by Askia Muhammad

 

A lot has been said recently about the April 28 National Press Club appearance of the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

A lot!

Because of the event’s apparently toxic effect on the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the post-appearance discussion has generated a lot of heat, but very little light, especially among Black journalists.

As far as I’m concerned, the most disturbing assertions are that Press Club Speaker’s Committee member, the Rev. Dr. Barbara A. Reynolds, “set up” the retiring Senior Pastor of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ–the church where Sen. Obama has been a member for more than 20 years–set up the “Black Liberation Theologist” to appear there, in order to boost the campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.).

No way.

That’s a bit much, because, who could have known that the distinguished pastor who has been unfairly lambasted by the corporate-owned, mainstream media, would respond on the national news stage with the back of his hand for USA Today reporter Donna Leinwand, vice president of the Press Club, who presided over the reverend’s rare breakfast speaking appearance; and that he would show the rest of White America his bare backside.

I am, like the former Marine and pastor, also an ”Angry Black man.” I am just four years younger than he and I share his anger. I attended the Press Club event and I cheered his every bombastic gesture, and flippant response. Still, I recognize that as far as Sen. Obama’s presidential campaign is concerned the Rev. Wright’s appearance was a disaster. Even Truth, when spoken out of season, does not bear fruit.

For my part, I long ago complained that Sen. Obama’s so-called “post-racial” campaign requires all the rest of the Black people all over the world, to put their just ambitions, not just on the “back burner,” but off the stove altogether, and back into the refrigerator, so as not to upset the possibility of electing the first Black President of the U.S. So, as far as I’m concerned, the question for a later discussion is: “Is it worth sacrificing everything ‘Black’ in the ‘Black Agenda’ in order to elect the Black President?” Why, once again must Black people go to the back of the bus–albeit a presidential campaign bus this time–with their hopes and dreams for equality in a truly just America? Regardless of how anyone answers that question, it would never justify intentionally sabotaging Sen. Obama’s quest for the White House.

As much as I identified with all his antics, I recognize that the Rev. Dr. Wright’s appearance, was truly a disaster for his former parishoner’s presidential hopes and dreams. But as far as his invitation to be on that national stage at that hour is concerned, there was no Press Club conspiracy to torpedo the Obama campaign, orchestrated by former Chicagoan, Barbara Reynolds.

I’ve known my friend Barbara Reynolds for more than 30 years. I know this is not the first time she has had “issues” wth a Black presidential “campaign.” (Read “America’s David…” the re-issue of her unauthorized 1970s biography of the Rev. Jesse Jackson). I have appeared often with her on TV commentary shows and know her to be a forceful, (unrelenting even) advocate for her opinions. I do not think  however, any of that entered into her role in arranging the Press Club appearance of the Rev. Dr. Wright.

Having been a member (for the second time) for four years or so on the last occasion, of the National Press Club Speaker’s Committee (I resigned in the fall of 2004 when I started working full time at a Washington radio station), I know that the goal is not to “set people up” by arranging their appearances, but rather to try to get the strongest, most news-worthy speakers to appear, in an environment which is too often driven by K-Street-lobbyist types with clients’ views to promote, or book publicists trying to get some free face-time to sell their clients’ books. In 2006, the Rev. Dr. Reynolds joined the Speaker’s Committee and filled the void of an “out-front” African American on the Committee left by my departure.

In all of the newsmaker luncheons, I worked on I never recall the presiding officer preparing his or her own list of questions, as appeared to happen on this occasion! In all the luncheons I attended, the moderator always depended on “spontaneous” questions coming from the audience written on specially printed cards distributed before on all the tables of all the diners. For my luncheons I had to invite the head table guests, invite the guests to attend the VIP head-table reception, and write a draft introduction of the speaker. I don’t know who wrote Rev. Wright’s caustic introduction in this instance, I suspect the VP wrote it herself. It was also during my time on the committee that we began using the disclaimer that all the the attendees in the audience are not working press members. That’s because the Club liberalized its rules in order to make it easier for the public (more potential paying customrers) to pay and attend Club events.

The point, from the Press Club’s perspective, is to always sell enough luncheon (or in this instance breakfast) tickets to make the appearance profitable for the club. I twice had to call the NAACP to cancel luncheons we’d set up for then President Kweisi Mfume, because not enough tickets were sold (read bought by NAACP supporters and allies), because Club members were not sufficiently interested in the events to buy tickets. Often Black speakers who may want to appear, are not seen by the Committee as being of sufficient news value or interest to the Club’s overwhelmingly White membership to sell any tickets, and the Oprah’s of the world, are always too busy, or not interested in facing the potential Press Club grilling, when their 15-minutes of fame renedered them newsworthy.

The Press Club does not pay speakers. Does not pay their plane fare. Does not pay their hotel bills. And does not permit open pandering of the upcoming movie or book, which might be a reason a potential speaker might be interested in the national platform on NPR and C-SPAN. For that reason the speeches (which have to be arranged way in advance) have to coincide with when the potential speaker will already be in Washington. Frequently, the Bill Cosby’s of the world have their agendas already set by the time the word gets out they’re coming to Washington. This Rev. Wright event was clearly coordinated along those lines, not just by Barbara Reynolds and the Press Club, but with the full collaboration of Howard University’s Divinity School, as well as with the religious conference around which Rev. Wright was scheduled to be in DC. That was all a part of the planning because, many, many church people, including dozens from Chicago and “liberation theologists” from DC and the surrounding area, had already purchased tickets before I even knew this appearance was about to take place.

