VIA: Email from www.hiphopcaucus.com
A great civil rights leader, Dr. Benjamin Hooks passed away last week at 85 years old.
Dr. Hooks was a true renaissance man – a minister, lawyer, judge, businessman, television producer, and the first African-American FCC commissioner. He was head of the NAACP through a period of transition and expansion in the 1970s. He was a leader who connected the multiple generations of the civil rights movement; from achieving major advances in the 1960s and early 1970s, to defending against the retrogressive forces in the 1980s and early 1990s, to today as we celebrate the first African American President and also face the challenges of fighting racism in the 21st century.
Dr. Hooks was a leader throughout the transitions and different iterations of our struggle for equality and opportunity over the past 60 years. The movement, however, continues, and it continues with us. Our generation will be the connective tissue between the movements of the 1980s and 1990s, to the first African American President, to the advances we achieve in the decades to come.
The 40th anniversary of Earth Day is today and the climate and clean-energy jobs movement is the “lunch-counter moment” for our generation, a reference to the students in Greensboro, North Carolina who sat down at a segregated lunch counter 50 years ago. Their actions galvanized the civil rights movement, which for the couple years prior, had been somewhat stagnant.
Today also marks the 50th year since those students sat down at the Woolworth’s counter. In honor of this the Hip Hop Caucus will be at North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, NC, on our Green and Live Earth Month Tour.
With the passing of Dr. Hooks, we are evermore reminded that the movement is a continuum, and that with two steps forward comes one step backwards, but that through continuity we can overcome anything. So on this historical Earth Day, no matter where you are, find a way to get involved, and advocate for renewing our economy, reviving our communities, and restoring our planet.
