Vantage Point Vignette
Comments and Commentary by Dr. Ron Daniels
Today is November 16, two days after the Institute of the Black World 21st Century’s (IBW) momentous National/International Town Hall Meeting, where some of Black America’s most influential leaders convened to provide a broad ranging assessment of the impact of the 2024 presidential election on Black America and the Pan African World. Today is also the 50th birthday of our son Sundiata. Last night, still staggering from the “fog of battle,” as in the exhaustion from an exhilarating Town Hall Meeting, I reminded myself to call Sundiata today to congratulate him on reaching a milestone birthday along life’s journey. Then, it dawned on me that 50 years ago today, in Columbus, Ohio, I was elected President of the National Black Political Assembly, succeeding the venerable Congressman Charles C. Diggs, a Charter Member of the Congressional Black Caucus and Chairman of the powerful House Sub-Committee on Africa. What a moment!
In succeeding Congressman Diggs, I joined Amiri Baraka, Chairman of the Congress of African People (CAP) and Richard G. Hatcher, Mayor of Gary, Indiana in the tripartite leadership of the NBPA – which was the continuations vehicle for the historic National Black Political Convention hosted by Mayor Hatcher in Gary in 1972. I was elected President in large measure because I served as President of the Ohio Black Political Assembly which was one of strongest and most effective affiliates of the NBPA. One of my fondest memories of that day was being nominated by Dr. John Warfield, Director of the Black Studies Department at the University of Texas at Austin and President of the Texas Black Political Assembly. He was accompanied to Columbus by the legendary Mickey Leland, who had succeeded the iconic Barbara Jordan as a Congressional representative from Houston, TX.
Beyond the sentimentality of the moment, I paused to pen this piece because one of my recommendations in this precarious moment in the history of Black America, the Black Nation, is that we convene a National Black Political Convention in January of 2028 over the MLK Holiday weekend to adopt a Black Agenda; a transformational agenda that will galvanize Black people to forge to the forefront of a Black and People of Color-led Rainbow Movement that will march on ballot boxes in historic numbers to take America back from the retrograde, ultra-right wing, white supremacist tinged forces of MAGAISM.
Perhaps it was providential that Newark’s Mayor Ras J. Baraka, the son of Amiri Baraka (Co-Convener of the 1972 National Black Political Convention) and current candidate for Governor, tried to convene a National Black Convention in 2020. For a variety of reasons, he was unable to pull-it off. Perhaps, God and our ancestors were holding the call up for such a time as this! Time will tell.
I advance the proposal for a National Black Political Convention because it will compel Black America to engage in deep and intentional organizing from the grassroots to the grass tops and every sector of our people in between based on operational unity, that is to say, “unity without uniformity.” It is imperative now more than ever that we advance and protect the interests and aspirations of Black people based on a Black Agenda devised through comprehensive organizing and deliberations derived from principled unity in the Black community. Let’s get busy!
