By Jenée Desmond-Harris Senior Staff Editor |
Early Wednesday morning, before this week’s news was consumed by the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol, the Rev. Raphael Warnock’s victory over Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler made him the first Black senator in Georgia’s history and the first Black Democrat to be elected to the Senate in the South. For the handful of hours between Warnock’s victory speech and the news that lawmakers were forced to flee the Senate chamber, it felt like the whole country was thinking about Georgia, and about the power of Georgia’s Black voters. |
All of us were more than a year behind columnist Charles Blow, who moved from New York City to Atlanta a full 12 months ago. |
In an adaptation from his forthcoming book, “The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto,” he explains why he, a self-proclaimed “Brooklyn Boy,” made the move. Then, he argues for what he calls “the most audacious power play by Black America in the history of the country”: Black people should follow him and move down South. |
His proposal is “that Black people reverse the Great Migration — the mass migration of millions of African-Americans largely from the rural South to cities primarily in the North and West that spanned from 1916 to 1970. That they return to the states where they had been at or near the majority after the Civil War, and to the states where Black people currently constitute large percentages of the population. In effect, Black people could colonize the states they would have controlled if they had not fled them.” |
Maybe you worry that this strategy will decrease political power in the North, or that there’s too much bigotry in the South, or that a plan to maximize Black power sounds racist. He addresses all of those concerns — and more — in his piece. I hope you’ll take some time to give it a read during this historic week. |
Here’s what we’re focusing on today: |
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