Claudine Gay’s story proves that activism for diversity, civil rights is needed more than ever

In Roger Ross Williams’ 2023 documentary film “Stamped from the Beginning,” based upon Ibram X. Kendi’s book of the same name, a series of prominent Black women recount their “Phillis Wheatley moment.” 

A West African kidnapped as a child and enslaved in Boston, Wheatley captivated England and the American colonies with the publication of “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral” in 1773. Before its publication, she was “examined” by “the most respectable Characters in Boston,” forcing her to prove that the poems really were her own work. The book was released with an attestation that Wheatley “has been examined by some of the best Judges, and is thought qualified to write them.” 

The brilliance and achievement of Black women is no less intimidating to some white men today than 250 years ago. The appointment of Claudine Gay to the presidency of Harvard University last year represented a terrifying threat to the wealthy white male power structure that Harvard so long embodied. The relentless racist and sexist campaign to discredit her and drive her from office — her endlessly ongoing “Phillis Wheatley moment” — exemplifies the white supremacist “anti-woke” backlash to diversity, equity and inclusion policies in employment and education. 

This is why the National Urban League has placed the demand for diversity at the core of a new phase of civil rights and social justice advocacy and activism. 

Announced to coincide with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, The Urban League Fights For You: D3 campaign is based on three guiding principles: Defend Democracy, Demand Diversity, and Defeat Poverty, the “3Ds” of D3. 

These are also the same principles we celebrate in marking the 60^th anniversary this year of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In his remarks upon signing the act, President Lyndon B. Johnson said its purpose was “to promote a more abiding commitment to freedom, a more constant pursuit of justice and a deeper respect for human dignity.”   

Yet our nation’s commitment to freedom, pursuit of justice and respect for human dignity is under a graver threat than at any time since 1964. From the Supreme Court to right-wing state legislatures, reactionary school boards and authoritarian presidential candidates, malicious forces are trying desperately to bend the moral arc away from justice. 

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 may have opened the doors of opportunity, but people like Bill Ackman, who led the campaign against Gay, are determined to keep the gates of authority and influence locked tight against Black women and other marginalized people. 

The campaign will mobilize support for federal legislation, including the Freedom to Vote Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, the Protecting Our Democracy Act, expansion of the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit, and a $15 federal minimum wage indexed to inflation, along with efforts to restore voting rights to returning citizens who were incarcerated and close the Medicaid gap. 

Mindless screeds against “wokeness” and “critical race theory” are the voice of Jimmy Crow. His grandfather, Jim Crow, wore a hood and robe, burned crosses, and led lynch mobs. His father, James Crow, Esquire, wore a suit and tie, spoke of “welfare queens” instead of the n-word, and gerrymandered communities of color out of influence. Jimmy isn’t content to suppress Black votes; he wants to ignore election results and storm the Capitol to install his chosen leader. He won’t forbid a Black woman from becoming a university president, but he will relentlessly claim she is incapable of it. 

Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League. He was mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002 and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Georgetown University Law Center.

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