Two years ago, when community activist and writer Kevin Powell campaigned for the 10th Congressional seat currently held by Ed Towns, he knew he would have to run again. “We always knew it would be at least a two campaign race,” said Powell. “When you are challenging an entrenched incumbent, it often takes two races.”
A lot has happened since then.
Powell has continued his monthly male development meetings, a grassroots attempt to nudge males to do what he has done: “re-think everything I know about manhood.” He was asked to assist several vacationing families in a sustained effort for justice in the Antigua and Barbuda. He wrote his 10th book, Open Letters to America. He testified before the United Nations regarding gender violence. And, as further evidence of his maturation, there have been no salacious headlines.
So far this year, Powell’s campaign has raised more money, from more people, than during his entire 2008 campaign. Most donations are small, coming from 40 states across the nation. More Brooklyn people have donated. Big names, such as Marlon Wayans, have contributed big bucks. Powell’s new campaign manager, communications and field directors are operating “scientifically,” down to the smallest election district. The one thing Powell was proudest of in his 2008 campaign, has carried over to this year: no behind the scenes drama.
Kevin Powell is happy, and looks content. Campaigning is an opportunity to do what he does – serve others. His 18 hour days start at 5:30 am with Facebook and Twitter posts. From Boerum Hill to Canarsie, East Williamsburg to East New York, Powell hits the streets, delivering constituent services, such as GED, housing, or criminal justice referrals. “We spend as much time as necessary talking to each voter,” Powell said. “We want to demonstrate while we are campaigning the kind of services we will provide, once we got into Congress.”
Spending a few minutes on www.KevinPowell.net, one can find a listing of all the diverse neighborhoods in the district, ethnic, gender, and income data. There is even a history of Brooklyn. “We want to make this an educational process,” he said. Most important for Powell, the complete Campaign Platform can be found on the site, everything from health care, criminal justice, seniors, and net neutrality to violence prevention, immigration, education, and worker rights.
“Bridge to the Future” is Kevin Powell’s campaign theme. At 44-years-old, Powell stands firmly in the post-Civil Rights generation. In 1984, he was introduced to politics through the Jesse Jackson Presidential campaign and the anti-apartheid movement. “During the last 26 years, there has been a perpetual generation divide in the Black community. You see it in electoral politics grassroots activism,. You see it in the literary/ journalism world. You see it in the artistic community, in the business world, You see it in church. You see it in our Civil Rights organizations.” said Powell. “I am no longer a person who points fingers at the Civil Rights generation. I do see a resistance to supporting young people.”
Powell explained, “But, I think that younger people – myself and folks in the generation behind me – have got to do what many of us have been doing. Do your own thing. Don’t wait for someone to pass you a baton. There is never going to be a baton passed. For me, I started writing professionally when I was 20. People I organized with – Ras Baraka, Sista Soulja – we were in our early 20’s. We didn’t wait for permission to organize around Howard Beach or Bensonhurst back then. We just did it. We could lament on the generational divide. Or, do what I recommend: identify people in the various generations who are progressive and want practical solutions for our communities, and work together.”
While campaigning on the streets, Powell said, “I barely hear anyone talk about Civil Rights issues. What people say they need are jobs, affordable housing, quality education, recreational/ community centers for young people, safe streets for seniors, foreclosure. It’s really basic. How do we deal with stop-and-frisk? In one housing project in ENY, just the other day, several tenants who didn’t know each other said the same thing to us: the police in this area are constantly stopping our young men, throwing them on the ground and frisking them. Checking their shoes, their socks, their underwear. A man in his 50’s, a grown man, a grandfather said the police did that to him. People are talking about quality of life issues.”
This is a new day, we need new terms. Civil rights is a term that belongs in the 20th century. We are in the 21st century. We need a new terminology, and it is definitely coming.
We have got to develop our communities in six basic ways: spiritually, politically, culturally, economically, and two areas we don’t talk about – physical health and mental wellness. It is about holistic development of our communities.
We got the Civil Rights bill and the Voting Rights Act. On a basic level, we have citizenship. The thing we missed, that Dr. King talked about at the end of his life, is economic justice.
It is not enough to have back elected officials if they are not doing their jobs. I am not voting for someone anymore just because they are Black. That is unacceptable. This is what I am hearing throughout the community, from young and older people. Jewish folks in Boerum Hill said this to me. Black and Latino people in East New York said this to me. It is unacceptable to have elected officials who we do not see on a regular basis, or their representatives, who are not accessible, who we feel don’t have the volume loud enough on issues of importance to us.
In response to a question about the replication of poverty every 15 years by young girls being impregnated and abandoned by adults, Powell said “The worst gap that exists in Black America since the 1969’s is the class gap.” He recalled his young mother, with a grade school education and his father who was in his 30’s when he got her pregnant. “He didn’t even show up at the hospital when I was born. There is no record of my father being anywhere around. Powell is my mother’s last name. Here I am, left to be raised on welfare, food stamps, government cheese, in tenement dwellings where it was normal to have not mice, but rats running everywhere. It was normal to have roaches everywhere, even inside the refrigerator, which was often broken so you couldn’t close it all the way. A lot of people don’t understand that kind of life, and what it does to you.”
