Tennessee/Pennsylvania/North Carolina: 56 years ago, a 39-year-old man stood outside room 306 of the Lorraine Motel. Then a gun was fired from across the street, ending Martin Luther King Jr.’s life.
Outside room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed. This site is now the National Civil Rights Museum. (HT photo)
MLK was marching with sanitation workers in Memphis, a town in the Deep South at the crossroads of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi, once a major slave market.
The motel has now been converted into the National Civil Rights Museum. Inside the museum, you journey through five centuries of brutal history, including the transatlantic slave trade, black labor on the cotton and tobacco plantations that made America wealthy, the civil war that led to the abolition of slavery, and Jim Crow laws. I feel like I’m doing it. Institutionalized racism was visible in all areas, including systematic political disenfranchisement, social exclusion, economic poverty, and continued attacks on the bodies and dignity of black people.
It also celebrates the decades of black struggle, the thinkers and warriors who never gave up on the dream of equality, the churches and organizations and newspapers and historically black colleges and universities that created black consciousness, the inspiration of Gandhi, and freedom. – Rides, marches and speeches where black people fight for every space in public life and basic human rights. And by being next door to Room 306, where the tragedy occurred in 1968 and the man who led the black civil rights movement was taken, the community finally won, even if only partially, its rights, including the right to vote. You are instantly transported back in time. .
But for Trell, Quinton, Aaron and Chanira, who live just a mile away, they are aware of what happened half a century ago, but what matters is the reality of today. And perhaps, decades later, these four black men and women working at a Beale Street hotel are still working in the same building where Elvis and B.B. King made their names and up-and-coming musicians played blues, rock and country. They work at a hotel on Beale Street, a neighborhood that plays music, but they might vote for the same political party. White Southerners, as the party of Donald Trump.
Trump’s appeal
“I don’t like either of them either. Kamala (Harris) is a fake. Trump says horrible things about everyone who isn’t white or rich. But Trump gave us money,” Trell said. he said, crediting Trump with the stimulus checks he received during the coronavirus pandemic (thanks to a Democratic Congress). Quinton nodded, “He doesn’t know how to shut up, but he’s not going to drag us into a foreign war. And women aren’t ready to lead America. Foreign countries won’t take Kamala seriously. I guess.”
Chanira, the only woman in the group, disagreed with gender-based evaluations but agreed with politics. “Come on, women can be leaders too. But her values don’t match my values.” And Aaron, the youngest of the group, said, “Look,[Joe]Biden and Harris are in Ukraine. Trump is better for the economy.”
Tennessee is a clear red state, and there is little doubt that its electoral votes will go to Trump. And these voices are not representative of all black voters, who continue to overwhelmingly support Kamala Harris. But they represent cracks in the Democratic base, and given that a black woman is the front-runner, the cracks are significant and perhaps indicative of shifts in racial voting patterns.
This fracture was revealed in polls and prompted President Barack Obama to campaign to denounce black men’s misogyny. This fracture led Harris to announce his own agenda for black men, visit black churches, and appear on a popular podcast that has wide support among black men. President Trump has talked about how illegal immigrants are taking jobs away from black people, how the economy has gotten better for black people under Trump, and, as he has said many times, that he is the first black man since Abraham. It is this rift that he is exploiting by pushing his claim that he is the best president for the United States. Lincoln.
It’s partly a rift stemming from patriarchy, partly out of frustration with the Democratic Party taking black votes for granted, and partly because of supposed economic reasons. Partly due to misinformation, and partly due to Trump’s same fascination with populism and homegrown projection. A strength that attracts other young people. And in such a close election, this rift could become a problem.
Mr. Harris’s appeal
But that’s not all. A dent is a dent, not a whole. Black men and women in battleground states offer different perspectives.
At Philadelphia’s Liberty Palace, HT met Kira, DJ, Ramire, and Marcus, who were working as ticket agents and food servers at movie theaters.
Abortion rights were a crucial issue for 20-year-old Kayla, who was planning to vote for the first time. “My family is Democrats, so I think they would have voted for Harris anyway. But as a woman, abortion is a big issue for me. I also have medical issues and Trump took away my rights.” For the 25-year-old DJ, Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation document that Democrats say is President Trump’s real governing blueprint, but that Trump isn’t, is a big deal. That’s a problem. “It says we’re going to allow police to stop and panic. This is going to impact black men like me and brown men like you,” he told reporters, adding, “If… If they can take away women’s abortions, they can take away men’s rights too. Next time they might say they can’t cut their hair.”
