Source: The Washington Post / Getty
In 1992, a former teacher from Sumter, South Carolina stood in front of a small crowd and told the story of the day he was riding down the road with his father, a local minister, when they came upon a limb knocked down in an overnight storm blocking their way.
“Look at that,” the young man said, pointing to the limb in the road. “Someone really should get that out of the road.”
At that, the father pulled over on the shoulder, looked at his son and said, “You’re somebody.”
Jim Clyburn told that story all across South Carolina’s 6th Congressional District that year and it must have resonated because, that November, he became the first Black man since Reconstruction to be elected to Congress from the great state of South Carolina.
More than thirty years later, 2024 will mark the first Annual Legislative Conference of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) without Congressman Clyburn serving in its leadership as a new generation of leaders have stepped up to serve and succeed. However, though Rep. Clyburn’s role may have changed, the mission for him and us is still the same.
You see, we spend a lot of time and energy talking about the history of electing the first woman president, and the first woman of color at that, and we should. But our opportunity doesn’t end there.
Created in 1971 with a mission to undertake what Rep. Louis Stokes of Ohio called “the onerous burden of acting as congressman-at-large for unrepresented people around America,” the CBC has been a light of hope in some of our darkest moments, a voice for the voiceless, Congress’ conscience. Now we have an opportunity to spread that hope and mobilize those voices.
More than 50 years since stepping forth with only 13 members, the CBC has more than quadrupled its membership gaveling in 2023 with a historic 60 members from the House and Senate representing
millions of Americans (not just black Americans) and, with this election and the leadership of Rep. Steven Horsford, the CBC has the chance to break that record. We’re talking about an estimated 34.4 million eligible Black voters in this election. That’s a 7% increase from 2020. So that’s not all by a long shot.
We have Angela Alsobrooks in Maryland and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester whose victories will send two Black women to the United States Senate and throw a monkey wrench in MAGA plans for Senate control. We have Colin Allred running for Senate in Texas. He flipped a congressional seat back in 2018 and can do it again this November, turning Texas blue. That’s not just a big deal. It’s huge and, combined with the struggle for the House, it’s historic.
435 House members are on the ballot this election and, with the MAGA Republicans holding a razor-thin majority, Democrats have a chance to wrench that power away and that could mean everything.
You see, for some, “imagine” is a word of caprice and whimsy. But, to us, it’s powerful. It’s how a person reaches out of pain. It’s how a family reaches out of poverty. It’s how people reach past hate. Imagination is the most powerful word in the lexicon available to us because it isn’t some simple daydream. It’s hope.
So imagine what’s possible.
Imagine electing the Congressman from the People’s Republic of Brooklyn, Rep. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, our first Black Speaker of the House. Imagine how our nation would change for the better with a man with his record fighting for working families holding the gavel.
Imagine Rep. Joe Neguse, the son of immigrants who has spent a career fighting to strengthen voting rights, expand access to quality healthcare and turn back the rising tide of the climate crisis, our first Black Assistant Speaker with Rep Lauren Underwood our House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee Co-Chair.
The last time Democrats controlled the House, Black members chaired six full committees including Financial Services, Education and Labor, Agriculture, Foreign Affairs, Homeland Security, Science, Space and Technology and even more subcommittees. Now imagine the committees would be chaired by Black members this time around.
Would the MAGA mob be able to whitewash history in our classrooms if the House Committee on Education is chaired by a Black member? Would we see progress on systemic justice reform if the person in charge of the House Judiciary looks like us? Can you imagine how much we could accomplish?
This is our opportunity. This is the value of Black votes, to change the face of America by winning the White House, both houses of Congress, turning the tide in elections up and down the ballot as well as the 10 states with referendums on reproductive freedom on the ballot in November.
Black voters have the opportunity to save America. We have the opportunity to defend years of policy progress from cutting childhood poverty to boosting black-owned businesses. We have the opportunity to realize a dream 248 years in the making.
This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. We are the change we’ve been looking for. It’s up to us because, just like Rep. Clyburn reminded us all those years ago, we are somebody and if we don’t do it, no one else will.
Antjuan Seawright is a Democratic political strategist, founder and CEO of Blueprint Strategy LLC and a senior visiting fellow at Third Way. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @antjuansea.
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