So you want to be a lawmaker...

What We Haven’t Been Told About Black American History

The version of Black history most Americans learned—focused only on slavery and Jim Crow—is incomplete.

Before the Civil Rights era, many Black Americans aligned with values rooted in faith, family, education, and entrepreneurship. Across the country—including here in Wilmington—Black and White working-class citizens collaborated to build thriving communities.  

In the 1890s, that collaboration took political form through the an unlikely coalition between—an alliance of Black and White Republicans and disgruntled Democrat farmers who walked away from the Democrat Party and created a their own Populist Party.  Together, they formed the Fusion coalition that swept to victory in the state elections of 1894, and won control of both the legislature and the governorship in 1896. University of North Carolina Wilmington

Wilmington was, approximately, 55% Black.  And Black men were leading in government and business just fine in collaboration with their White Fusionist peers in Wilmington NC. It was unprecedented organic diversity, equity, and inclusion.  That is until it was violently overthrown by White Supremacist Democrats’ domestic terrorist arm-the KKK–during the Wilmington Coup of 1898, because they didn’t like how quickly former slaves (Black men) got up speed and became formidable political and economic competitors.

Even in the face of discrimination, Black Americans created businesses, created school rooms (like Chicago’s Marva Collins), churches, and institutions that sustained their communities for generations. And unlike the Progressive Democrats of today, they did not require their White Fusionist partners to affirm their Black skin, culture, or integration to collaborate with them. And, consequently, they coexisted, thrived, and cooperated just fine with White Americans when necessary for a common good or against a common enemy. They only demanded the 15 amendment be applied, equally, to them.

What Changed

Over time, the focus shifted from high moral standards, cultural dignity, a nuclear family, and self-determination to identity-based politics and government dependence.

Today, many policy debates are framed primarily through race, often deepening division rather than solving problems. At the same time, economic and cultural systems—including media, academia, and entertainment—shape how Americans understand both history and current issues.

The result: a growing disconnect between the values that historically built strong communities and the policies being promoted today.

A Different Perspective on Progress

Real progress is not built on dependency—it’s built on opportunity.

That means:

• Access to capital
• Strong education systems
• Support for entrepreneurship
• Safe, stable communities

These are the same principles that historically allowed Black Americans—and many others—to build wealth and resilience despite significant barriers. 

Ironically, Trump’s 2020 Platinum Plan made efforts to offer this economic framework to Black Americans as an olive branch to court our vote and start a possible negotiation, in response to our decades of  political exploitation and disrespect by the Democrats.

Unfortunately and to our chagrin, Black progressive influencers like Roland Martin and others shouted it down, bullied, and socially  shamed Black voters into rejecting the proposal as untrustworthy.  We should have done like those farmers.  As it only took one time for them to be betrayed by the Democrats before walking away and joining a coalition.   

About Reparations

First the facts.  In 1865, twenty local Black leaders approached General William T. Sherman with a proposal for reparations, which led to Special Field Order No. 15 — known as “40 acres and a mule.” Sherman, a Union General serving under Republican Lincoln,  issued an order allocating land along the Atlantic coast for the settlement of formerly enslaved people. However, the order was reversed by President Andrew Johnson (a Democrat), and the land was returned to its original white owners.

Disrespectfully adding insult to injury, it was slaveholders — not enslaved people — who received government compensation. When slavery was abolished in Washington D.C. in 1862, slaveowners were compensated for the “loss” of their enslaved people. Enslaved African Americans received nothing for their generations of stolen labor other than their release from legal bondage.

My position:

If we, Foundational Black Americans (FBA), are serious about addressing the historical harm done to our ancestors–then the most serious and intellectually honest demand for reparations should be from the Democrat Party (DNC), directly, not 21st century tax payers.  

Democrats were in control of the government then and have controlled a lot of our government up until the 1980s. It’s only been the past 30-40 years ( the 1980s and 90s) that Republicans began to gain some consistent political dominance.  And, we are just now, barely, getting some cultural respect.  Democrats have controlled government, media, and Hollywood for over 100 years now.  

Democrats are the ones who did the harm-down to the generational political disrespect and deception.  They should pay. They are the ones who have been baiting-and-switching us for 10+ decades.

If anyone owes our ancestors, it is the Democrat Party–not the taxpayer.    

So absent that kind of intellectual honesty to demand reparations from Democrats coffers–the request is unserious and not the highest and best use of time.  Even our ancestors–closest to the offense–didn’t think it worth their time to pursue as aggressively as some are today. They instead got busy building.  

We’d be better off redirecting that energy onto policies that create attainable wealth building opportunity—and generational wealth not short-term payments.  

In today’s context, economic reparations looks like:

• Opening gateways to capital
• Encouraging business development in neglected communities
• Creating environments where families can build and pass down wealth like tax relief (e.g. eliminate or reduce income, property, and estate “death” taxes) 

This approach honors the legacy of resilience and self-determination that defined our ancestors. They outsmarted and outmaneuvered hostile discrimination and still thrived.  How much more can we build and thrive and with mere relics of racism?

My Commitment

My campaign is about restoring a mindset rooted in:

• Personal responsibility
• Economic opportunity
• Cross-community collaboration

Like the Fusion movement of the 1890s, I believe progress happens when people come together around shared goals—as the Fusion alliance did in the late 1800s. 

The path forward is not grievance and being the political booty call to Democrats who pander to our cultural affinity.
It’s growth.

Not dependency.
But empowerment.

Again, my one wish is to see Black Americans muster the courage to do what poor White Farmers in Wilmington, NC did in the 1890s when politically betrayed. It took them only one time to be betrayed for them to take action.