By the time I went to the Press Club website, when I heard about this event, it had already sold out! I saw people at this breakfast from Chicago, who had nothing to do with the Church conference, but who in fact are members/supporters of Trinity Church, clearly a designed plan, in which all concerned glady conspired, and who were there to support their “Jeremiah.” This was not a set-up by a supporter of Sen. Clinton’s campaign. If it was, she had a lot of help from those in the Rev. Wright camp.

This event had to be a breakfast because a luncheon had already been booked that day, for former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glilckman (yawn), one of those K-Street or book-publicist-arranged deals, which quite frankly the Press Club staff clearly viewed as a snoring anti-climax after the Wright circus. In the case of Rev. Wright, the Press Club was able to have a speaker (who because of the conference schedule may not have been available at lunch time anyway) and a SOLD-OUT breakfast, doing what the Press Club staff does best, which is sell meals to its members and guests…pay the mortgage and the light bill. That’s the extent of the conspiracy. Period.

My friend Barbara may be guilty of any number sins (who isn’t), but in the case of this event she was clearly doing what all National Press Club Speaker’s Committee members compete all year round to do (and what indeed reporters in their journalistic way compete to do), which is to deliver a compelling guest/story to their audiences!

The Rev. Wright–the shepherd–should have shown some mercy and grace for one of the sheep from his church flock–Sen. Obama–because these indeed, are trying times.

Bishop S.C. Madison: "Daddy’s Gone…Long live Daddy"

By Askia Muhammad

Bishop S.C. Madison, the Presiding Bishop of the United House of Prayer for All People has been laid to rest in grand fashion April 14. He was only the third leader of what must be considered the first Black "Mega Church."

My hat is off to the UHOP. May God Be Pleased With You. UHOP members don’t stand out from other middle class, "Raisin in the Sun" type, striving Black folks, they don’t change their names to "El" or "Bey" or Rashideen. Of course their clean, well dressed, well represented. But there’s something else about their strength I admire. The way they worship, their exuberant musical tributes.

Bishop Grace—Sweet Daddy Grace—founded his first church in West Waltham, Massachusetts, around 1919. By the mid-1920s he had moved South, and was holding large, popular revivals and tent-meetings around Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1927, with an estimated 13,000 followers, Bishop Grace incorporated The United House of Prayer for All People of the Church on the Rock of the Apostolic Faith. The church grew rapidly and soon included branches all along the eastern seaboard, claiming some 500,000 people in 100 congregations in 67 cities.

Was he "charismatic" or merely "flamboyant?"

Charles Manuel Grace was of mixed African and Portuguese descent, born in the Cape Verde Islands around 1882. His family came to the United States during the first decade of the twentieth century. In the Cape Verdean communities of New Bedford and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the young Charles Grace worked as a short-order cook, a cranberry picker, and a sewing machine and patent medicine salesman, before giving his life completely to his ministry.

Bishop Grace was said to have been a showman, but he was always a generous benefactor. He sponsored bands and parades, and tossed candy to his followers (hence "Sweet Daddy") and to this day UHOP marching bands and steppers travel up and down the east coast in bright, shiny, dream-mobile-looking buses where they perform at various congregation meetings and rallies.

Daddy Grace dazzled with his long hair, multicolored robes, and colored fingernails. His followers believed he had the power to bless such ordinary items as soap, coffee, and eggs, and many believed that buttered toast from his plate had the power to heal. Although Bishop Grace did not claim the divinity that his followers assigned to him, neither did he deny it. "I never said I was God," he once clarified, "but you cannot prove to me I'm not."

Okay.

Another thing I admire, is that even though his followers worship Bishop Grace, his successor, and Bishop Walter "Sweet Daddy" McCullough, and now just departed Bishop S.C. Madison as "Daddy." the followers don’t seem to act like "Babies." They impress me, from the outside at least, as strong people God-fearing people who know and appreciate the value of life and of "things."

In his own right, Bishop Madison stood firm against the very ultimate force of gentrification and urban renewal ever faced by any inner-city church leader, the encroachment into the church’s residential neighborhood with the construction of the new Walter E. Washington Convention Center. To his eternal credit, Bishop Madison apparently did not yield an inch to the developers, not one apartment given up at Canaanland Apartments on Seventh Street. God Bless his soul!

The Rev. Willie Wilson said of Bishop Madison: He was a supreme example that churches can play a role in the housing and economic development needs of our community. "He as well as the United House of Prayer, continued the historic position of setting up hospitals, banks and stores for the community, and it came out of the Black church. We need to emulate more of what he did." Rev. Wilson told James Wright of the Afro-American newspaper.

Indeed, that it seems is the church tradition. Sweet Daddy Grace, after all, was known for spending a good portion of his income on his congregations, supplying apartments, pension funds, burial plans, and free food to the faithful.

Long live that great tradition and Great Black Ministry.