Ayodele Olosunde, assistant general counsel at the United States Department of Justice, threw down a challenge to members of the Mathews Branch of the NAACP. He was the keynote speaker for the group’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, which was held virtually on Feb. 7 and can be viewed online.
“I charge you today, NAACP Mathews, let us hold America to its great promise,” he said during a virtual celebration of Black History Month. “The change we want is in your hands. You are the change. Break the silence. Speak up and act out.”
The challenge came at the end of an address in which Olosunde honored King and called for a celebration of such firsts as the election of the first Black female vice president and the first Black senator from the state of Georgia, and the appointment of the first Black defense secretary. But he laid out in stark terms the issues still facing communities of color.
“Black health is under duress,” he said. “Black bodies, Black socioeconomic viability, Black criminal justice outcomes, and Black voting access are all under duress.”
He spoke of the terror of insurrection, the resurgence of white supremacists “in the highest levels of political power,” and “the near-deletion of millions of Black votes.” He recalled a year in which Black men and women were killed without “substantive legal response or consequence for any of that brutality and murder by agents of our own government.”
Oyosunde talked about the pandemic and its disproportionate effect on people of color, and about the storming of the capitol by “white supremacists, neo-Nazis, skinheads, white militia, right-wing extremists, white nationalists, and anarchists.”
“The Confederate flag, a symbol of terror, violence, and murder just as evocative as a clan hood or a swastika, flew in the Capitol, the very seat of democracy,” he said. “But the physical response was nothing compared to the legislative response; that is, the push to simply dismiss millions of Black votes.”
But Olosunde didn’t just talk about what was wrong. He offered a plan to make things right—to bring change to America. First, he said, people must demand accountability, not only from their political leaders, and particularly the new administration, but from the people around them every day.
“What do you tolerate within your sphere of influence?” he said. “The odd racist joke or email or text, the subtle racist behavior that you look past because it doesn’t affect you directly? … We must demand the promised changes.”
Olosunde decried the efforts of various state legislatures that are seeking to suppress the votes of people of color by restricting access to voting, and he said people must respond by supporting legislation to expand voting rights, end partisan gerrymandering, and get money and corrupt influence out of the government.
Such legislation will only come about if there are elected officials who support it, and Olosunde urged members to be informed voters and vote in elections at every level, not just national elections.
“Vote locally. Vote statewide,” he said. “But go further. Help others to get registered to vote.”
Stacey Abrams’ leadership in the state of Georgia provides “proof of concept” that get-out-the-vote efforts make a difference, he said.
Finally, Olosunde urged those watching to work on a political campaign or even run for elected office themselves.
“Oppose candidates who would take us backward in our pursuit for a more perfect union,” he said, “whether they be sheriffs with a history of racism, prosecutors who refuse to hold everyone equally accountable under the law, or judges with a record of disparate treatment of black and brown defendants … You, Mathews, have the power to vote them out and replace them.”
In his closing, Olosunde urged listeners to “let your actions speak loudly and powerfully.”
“In the words of our young, newly-minted poet laureate,” he said, “our democracy is not broken, but simply unfinished. Let us hold America to its great promise.”
Others participating in the service were newly-elected NAACP president Edith Turner and vice president Peggy Newsome, Gloucester NAACP president Brenda Dixon, and Middlesex NAACP president Dawn Moore. Raymond Willis Jr., Dr. Lisa Ware, and the Rev. Dr. Melissa Mason each talked about the meaning of Black History Month, and there were musical performances by Pastors Patrick O. and Carmaleta Billups and Ashley Cummings, as well as a dance performance by Kamilah Turner.
Deacon Leslie Willis of Emmaus Baptist Church gave the invocation, and Rev. Bertina Westley of Salem United Methodist Church gave the closing prayer.
The service is available for viewing on the Facebook page of the Mathews NAACP.