Official Press Statement the Dawn of Justice – Not Yet a Bright New Day!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MEDIA CONTACT: LaToya Henry April 23, 2021 (313) 447-6404
OFFICIAL PRESS STATEMENT
THE DAWN OF JUSTICE – NOT YET A BRIGHT NEW DAY! Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony, President, Detroit Branch NAACP
DETROIT – As a small boy living in St. Louis, the bed where I slept was underneath a big window. On summer nights we slept with it open and watched the stars and the moon shining brightly overhead. We didn’t have any shades or curtains, so it made our viewing very clear. We wanted the midnight to soon be over. My cousins and I would no longer be constrained by the darkness of the hour. As the morning approached, I could witness the dawn bursting just over the horizon. A little light was beginning to show the promise of a new day. It was not the brightness of a new day; it was simply a dawning light. The recent verdicts of guilty, guilty, guilty is in the case of Derek Chauvin is a dawning light peeking its head just above the horizon of justice. It is not yet a new day in America. It has the potential to be the promise of justice. At last, there is one case in which a white police officer was convicted on all counts in the murder of an unarmed Black man. However, the judge has yet to render a sentence, and the other three officers involved in the death of George Floyd have yet to be held accountable for their complicity in nine minutes twenty- nine seconds of inhumanity. This certainly is a moment to pause and reflect upon the results of this case. It is time for a deep and penetrating dive into a new direction for policing. It provides to us a moment to discover how to serve and really protect citizens in the Black community with integrity and transparency. Where do we go from here? W.E.B. DuBois once said, “Between me and the other world there is ever an unmasked question, how does it feel to be a problem?” This is a case where white people have problems, but Black people are problems. Perhaps in this dawning of justice we can begin to see Black men not as a dangerous threat but as human beings deserving mutual respect. However, a bright new day has not yet come.
April 22, we mourned and funeralized Daunte Wright. He was a 20-year-old shot by a 26-year police veteran, Kim Potter. Two days after the conviction of Derek Chauvin Potter said she “mistook her pistol to be a taser.” No, the beat should not just go on after this human tragedy. I have often wondered why Black police officers who train just like their white counterparts do not regularly engage in such activity. After all, they wear the same uniforms, go through the same training, are governed by the same laws, carry the same weapons, drive the same cars, take the same oath, wear the same uniform, carry the same badge, are located in the same precinct, and yet they do not make the same mistakes. Is there a reason that two or four Black police officers are never found killing, maiming, or humiliating white men, women, or their sons and daughters during a police stop or any other stop for that matter? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at a speech before the American Psychological Association in 1967 stated, “White America needs to understand that it is poisoned to its soul by racism and the understanding needs to be more carefully documented and consequently more difficult to reject.” It is not enough to just be anti-racist. One must really be pro-justice. -more-
Page 2 Dawn of Justice
One must be daring and courageous, even in the midst of unpopularity and resentment. The words of 17- year-old Darnella Frazier, who recorded the murder of George Floyd with her cell phone, will forever speak to our heart. When taking the witness stand in the Derek Chauvin trial she said, “It wasn’t right. I have a black father. I have a black brother. I have black friends. When I look at that It could have been one of them.”
In 1965 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma Alabama. After the march he said, “I felt like my legs were praying justice, justice, justice, you shall pursue.” Justice is not served to Black people on a silver platter. It must be hunted, captured, baked, and then served by those who believe in it and are fulfilled by its substance. The actuality of justice is not realized by the simple delivering of one verdict. It makes us feel better and gives us hope. We must continue to work for the passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. We must defeat the treacherous voting suppression bills that are circulating throughout the land seeking communities of color to destroy. We must pass H.R.1, the For The People Act. We must also pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. If we are truly to commemorate George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Priscilla Slater, Laquan McDonald, Andrew Brown, Jr., Ma’Khia Bryant, and so many others, let us unite to pass these laws. We can help change behavior by changing the policies that govern it. We cannot allow the new implementation of anti-protest laws now introduced in Oklahoma and Florida to negate peaceful demonstration to spread throughout the nation. This political trend is intended to have the same effect as the current bills of voter suppression. These laws are intended to negate the very right of African Americans to exercise their vote and now to express with their voice political discontent. American democracy must not fall victim to legislative aristocracy. The First Amendment guarantees the right of free expression which is the cornerstone of American values. It does not have any shades or curtains covering its meaning. The view of our civil rights is quite clear. We will not be constrained by the darkness of the hour. If we do not do this, then we in America are not worthy of the words of Emma Lazarus engraved on the tablet of our Statue of Liberty. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp before the golden door.” Let us not allow the lamp of liberty and justice to go out on our freedom. Let us not permit the door to be closed because we failed to open up a passageway for every American to pass through. Let us finally breathe free!
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