PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — When Martin Luther King was fighting for civil rights in the 1960s, very few people of color were elected to public office.
But as KDKA-TV political editor Jon Delano reports, that has changed since the assassination of Dr. King nearly 55 years ago.
It’s hard to downplay the political progress of recent years, says Jerry Dickinson, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
“We look back at that time and now we look back at today, and it’s amazing that we have so many African-Americans in public office,” Dickinson says.
On Tuesday, Pennsylvania will swear in the first African-American lieutenant governor, Austin Davis.
We have the first African-American state Auditor General in Timothy DeFoor, Pittsburgh elected its first African-American mayor, Ed Gainey, and Summer Lee became the state’s first African-American woman in Congress two weeks ago.
“Those are unprecedented moments in Pennsylvania history that we should applaud, that we should be very proud of,” Dickinson says.
Dickinson points out that people of color (black, Hispanic, Asian-American) are now winning over-white districts like Gainey and Lee, but it’s still not common.
“As we move forward, we’re going to have to work harder to get African Americans elected in ‘majority majority’ districts. What I mean by that is electing African Americans in predominantly white states, predominantly white districts, predominantly white counties. That remains a rare phenomenon, and we still have to work on it to achieve greater political equality across the system,” Dickinson says.
In Harrisburg, the Legislative Black Caucus now has 37 members, or nearly 15 percent of all members. While in Washington, 133 members of the House and Senate identify as black, Hispanic, Asian American, or American Indian, representing a quarter of Congress.
So what would Dr. King say today?
“He would say that his vision of a color-blind or accepting and tolerant nation has certainly progressed, but I think he would say this, that there are unfinished business,” Dickinson says.
“We as a society are becoming much more pluralistic. We are becoming much more inclusive in our way of life and as a result we are becoming much more tolerant.”
But Dickinson adds: “To what extent can we minimize subconscious racism? That is, when people don’t mean to be explicitly racist, but do certain things or enact policies that have the effect of harming another minority group. I think that I still need to work on that, but with that being said, there’s no question that there has been a decline in racism.”
State Rep. Aerion Abney, a 34-year-old Democrat from Manchester recently elected to the Pittsburgh State House, credits young black activists for pushing policy in the right direction.
“We are finally getting closer to getting black and brown people out of the margins, out of the shadows, and out of access to opportunity,” says Abney.
“We are finally getting a little closer to pushing for policies that can end systemic racism and oppression,” Abney added.
“Racial inequities and systemic injustice is something we experience every day, even on days when it’s not in your face, the legacy of that, the vestiges of that still linger,” says Lee, a Swissvale Democrat.
One solution, Lee says, is more diversity in government.
“We need people who represent diverse perspectives. As the first black woman, we know there’s a whole demographic of people in Pennsylvania who have never had representation,” Lee says.
Dr. King once said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
While Pennsylvania has a ways to go, especially when it comes to women in politics, most would say it’s heading in the right direction.
jon delano
