African Americans stirred up a lot of dust in 2006, but what did the Black community win, relative to affirmative action or civil rights? We now have a Black governor of Massachusetts, 44 Black members of Congress and 5 powerful Black committee chairs in Congress due to the Democratic windfall election bringing San Francisco Nancy Pelosi to the Speaker ship of the House of Representatives. In California, a Black elected State Representative from Northern California will go to Sacramento, a Black Mayor will govern in Oakland, an influential Black California Secretary in the Governors office will control all State appointments and a Governor’s Executive Order was issued for a goal of 25% Small Business and 10% Disadvantaged Business in State contracting.

Now, what did we lose in 2006? We lost affirmative action in Michigan with the passage of Proposal 2, which now bans affirmative action and equal opportunity initiatives in state contracting, education and employment. Heartbreaking for affirmative action, African Americans lost close Senate campaigns in Tennessee and Maryland. Also, African Americans lost Governor elections in Ohio and Pennsylvania. In 2007, African Americans may become even more aggressive in running for political office, such as Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Dorothy Brown, who launched her campaign for Mayor of Chicago.

Yes, 2007 is definitely off with a bang! Black Illinois Senator Barack Obama has announced his intentions of running for President of the United States in 2008. He is hot! But recent polls show that one third of African Americans prefer Hillary Clinton to Obama. Obama may be riding the “hype,” but he must become a known civil rights supporter or “lack of Black support” will hurt him.

On the contrary, Massachusetts’ first Black governor, Deval Patrick, took his oath on the Amistad Bible. This bible is a symbol of Black liberation, when the West African Mende tribe rebelled in 1841 aboard the slave ship, Amistad and gave the bible to former President John Quincy Adams after he won their case for freedom before the U.S. Supreme Court (Steven Spielberg made the movie, “Amistad.”). Patrick, a former U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, will move affirmative action forward in Massachusetts and set a model for the country. Likewise, re-elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will set the model for Black inclusion for Central and South American countries.

The five Black Committee Chairs in the U.S. House of Representatives will be ever so vigilant in leveraging their power for the betterment of Blacks and other minorities, even among efforts to ban the Congressional Black Caucus for “segregation” in a move by Presidential hopeful, Congressman Tom Tancredo, R, CO. Black U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee of Oakland will become even more influential in the nation.

In California, polling and feasibility studies are underway to overturn Proposition 209 by ballot in 2008. Oakland’s newly elected Assemblyman Sondre Swanson will focus on minority business and is already working on a bill to circumvent the negative impacts of Prop. 209. Since “race” has become a dirty word, public school systems will continue to re-segregate and a State disparity study on contracting will not return race conscious goals to California, contrary to the return of race conscious goals in the State of Washington. And…Black athletes such as Tiger Woods will continue to “kick butt” on the golf course and Tennis Champion Serena Williams will continue winning, after she (ranked 8l) ‘knocked off” No. 1 seeded Maria Sharapova on winning the Australian open. Two Black football coaches in the 2007 Superbowl will change the landscape for Black athletic team coaches forever.

Already 2007 promises to be a watershed year for Black progress, as impassioned and inscribed by the words of poet Maya Angelou, “But still, like dust, I'll rise.”

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