Photo by Sean Quinn
Residents from Maplewood, South Orange and around the state gather at Columbia High School on Nov. 8 to discuss the strides made by the Civil Rights Movement and the mountains yet to climb.
MAPLEWOOD / SOUTH ORANGE — Two prominent civil rights activists told the members of New Jersey Peace Action at its 57th annual fall gathering Nov. 8, held this year at Columbia High School, that while great strides have been made to combat racism, discrimination and the “new Jim Crow” laws still exist today.
Theodora Lacey, who worked under Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and her son Clinton, who serves as deputy commissioner of adult operations for the New York City Department of Corrections, spoke at length about the history of racism at the NJPA fundraiser. the event’s theme this year was “Civil Rights at 50.” While the United States has come a long way since the days of slavery and segregation, Clinton Lacey pointed out that discrimination is still present in less overt forms.
“This nation, this society, still grapples with what I refer to as an unresolved issue,” Clinton Lacey said during his keynote speech.
“What is to become of the former slave? How will the African-American and other people of color who come to this country through various ways and for various reasons be fully integrated into society, and what will that look like? That is still unresolved.”
Clinton Lacey said a key reason for this is what many activists call the “new Jim Crow laws”: strict drug laws and harsh punishments that result in an alarmingly large number of people, mostly young black men, residing in the prison system for long periods of time. According to the NAACP, in 2008 there were 2.3 million persons in U.S. prisons. Per the NAACP, nearly 1 million people of that total prison population are black. Focusing on drug crimes alone, the NAACP reported that black people represent 38 percent of those arrested for drug offenses and 59 percent of those in state prison for drug offenses, despite the fact that they only make up 12 percent of the total number of people using drugs in the United States.
Because they have criminal records, Clinton Lacey said these people of color cannot find public housing, get a job or even vote in some places. Thus, he said, the new Jim Crow laws are just as disenfranchising as the original discriminatory laws enacted in the South after the Civil War.
The solution to this modern racism is to realize that the criminal justice system needs improvement because its policies are causing incidents like the police-involved shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., Clinton Lacey said. He added that politicians should also be held accountable for the spread of modern racism. Overall, though, he said people need to unite against the issue.
“We need to mobilize, we need to grow this movement,” Clinton Lacey urged the audience. “We need to continue the struggle and understand that while we have come such a long way, and have made great strides, which we need to celebrate on a daily basis, we do have so far to go. We have major problems in front of us.”
In her keynote speech, Theodora Lacey agreed that the nation still faces racial issues that need resolution. She pointed to the prevalence of largely black neighborhoods due to “white flight” as just one cause for concern. In fact, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, the average black person lives in a neighborhood that is 45-percent black.
“Like our history, it appears things are continuing to swing back and forth,” Theodora Lacey told the News-Record in a Nov. 6 phone interview. “We had made some giant achievements that seem to be in question today. So the struggle, I think, continues. Some people call this a post-racial period. I am not sure about that. There are issues that are still not resolved. The signs that we knew years ago are not as visible, but the actions and policies that lead to discrimination are still prevalent.”
But Theodora Lacey not lost faith in the future. She spent the majority of her speech recollecting her youth in 1960s Alabama working as an aide to King as part of the Civil Rights Movement, as well as her friendship with Rosa Parks, who she said changed her life. She also discussed her own achievements in her current hometown of Teaneck, where she helped bring about a lawsuit that ended housing discrimination in Bergen County and also helped create a centralized sixth grade school that resulted in more white children attending classes in the mostly black community.
If she could accomplish all that, Theodora Lacey said, more similar advances could happen in the future, especially considering today’s more open-minded generation.
“Of course I am hopeful,” Theodora Lacey told the News-Record. “The pendulum seems to swing sometimes a little far away from my ideals, but I think it comes back. And I think if we really instill in our young people the desire to be a part of the system and to work to change the system for the betterment of all through voting, through active participation in running for office and volunteering, those things will help to make the future the way we want it to be.”
Anyone familiar with the NJPA might be surprised to hear that civil rights was the topic for discussion at its annual gathering, considering the organization is primarily dedicated to stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons and reducing government spending on the military.
But NJPA Executive Director Madelyn Hoffman told the News-Record that the country’s “military mindset,” which was established after 9/11 and which the NJPA is actively trying to fight, is directly related to the recent deaths of Brown, Eric Gardner and Trayvon Martin, three black males whose deaths have been linked by some to racism.
“It seems like lives do not matter as much,” Hoffman told the News-Record in a Nov. 6 phone interview. “If you feel threatened, shoot. There is something wrong with that. There is an overreliance on the military solution, the violent solution, rather than working things out.”
Mary Gallagher, a local attendee at the event, also said the civil rights and peace movements are connected. Gallagher told the News-Record that fighting for social justice domestically can help put an end to conflict internationally.
“War is injustice externalized,” Gallagher said. “There is never going to be peace if there is injustice.”
But as the Laceys can attest, racism is not easily eliminated. And as Bennet Zurofsky, lifelong member and counsel for the NJPA, pointed out, pretending it no longer exists is not a viable solution. Instead, Zurofsky said people should honestly confront the issue before civil rights reform and peaceful international compromise will ever occur.
“Unacknowledged hatred of having a black president has prevented large portions of the American public from rejecting fear in favor of hope,” Zurofsky told the News-Record at the event.
Another method of raising awareness for both civil rights and peace is banding together to effect change, according to Paul Surovell, chairman of the NJPA-affiliated South Mountain Peace Action of Maplewood and South Orange. By working together as a group, Surovell said much can get done.
“The more people who support our program, the more effective our voice will be and the greater the impact we can have on policy itself,” Surovell told the News-Record during the event. “The more people who speak out, the more powerful your message and the more likely politicians will heed your message.”