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Our author in residence, at Cascade Publishing House, Harold Michael Harvey, in the two weeks following the transition of Rev. Dr. C. T. Vivian, penned a 131-page book reflecting 27 years of conversations with the 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient (My C. T. Vivian Story: A Powerful Flame That Burned Brightly, Cascade Publishing House, Atlanta, 2020).
Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from the book My C. T. Vivian Story: A Powerful Flame That Burned Brightly by Living Now Bronze Medal-winning author Harold Michael Harvey
I first became aware of C. T. Vivian, February 19, 1965, on the CBS Evening News. Dallas County, Alabama Sheriff Jim Clark sucker-punched him after Vivian told Sheriff Clark that he thought he was as big a racist as Hitler. In the next breath, Vivian told Clark that he was not as big a racist as Hitler. I was 14 years old, perplexed by Jim Crow, and worried that Blacks, including myself, would never be free in America. A never-dying Jim Crowism was the daunting thought of my youth.
“Son, you write with a wicked pen. I just wish I could get you on my side.” K. B. Young, Dean of Students at Tuskegee Institute, once said to future Award-winning author, Harold Michael Harvey.
The year was 1973. Harvey, a political science major, wrote a weekly column in the Campus Digest, the student newspaper, and defended students before the Institute’s Judicial Board.
There is a myth that Black youngsters are not playing baseball these days. If you look at Major League Baseball (MLB) rosters and most Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), it is easy to come away with that impression. Around eight percent of professional baseball players are Black Americans. This number is down from approximately 30 percent in the late 1970s, thirty years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier that kept Black baseball players off major league rosters.
After Sunday’s update from doctors at Walter Reed, I can only conclude:
It looks like 45 pulled off the great hoax by feigning positive tests to get the experimental drugs fast-tracked to meet his before election projections for a vaccine.
Will he pull off this fake news?
We will watch and report.
Harold Michael Harvey is the Living Now 2020 Bronze Medal winner in the category of male memoir for his memoir Freaknik Lawyer: A Memoir on the Craft of Resistance. He is a Past President of the Gate City Bar Association. He is the recipient of Gate City’s R. E. Thomas Civil Rights Award, which he received for his pro bono representation of Black college students arrested during Freaknik celebrations in the mid to late 1990s. An avid public speaker, contact him at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com.
Things are happening so rapidly in the world of Presidential politics that it seems a couple of years passed last week. I will touch on three recent events:
First, the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg left the Supreme Court’s delicate liberal-conservative balance in flux. This unexpected opening on the Supreme Court is like having a joker in a game of cards to suddenly pop up giving the holder more flexibility.
The notion that Supreme Court Justices, once appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, serve for life is as old as the Constitution, which dates to 1788.
The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the Senate’s rush to fill her seat before the November General Election has sparked renewed interest in limiting the terms of Supreme Court Justices. Ginsburg’s death leaves the nine-member Court with eight Justices: three liberals and five conservatives.
Four years ago, I could not imagine that three days after the transition of a trailblazing jurist on the Supreme Court, anyone would be talking about her replacement. But this is 2020, the third year of the Trump Presidency; we have observed any, and everything goes beyond the pale.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the notorious RBG, lived a life of purpose. She held on as long as she could. Her passing caused me to reflect on the last days of Justice Thurgood Marshall’s life. When Marshall announced he was retiring, a reporter asked him why now. Marshall replied, “My body, man, it’s falling apart.”
H. Michael HarveySep 19 · 5 min read
In the closing days of 2019, my social media newsfeed was replete with comments from friends and strangers, near and far, lamenting how dastardly 2019 had been and excitingly looking forward to 2020. A clearer vision, they all proclaimed. While I looked forward to the dawn of 2020, I dismissed much of what I was reading on my computer screen.
Last week we posited reasons why the DNC should target the senatorial races in Georgia. Here is a link to our story, “Why The DNC Should Target Georgia (https://medium.com/@hmichaelharvey/why-the-dnc-should-target-georgia-db568f4fd236?source=friends_link&sk=0733663b0f00621b8555ef35021508f4)
This week Majority Forward announced plans to team with America Votes for what they describe as a “sustained and integrated mobilization program” in the two senatorial seats up for grabs in the November General Election. Rarely are both senate seats up simultaneously, but this year there is a special election to fill the unexpired term of Johnny Isakson, who resigned at the end of 2019 due to health concerns. Majority Forward, reportedly aligned with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, plans to pour $6 million into two Democratic candidates, Rev. Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff.