For speaking truth to power and to the people, which are the ones who actually may not know the truth(those in power know all too well), the Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery, long time civil rights veteran, social justice activist and director of the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda is Buzzflash's Wings of Justice Honoree for this week.
In the big scheme of things this is a relatively minor honor in the career of the long time grassroots activist but it signals something important. Something very late, but not too late, in the coming: recognition from the mostly white netroots. One of my strongest and most ardent critiques of white progressives is the failure or refusal to acknowledge and place out front, some of the most outspoken and historically most effective progressives in the country, civil rights veterans. Maligned by the corporate media as kooky(McKinney and Belafonte) or corrupt(J.Jackson Sr.), most African-American political and social leaders are considered irrelevant by the white American Left. This occurs at the detriment of both the Af-Amer and Eur-Amer left. Work done to bridge this thought divide is sorely needed but this work, like the Af-Amer leadership is largely regarded as irrelevant or an unaffordable luxury by white progressives. On the contrary, not doing this very relevant work is undermining our efforts on several other progressive fronts. The Living Wage, anti-war coalitions, broad human rights efforts (reproductive rights, childcare, education), the large and ongoing healthcare battle. All of these struggles are weakened by not forging coalitions and acknowledging and celebrating the efforts of our most progressive leaders, many of whom are and have historically been African-American women and men.
Dr. Lowery suddenly appeared onto the scene with the national coverage of Coretta Scott King's funeral attended by sitting president George Bush (who was not invited by the King family). But he didn't suddenly appear. He's been here, for decades, working for voting rights, standing in vocal opposition to gender, sexual and racial discrimination usually taking much more progressive stances than his white counterparts but too rarely acknowledged by white progressives.
He has been a champion of the American Left for decades and at 84 years of age is still going strong. Will 2006 see the change of black and white progressives working together? Let's hope.
