A Sad Day for Those Who Fought for Fairness
Lost amid all of the hub-bub of the tea dances that were going on today: Benjamin Hooks, the long-time head of the NAACP, died today.
He was a true hero of the dispossessed and fought for equality for the Black community in the ever rising tide of Reaganism that was sweeping the country. He will be missed. I think it is safe to say that Martin and Bobby, with smiling faces, were waiting at the Gates with St. Peter to usher Mr. Hooks into Heaven. May his wife and daughter be comforted in their time of loss, as his passing is a loss to all of us who fight for fairness every day.
In a week dominated with the antics of a bunch of posers using the rhetoric of freedom to disguise their basic cravenness (and very bad spelling), it is good to remember what a real Freedom Fighter looks like.
RIP, Mr. Hooks.
Hooks still felt the calling to the Christian ministry that he had felt in his youth. He was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1956 and began to preach regularly at the Greater Middle Baptist Church in Memphis, while continuing his busy law practice. He joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (then known as Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration) along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He also became a pioneer in the NAACP-sponsored restaurant sit-ins and other boycotts of consumer items and services.
Hooks had been a producer and host of several local television shows in Memphis in addition to his other duties and was a strong supporter of Republican political candidates. In 1972, President Richard Nixon appointed Hooks to be one of the five commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Early in 1990 Hooks and his family were among the targets in a wave of bombings against civil rights leaders. Hooks visited President George H. W. Bush in the White House to discuss the escalating tensions between races. He emerged from that meeting with the government’s full support against racially motivated bomb attacks, but he was very critical of the administration’s apparent lack of action concerning inner city poverty and lack of support for public education.
On the other hand, Hooks would not lay all the blame for America’s ills at the feet of its elected officials. He has been a staunch advocate of self-help among the black community, urging wealthy and middle-class blacks to give time and resources to those less fortunate. “It’s time today… to bring it out of the closet: No longer can we proffer polite, explicable, reasons why Black America cannot do more for itself,” he told the 1990 NAACP convention delegates. “I’m calling for a moratorium on excuses. I challenge black America today—all of us—to set aside our alibis.”[4]
excerpts from Wiki
This is just so ironic–last nite I was watching an in-depth show on the whole Mississippi Democrat Reform Movement and the fight to be seated at the 1964 national convention(I know I’m weird-most of you were probably watching “the Office”)–he was highlighted in snippets throughout. I wonder if this program was already scheduled to be shown. It was well done.
I wish Mr. Hooks a “Glorious Reserection and a Blessed Eternity.”