in Iran. Jimmy Carter occupied the White House. At a presidential debate on October 25, 1980, Governor Ronald Reagan would ask the American public if they were better off today than they were four years earlier. Carter would receive only 49 electoral votes to Reagan’s 489. cells. The presidential debates would also doom the re-election bid of Bush 41, who would debate Governor Bill Clinton and Ross Perot three times. During one of these debates, Bush 41 was caught looking at his watch. People already suspected that Bush 41 had a pompous attitude.
In another debate, the moderator, Carol Martin, would, sua sponte, rephrase a question from a member of the audience. Bush 41 was tied-tongued. This Black anchor woman for ABC News was summarily demoted. Bush 41 blamed her for his campaign debacle. Clinton won the White House. Martin would be shipped off to “Siberia.” Obama has inherited the debate skills of Frederick Douglass, Melvin Tolson, Houston, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. Black women, led by Harriet Tubman, are steering the Underground Railroad. Hopefully, the White House will become a stop for reparations. The cover of Time magazine must tell the story of how enslaved Africans went from Dred Scott to Mr. President despite the three-fifths provision of the U.S. Constitution and from slave ships to Air Force One. This is the real story of the Obama presidency. In the past, Time has repeatedly deviated from honoring a person to acknowledging a phenomenon. The honorees have included American Fighting Man (1950); Hungarian Freedom Fighter (1956); U.S. Scientists (1960); Twenty-five and Under (1966); The Middle Americans (1969); American Women (1975); The Computer (1982); Endangered Earth (1988); The Peacemakers (1993); The Whistleblowers (2002); The American Soldier (2003); and
You (2006).
December 3–UAM weekly forum at the Elks Plaza,1068 Harriet Tubman Avenue (Fulton Street) near Classon Avenue in Brooklyn at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. Take the “C” train to Franklin Avenue and Harriet Tubman Avenue. Dec. 6–Alton Maddox and Dr. Leonard Jeffries will conduct two full days of an “Advanced Seminar on Critical Thinking and Systems Analysis” at City College in the NAC Building, 141st Street and Convent Avenue in Harlem. For admission information, call (718) 834-9034. This is a must-attend seminar. See: www.reinstatealtonmaddox.net for “Cong. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and His Seventeen Point Program.”
