"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle." ~ Frederick Douglass

***
Historians tell the story of an ambitious young man who went to visit Frederick Douglass in the waning years of his brilliant career. The young man wanted to know what advice the great abolitionist had for someone looking to make an impact on the world.

Without hesitation, Douglass answered with a single word: “Agitate.”

I thought of that story often this week amid the hubbub surrounding local NAACP President Kojo Nantambu and his call for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students to boycott their classes on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Regrettably, I won’t be adding my voice to those rushing to condemn Nantambu. (Well, not exactly. But more on that at a later date.)

Although I did not support Namtambu’s call for a student boycott, I saw great value in the role he played as community agitator. Crude though his tactics were – and, yes, he went way too far in labeling Charlotte a “racist bastion” and a place of “bigots” and calling for a boycott of our city -- he reminded local leaders of the deep affection with which some in our community hold the King holiday.

King, an African American, came as close as any leader since our founding fathers to being a living embodiment of this nation’s central premise – that all men are created equal. And on the date we set aside to honor his legacy, we also pay homage to others who died to secure our final freedom. Names such as Medgar Evers, Emmit Till, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Jimmy Lee Jackson, Viola Liuzzo, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Denise McNair, to say nothing of the forgotten men and women left swinging from Southern trees because they dared to speak out or demand equality.

To be sure, CMS had every right to schedule January 17 as a snow makeup day; it has used other favored holidays in the past. But as we learned during the uproar over plans to build a mosque near ground zero in New York, sometimes our rights should give way to the legitimate sensibilities of others.

Aside from Raleigh News & Observer columnist Barry Saunders, I have found few people of any color who thought it swell to open schools on MLK Day. Even those who staunchly opposed Nantambu’s call for a boycott said they found the school board’s decision regrettable.

During some vote in the future, when CMS leaders are trying to decide which days they will offer on the calendar as possible makeup days for inclement weather, perhaps one or two will pause and ask for further debate. Remembering the uproar that occurred in 2011, maybe that board will vote to exclude the King holiday altogether.

If that happens, it will be a good thing. And those who value the King holiday will owe a debt not to those who this year quietly bemoaned a regrettable choice but to a loud NAACP leader who may have said too much and gone too far... but still had the courage to agitate.

***
Glenn Burkins is editor and publisher of Qcitymetro.com.

Got news to share with Qcity readers? Email us at editor@qcitymetro.com.
Sign up for our weekly email newsletter below

Sign up for our Weekly Email Newsletter Email: For Email Marketing you can trust

Other Ways to Share Twitter Del.icio.us MySpace

Discussions and Submission Agreement