Blacks must hold President to progressive agenda
Cash Michaels/Special to the NNPA from the Wilmington Journal
Issue date: 2/8/09 Section: Politics
WILMINGTON, N.C. (NNPA) - Now that President Barack Hussein Obama has taken the oath of office to become the 44th president of the United States, and the first African American ever to do so, what will he do for Black America?
With over 2.5 million American jobs lost last year, the auto industry's near collapse, millions of Americans losing their homes, two foreign wars and a national economy on life support, President Obama has more to deal with coming into office than any other president in history.
So what can the Black Commander-in-Chief do to help address high unemployment, lack of affordable healthcare, substandard education and many other maladies that perennially plague the African-American community?
Panelists who took part in ''Kwanzaa Joy: A Community Celebration of Our First African-American President'' late last month, all agreed that before Blacks ask that question, they should first ask, ''What are we going to do for ourselves?''
''I'm looking forward to his presidency with great expectations, but, we have to work,'' Stella Adams, owner of S. J. Adams Consulting in Durham, and formerly the executive director of the North Carolina Fair Housing Center, told those gathered for Kwanzaa Joy at the Vital Link is CrossLink School in Southeast Raleigh.
''We have to help Obama,'' Adams continued. ''He's cleaning up a major mess. One man cannot do the work. So it's going to be incumbent on us to figure out where we fit in in helping him.''
Adams said that means African Americans have to continue to be politically civically active, electing local officials who also share President Obama's vision of change that America can believe in.
''He needs more than our vote, she concluded. ''He needs our work.''
Irving Joyner, Associate law professor at North Carolina Centrual University's School of Law, said African Americans have to realize that Obama''…wasn't elected to be the top civil rights leader, …nor was he elected to articulate or promote the African-American agenda.''
With over 2.5 million American jobs lost last year, the auto industry's near collapse, millions of Americans losing their homes, two foreign wars and a national economy on life support, President Obama has more to deal with coming into office than any other president in history.
So what can the Black Commander-in-Chief do to help address high unemployment, lack of affordable healthcare, substandard education and many other maladies that perennially plague the African-American community?
Panelists who took part in ''Kwanzaa Joy: A Community Celebration of Our First African-American President'' late last month, all agreed that before Blacks ask that question, they should first ask, ''What are we going to do for ourselves?''
''I'm looking forward to his presidency with great expectations, but, we have to work,'' Stella Adams, owner of S. J. Adams Consulting in Durham, and formerly the executive director of the North Carolina Fair Housing Center, told those gathered for Kwanzaa Joy at the Vital Link is CrossLink School in Southeast Raleigh.
''We have to help Obama,'' Adams continued. ''He's cleaning up a major mess. One man cannot do the work. So it's going to be incumbent on us to figure out where we fit in in helping him.''
Adams said that means African Americans have to continue to be politically civically active, electing local officials who also share President Obama's vision of change that America can believe in.
''He needs more than our vote, she concluded. ''He needs our work.''
Irving Joyner, Associate law professor at North Carolina Centrual University's School of Law, said African Americans have to realize that Obama''…wasn't elected to be the top civil rights leader, …nor was he elected to articulate or promote the African-American agenda.''
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