Powell has been there. With gratitude, he said, “But for the grace of God and my mother’s vision for her child, which is me, and not accepting this is what we are destined to – a life of misery and doom. Unfortunately, what happens to a lot of us, particularly if we have low self-esteem, is we get stuck there.” Powell described an all too common situation in Black and brown communities, “If you are a young woman of color in a world where you are dealing with racism, and sexism, and classism, if you are 14-years-old, you have already been told you are nothing, and the only thing that is valuable about you is from your neck down. Then some man or older boy comes along. Next thing you know you are pregnant, or have an STD or one of the 92% of new cases NYC of Black and Latino women carrying the HIV virus. That is what happens. It becomes what Malcolm X called a vicious cycle not only in Brooklyn, but in Harlem, Oakland, New Orleans, Houston, all over the country. I travel to the Caribbean. It’s in Jamaica.”
According to Powell, “Unfortunately, we in this country confused Civil Rights and integration with progress for the entire community. That wasn’t the case. I don’t blame the young women or the young men. Many don’t know any better. They are carrying profound self hatred; when you hate yourself as a Black person, you will not only destroy yourself, you move to destroy other people who look like you.”
“The solution is simple, but complex,” Powell said. “We need more men like Kevin Powell, like Quentin Walcott, and Byron Hurt, to speak out loudly against all forms of sexism.” Powell said he used to be one of those men; only because of God and counseling, he has evolved.
Of all the issues Powell would like to address if and when he is elected to Congress, economic development is paramount. He said he went to Head Start pre-school. There was a free breakfast and lunch program at school, went to an after school program at the Y. His first summer job was a CETA job. During college, he got help from EOP. His mother got help with housing through voucher programs, like Section 8. “Those were all created by the government to give people a hand – not because we were lazy, shiftless, or intellectually inferior,” said Powell, “but because we were poor.”
Kevin Powell said quality of life issues require “a 21st century approach. The issues are what people say they need – jobs and job training.” If elected, Powell would like to serve on education, health, and economic development committees. He suggests small business incubators. “Most of the U.S. population is under 45 and technologically savvy. We al have a hand held device and email. We have to create some jobs and business opportunities that are about technology and the green economy, Powell said. “I look at all these abandoned buildings, including factories, here in the 10th congressional district. Imagine if some of those were turned into technology help centers. Those are low skill jobs that could be for people in this country, right here in Brooklyn. That is the type of issue I will be fighting for.”
Kevin Powell: Ascent of a Political Activist
Halftime Instructions for the Freedom Party
By Alton Maddox
The Freedom Party has to collect 15,000 valid signatures for the gubernatorial candidacy of Councilman Charles Barron with at least 100 “valid” signatures in 15 congressional districts. The signatures of the Freedom Party are expected to be challenged by another political party because unbridled, political power in the hands of Blacks is not only novel but also threatening to white supremacy.
Nine of these 15 congressional districts, with the highest percentage of Black residents, on whole or in part, are situated in New York City. Two are located in Long Island. Two others are located in the mid-Hudson Valley and another is located in Albany and Schenectady.
The final congressional district is the 28th Congressional District, which is situated mainly in Buffalo and Rochester. Only four congressional districts in New York have more Blacks than the 28th. Within three days, it had collected the minimum number of signatures.
There are six additional congressional districts that the Freedom Party have targeted for at least 100 “valid” signatures. Four of these congressional districts are situated in New York City. These are the 5th, 8th, 9th and 14th Congressional Districts. They are respectively represented by Gary Ackerman, Jerrold Nadler, Anthony Weiner and Carolyn Maloney.
All petition carriers will have dropped off their petitions by Tuesday, July 27 at designated drop-off centers. This will allow the Freedom Party to approximate its mid-term achievements so far. It will also allow the campaign to clean up the petitions on a normal schedule instead of cleaning up already-collected signatures in the eleventh hour.
I expect that the second half will be far more productive than the first half which also required organizing the statewide, political campaign.
Councilman Barron accepted the political challenge in June. The campaign for signatures started on July 7.
It also takes some time to recruit and train volunteers who must understand that organization is a bottom-to-top approach. The volunteers must carry the candidates and not the reverse. This is also how a bee colony works. This ensures continuity and longevity.
All supporters must be focused and instep for the final stretch. Personal assignments for the final stretch must be identified and executed. This is especially true for houses of worship, commercial districts, social events and underreported congressional districts. For more information, call UAM at 718-834-9034.
Weekly Meetings at the Elks Plaza, 1068 Harriet Tubman (Fulton Street) nr. Classon Ave. in Brooklyn at 7:30 p.m. Take the “C” train to Franklin Ave.
Thanks to Village Keepers, A Handball Court, A Garden and A Park Will Grow on Ellery Street
What started out as a nightmare for Ellery Street residents near Charlie’s Park, turned out to be a change for the better.
