WHAT NEXT FOR THE OBAMA GENERATION?
The faces at Obama's inauguration this week were filled with hope. But what will happen to the movement that propelled him to victory -- and what can it learn from history?
By Chris Kromm
Despite the somber tone of President Obama's inaugural address Tuesday, the mood among the millions who flocked to D.C. for four days of celebration was the same as the spirit and message that propelled Obama into office last November: full of hope.
The upbeat vibe was especially clear among the two most visible groups filling the streets: youth and African-Americans, groups key to Obama's victory who seemed inspired by the potential he embodies after eight years of Bush, three decades of conservative dominance and 220 years of racial exclusion at the White House.
I remember going to the inaugural Youth Ball after Bill Clinton's first presidential victory. The mood in 1993 was entirely different: The event felt like a sequel to Clinton doing MTV or playing sax on Arsenio Hall, a staged shout-out to a useful electoral demographic.
But few of us mistook Clinton's election as marking any big shift in our nation's political culture -- a skepticism that was confirmed after eight years of NAFTA, welfare "reform," and the disastrous War on Drugs, which by 1994 was locking away over a million people a year, mostly black youth.
In Washington this week, youth and African-Americans appeared more willing to hope. They also seem better organized than they were in the 1990s to realize whatever potential for change Obama represents.
I talked with Steven Newmark, national coordinator of Young Lawyers for Obama, a network of nearly 10,000 progressive attorneys in 55 cities who raised $1.4 million for Obama's campaign. I asked if the group was going to keep going now that their man is in office, and Newmark seemed surprised by the very question: "We're already gearing up for 2012," he said.
Newmark and I met at a "Grassroots Gala" organized by Asian Pacific Americans for Progress, another impressive group that Obama personally thanked and who are expanding the political presence of a group largely excluded from the halls of Washington power.
The sense of hope and possibility surrounding Obama's inauguration was heightened by the fact that it came just a day after the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday -- a clear reminder that change really is possible.
The 1.5 million people sprawling out from the National Mall yesterday to hear Obama's first words as president brought inevitable comparisons to King's speech to the 1963 March on Washington, which brought 250,000 people to the same location.
But the TV networks missed one of the most important threads linking 1963 and 2009.
Both King and Obama were, and are, symbols of change -- extraordinary leaders to be sure, but also figures largely thrust into the spotlight thanks to forces larger than themselves and a broader movement, often organized behind the scenes and comprised of millions of people.
In 1963, King was considered a moderate voice in the civil rights cause. The shock-troops of the struggle worked in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, whose direct-action tactics gave King cover to press his case to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.
Former SNCC leader Julian Bond notes in a must-read history of SNCC and the movement: As former President Jimmy Carter told former SNCC worker and author Mary King, "if you wanted to scare white people in Southwest Georgia, Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference wouldn't do it. You only had to say one word -- SNCC."
Who will make up the SNCC of the Obama Generation -- the independent, organized source of popular strength that will take the risks and help set the agenda that can hold our leaders accountable?
The faces and optimism on display in D.C. suggest that, for now, millions are investing their hope in Obama himself, the symbol of change.
Which raises the question: What will happen when the Obama movement comes face-to-face with the disappointments that will come -- and for some, have come already -- as Obama makes the inevitable compromises and back-steps from his commitment to social progress?
Real change will be possible if and when the Obama Generation develops the political maturity and self-confidence to realize they don't have to wait on leaders or symbols to bring about a better world: They can and must organize to make history on their own.
As Bond ends his story of SNCC:
A final SNCC legacy is the destruction of the psychological shackles which had kept black southerners in physical and mental peonage; SNCC helped break those chains forever. It demonstrated that ordinary women and men, young and old, could perform extraordinary tasks.
They did then and can do so again.
For more about what Obama means for change and the South, read the latest issue of Southern Exposure, the Institute's award-winning journal.
New Southern Exposure on Obama and Southern Politics!
Barack Obama is now President -- what does his election mean for the South and movements for change?
Find out in "A New Day for the South? Southern Politics in the Obama Era" -- a special edition of the Institute's award-winning journal, Southern Exposure.
The issue features in-depth analysis of the 2008 elections and what they mean for the future of Southern politics.
Also in the special Election 2008 edition: an interview with civil rights veteran Julian Bond, a look at the state of the Gulf Coast today, and a 5-part agenda for Election Reform.
Join the Institute today to get your free copy of this collector's issue of Southern Exposure!
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