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FEBRUARY 2015 3.0
COAL News

 

 

Please see the most recent COAL Commentary, COAL Endorses, along with other articles of interest bearing on the February 24, 2015 Municipal Elections. Also see a compelling white paper on the history of lynching titled, "Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror", by the Equal Justice Initiative.

Most importantly, the COAL Board of Directors encourages all of our members and community-of-interest to vote. It is 
an imperative to use our voting power as our voice - for improving educational systems, for increasing opportunities for our children, for jobs, for promoting economic development, for making our neighborhoods safer, for ensuring a justice system that works for us - for improving the quality of opportunity, preparedness and quality of life for our community.

Respectfully,
COAL Board of Directors

"
The time to work seriously and collectively, to improve the state of our Community, is upon us..."  

Let's Get to Work.
 
COAL ENDORSES

- February 18, 2015

We have been conditioned over the past few decades to believe that 'bullying' and nastiness and 'dictatorial' politics equals leadership.


It does not.


If it did, our kids would be receiving a better education, Chicago's black unemployment rate would be lower, our neighborhoods would be safer, our business sector would be thriving, we'd have increased parity in City contracting and investment in our community would be more than just another new Whole Foods, Wal-Mart or Mariano's.


Effective leadership, as most of you know and have experienced in your own lives, while being strong can still be less 'in your face' and more collaborative, less confrontational and more  about problem solving, less dictatorial and more delegatorial and inclusive. Less dismissive and more empathetic to the plight of everyday people. Less 'politician' and more 'public servant'.


But we've been conditioned to miss this.


We've also been conditioned to hold our fingers to the wind to determine who might win a given race, and then to 'jump on board' regardless of whether the perceived front-runner will address our community's issues or not - or even worse could exacerbate the issues plaguing our community.


How else do you explain the naked 'selling out' by those that profess to be stalwarts in the fight for progress, the fight for community....  But then again, we've always had those folks around, and yet, it did not break the civil rights, voting rights  and other movements.


We've also been conditioned to be risk-adverse, sticking with what we have, when clearly it isn't working and knowing that to address the complexity of the issues our community is grappling with, requires taking bold action - that the status quo is not working, so why would we stick with it?


Our leaders, from businessmen to preachers to heads of community organizations have been conditioned to be overly cautious, to be quiet... lest the flow of whatever funding they are getting is cut-off - a contract denied, a land request to build an adjacent parking lot buried, a grant reduced, an invitation to the big house lost in the mail - and although these concerns can be real - at what cost to your community, at what cost to your own principles, at what cost to our future...


Something to think about.


It is COAL's established policy not to endorse candidates.


However, what we do endorse is our community thoughtfully assessing all candidates based on one's belief in the candidate's interest in and ability to address our most pressing issues. How else do we move our agenda forward? COAL endorses our community educating ourselves on the issues, thoughtfully, qualitatively and quantitatively, morally, spiritually and yes, even emotionally - shouldn't we all be seething at the disparities for black people - in health, wealth, employment, our children's achievement?


COAL endorses us putting in place a means of holding our elected officials accountable and then voting on their delivery on commitments. COAL endorses our community voting in large numbers to use the power of numbers to influence, move and/or force positive change for our community - improved education, increased employment, a growing business sector, safer neighborhoods, a justice system that works for us, increased opportunities for health and happiness, improved preparedness to grab a solid hold of the opportunities that exist and that can be created....


Let others cynically cull the favor of those in power, even when those in power disrespect our community (if it was a strategic means to a strategic end that benefited the community, even this would be OK, but our misguided folk selfishly play 'very small ball'), rather let us go to the polls, understanding our conditioning, but fighting against said conditioning to chart a new and better course for our community.


COAL endorses breaking the chains of this 'conditioning' that elected officials, not delivering for our community, count on.

COAL endorses us voting and endorses our leaders stepping up to promote, assist and fund efforts to get our community to the polls.

COAL endorses each member of the community being accountable for getting family members and friends to vote. Who they vote for is up to each individual, but vote we must. We all own this.

COAL believes that we must be vigilant, if not, we are vulnerable.

And that is the Stone 'COAL' Truth...
 

- Submitted by Terri Johnson - 
Equal Justice Initiative
122 Commerce Street
Montgomery, Alabama 36104
334.269.1803 www.eji.org 
COALITION POWER BREAKFAST 

hs
The next  Coalition Power Breakfast
is  scheduled for
Saturday, February 21, 2015
 Begins 8:30am / Program 9:30am


 Topic: Democracy in Action - 

Getting Out the Vote
 

  BJ's Market  -  8734 South Stony Island Ave. -  Chicago  -  773.374.4700  
What We Believe 

The Coalition of African American Leaders believes that it is important to examine the critical issues confronting the African American community where injustice, inequality and the absence of access and opportunity continue to prevail, thereby negatively impacting us as a people. COAL is an assemblage that advocates and organizes for appropriate and responsible public policy change, system behavior change and equality of opportunity. We aim to achieve for all of our people the fullness of the life experience without any form of racism or exclusion as a deterrent. We believe we must prepare ourselves for the opportunity of this full participation, thereby achieving the necessary education and training to participate. 


