Alabama Politics in
Doc’s Political Parlor
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NOTE: Sen. Hank Sanders has written a weekly column for papers in his legislative district for the past twenty years. These rural, weekly papers lack a web presence, and links to the columns are not typically otherwise available. The column below is provided by Sen. Sanders’ office for inclusion in the Daily News Digest.

Senate Sketches # 1075

by

Senator Sanders

* * * * * * * * * *

I stood before the audience at the Little Rock Baptist Church of Selma. It was the 145^th Emancipation Proclamation Celebration. I shared a historical perspective.

I started by illustrating the importance of history. I asked each person to imagine being blindfolded with ears plugged, taken the fifty miles from Selma to Montgomery and released in a neighborhood. When the blindfolds and earplugs are removed, we will not know where we are, how we got there or how to get from Montgomery to other places. When we don’t know how we got where we are (a historical perspective), we are blindfolded and our ears are plugged.

I then told them to imagine being taken to Montgomery without blindfolds and earplugs. We would not only know where we were but how we got there. More importantly, we would know that if we got from Selma to Montgomery, we can figure out how to get from Montgomery to Birmingham or Atlanta or New York. “The past, as Frederick Douglass said in an 1884 speech, “is the mirror in which we may discern the dim outlines of the future…..”

I then explored slavery and how its long arms reach right down into the Twenty First Century. I explained how slavery in the Americas was altogether different from slavery throughout history. The three central differences involved the altering of identity, the employment of extreme divide-and-conquer strategies, and the implementation of white supremacy. These three practices came together to extend the long arms of slavery down into this very moment.

All other forms of slavery allowed the enslaved to maintain their identity. They kept their names, practiced their religions, spoke their languages and knew their history. They also built and maintained families and owned property.

Slavery in the Americas, however, permanently altered the identity of the enslaved: their names were taken; they were forbidden to practice their religion; they were forbidden to even mention their history, even names of ancestors; they were forbidden to marry and have regular families; and they could not own anything, not even their own bodies which were often raped and beaten at will. Violence was the key force in forging such altered identities.

When our identities are brutally altered, the results are passed down to our children and children’s children for generations. That is one reason why the long arms of slavery impact us to this very day.

The second factor involved the divide-and-conquer strategies as set forth in the Willie Lynch Letter of 1712. It directed plantation owners to not just utilize violence and threats of violence to control enslaved persons, but to insure that the enslaved distrusted each other intensely while trusting the plantation owners implicitly.

The Willie Lynch Letter specifically directed plantation owners to make enslaved persons believe that other enslaved persons were against them: the light skin against the dark skin and vice versa; the males against the females and vice versa; the old against the young and vice versa; the tall against the short and vice versa; those in the fields against those around the house and vice versa; and etc. Every difference became a basis to forge distrust.

The Letter promised that if these tactics were effectively practiced, the enslaved would still be in slavery 300 years later. These divide and conquer strategies were practiced so effectively the long arms of slavery reach down into today, nearly three centuries later.

The third element was white supremacy. Prior to the 1600’s, people usually based claims of superiority on class or culture. To justify the brutal and dehumanizing slavery in the Americas, a racial construct was devised: whites were superior by nature and blacks were inferior by nature. In fact, blacks were said to be “sub-human.” Therefore slavery was the natural order ordained by God. Most whites bought into this supremacy theory. So did most blacks in ways both conscious and unconscious. As a result, the long arms of slavery reach down to us to this moment.

Each of these elements - altering of identity, divide-and-conquer strategies and white supremacy practices - reinforced and intensified each other in unforeseen ways. Among other things, they created a self-hate in many African Americans which has a myriad of ramifications today. Neither element by itself would have made the arms of slavery so long and so strong.

I talked specifically about how the long arms of slavery impact blacks today in the following areas: business; crime; violence; marriage; children born out of wedlock; education; politics; break up of black churches; etc. I also shared how whites are impacted. I wish I could share the details but I don’t have the space.

