On the right road to the Promised Land: From economic passengers to economic drivers

By Tony Rogers

On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. shared a dream for black America. A generation later, America had its first black president. Less than a decade later, black America was back in the streets protesting and one generation away from being the nation's permanent underclass. One of the most talked about topics in America today regards closing the black/white wealth gap. Corporate America is attempting to address the issue. Governments from the local level up to the federal government are attempting to address the issue. The night before his assassination Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed the issue. However, the issue had been addressed in 1865 when General William T. Sherman asked a direct question of Garrison Frazier in Savannah, Georgia. Sherman had completed his March to the Sea at the culmination of the American civil war. On the brink of the Union's victory Sherman asked the spokesperson for 20 black men, what can government do to ensure that you as freed slaves can take care of yourselves? Frazier responded, "Land." With land the former slaves responded, they could take care of themselves and "have something extra," or positive net worth. Sherman responded by issuing Field Order #15 granting 400,000 acres of confiscated land in 40 acre plots to the freed slaves' families. Shortly thereafter, the federal government created the Freedmen's Bureau, the 400,000 acres were repossessed and given back to the former confederate slave owners, and the freed slaves fell subject to compulsive labor agreements and back in bondage. Following this, which was the best opportunity for black American self determination, blacks have pursued several paths to the Promised Land only to find themselves farther away than at any time in history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098389468

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© 2021 Tony Rogers. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-09838-945-1 (Print)

ISBN 978-1-09838-946-8 (eBook)

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: One Nation Under God

Chapter 2: Teach Me Your Ways

Chapter 3: The Pursuit of Happiness

Chapter 4: A New Mindset

References

Introduction

On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. shared a dream

for black America. A generation later, America had its

first black president. Less than a decade later, black America

was back in the streets and one generation away from

being the nation’s permanent underclass.

April 3, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his last public speech. In this vision—and some would say premonition—King declared that God " allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. King proclaimed, I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!"

In this seminal oration, King signaled a dramatic departure from his years of demanding social equality. Five years prior, King spoke passionately about a dream in which his children would participate in America’s promised freedoms without regard to the color of their skin. King was a champion of civil rights and challenged America, imploring, One day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ However, on this fateful night in Memphis, on which King seemed to sense his own demise coming the next day, King spoke of an America in which the black community would embrace self-determination.

This conversation about self-determination and economic empowerment in the black community was not new. In fact, in years prior, King had been derided by other high-profile black leaders—most notably urban—for his perceived focus, along with other Southern black leaders, on social equality rather than economic independence.

In his famous 1963 speech during the March on Washington, King was introduced to the international stage as a pre-eminent voice for social justice, equality, and peace. One year later, King’s stature was memorialized with the Nobel Peace Prize. Still, even in his acceptance upon receiving the Nobel Prize, King acknowledged, I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder. And that night in Memphis, King’s message seemed to transform.

We’ve got to strengthen black institutions, he proclaimed. He challenged the audience to have a bank-in and an insurance-in, where the black community would do what it had largely never done before nor since: entrust its money to other black people. Thus was signaled a shift in focus from demanding the right to eat at the lunch counter with white Americans to economic participation, the reason so many covet being American. The following day, Dr. King was assassinated.

These comments on economics from Dr. King culminated from statements he made to Sander Vanocur of NBC News eleven months prior, where King talked about a new phase of the civil rights struggle. He acknowledged that the first phase of civil rights was much more plausible because the target of social injustice was clearer. It’s much easier to integrate a bus, declared Dr. King. But the new phase of civil rights required addressing economic issues. He pointed to the fact that America was giving away millions of acres of land in the West and Midwest to European peasants which provided an economic base. However, it refused to give its black peasants from Africa, who came here involuntarily in chains and had worked for free for 244 years, any kind of economic base.¹

Fifty years following his assassination, one could assume King would be impressed by the progress of black America to reach the Promised Land. The United States elected its first black president. According to Forbes magazine, in 2001, America saw its first black billionaire in the person of BET’s Robert Johnson. In the second decade of the twenty-first century, Forbes’s wealthiest blacks were more likely to come from high finance or technology rather than the previous years’ athletes and entertainers. Blacks occupy some of the highest positions throughout the landscape of America’s largest commercial enterprises. Today the notion of a black Miss America would hardly be thought of as a breakthrough. One virtually cannot find any major media outlet that does not have a black presence delivering content to its audience.

Forty years after his death, King would find black owners of billion-dollar sports franchises. He would discover blacks as the head of some of the nation’s leading law firms, and black astronauts that have been in space. Blacks lead some of America’s most prominent universities and have even won the Masters, viewed by many as golf’s preeminent tournament. Likely inconceivable during Dr. King’s life, an American of African descent married into British royalty.

