The Peacock Elite, A Case Study of the Congressional Black Caucus

Former CBC member Congressman Major Owens offers a bold blueprint for a Plan, called for by Ossie Davis, at the first CBC dinner. At this point in the evolution of the CBC, Owens, who served for twenty-four years before retiring, insists that without a Plan the CBC will be Balkanized and shattered by opportunistic predatory peacocks or drift into political irrelevancy as an ornamental, ceremonial institution. Black power as a significant element in national decision-making would be forever doomed if such a shipwreck occurs. Classifying his former colleagues in two major categories as peacocks or workhorses, Owens boldly names names and challenges public relations myths. Along with scathing criticisms there is also generous praise. One chapter offers a Chronology of CBC Triumphs and Blunders. A failure of the CBC to collectively respond to the escalating plunge into greater poverty experienced by their predominantly working class and deprived constituency is highlighted in the chronology. Woven into his tapestry of vital issues Owens has placed spicy and informative anecdotes: 1) How, despite his more than ten years of crusading for the National Martin Luther King Holiday, Representative John Conyers was denied the honor of sponsoring and managing the final passage of the bill because the Democratic Party leadership considered him too independent and too uppity. The accidentally elected Katie Hall from Gary Indiana was awarded this role. 2) How the CBC sat silent while President Reagan began the destruction of the public housing program by slashing its budget in half. 3) How, to achieve maximum sanctions against the racist South African regime, the CBC conducted its own direct negotiations with the Republicans and was thus able to gain the votes necessary to override Ronald Reagan s veto. 4) Despite sabotage within its own ranks how the CBC was able to convince President Clinton to intervene in Haiti and provide a military escort to return legally elected President Aristide. 5) In condemning the feeble support of organized labor for the CBC the book provides a peek into the racist closet of union leadership. 6) It highlights the CBC achievement of federal funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, which moved form zero funding in 1986 to a total of four billion dollars over a period of twenty years (2006). 7) It offers penetrating insights into the relationship between Jesse Jackson and the ego blinded CBC founding leaders that led to the rejection of Jackson and the squandering of a potentially powerful political partnership in the struggle for equal opportunities and a fair share of American prosperity. 8) Briefly but dramatically it notes the complex up and down relationship of the CBC with Bill and Hillary Clinton. 9) On what he describes as a sell-out of a large portion of the Black community Owens condemns Harold Ford II as a Judas who misled a gullible CBC into a paralyzing silence on the welfare reform issue. 10) Harold Ford III who proposed that the CBC merge with the Blue Dog Coalition is highlighted as the bold leader of dangerous Balkanizing opportunists within the CBC. 11) Cited as one of the most monumental failures of the CBC during his twenty-four years as a member was the CBC s failure to develop comprehensive economic opportunity legislation after the shocked leadership of both parties had placed vital decision-making on the authorization of a huge Katrina salvation appropriation into its hands. The CBC leadership dropped the ball with a statement that President Bush should develop a ten year plan to eliminate poverty .