This past weekend, the New York Times Magazine did a feature story on the Reverend James Fields—a black preacher and retired state employee, who was elected in 2008 to the Alabama legislature. He represents Cullman County, in which only 401 of the 81,000 registered voters are African-American. Fields falls into the well known category of “the first ever.” In his case, the first black to win a county-wide election in Cullman.
The election is significant. As late as the 1970’s, the town of Cullman was among the infamous southern communities where signs were posted at the city limits by the KKK and other racists groups warning, “Nigger, don’t let the sun go down.” Ironically, Cullman has another distinctive first that is quite the opposite of the road sign and parallels the breakthrough of Fields.
Sixty years ago, then Governor (Big) Jim Folsum—a Cullman resident—was the first southern governor to explicitly voice support for racial integration. Other governors like Louisiana’s Long brothers, Huey and Earl, were moderately supportive of blacks. But they kept their views quiet. This was not the case with Big Jim. In his 1949 Christmas Day address, he stated, ”As long as the Negroes are held down by deprivation and lack of opportunity, the other poor people will be held down alongside them.”
It was a radical statement given the time and mood of Alabama. I’m well aware of the ingrained racism that existed in the state since it is where I spent most of my childhood and adolescence. I grew up hearing the “n” word. The only thing I recall about Cullman, other than it being the hometown of Jim Folsum, is that on trips through north Alabama, my parents usually planned to eat at a steakhouse in the town that was well-known throughout the state.
Governor Folsum politically survived his break with Dixie racism. He was reelected after a one term absence from office as required then by state law. A quarter of a century after Big Jim’s death, the election of James Fields creates a bit of symmetry for Cullman.
Reading the Times article brought back memories of more than forty years ago when I was a radio talk show host in Baton Rouge and regularly introduced “the first black ever.” Among the guests was New Orleans political figure Ernest (Dutch) Morial. In 1967, he was the first African-American elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives since post-Civil War Reconstruction. After leaving the legislature, he became the first black juvenile court judge and then the first black Mayor of New Orleans. His son, Marc, followed in Dutch’s footsteps. He was the city’s Mayor for eight years.
Fried chicken entrpreneur Joe Delpit broke the racial barrier in Baton Rouge in 1969, becoming the city’s first African-American councilman. He was later elected to the Louisiana legislature and became Speaker Pro Tem, then the highest state government position of any black since reconstruction. In many respects, Joe Delpit paved the way for present Baton Rouge Mayor, Kip Holden, again a first ever African-American elected to the office.
Kip and I have our own “first ever” symmetry. Many years ago, he followed in my footsteps as a news reporter at WXOK radio, Baton Rouge’s only black programmed station. I was the ”first ever” fulltime white on-air newsman. In fact, WXOK saved my career. After a failed skid row audition in 1971, the station hired me to set-up its news department. No other radio station in Louisiana was willing to take a chance on me because of my reputation as a drunk. But during my ten month tenure at WXOK, I stopped drinking. It has been 39 years and I’m still counting.
Anyway, four decades-plus have rolled by since my “first black ever” talk shows. And it seems to me that the term, “first ever” in reference to African-Americans, should have been retired by now—especially with the election of a black President. It was a leap forward that many of us could not envision in the 1960’s and early seventies.
Even so, progress in race relations remains gradual. Sometimes when it seems that giant steps forward are being made, there are reminders that racism is still alive, but in more subtle forms. Indeed, groups that are not so subtle have found refuge in Tea Party organizations that have been recently established around the country.
Watching the tea partiers at protest demonstrations and other gatherings, I can’t help but wonder, “Why are there no black faces in the crowd? None, zilch.”
Are the tea partiers and other white-only protest groups a true face of America? It’s worth pondering.
It is nice to see blacks make giant steps in elected positions, however the real economic power is rarely in the hands of elected officials or the board members in the corporate world. It rests with department heads and chief executives. Just yesterday I heard an interview on NPR in which the guest said the unemployment rate among blacks is twice as high as it is among whites. Many government agencies and corporations are still making layoffs. Who will be the first to receive pink slips? A hospital employee once told me just enough blacks are promoted to the top to deal with the angry black men and women at the bottom who feel they aren’t being treated fairly. I think this will be the issue fair-minded people must watch in the coming decades.