Ossie Davis Speaks

As the first step toward securing the right answer let me give you briefly the history of my own progress and how this arose to be a question in my own consciousness and 1963. That was what we call the March on Washington and the tide of that activity was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Notice jobs came first. And I ask myself why do we need two designations. If we march for freedom is not enough freedom is a marvelous idea or freedom that I didn't go to him and be free. Freedom was the inspiration for much of our spiritual intellectual physical life when we were slaves and after the desire to be free is inherent in all of us and it generated much of the great thing that we accomplished. Still when we went to Washington we wanted not only the government to

guarantee our freedoms. We wanted the government to guarantee us jobs. I thought about that and I wondered why we needed these two classifications to describe the predicament. From which we were trying to escape. Well. After President Kennedy died and President Johnson came to power he and the Congress began to respond to the demand we made and 963 jobs and freedom there. They respond in the interest of freedom and 1960 and 1964 the Congress passed the Civil Rights Act which opened up America and implanted the concept of all of us being all of this being available to all of us in the Constitution itself. In 1965 the Voting Rights Act was passed which said that we too had a right

to vote as a part of the rights guaranteed in the American Constitution. And in the end of jobs President Johnson. Organized or came up with the solution. The War on Poverty model cities lost to be a government program which would invest monies and rebuilding the inner cities and rebuilding the inner cities jobs would be provided. Johnson thought and quite correctly that if you really were serious about integration you needed to give the white folks jobs and the black folks jobs. Now if some of the white folks who are mad and you know put on sheets and all that kind of stuff they would not do it. If that kind of nonsense would affect them if they have some good jobs and if we had

jobs. We don't mind they call us names you know just don't be late would you pay check you know that this is basic thinking. And it was a response to black leadership's demand for some governmental action about jobs and freedom however. And 65 the same year that Johnson called for the war on poverty. He got called away to another war the war in Vietnam and he went away and he never came back. Well black leadership was stuck. They had supported Johnson all their marching and all their crying had been that the government should come to the aid of the blacks by providing jobs and education and help and all those other areas. Whitney Young from the Urban League called for a Marshall Plan. Well nothing happened and 1965 our black forefathers

said Mr. Johnson you've got a war right which is costing a lot. But look we got a plan called the Freedom budget. This plan will enable you to fight the war in Vietnam and fight the war against poverty over here. The plan is very simple. Congress would be asked to allocate 10 billion dollars each year for 10 years and those 10 billion dollars would be used to build bridges build schools re refurbish an infrastructure. Johnson never answered the black founding fathers back when in 67. Martin Luther King broke with Johnson and with the black leadership and took over the war against poverty himself. And at the time of his death he was on izing a poor people's campaign which was going to draw poor people not just black people but poor people to Washington

to do what had been done in 1963 only this time it wasn't racism. That was the object. It was poverty now. Martin and Malcolm and others recognize that jobs alone were not the solution to the problem. They understood. Johnson did too. That black folks wanted freedom but freedom alone wasn't enough. Black folks want to jobs but jobs alone weren't enough. Something else was missing something else was needed and that needed element. And my opinion was power and is power. I repeat in my mind there is nothing wrong with black people or poor people or any people dissatisfied or just

oppressed. That power cannot cure now. Poverty we need therefore a bigger definition a clear definition of what poverty is because in my opinion what Martin Luther King left for us to do when he died. Lost to mount a campaign a meaningful campaign against poverty but poverty in my mind and I'm trusting my own thoughts here poverty to me has is not about not having jobs. Poverty is not about not having food. Poverty is not about. Not having housing. Poverty is not about having an education. Poverty is about not having power. Poverty is about power less and less. So the cure to

poverty is power. And I further posit poverty and power begin and end and the mind poverty begins in the mind and ends if it does in the mind. But so does power. Now I'm not talking about voodoo and I'm not talking about imagining yourself to be 9 feet tall and then thinking that you are particularly you have access to some marijuana some like that will boost your self-confidence. I'm not talking about weird responses and feel good theology or philosophy. I'm talking about how things work in the real world. Well if my thesis is correct. If nothing about the black black man

cannot be cured as long as we have power and if power begins and in the mind then it brings me right where I am today because it is here that we address problems with the mind and to the mind. It may well be that your generation will be called on to address the problems of poverty just as our generation was called on to address the problems of racism in America. And this and once again I'm positive this is an awesome Davis angel be. Be careful. America I believe is quite willing to forgive me for being black. It will never forgive me for being poor. Now the way the game runs. And this brings me to the end of my disquisition. The way the game runs now is that the powers that be. In order to keep the world and control

