Why Obama, and hope, will win
I have been truly inspired twice while in church. Both times in Texas, and both times over matters which were fundamentally connected with race, tragedy, reconciliation, and hope.
The first was a church in Jasper, Texas, following the brutal racial murder of James Byrd, Jr., in which a multi-racial coalition of very sincere area ministers was working very hard to help move a community forward from a crime which laid bare a deep racial divide which could no longer be ignored. They were doing the very best they could, and I deeply admired them for it.
The second time was a big church in Waco, with 2000 other people.
Years before, I'd met a Waco woman named Mae Jackson. She was on the State Democratic Executive Committee at the time, and she was a force of nature. She was African-American, she had a Ph.D. in something-or-other, and had the intelligence and the street smarts to match it. She was feisty as hell, and would get down in the trenches and fight like crazy for anything she believed in. She was so honest you could have bought cattle from her over the phone. She was also as tough as nails, and yet did it all with a rare grace.
Mae, already on the City Council for several years, decided to run for Mayor in 2004. Of Waco. Yes, Waco, a key bastion of Southern conservatism. I have no idea how she did it, but she won, and became the first African-American mayor elected by popular vote in the town's history. Some of the White people of Waco were aghast. African-Americans in Waco now had their hero, but that was nothing new – she’d been their city council member prior to her city-wide election. She and Lester Gibson, one of the local County Commissioners, had long had deep respect in the community.
Mae went on to serve about a year as one of the most popular Waco mayors in history. It didn’t take long for her to win over even the more skeptical of them. Most everybody ended up loving Mae Jackson.
Then one day she suddenly died. I think it was a heart attack. No warning whatsoever.
There wasn’t an African-American church in town big enough to hold the funeral. So, in a historic moment (noted during the service by the White and Black ministers alike), the tall-steeple big fancy downtown Baptist church graciously agreed to host the services. I was there, and I was inspired.
Mae had brought that town together, Black and White. It was a moment in time where people of different backgrounds and races could sit down together as one community, and everybody was proud of themselves and of everybody else. It was a celebration that everybody there was sorry Mae had to miss. She had brought these people to this moment, and because she had lived, she had led, and she had inspired, she made a tremendous impact. Everybody there sensed the city's change of heart, and the historic importance of the moment. That day in February 2005 in Waco, Texas, there was no divide.
Yesterday morning, I took my car to a San Marcos dealership for routine maintenance. I didn't want to sit in the waiting room all day, so the service manager called the rental car place to pick me up and give me a loaner. A few minutes later, a woman named Jessica with the rental company showed up. We were chatting on the short drive to her office, and I learned that Jessica, a young African-American woman and a recent graduate of Texas State University, grew up in Waco.
Having just been through Waco a few days prior, and thus having just thought about my longtime friendship with Mae, I asked her if she knew who Dr. Mae Jackson was. Jessica's head whipped around as she looked at me with widening eyes, and with great reverence replied, “ohhhhh yes...everybody knows who Miz Jackson was.” I replied that I'd known her well, and had been a big fan.
She didn’t say much more about it until after we arrived at the rental car office. Then the floodgates opened.
Jessica told me that Mae had been among the inspirations of her life, years before, when Jessica was a young teenager. Doing the math later, Jessica must have been talking about 1999 or 2000, as Mae was running for City Council. Jessica explained that Mae had come to give a talk at church one Sunday, and Mae said that no matter what else happens, to never stop learning. She said that Mae told them to start with reading the Bible every day – because back in the days of slavery, the Bible and their faith were all they had. And now that more opportunity was possible for African-Americans, and now that there were a million and one books they'd let anybody read, to learn something new or to expand a horizon, folks should not lose track of where they came from, so they should still read the Bible, every day.
Early in the telling of her story, Jessica started to cry. Her tears reflected the depth of inspiration Mae Jackson offered her and other African-Americans living in a Waco which was then very divided. It was clear that Jessica believes she would not be the woman she is today, but for the example set by Dr. Mae Jackson.
But, funny thing about Waco. There aren’t nearly enough African-American voters in Waco to elect a Mayor without the support of White voters. When Mae was first elected, you might not have been able to find many White voters in Waco who would have admitted to voting for her. And yet, in the privacy of the voting booth, they did just that. The election math says they must have.
By contrast, by the time Mae died, you would have been hard-pressed to find anybody in Waco who would admit to not voting for her. By the time we said goodbye to Mae in that tall-steeple church, you didn't have to be a young African-American woman to cry the same tears of inspiration Jessica cried yesterday. Because everybody in the church that day knew that if it's about hope, and if it's about inspiration, it can't just be about race. Or social class. Or experience. Or ideology. Or political party. Or business. As. Usual.
Dr. Mae Jackson proved that with the right inspiration, there can be hope anywhere, and in all things. Her example proves that hope can mean something very important, and that every once in a while, it reaches to our core, and it overwhelms our preconceived notions of who we thought we were as individuals, and as communities, and what we're each willing to do about it.
The point was not lost on Jessica in 1999. The point was not lost on Waco in 2005. And the point will not be lost on America now.
Can I hear an "amen?"
17 comments - add yours!:
nicely said.
AMEN.
"By the time we said goodbye to Mae in that tall-steeple church, you didn't have to be a young African-American woman to cry the same tears of inspiration Jessica cried yesterday."
Or that this middle-aged white woman cried today. Damn you. I'm at the office. THERE'S NO CRYING AT THE OFFICE!
Go back to being funny, will you?