Harris’ roots were important to Ramir, 21. “It’s not that she’s black. It’s that she comes from a middle-class and lower-class background. Trump was born on a silver platter. What does he know about us? And for 22-year-old Marcus, the problem was inflation. “His policies will raise prices. He will make life easier for the rich and make us pay more.”
Similar sentiments exist at the University of Pennsylvania, a recognized liberal stronghold. Andrew, a 20-year-old junior from a nearby rural county, said he didn’t follow politics and spent most of his time with friends at church and faith groups. “But I took a quiz to see which direction I lean based on issues like college tuition, health care, and tax policy. And I’m like a Democrat.”Harris When asked if his race was a factor for him, Andrew said “no.”
Outside of Wharton Business School, Trump’s alma mater, Swince Rodriguez works as a mail carrier, and his family is originally from Trinidad but was born and raised in Philadelphia. He said Trump is dangerous. “He can fire me if he wants. Kamala doesn’t. He abuses all non-white communities. She doesn’t. President Trump wants to help the wealthy. She wants to help everyone. Look at her proposal to support homeownership. Trump is going to be (Fidel) Castro and he says he wants to be a dictator. , she will not be a dictator.”
black women base
Despite the rift among men, black women overwhelmingly support Harris, both in the battleground states that Harris is targeting and in the red states that Harris is unlikely to win.
At a cafe near Rocky Mount off the highway, former Pentagon worker Roxie Burns and her unemployed daughter Candice Martin were sitting with hairstylist Tameka Agee.
Burns and Martin had already voted and proudly said they were the 12th and 13th voters at the polling place, voting Democratic on the top and bottom of their ballots. Martin explained the reason as follows. “Harris cares about everyone. He’s confrontational,” her mother agreed. “He only creates chaos. And look, the majority is not with him. That’s why they’re trying to rig elections and suppress votes. And look at what he’s done on abortion. “I don’t believe the government or the courts should tell people what to do,” Agee said. “I have a mother who needs health care. The Biden-Harris administration has cut costs. I need health care, and Obamacare for pre-existing conditions will help me. Trump wants people like us will not do anything.”
When asked if he felt men in his community were drawn to President Trump, Agee said: Men don’t want to take orders from women in the home, and they don’t want to take orders from women as commander-in-chief. But in our community, black men either don’t vote or vote for Harris. They won’t vote for Trump. ”
In Wilmington, North Carolina, part of New Hanover County, which ran with Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020, Lotasha, who served in the Army Reserve and now works as a corrections officer at a prison, is still She said she had not made a decision, and the most important issue for her was security.
“President Trump’s approach is terrible. He’s arrogant and arrogant. That’s not good for a leader. That doesn’t allow for careful strategy. But I like his policies on security and immigration. On the other hand, it remains to be seen what Ms. Harris has done and what she can do under the Biden administration. She has a calm and upbeat personality, but she sometimes seems unserious.”
When this reporter suggested that she might vote for Trump, Lotasha immediately refused. And he’s a good-natured person who can only empathize with racists. ” Lotasha said she heard from more people, especially law enforcement, that they were with Trump. “But they’re also white people, and from President Trump’s comments about immigrants, I feel like it comes from a place of racism. I’m not that person.”
Back in Memphis, Teresa, a former FedEx employee (FedEx’s headquarters are in the city, and the company is led by an Indian-American, by the way) said she was with Harris because Trump was “a joke.” was obvious. In a sentiment that shows that patriarchy is not limited to men, she said: “I think the office of president is a man’s job. But not when the man is a joke like he is. If he becomes president, the world will laugh at us again. That’s Kamala Harris must be.”
Fifteen Black voices across three states give a sense of the inevitable political diversity within a larger community where gender matters but doesn’t determine everything. It is in these voices and conversations that the issues that animate American voters, from the economy to race, immigration to abortion, come alive. And in these voices, the past and the present come together. He may have agreed with many people, he may have disagreed with some people, but this right to vote and right to express yourself is what MLK Jr. wanted on that balcony at the Lorraine Motel. He fought for it and gave his life for it.