are quite willing to drop some of the aspects of racism they are prepared to allow those of us who qualify who are educated who can handle these machines and robots and do the other things that the 20th century 21st century require that we can come on up into the kingdom where they are. Meanwhile those of us who can't qualify left down and out. Well that to me is going to be a lot of white folks down and out as a matter of fact in majority terms there are more lights in poverty than there are blacks. So maybe in the 21st century the great divide not between whites on the one hand and blacks on the other. But the rich on the one hand and the poor on the other. And maybe you will be in a position to be seduced by the

wealthy who will give you enough of that well that you will be able to embrace their point of view that that class outside and in prison and down there and out yonder have the same opportunities as you did if they didn't get it. Shame on them you got it so why couldn't they. It's in that sense that the question of class arises in my thinking and that's why I am trying to discover to diagnose what is wrong with us my diagnosis. As I said before it's plain and the cure for me is plain we must apply power to our problems. But that's easy to say but how the hell do you do that. We haven't even defined what power truly me yet. Well once again I say to the rescue power.

Power to me means control over resources. Now we as blacks in America have access to resources that would make us a wealthy nation if we were by ourselves. Four hundred billion dollars and disposable income every year. That's a resource. I don't know how many black votes we have that's a resource but power does not lie. And having resources power lies and controlling resources we need to learn how to control our resources for our own benefit. And we need educational institutions to teach our young people how to teach us to spend black money blackly. It doesn't come natural and the advertising industry has its

own game to which we fall prey. How can we service the needs of our own community by using our votes and using our dollars to service our needs. That has swept power comes into play. And there's where we somehow. Have got to head if we're going to continue their tradition of struggle that was passed on to us by giants like Robeson Dubois Malcolm and Martin. And I think in closing that if we could embrace this concept we might find again that spirit of cohesion and purpose that made our lives. 20 30 years ago so rich and so wonderful. What was great what was the greatest thing to me about being black. When I was

young it was that I was born into the struggle and had to struggle elevated me. It identified me it needed me and hugged me kissed me it said. Up yonder is freedom. And boy. You got to help us get there and you got to do it by studying. You have to do it by your behavior. You got to do it when you get up on that stage. You've got to act like somebody and I like some damn Buffalo. Everything you do belongs with the struggle and don't you forget it. And it was the struggle that identified me and luckily I found a woman who also came out of the struggle. So not only that were we married to each other we were married as deeply to the struggle and it was the struggle that kept us together 50 years with no love romance and all that bullshit. No.

That wasn't. That wasn't it at all. It was that we were in a struggle and like a strong strong team. That sense of each other was the strongest thing I knew the room had my back no matter what. Yes you got damage that I had heard and we could march out there and face hell because we had that that that feeling that that you know that that sense of belonging with each other and that was the feeling that we got from from being in the presence of a man like Paul Robeson you know and even Dubois we belong to cause and we were going to get it come hell or high water or die in the attempt. That was the parameters that formed our lives and our choices. And that is what made us who we are. But some of the things we struggled for change the very nature of the world in which we live. We are not oppressed now as a

people and the same way we were oppressed then therefore we need a new definition of struggle. We need a new objective for that struggle to achieve and we need to articulate it and we need to call on our poets to help us decide what it is we need to sing songs about it. We need to dance dances about it. We need to hug and kiss each other and the sense that we are on this glorious crusade. To eliminate poverty. Maybe the time has come to say there will be no poverty in the world. Maybe the time has come to say we will put into the Constitution as strong a guarantee that every citizen should have a job or a meaningful income just as we put into the Constitution that every citizen should have a right to vote. Maybe the time has come for us to do that and maybe if we did our children would listen and

respect us. I have children with sense that here is something that will that I need to be involved in something that will stress me. Let me have them make me grow something I will snatch me away from the television and the motion bridge and all that crap and give me some reality at the core of my being and you. I say in closing the place you are the mines you have the imagination where all of that needs to take place. It was on this campus. That Mordecai Johnson 926 made the great contribution to our struggle against racism that ultimately ended in us eliminating the medieval standing Mordecai was told by a Supreme Court justice that man you need a law school or law school on the campuses of the night

