Personal Op Ed by The Reverend Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr, Special to NNPA Newswire
There are moments in life when the convictions of the spirit and personal consciousness collide in opposition to the mainstream, popular outcries for the blood, life, and the end of the future existence of another human being. I refuse to be a silent witness to another lynching in America.
Thus, the following is what I have observed and witnessed firsthand over the past few days: the lynch-like mob escalation of calls for President Joe Biden to step down from campaigning for reelection in 2024. I am not representing any organization or political party. On the 4th of July 2024, while sitting quietly in Raleigh, North Carolina, I jotted down my personal views.
Although I am a proud Democrat, I am so saddened by the backstabbing cowardice of those who dare to publicly call for President Biden to step down while having an utterly contradictory refusal to utter publicly any call for former President Donald Trump to step down and to end his fascist-engaging campaign to retake the White House.
The question is, why? The attempted political lynching of President Joe Biden has to do with more than difficulties at a nationally televised political debate. What are the real motives of all of those who are calling for President Biden to step down?
Some will say that my words and expressions here are too strong and controversial. That may be true because there should be strong words and expressions that should always callout and condemn any form of lynching. A political lynching is also a crime against the oneness of our humanity. Such is the situation today in America.
It is the politics of division versus the politics of unifying all Americans for the best interests and future of the nation that is on the ballot. Democracy is on the ballot. Equality is on the ballot. Equity is on the ballot. Freedom is on the ballot.
The antidote to the current resurgence of ignorance, racism, cowardice, fascism, and retrenchment from freedom, justice, equality, and equity is to work hard daily and diligently to ensure the largest voter turnout this year in American history.
Why do I claim some responsibility for urgently making this statement on July 4, 2024? African Americans, like others who fought and died in the fields and streets in the 13 American colonies during the Revolutionary War against the British Empire 248 years ago, have a birthright to the Declaration of Independence signed on July 4, 1776, and later to the Constitution of the United States of America.
Although thousands of people of African descent who were not enslaved, enlisted, and fought for freedom and independence against the British, no people of African descent were invited to attend the formative meetings of the new emerging nation’s democracy and Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1787.
My great, great, great, great grandfather, The Reverend John Chavis (1763–1833), fought as a young, enlisted soldier in the Revolutionary War against the British in our home state of North Carolina and in the state of Virginia. The Chavis family has lived in Granville County, NC for over 300 years. My father, Benjamin F. Chavis Sr. (1898–1965), enlisted and fought as a young Sargent Major soldier in the United States Army in World War I.
The point here is that generations of African and African American soldiers have enlisted, fought, and died to defend and protect the nation and democracy for the past 248 years. And we are not going to permit anyone or anything to deny our birthright to freedom and democracy. For us, the right to vote in America is blood-stained and sacred.
We know from our lived experience the horror, pain, and suffering from centuries of physical lynchings in America to satisfy the sheer fear, hatred, white supremacy, and ignorance of racism.
Today, we also know when mobs cry out for the downfall and political lynching of those who have been allies in our long struggle for freedom, justice, voting rights, and equity. At the same time as the calls for President Biden to step down, the United States Supreme Court has now ruled that future and past presidential “official acts” of violence, crime, repression, and voter suppression are all immune as long as they are considered to be official acts within the core responsibilities of the President of the United States. This is dangerous and against the meaning of democracy.
That is why now, more than ever before, we must raise our voices and mobilize our families and communities to go out and vote in record numbers in the Swing States and in every state across the nation. We all have work to do. We said back in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, “When things get tough in our struggle for freedom, we have to become tougher.”
Join me and raise your voice with me. Let’s vote in record numbers throughout America. Stop the lynching of President Joe Biden.
The Reverend Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.
Raleigh, North Carolina
2024
