By Quintessa Hathaway
Please allow me to speak freely, from my soul, to speak a truth, our truth, and one that is rooted in American history, philosophy, and cultural psychology. There is no one freer in the United States of America than the white man and the black woman. On Sunday afternoon, July 21, 2024, what was ushered in was the closing of an opportunity gap. After four hundred five (405) years since the birth of this nation, a white man handed over the mantle of power to a black woman. I experienced similar elation when the 44th President Barack Obama won the Iowa Caucus in 2008 and the 104th United States Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed by the House of Senate in 2022. And, I can imagine the jubilation throughout the African American community as the 86th United States Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was confirmed by the House of Senate in 1967. Although I was unborn at that time, as a political scientist and historian; I am grateful, and this country is better because of his significant contributions to constitutional law.
I have been in the room with Madam Vice President Harris twice. The very first was at the funeral of Mr. Tyre Nichols, the young man who was brutally slain by Memphis, Tennessee police officers in 2023, and again that year during the summer at an international conference. She is a presence and a power. Recently, I read and encourage everyone to read and/or listen to her autobiography, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey. Whatever influence I believe I possess, whatever megaphone I perceive to hold, I am using them at this moment and throwing my support behind her.
Because.
We are living in some heady times. We are walking onto the pages of history. We are reshaping legal, political, social, and economic landscapes of half the people in this country–women. What we do in this moment will set the tone and tenor for generations to come. The presidential nomination of the 49th Vice President Kamala Harris is a testament to the accuracy of Dr. W.E.B. Dubois’ Talented Tenth, “The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional…three tasks lay before me; first to show from the past that the Talented Tenth as they have risen among American Negroes have been worthy of leadership; secondly, to show how these men may be educated and developed; and thirdly, to show their relation to the Negro problem.” The Talented Tenth is staple literature in the Black Academy. As a graduate of two (2) historically black universities, there is an expectation to uplift and lead our community. Madam Vice President Harris, a graduate of Howard University, is from that same school of thought. The three (3) tenets Dr. DuBois highlighted in 1903 have carried forth to present-day. It will be people of color and conscience who are going to participate in this nation’s survival and recovery in order to maintain world power in an important and unprecedented ways.
Furthermore, it is the 49th Vice President’s turn, because she was the first: African American and South Asian and woman District Attorney of San Francisco (2004-2010), State Attorney General of California (2011-2017), and United States Senator from California (2017-2021). It is her turn, because the forerunners, Civil Rights Activists Ms. Sojourner Truth, Ms. Harriet Tubman, Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer of Ruleville, Mississippi, Ms. Ella Baker, Ms. Septima P. Clark, Mrs. Rosa Parks, Mrs. Coretta Scott King, and Dr. Diane Nash; Attorney, Politician, and Jurist Constance Baker Motley, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (NY-12), Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-43), United States Senator Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, 66th United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (2005-2009), National Political Leader Lottie Shackelford, and Democratic Strategist Donna Brazile may agree.
We can look to the Reconstruction Era, the Civil Rights Movement, the Feminist Movement, and the Progressive Movement as the sparks and embers which ignited this sociopolitical flame. Like the days of yesteryear, America is a multiracial, multigenerational, and a cross-class group of people and when black, brown, yellow, red, and liberal whites vote in seismic numbers, we change systems. We balance the scales of justice. We make ancestral dreams a reality.
Human destiny rests upon our shoulders in this hour. The 47th President is going to need the outer edges to the inner rings of congressional power to help push forward her agenda. Therefore, we must elect Democrats up and down the ballot so they may serve as chairs, be the majority on committees and subcommittees, and hold ranking positions. Because a national dialogue will go underway on how African Americans and minorities in general have overcome every educational, employment, and social barrier whether accurate or inaccurate. Our political and social mobilization must be fully employed continuously, during, and after her presidency.
We must express our agenda and mandates as well to:
Order the United States Department of Justice to apply strict scrutiny, file and join cases on racial and partisan gerrymandering (i.e., Simpson et al. v. Thurston, Arkansas State Conference of the NAACP et al. v. Arkansas Board of Apportionment et al., Christian Ministerial Alliance et al. v. Thurston, Tennessee State Conference of the NAACP et al. v. William B. Lee (2023))
Combat the Anti-Intellectual Movement and an educational system that is unfair, unequal, and curriculum whitening that has the residue of pre-Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Swiftly eradicate COVID-19
Raise educational expectations in prekindergarten through secondary schools across this country and every community in order to receive greater return on investment.
Use Chief Legislator power and influence to pass the Judiciary Act which expands the Supreme Court by four (4) justices, because the current court is grossly out-of-step with the diversity and pluralist direction of the majority of our national attitudes and beliefs.
Urge Congress to passage crucial pieces of legislation such as the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, the Freedom to Vote Act, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, House Resolution (H.R.) 40–Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act that was introduced by the late Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee (TX-18) during the 117th Congress with an amendment for compensation analysis and payment based on industry, geographical location, and adjusted for inflation; and boldly hold the votes open forever until they are passed in both chambers.
A new content of justice and liberation must be felt in Haiti, the Congo, Palestine, and Sudan.
With attentionality given to Project 2025, we must demonstrate similar self-education and media coverage to all local ordinances, state and federal statutes, and judicial decisions that affect our community and self-interest. The Harris Administration must counter its policy positions and the opposition’s platform with a strategic plan.
America has one hundred six (106) days until the General Election on November 5, 2024, and one hundred eighty-two (182) days until the Presidential Inauguration on January 20, 2025. We can build political bridges in that timeframe. It must be materialized through our collective values, cohesion, and inter- and intra-group relationships. We must revive and respond to the promises of the First Civil Rights Movement by electing the 47th President of the United States Kamala Harris.
In solidarity,
Dr. Quintessa Hathaway
2022 Democratic Nominee
118th Congress (2023-2025)
United States House Of Representatives
Arkansas’ Second District (AR-02)
Founder, Chief Executive Officer, And Lead Consultant
Q. Hathaway And Associates, LLC
“Empowering And Inspiring A Generation”
This piece is dedicated to my beloved mother, my Creator, Ms. J.A. Hathaway; my maternal grandmother, my Nurturer, Mrs. Willie Mae Hathaway; and my classy paternal grandmother, Mrs. Laura V. Batey Pride.
Citations-
DuBois, W. E. (1903). The Talented Tenth. In The Negro Problem: A Series of Articles by
Representative American Negroes of To-Day.
Fairclough, A. (1987). To Redeem the Soul Of America: The Southern Christian Leadership
Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr.: Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia
Press.
Harris, K. (2019). The Truths We Hold: An American Journey.: Penguin Books.
