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Reconsidering
Our History & Our Aims
The Dilemma of Pete Rawlings
By Rudolph Lewis I
have no intimate knowledge of Pete Rawlings, though he has
recently, in some irate quarters, become a black villain. I have
indeed heard rumors of his swagger in Annapolis. In the
legislature, I'm told, he has his finger on the money
button. Some of his detractors say he has been bought by big
money interests. But political wags standing in the cold always
utter such outrageousness.
The
influential Appropriations Committee chairman, Delegate Howard
"Pete" Rawlings, is thought to be the most powerful
African American in the state of Maryland and the city of
Baltimore. Delegate Rawlings by the measure of insiders, is a
kingmaker: Mayor O'Malley elected to his high office on the
black vote would not have gotten there without Pete's
endorsement. That assertion, if we must be honest, sounds as
wild in its reality as a John Henry tale.
The
Honorable Peter Rawlings, I have concluded, is more to be pitied
than scorned, which probably more often than not is derived from
envy or anger. When I saw him on TV, he was wearing a skull cap.
I was nearly shocked by the sight, thinking that possibly one of
the most moderate-conservative black politicians in Maryland had
joined The Nation of Islam. I asked around and was informed that
Pete was ill, seriously not well, and suffering from a
near-fatal illness.
Some
humorists suggested his illness came from continually straddling
the line, holding himself aloft like one in a high-wire act. To
obtain his personal promised land, he feared leaning either
left, or too far to the right. He miraculously, some believe,
succeeded with a sophistication far beyond the failures of
his black political predecessors.
The
health facts are much more dire. Brother Pete lost his hair from
radiation treatments, thus the cap. So my heart goes out for his
suffering. For in addition he has tried to do what no black has
done before in Annapolis. Many will think rightly he is a man
much to be admired in how he has learned to play the game.
Last
April (2002), 1,000 Morgan State students abandoned the
classroom to clog the office hallway of Delegate Rawlings in a
brief non-violent sit-in. There were harsh and unkind words. And
Brother Pete was not in good temper. According to a SUN
reporter, Morgan student leaders blamed "Rawlings for
eliminating library money from the capital budget while
negotiating deals with Gov. Parris Glendening to add buildings
to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County."
I
do not know the accuracy of the charges leveled by these
militant and unhappy Morgan students. What seems clear is that
Brother Pete suffers from self-induced historical amnesia. And
what is even more terrific is that his heart seems in the wrong
place. One would have thought he would have embraced these
students and gave them the truth of his position. But from
reports, he felt quite put off by their presence, as if they
were not exercising a right. That's a terrible way for him
to respond to his own and to youthful idealism..
There
are black men in Annapolis, however, who have not forgotten
their roots and where their best feelings should lie. They have
not forgotten why we fought and struggled to get black men and
women elected to the legislative branch of the Maryland
government. Morgan has a history of not getting fair
consideration.
According
to a SUN report, Sen. Clarence W. Blount, a Baltimore
Democrat and 1950 Morgan graduate who was among a group of
students who came to Annapolis in 1947, said, "I think it
is wonderful . . . these kids are expressing their deep-held
feelings." The Senate version of the budget maintains the
Morgan library funding.
That
same SUN report quoted Delegate Tony E. Fulton, who
recalled barricading the state Senate building: "It was the
same issue when I was a student in 1969. . . . It needs to be
done. It makes you proud of the students and your school."
I
too was at Morgan during the late 1960s. President Jenkins was
then the president of the college. Morgan was then getting the
short shrift with respect to funding. The middle-class plot
then, I believe, was to integrate Morgan with white students so
that the legislature would care more about the institution and
thus assure the future of black students. Many of us then didn't
like this conservative, though well meaning, formulation.
We
wanted dignity and integrity. We wanted Morgan to be black. We
wanted black consciousness to be the norm. We wanted black
excellence. We wanted a black studies program. We wanted the
abolition of the ROTC program on campus, which fed the war
machine in Vietnam.
(Back
then all freshmen and sophomore men were required to take
courses in ROTC and wear the hand me down ugly green uniforms
and clumsy black shoes and clean World War I rifles.) The state
demanded of us sacrifice and a song, yet thought little of our
dreams.
We
wanted an intellectual institution that had more than just a
black face.
The
old Soper Library was then in the building that now houses the
radio station. It was exceedingly crowded, hot, and musty. But I
loved it. Yet the country I came from there was yet nothing so
grand. The present library, a modern structure, was built in the
early 1970s, I believe. And I am sure Morgan administrators
(real heroes) went through hell to get that funding, which many
say was inadequate and Morgan did not get a first class
structure.
Thirty-five
years later, the lopsided funding ratio for Morgan, essentially,
it seems, has not changed. Morgan still gets the short shrift
from the state legislature. To be a great institution, to
develop doctoral programs, Morgan needs a great library. Pete
Rawlings, a Morgan alumnus with a campus dormitory named for
him, knows Morgan's historical struggle, though seemingly
blinded by this present largesse to other schools. Of course he
has in the past sent some money Morgan's way and thus his name
on one of the buildings.
Pete's
insistence on "sticking to his decision," his
cold attitude towards Morgan students, seems totally out
of character for a delegate who supposedly represents black
interests in Annapolis. We know the state is strapped for cash.
But should not we give to those who have more dire needs? Must
we always kowtow to power, security, and comfort?
Brother
Pete, it seems, has gone beyond "blackness." He is a
professional politician. Being a powerful man in Annapolis
is his career, his job. From his actions, we must conclude he
has stepped outside of the black liberation struggle. He has
become integrated and reconciled to the present social order.
Our slave ancestors would be mystified!
A
most serious lesson must be learned by the Pete Rawlings
dilemma. A black-face politician is no longer sufficient to
assure that black interests get respect and sympathy in the
halls of the state legislature. The name of the games in the
halls of the legislature is expediency.
Can
we in good conscious continue to vote for men and women to hold
office who continually trade our dreams for personal interests,
power, and opportunity? Our need for political sophistication
and astuteness at the polls and in how we organize for power is
even now much more urgent than ever.
Men
like Pete Rawlings, men with power, only respond to power.
Righteousness has little to do with their decisions. For the
professional black politician, the days of racial sentimentalism
are at and end..
Those
who most need Morgan--the children of the black working class
and the poor--regrettably do not have sufficient political clout
to force the issue. Our communities are not organized to engage
power and on the whole we do not vote. So we are shunned when
money is tight or ignored when there is a plenty. Smart
politicians know who butters their bread. And the Honorable Pete
Rawlings ain't dumb.
But let us not overly despair. Morgan will get
its library, if not today, tomorrow. The quality of that library
will nevertheless be questionable. More is needed from us.
Morgan needs also black money (and lots of it) and black conscientious
support. Our emphasis and our present aims must change with the
times. Morgan and its middle-class leaders must reach out
to all sectors of our community to pressure black politicians
and community leaders to advance the dreams of quality education
and adequate funding for a quality black institution of higher
learning. But it is doubtful that they too have any more courage
than Pete.
posted April 2002 |
