The 60-year anniversary of Martin Luther King’s March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is coming up this summer. That was the site of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, one of the most profound addresses ever delivered on American soil. In 1963, King was fully justified in calling attention to the nation’s failure to live up to the promise of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” where its black citizens were concerned. But now, in 2023, with many of the righteous demands of King and his compatriots in the black freedom struggle met, many black Americans are still languishing, while the present black political leadership (such as it is) denies the very validity of the promises made at the nation’s founding on which King’s aspirations for his people were premised.
We need a new way forward. On this week’s show, John McWhorter and I are joined by Ian Rowe, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and co-founder of Vertex Partnership Academies, who is busy building a new black leadership from the ground up through his educational efforts. The three of us debate the present state of national black politics, noting the successes (a thriving black middle class) and failures (dead-end progressive politics). Ian is planning to mount his own event commemorating King’s March on Washington. There’s no doubt in my mind that people like Ian, with their focus on family and entrepreneurialism, offer a better way forward than the “people with three names.” The only question is whether he can convince others to go along with him.
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0:00 Al Sharpton’s National Action Network still exists, apparently
5:00 MLK’s understanding of America’s contributions to democracy
12:58 Are the “people with three names” grifters or merely limited in their racial vision?
21:07 How do you change the minds of black voters?
30:13 The national black leadership vacuum
36:30 The under-recognized success of the black middle class
41:30 Ian’s got a four-point plan …
47:38 … but what’s the best way to disseminate it? (It’s podcasts.)
51:37 The paradox of Obama and Thomas
1:01:01 How does Glenn know “nobody is coming to save us”?
Recorded April 9, 2023
Links and Readings
Ian’s book, Agency: The Four Point Plan (F.R.E.E.) for ALL Children to Overcome the Victimhood Narrative and Discover Their Pathway to Power
Ian’s charter school network, Vertex Partnership Academies
Al Sharpton’s National Action Network
Pew poll on black political strategy and leadership
AEI’s study, “Black Men: Making It in America”
Richard Reeves’s book, Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It
Thomas Sowell speaking at the 1980 Fairmont Conference
Clarence Thomas’s memoir, My Grandfather’s Son
John McWhorter and Ian Rowe – Who Speaks for Black America?