'Contract' urged for black issues: In an annual "State of the Black Union" forum, leaders mulled holding politicians to account.

• Originally published by the Associated Press on 2/27/2005

By Charles Odum
Associated Press

LITHONIA, Ga. - For his sixth annual State of the Black Union symposium, talk-show host Tavis Smiley challenged assembled black leaders to examine developing a contract with black America.

The resulting discussion had a crowd of about 2,000 on its feet for repeated ovations as the Rev. Al Sharpton, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, and others traded sermons on the topic.

Smiley, the late-night PBS personality, challenged panelists to discuss the viability and potential content of "a working document" that would be designed in part for political gain.

"The next time you come calling on our vote, you come correct on the contract or you don't come at all," Smiley said of politicians who seek black support.

The idea for a contract grew out of the large rift among African Americans created during the 2004 presidential election over issues such as gay marriage, Smiley said.

Lowery, the former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, suggested the document be called a covenant.

"We've got to recapture that spirituality; that's our strength," he said.

The panel included former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, Princeton professor Cornel West, and former Detroit Mayor Dennis Wayne Archer, among others.

In a casual living room-style conversation with a dozen overstuffed armchairs on stage, the panelists repeatedly drew cheers and standing ovations with passionate responses to Smiley's questions.

One chair was left empty in recognition of the late civil rights activist Ossie Davis, who had been scheduled to appear.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rep. John Conyers (D., Mich.), and others continued the discussion on another panel later yesterday.

Farrakhan changed the direction of the discussion when he suggested that black America could not trust any political party to hold true to an agreement.

"A contract or a covenant is between parties who intend to make their word their bond," Farrakhan said, adding, "I think it is proper or just that we make a covenant with our people... . A problem a lot of times is a disconnection between leaders and the people."

Farrakhan called for a connected and unified effort.

"Power concedes nothing without a demand, but power won't even concede to a demand if it comes from a weak constituency that looks like it's lost its testicular fortitude," Farrakhan said.

The Rev. Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in suburban Atlanta, host of the forum, was kidded about accepting a White House invitation from President Bush, but Long countered, "Just because we went to the house does not mean we had intercourse."

Farrakhan mocked Bush for going to war against Iraq because "no dark nation should have a weapon of mass destruction" when other nations viewed by Bush as less threatening possess such weapons.

Smiley organized previous symposiums in Los Angeles in 2000, Washington in 2001 and 2004, Philadelphia in 2002, Detroit in 2003, and Miami in 2004.

"Black folk have always been the conscience of this country," Smiley said. "We are doing our part to help redeem the soul of America."

Earlier yesterday, a panel discussed health care and disparities facing black Americans.

"Nike comes out with a shoe that costs $300 and $500, and they're lined up around the block to get that shoe, and yet they're not lined up around the block to get better health care," said Ian Smith, a physician.

Said Smiley: "Maybe if we could put what would heal black people inside of a Nike shoe, we would be all right."