/Amen.
This post defines change you can believe in.
You are a rock star. Very few people can make us laugh til we cry and inspire us to tears. You do both. Thanks, Harold.
I am very glad that my mother's legacy still lives on. Thank you for your kind words and thoughts. Well said!
Ms. Barefield, I'm honored to have you weigh in on this. Thank you for sharing your mother with us. She has many fans.
Inspirational. I was sure glad to see this over on BOR. Amen and thanks for telling the story.
Both laughter and tears are needed to drown out the fear in this world and keep us in the light. Like I said over at BOR, thanks for the reminder, amigo.
Amen, my man. Amen.
Harold, You are a Dude!
You're the man, but not The Man if you know what I mean.
Jesse - thanks. I think. Well ok, I have no clue what you mean. ;-)
Mae was my mentor, my friend, and when she was president of Texas Democratic Women, my boss. Rarely a day goes by that I don't miss her. Probably always will.
Thanks for recognizing what she accomplished. She was a remarkable woman.
well said compadre
Since this piece will probably be used in the future to establish Ms. Jackson's legacy, a bit of perspective is needed. I never met Ms. Jackson, but it sounds like she was a very fine person. But her election shouldn't have surprised anyone...especially those who pay attention to politics. Ms. Jackson won her historic election with a winning percentage LESS than Rick Perry achieved in 2006 (39%). As a long-time Democratic activist, it shouldn't be surprising that she won some white votes in a city with more than its fair share of Democrats. With nearly one-fourth of the Waco population of African-American decent, and with less than a 11% voter turn-out, Ms. Jackson's victory is far from being a surprise. Cook, you are right about one thing, it would have been hard to find a white person who voted for her. Less than 2% of the white's in Waco did. The math really does tell the story.
Anonymous 9:04 pm -
Thank you for your points. However, as is the case in many parts of Texas, Waco is a fairly segregated community, so when you put the precinct-by-precinct returns for that election together with the census data on race, the pattern becomes apparent.
Mae received significant support everywhere, all over town. Clearly she ran over her 4 opponents in areas with high African-American voting age population. But even in areas in which there is little significant African-American population, she was more than holding her own, garnering 20+ percent in precincts with less than 2 percent African-American voting age population. As for being a Democrat, not only are municipal elections non-partisan, but I doubt that in a 5 person race she was the only Democrat running. As for not garnering a majority of the vote, it's extremely rare for a candidate to do so in a 5 person race. Waco doesn't require a run-off election, so we will never know for sure what would have happened, but in looking at the precinct-by-precinct returns, it's clear to me that she would have held her own just fine.
There is no doubt that African-American voters elected Mae Jackson. But it is equally clear that White voters participated on her behalf, significantly. Which was my point.
That said, your thesis brought up an additional supporting point I had not previously thought of. There is no doubt that it was a low turnout election, which is interesting since there were 5 candidates. But voters who choose not to cast a ballot are making a point with their non-participation too. Usually that point is that they don't care - that no matter the outcome, they'll be fine. When the majority of Waco voters are White, and there is a prominent African-American woman running, and the lion's share of those voters choose to not weigh in, that strongly suggests that a large percentage of Anglo voters were not the slightest bit bothered by the strong possibility of an African-American woman mayor. That itself is worth noting.
Now you have crossed into territory that should be downright offensive to most white folks. You imply that because Mae Jackson received more than 20% of the vote in some white precincts, it is evidence that racial barriers were torn down by her candidacy. If you start with the premise that all white people are racists or intolerant of blacks, that 20% would have indeed been a monumental achievement. But clearly, the vast majority of whites are not racists. Even in Waco.
With only 6,000+ votes cast, that election in Waco was won with a classic grassroots campaign. Jackson had that with her base (African-Americans), her long-time connections through her activism with the Democratic Party, and by the very candidate that she was. It appears she ran a smart campaign. Plain and simple.
You really made the best argument on why that election was not at all about race. The fact that hardly anyone turned out to vote means that people didn't really care if Mae Jackson was black, white, brown or yellow. I am really sick of the generally accepted notion that any black achievement in a predominately white society happens only because racism has been chipped away, implying that racism is the root cause of all problems in the black community. That perpetual racism crutch is getting old.
Don't get me wrong, I do believe that racism is still around (and white's don't have a monopoly on racism), that racism is an issue to deal with and it sometimes holds people down. But maybe, just maybe, there are times when blacks achieve because they are worthy, they work hard, they are smart or they are just in the right place at the right time. Like Mae Jackson. That should be her legacy.
Anonymous (again, courageously):
What I did, which you mischaracterize, is refute your earlier claim that Ms. Jackson achieved her election win without significant support from White voters. It’s the claim you made, and it’s the claim I disproved. I start from no specific premise, except that what she achieved in that election had never before been achieved by an African-American woman before, nor has it since, and described my theories as to the various components of that achievement.
I regret that you now change tracks and, now that your earlier claim is refuted, you choose to fight on another front entirely, one which arguably conflicts with your first thesis.
Amazingly, you also now say, “I am really sick of the generally accepted notion that any black achievement in a predominately white society happens only because racism has been chipped away….”
Your statement is beyond amazing – American history is absolutely full of achievements by African-Americans, made possible only after pre-existing racism, and the accompanying racist laws designed to prevent African-American achievement, had been chipped away, leaving African-Americans with greater opportunity to achieve. So on your latest point, we fundamentally disagree, so I doubt I’ll further engage you in this discussion.
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