CynthiaMcKinney: From Barbarism to Barbarism? Outrage and the Fight for Justice

After Georgia was forced by the United States Supreme Court to abandon its scheme to deny black people the right to an undiluted vote and representation, Leroy Johnson became the first Black person elected to the Georgia State Senate since Reconstruction. The year was 1962. During his tenure, Johnson used his considerable influence inside the body to become the Senate's Chair of the Judiciary Committee. From this position,he was able to bottle-up legislation that was bad for the State of Georgia, especially its Black residents. Outside and inside the State Senate, Leroy Johnson practiced the art of leadership and engaged in the fight for justice. He produced solid results for a people who were hungry for justice. Who among our elected officials today exercises the art of leadership in an engaged struggle for justice? Sadly,the numbers are way too small. It is more expedient to exchange silence for merely being there, in the end exercising no leadership at all, and becoming a spectator to power, in abandonment of those who need the effective use of power the most. The art of struggle has veritably been abandoned for merely occupying a seat at a table, when the purpose of the struggle for the seat at the table was to empower the struggle for justice.