The Ballot or the Bullet

COAL is holding its February Breakfast (February 21, 2015) on the 50 year anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X (February 21, 1965). 

Following is an excerpt from a very relevant speech titled, The Ballot or the Bullet, that Malcolm X gave on April 3, 1964: 

Mr. Moderator, Brother Lomax, brothers and sisters, friends and enemies: I just can't believe everyone in here is a friend, and I don't want to leave anybody out. The question tonight, as I understand it, is "The Negro Revolt, and Where Do We Go From Here?" or What Next?" In my little humble way of understanding it, it points toward either the ballot or the bullet.

 

Before we try and explain what is meant by the ballot or the bullet, I would like to clarify something concerning myself. I'm still a Muslim; my religion is still Islam. That's my personal belief. Just as Adam Clayton Powell is a Christian minister who heads the Abyssinian Baptist 

Church in New York, but at the same time takes part in the political struggles to try and bring about rights to the black people in this country; and Dr. Martin Luther King is a Christian minister down in Atlanta, Georgia, who heads another organization fighting for the civil rights of black people in this country; and Reverend Galamison, I guess you've heard of him, is another Christian minister in New York who has been deeply involved in the school boycotts to eliminate segregated education; well, I myself am a minister, not a Christian minister, but a Muslim minister; and I believe in action on all fronts by whatever means necessary.

 


VOTE - START NOW - TO THE POLLING PLACE

Tell your Churches, Clubs, Organizations and call your friends and close associates. 

Let's all get out the Vote.

Non-voting is a crime--a sin--a suicidal act.

Early voting starts Monday, February 9 -Saturday, February 21, 2015

Early Voting Locations. Tell your friends to vote early too. Even if a voter isn't yet registered, they can vote in person until February 21. See and share all the ways to vote.

Election Day is Tuesday, February 24, 2015 


COAL commends the Coalition of Black Community Organizations (CBCO), a coalition of a number of diverse organizations across our community, who worked collectively, tirelessly and professionally to develop a Municipal Candidates Questionnaire that asked questions and stated positions reflective of the community's agenda, the Black Agenda.

COAL committed to reporting out the results of this effort - please see a link to the results below.
 
This represents democracy in action.
 
The CBCO began a process with these goals: 
  
1) Identify issues and positions important to our community; 
2) Have candidates take a position on said issues; 
3) educate our community on candidate positions and provide the community with a means (tools) to assess candidates; 
4) Begin to establish the infrastructure required to move our agenda forward on a continuous basis; 
5) Build trust across our diverse community in order for us to work together on the items that we agree upon and that are in the best interest of our community; and 
6) To actually achieve legislative and other wins that improve the quality of life for the black community. 
 
This is an important step towards achieving these goals - towards our community taking ownership of addressing our issues and for holding our elected officials accountable.  
 
Again, COAL commends the CBCO and looks forward to the continuous building of the infrastructure required to move our community's agenda forward. 

The CBCO Municipal Candidates Questionnaire Results can be found Here 
- Guest Article - 
 
The Barriers to Black-Brown Unity
Can Chicago's black and brown communities come together to elect a new mayor?

By Salim Muwakkil

 

Of the many challenges Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia faces in his bid to unseat Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel this February, the most formidable for the lone Latino in the race is attracting the support of the city's black electorate.

This would seem an unlikely obstacle in a predominately minority city like Chicago, where the political benefits of an African-American and Latino coalition are a no-brainer. After all, in 1983 black and brown unity helped elect Harold Washington, one of America's most admired black mayors. Garcia can bask in that noble history; he played a role in mobilizing Latinos for Washington. But in the 32 years since Washington's election, relations between the city's two largest minority groups have soured.

The first rifts appeared soon after Washington's death in 1987. When the black base split over which alderman should succeed Washington, Latino supporters were set adrift, and the remnants of the city's infamous Democratic Machine exploited that uncertainty. After Richard M. Daley defeated Washington's placeholder successor, Eugene Sawyer, the Daley administration kept the black-brown coalition off balance by pitting the gains of one group against the other-replacing black officials with Latinos, for instance-in order to forestall the unity necessary for any serious Daley challenger."....

__________________________________________

 

Full Article Here.

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