Jim Clyburn's long quest for Black political power 📝: Molly Ball (mollyesque)
n a sticky-hot night in the South Carolina capital, Representative Jim Clyburn takes the outdoor stage at his late-night afterparty. Clyburn—the 82-year-old House Democratic whip, maker of Presidents, and highest-ranking Black man in Congress—has a message of hope for dark times. “In spite of all its faults, there ain’t a better country to be living in,” he says in his imposing baritone. “And you and I will have to do our jobs out here at the polls to save this country from itself.
Clyburn’s influence in Democratic politics is as far-reaching as it is unsung. Today, he’s widely credited with swinging the 2020 presidential primary to Biden, rescuing the flailing campaign with a well-timed endorsement that buoyed him to a 30-point victory in South Carolina—and extracting a promise to name the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.
In our interviews, I ask Clyburn his thoughts on the status and trajectory of Black political power in America. Fourteen years ago, the election of the first Black President vindicated his abiding belief in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream, but today he is less sanguine. Over the course of his six decades in politics, from 1960s sit-ins to the heights of congressional leadership, Clyburn has seen many things change for the better. But these days the momentum seems to have shifted.
But his impulse was always to become part of the system. In 1970, Clyburn helped John West, a racially moderate white Democrat, secure the Black vote in his gubernatorial run against a Republican backed by the segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond. After he won, West appointed Clyburn to chair South Carolina’s newly created Human Affairs Commission, an agency charged with mediating racial disputes in the wake of desegregation and the Civil Rights Act.
Of the more than 12,000 Americans who have served in Congress, just 175 to date have been Black. Clyburn’s ascension to congressional leadership paved the way for other Southern Blacks, Bennie Thompson tells me. “If you were from the South, they assumed that, because you spoke a little slower, that had something to do with your brain,” Thompson says. “We came from the back of the bus to the front of the bus with Jim Clyburn in the driver’s seat.”Courtesy the Office of Majority Whip James E.
Clyburn and the late Representative John Lewis, left, were civil rights activists before being elected to CongressClyburn is “instrumental” to the Democratic caucus, says Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in ways that are often not publicly apparent. His official job is to count votes, but he also speaks up for Black priorities at the leadership table and mediates between party factions.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Jim Fitton: Briton to be freed from Iraqi jail after antiques smuggling conviction quashed, family sayThe 66-year-old was arrested at Baghdad airport in March after collecting 12 stones and shards of broken pottery as souvenirs from a trip to an ancient site in Eridu.
Read more »
Is this £99 LBD officially the dress of summer?According to TikTok, this simple – but forever – LBD (that’s Long Black Dress, to you and I) is about to hit the big time.
Read more »
Renewables Falter As Texas Power Grid Sees Record Demand | OilPrice.comRenewable power generation was lower than its potential through Texas’ brutal heatwave, adding further strain to the already-battered ERCOT power grid.
Read more »
Why I want to talk about STIs in the black communityCherry Wilson looks into why sexually transmitted infection rates are higher in the black community.
Read more »