Today I begin by acknowledging that our grievous defeat in the election has left me discouraged and deeply apprehensive.
I grew up under 1950s McCarthyism — an era of authoritarianism and political terror. That was the social environment in which I became politically active. Playwright Lillian Hellman referred to the McCarthy era as the "Scoundrel Time" because selfishness, cruelty, corruption, and fear ruled and dominated our government and our society.
As some of you know, I was active in the Civil Rights Movement. I'm very proud of the role that movement played in ending Jim Crow segregation and winning voting rights for nonwhite Americans — victories that today are under immediate threat of being rolled back and dismantled.
But it's less well known that in order to achieve those victories we first had to defy, discredit, nullify, and to a significant degree defeat McCarthyism. I take great pride in that lesser-known victory too.
60 years ago people like me — and like you all in this room — beat McCarthyism, beat segregation, and won voting rights for nonwhite Americans.
At the time, though, we DID NOT KNOW we were going to win those victories. We knew there were risks, we knew there were dangers, we knew that there would be jail and violence and pain and sorrow and deep heartache. But we did not know if we would win or lose.
But we did know that we HAD to fight because to give in would be to surrender our humanity. To give in would be to betray all those who had fought for freedom, equality, and justice before us.
What I've learned from more than six decades of political activism is that on the long road towards social justice and human rights there are no final victories — nor are there final defeats — there are only milestones that we achieve in victory, or are knocked back to in defeat.
Out of recognition that the fight for freedom and justice is a long, stony road I chose "Sojourner" as my messaging handle. The road ahead of us all is going to be long, hard, and difficult. But I know that people like us can, and will, defeat the political forces of racism, misogyny, bigotry, xenophobia, greed, and selfishness.
Copyright © Bruce Hartford
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