On July 21st, kids rushed to Charlie’s Park excited for another play day when their excitement turned into anger and confusion. They were shocked to see their handball buried under a blanket of dirt.
Members of the Raise the Roof Farm organization had dumped the soil and begun planting healthy food to benefit the community. For their initiative, Raise the Roof in partnership with the Brooklyn Charter School, planned to create a model farm program to – as they say — help children get involved in community and after-school activities in North Brooklyn.
It was a good mission, but the only problem was nobody told the community who lives there. After an impromptu meeting hosted by Henry Butler, President, Community Board 3, and called by the Ellery Street residents, New York City Parks & Recreation Assistant Commissioner/Senior Counselor Jack T. Linn agreed to have the soil removed from the handball court. Linn was the person who originally gave the group permission to create the garden at Charlie’s playground. He is taking full responsibility for what appears to be a misunderstanding and also is taking the proper steps in having the garden relocated to another area in the park.
“He’s going out of his way to correct the situation,” said Butler.
Yet neighbors say that since July 19th, they have only removed half of their materials and have continued to water their plants. Not showing any signs of removing their materials completely.
“They have great ideas,” said resident Raphael Dominguez. The problem is not creating the garden. Neighbors are in disbelief that people would even consider taking any part of Charlie’s Park without communicating with them or getting the proper permits.
“There’s nothing left in the area right now for young people and families,” said Gershwin Ledain. “Charlie’s Place playground, which is just cement and rocks, is the only location in the area where kids can play without having to worry about getting hit by a car.”
Another issue that neighbors are concerned with is the parking lot that was built on half of the playground by the school next door. Although Charlie’s playground is considered a city park, the school sent their janitors to draw parking lines on the field and since then have continued using it for parking.
Dominguez explained that this parking lot is used by other locations such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses church around the block and city employees from local hospitals. The parking lot, which contains abandoned cars, has become a threat to the health of children. Before kids were able to play football and other sports, now they enjoy using the resources around them to create new “games” such as throwing rocks at each other.
Commissioner Linn researched the park and found that the school has no authority over it anymore. No department of Education vehicles parked illegally there are being ticketed. Once the summer session of the school is over on August 13, no one will be allowed to park there. The principal is grateful to have adequate time to inform teachers returning to the school in September that Charlie’s Park is closed to vehicles.
Once the parking lot is cleared the farm will be built on one side of the park and the community will be involved in the process of creating the farm. Also, the handball court is being restored.
Butler says that budgets for 2011 have been completed. Rehabilitation of Charlie’s Park will be at the top of Community Board 3’s agenda for 2012 budget requests. With this budget, improvements will be made to the park and the community will be able to get involved in the remodeling of the park.
“It will take at least two-three years before a shovel is placed into the ground to make Charlie’s Park the park it should be,” said Butler, acknowledging that much has to be done before the park is transformed into the North Brooklyn neighborhood kids deserve.
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John White Steps Forward to Fulfill Sentence
Flanked by his wife and sons, last week John White reported to the courtroom of the Honorable Barbara Kahn in the Suffolk County Court. He began his sentence of 2-4 years resulting from the incident in which John White was defending his family and home from a mob of drunken teens. That incident resulted in the death of one of those teens.
Noel Leader, along with other members of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, escorted John White and his family to the court “because of the sensitivity of the case and threats made to him, his wife and sons.” Leader said, “Members of our organization picked the family up at their house and had the unfortunate task of escorting him to the courthouse, where he was then taken into custody to complete his sentence.”
Describing the mood of the family, Leader said “Surprisingly, John was more upbeat than all of us were. Because of the magnitude of the injustice to him as well as his family, we all were sad. He was very upbeat. He knew what he did was the right thing to do. He had nothing to hang his head in shame over. He was sad over the fact that he was going to miss his wife and children.”
According to Leader, John White’s “sons were, of course, very sad. They know that they are going to miss their father for the next couple of years unless Governor David Paterson does the right thing and grants clemency or a pardon.”
Someone close to the family said John White could not submit a clemency application until White was in custody inside the prison.
John White has exhausted all appeals on the state level. Since that last state appeal was rejected, something occurred to give the family additional hope. The U.S. Supreme Court decided in McDonald v. City of Chicago that the Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms for the purpose of self-defense, also applies to the states (not just the District of Columbia, as decided in the Heller case). The family will need to raise funds to start a federal lawsuit.
“Everyone who is familiar with the facts of this case knows that we are not holding our heads down for John. He did nothing wrong,” Leader said. “All of us will miss him. All of us share the unfortunate time he will now serve in prison. Right now, what everyone is pinning their hopes on is the governor intervening.”
The weapon involved in the incident was a family heirloom. It originally belonged to Napoleon White, John’s grandfather. According to family history, the White family was chased out of Oneonta, Alabama in 1929. One night the Klan came to the family home to get someone in the family. Napoleon White was able to defend the family and get most of them out. The Klan set the house on fire. One of John’s aunts was not able to get out. She died in the fire. In the aftermath, the White family split up. Some settled in Cleveland, others in Georgia. John White’s branch of the family landed in New York.