One could easily surmise that, with the benefit of a time capsule, Dr. King would find that the twenty-first century black American has indeed reached the Promised Land.

One could also argue that considering King’s articulated vision, the sum total of these impressive accomplishments by blacks since his death can be best described as fringe successes. Further, one could plausibly argue that all signs point to we, as a people, not ever making it to the Promised Land. That, in fact, the grip of those chains of poverty to which Dr. King referred has grown tighter and tighter since his death.

One could contend that Dr. King’s speech in Memphis was completely antithetical to today’s black American achievements.

King’s presence was drawn to Memphis in support of sanitation workers, an imagery both compelling and telling. Pointing out that as individuals, black people in 1968 were poor, but collectively, King pointed out that black American incomes would rank this subset among the world’s richest economies. That’s power right there, if we know how to pool it, noted Dr. King to thunderous applause.

Thus, any assessment of Dr. King’s life’s work pointed toward collective progress. His focus, particularly toward the latter days of his labor, was essentially lifting an entire demographic to mainstream economic inclusion as participants in American life rather than outlier achievements or the setting of a precedent. Dr. King proclaimed that we, as a people, would get to the Promised Land.

One might suggest that in his Memphis speech, Dr. King began drawing the architectural designs of the Promised Land for black Americans. In his Washington Monument speech, Dr. King provided an aspirational view of black Americans as fully integrated into a post-racial America. Yet, in Memphis, he appeared to acknowledge the trek to the Promised Land was much farther in the distance as he proclaimed, We’ve got some difficult days ahead. He acknowledged the Promised Land for black Americans would entail a difficult journey.

However, possibly even more troublesome is this: Dr. King made clear the objective was to reach the Promised Land as a people; he also made clear a key path to reach the Promised Land was by economic collaboration, but there was no portrait given of the destination. Dr. King stated he had been to the mountaintop, and he himself had seen the Promised Land without providing that Promised Land’s description.

If Dr. King was black America’s Moses, it appeared there was no Joshua. Moreover, one could argue black America remains in an economic wilderness, trying to find its way to the Promised Land without a map, guide, or description of the desired destination; and the very institutions themselves—the vehicles on which the black community has relied to transport itself to the Promised Land—have become obsolete for the difficult journey ahead.

In fact, there is broad agreement that black America as a people is headed in reverse, back to the economic bondage from which it was enslaved; that black America is much closer to that economic bondage than it is to the Promised Land. Credible economists suggest despite historically low unemployment in 2019, black Americans as a people will have an average net worth of zero by 2053, and that assessment came prior to the 2020 global pandemic. An average net worth of zero means one has nothing to spare. It means that all one has is the value of one’s labor. And a rapidly changing world economy threatens the value of the one thing black America owns—the only thing it has owned since its arrival on America’s shores: its labor.

Nevertheless, while Dr. King may not have provided a description of the Promised Land for black America, such a description was offered by one Garrison Frazier. Frazier (an ordained Baptist minister) served as a spokesman for twenty former slaves who met with major general William T. Sherman and Edwin M. Stanton in Savannah, Georgia, on January 12, 1865.

Sherman was the commanding general who led the Union Army’s March to the Sea, and Edwin Stanton was the secretary of war under Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. Sherman posed to the group, State in what manner you think you can take care of yourselves, and how can you best assist the Government in maintaining your freedom.

Frazier responded, The way we can best take care of ourselves is to have land, and turn it and till it by our own labor—that is, by the labor of the women and children and old men; and we can soon maintain ourselves and have something to spare.² This statement served as the basis for General Sherman’s Field Order 15, and the famous forty acres of promised land to freed slaves. The statement remains literal and symbolic. In its brevity and simplicity, it continues to embody the path—the journey for black Americans from economic passengers to economic drivers. For the path Frazier described, albeit simple, embodies economic, behavioral, cultural, and historical components. And while America soon reneged on the one thing black Americans clearly stated—and recognized—would provide their transition to economic drivers, Frazier’s assertion remains as true today as it did a full century before Dr. King proclaimed black America would get to the Promised Land.

As Frazier stated, the Promised Land is that place where black Americans by their own labor, the labor of their women, men, and children maintain themselves and have something to spare. Slavery meant that black Americans did not own their labor. With Reconstruction, America took back the Promised Land that would enable black Americans not only to own their labor and maintain themselves but also have something to spare. What followed was institutionalized economic apartheid and a culture of black Americans as economic passengers seeking the Promised Land to