then you know for the Supreme Court justice said every time a brief comes up from a court of law I can tell the writing is atrocious. If you're serious about no. Yes I have a law school but I got the law school and I got child of the Hamilton from Harvard to head it and out of that Law School came the heroes of the civil rights struggle but more than that. The thinking. The doctrine the thesis the strategy it all came out of that law school would it be marvelous if I would was to say. What we did back then we can do right now and help give guidance and fire and inspiration to a struggle that will be so clear so moral so beautiful that all I young folks would

drop all the stuff that they're doing that's of no moment. So yes that's the call I've been waiting for. So I come to the campus to ask you to help me define what it is that that is still by I mean my underwear is on fire I need help and I'm not going to get it from you. I we need your thinking. We need your feeling we need your commitment. There's a world out there which if we don't resolve this problem of have's on one side and have nots on the other. We're all going to be in a serious case if it is said if it's true what I read from time to time that already there's a 30 percent unemployment.

In the world one day that unemployment. Is going to come. And they're with us. We'll be in serious trouble. But I don't feel bad. I look at you and I know you go do some you know a little ASI go down there I'll go do some magic. Thank you very much. Thank you of. For with us this morning. I think he left us really with the at a point where we are in the history of this university and certainly a point where President swaggered has continued to emphasize the fact that as a graduate for example of Howard University's law school that we must be about the business of all of those problems and issues that we currently face because we need that as urgently today as we did 25 years ago and even 50 years ago. And the same holds true for all of our programs as he has emphasized as we try

to get to have world class programs programs which are nationally recognized by every other institution in this country and we only have a few of our own institutions that can say that we have these programs and we want to move to the next level. I'm going to. Hold off on the questions and allow our students to ask the questions but I think that you what you said about the law school is most apropos for our school of communications as we try in many many different ways to make sure that our students are trained all across this university and having excellent communication skills the ability to write the ability to think critically and also the ability to be able to communicate with individuals from other cultures. And I think it's most apropos that we're meeting here in a school of business where that is something that is often reflected upon every every day. So I want to thank you for coming and I know President swaggered will have an opportunity to personally thank you for sharing your words of wisdom with with our students but

it's not over with yet. The students are ready and anxious to ask you some questions so let them begin. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Today

0 ways moral at its core that's what I believe. Anyone else with a question or comment please write to them. My name is Jimmy away. And I listened for you the first time also interned at black issues in higher education and my first question pertains to that. You spoke at length about our need to have power in the black community. What do you think about the current anti-affirmative action campaign that's going on and

how that is denying our access to institutions of higher education how that will affect our access to power. I think that affirmative action is one small way by which our government can try to guarantee equal access to the park. I think the. The trouble with affirmative action is that it's too small and that we need it at all. But I think it is one way by which we can redress the disbalance in our economy and that that way should be followed. Now if it were a question of the government

bailing out Chrysler we have we seem to have no problem and other areas where it is the rich and powerful who get special treatment from the government. Even other countries who get money at the drop of a hat. You know if everybody was pulled away from the ticket then I would say OK maybe black folk should be pulled away too. But right now it seems they only want to pull us away and feed everybody else who comes to the trough. One of the ways by which the Government can I and should just is economic justice. Well I'm sure a move towards that is a strong affirmative action program touching not only education but hiring and the distribution of jobs and creation of business opportunities to blacks to women and to whomever else you know might be disqualified by what we

got now. I am for affirmative action. My second question is you talked about the difference between the haves and have nots and class in the black community. What do you think here in D.C.. I'm sure you've heard we have you know this current scandal with Chris Webber enjoin Howard. What do you think about people like their kind of people that we look to as heroes and then you know they go and you know of course there haven't been any charges made against them but we see these kinds of accusations made against them and they have these drunk driving charges and marijuana possession. How does that affect our community. I don't know the case you have in mind but I would say that every negative action at any place affects our community has a negative impact on our community. And this particular sense our children watch our children see our children do. Our children are influenced by

what they see going on. And I said. A moment ago that power is the solution to our problem. Power deploys it so an institution one of the institutions in the black community where power is deployed is called National Baptist Convention. It would be wonderful if the National Baptist Convention could service the needs of our people as other religious institutions and other groups serve their needs. The Catholics have the access to power and rightly so. The Jews have their access to power on the basis of their strength and rightly so. We need to have the same access to power that we look at the head of that organization

and I as a cast down and shame. I am a Baptist. I pay money to the National Baptist Convention and I see at the head of it that which makes tears come to my eyes. So morality is not merely a matter of going to have a morality has its effect right here on Earth. Every negative thing that we see in higher places.