News

By Dr. Kush K. Bhardwaj

On August 30, Congressman Tim Kennedy hosted a Community Meet and Greet for South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn at Delaine Waring African Methodist Episcopal Church on Swan Street.

A packed church listened to remarks by Kennedy and Clyburn, who both urged Buffalonians to get out the vote this November. The highest-ranking Black lawmaker in Congress for more than a decade, Clyburn weaved stories of Septima Poinsette Clark and Alexis de Tocqueville to create a tapestry of the history and importance of civic engagement. He hailed Clark as the true “Mother of the Movement” and elucidated why she, and not Rosa Parks, is the true pioneer and matriarch of the civil rights struggle. Clyburn spoke of how, when studying the French philosopher de Tocqueville, he realized that America is great “not because of her smartness, but her willingness to repair what is wrong.”

Railing against the purposeful “erasing of history,” Clyburn insisted that Black Americans respect the sacrifice and battles fought by their ancestors and vote in every election.

Myriad prominent government officials and social advocates were in attendance, including Niagara Falls Councilperson Brian Archie (OB Emerging Leaders Class of 2018), Masten District Councilperson Zeneta Everhart (OB Emerging Leaders Class of 2020), and Dr. Kush K. Bhardwaj, OB’s Director of Racial Equity and Justice.