I concluded by challenging us to help correct the maladies spawned by the long arms of slavery. No matter what or who caused the problems, we have the responsibility to correct them. But first we must understand the problems. That’s why the perspective of history is so crucial.

Now on to the Daily Diary.

Saturday - I left Gulf Shores/Orange Beach where I had spent the past several days, traveled to Daphne and later returned to Selma. I immediately went to the office and worked on various matters including Sketches.

Sunday - I did Radio Sunday School, Radio Education and Sunday Review. I participated in Sunday School before commencing preparations for the Kwanzaa Celebration set that evening at our home. I shopped for ingredients and cooked my special dishes, Umoja and Kugichagulia. I facilitated the Kwanzaa Celebration and shared with citizens from across Alabama, including a delegation from Calvary Baptist Church.

Monday - I spent New Year’s Eve at my office working and talking with numerous persons including the following: Lowndes County Commission Administrator Jackie Thomas; Reverend Franklin Fortier of Selma; Laddie Jones, John Zippert and Carol P. Zippert of the Greene County Democrat Newspaper; and Kirk and Carolyn Wheeler of Chattanooga.

Tuesday - I participated on the radio program Faya’s Fire by discussing my intensified focus on “Taking what we have and making what we need.” I worked on various issues and visited J. L. Chestnut, Jr. in the hospital in Selma. I participated in the 145^th Emancipation Celebration, with remarks about the “long arms of slavery.” I called put in calls to various leaders including the following Senators: Lowell Barron; Roger Bedford; Kim Benefield; Linda Coleman; Bobby Denton; Vivian Davis Figures; Parker Griffith; Ted Little; Zeb Little; E. B. McClain; Larry Means; Wendell Mitchell; Hinton Mitchem; Myron Penn; Phil Poole; Quinton Ross; Bobby Singleton; and Rodger Smitherman. I also talked with Rita Lett, Reverend B. W. Dawson and others about the Emancipation Proclamation Celebration and Sharon Wheeler and Ola Morrow about Sketches and worked into the evening.

Wednesday - I worked on many issues and talked with the following: Dr. Carol P. Zippert with the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation; Dickey Whitaker of the Alabama Medical Association; my assistant in Montgomery, Sharon Calhoun; Louise Fenn of Senator Lowell Barron’s office; Sam Brooking of ACLU; Dave White of the Birmingham News (News); and Karen Smith of the Legislative Reference Service. I hosted the radio program Law Lessons with Abina Billups; and participated in several other meetings. I watched a bowl game with a friend.

Thursday - I traveled to Perry County where I talked with Sheriff James Hood, Circuit Clerk Mary Cosby Moore and Attorney Robert Turner, Jr. I returned to Selma where I talked with Lowndes County Commissioner Charlie King and Attorney John Kelly. I participated in a conference call with several Alabama leaders and talked with the following: Joyce P. O’Neal whose mother died recently; Senator Roger Bedford; the Selma/Dallas Renaissance Commission; Abina Billups about the Bridge Crossing Jubilee; Lobbyist Noopie Cosby; Jackie Ward and Ralph Paige of Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Senator Zeb Little; and Dr. James Mitchell of Wallace College. I watched the Iowa Presidential Caucuses results with great amazement.

Friday - I worked on Sketches and many other issues. I talked to the following: Steve Raby of Huntsville; Senator E. B. McClain; Clarice Johnson of Atlanta; Johnny Johnson of Selma; Senator Myron Penn; Sam Walker of the National Voting Rights Museum; Ted Quant of New Orleans; Barbara Pitts of Alabama New South Coalition and Khadijah Ishaq of Selma. I went to the hospital to see J. L. Chestnut, Jr. and participated in various gatherings.

EPILOGUE - Some things touch us traumatically but do not change us against our will. Things that change us against our will always have long arms. They not only affect us, but those that come through and after us. The arms of systematic abuse are always long.

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