2008.05.30
Pitts has captured America's attention
I've never met Leonard Pitts, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who uses words as both a salve and a scalpel.
But like millions of readers who see his column each week in newspapers across the country, I've come to know him.
The Miami Herald columnist writes from the soul -- as he did on the morning of 9/11, when he crafted a defiant open letter of American solidarity to the terrorists who attacked this country but not its resolve.
He can be loving as when he penned an anniversary column about surprising his wife with a new car. Or blunt, calling Paris Hilton a "skank" when many of us were thinking just that. And fearless, as when he discredited white supremacists' foolish take on a heinous crime.
Pitts, the man who provokes a nation to thought with his words, will be the keynote speaker June 6 at the NAACP banquet at the Hotel Roanoke.
"He's real good with words ... and that's the asset in him," said Daniel Hale, president of the Roanoke chapter of the NAACP.
"He kind of puts all sides in his writing. That's what life is about."
I caught up Wednesday afternoon with Pitts, whose column appears Tuesdays on this paper's commentary page. I wanted to know what he will say to Roanoke.
"I'm talking about the burden and the possibility of African-American history," Pitts said. He had just wrapped up an hour-long, online exchange with Herald readers.
"We really don't want to deal with African-American history, I mean black and white. It is such a difficult topic," he added.
Pitts pointed out how Black History Month is more like "biography history month," in which we talk about individual achievements of people such as Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth and Martin Luther King Jr.
The columnist noted how Americans are quick to point out that George Washington Carver was the world's greatest agricultural scientist but fail to mention he was born a slave before he achieved that status.
"They never talk about the context of our lives," Pitts said, adding that those discussions are necessary to understand what can come of history.
Pitts began his career as a music critic with Soul magazine in 1976. In 1991, he became the music critic for the Miami Herald and moved into the general columnist job three years later. He writes about politics, family issues, war, gay rights, race and anything else that interests him.
Pitts was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, journalism's top award, in 1992 and won it in 2004. He has received countless other journalism honors and awards.
As a journalist, I've admired Pitts' writing for a long time. But his column, "We'll Go Forward From This Moment," on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks catapulted him to another level of popularity.
"You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard.
What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed.
Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause.
Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve.
Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together."
The column circulated the globe in chain-letter style on the Internet. Readers responded to Pitts with nearly 30,000 e-mails.
The column has been set to music and reprinted as a poster. Talk-show host Regis Philbin read it on television and former congressman Dick Gephardt quoted it as part of the Democratic Party's weekly radio address.
But Pitts is modest about the accolades.
"I did what I would do with a column," he said almost sheepishly. "I did it to the best of my ability. I'm happy and proud of it, but I'm hesitant how much credit" the piece has received.
Understandably, Pitts did not want to talk much about a column last year about a black-on-white crime in Tennessee that triggered death threats against him and caused a furor on white supremacist Web sites.
After the Herald published the column, neo-Nazi Bill White of Roanoke posted Pitts' address, phone number and his wife's name on a Web site. Several Internet sites joined in, with one giving directions to the writer's house.
Hale said that incident was one of the reasons the NAACP invited Pitts to Roanoke.
"I wanted to bring him to make sure he knew the valley wasn't all like that," Hale said.
Though Pitts didn't speak this week about the incident, he wrote last year about the outpouring of support he had received from friends, colleagues, readers.
"I feel a little like Jimmy Stewart in 'It's a Wonderful Life.' They say you can tell who a man is by looking at his friends. Which is true. But I believe you can also tell by looking at his enemies. Apparently, I have managed to make enemies of haters, bigots, and other low, pathetic men. I must be doing something right."
You are, Leonard, and your words speak for you.
"But I believe you can also tell by looking at his enemies. Apparently, I have managed to make enemies of haters, bigots, and other low, pathetic men. I must be doing something right."
That's an interesting perspective, and good observation.
Comment by Ed S. — May 30, 2008 @ 8:58 am
Hey..Whens White history month...?
Comment by Robert — May 30, 2008 @ 2:57 pm
Missing the forest for the trees...the forest is the future of this nation, the trees represent stereotypical growths of divisiveness that keep this nation from uniting. We'll either unite and strive as one America or eventually fall into chaos as past empires.
Comment by Bobby Buck — May 30, 2008 @ 7:12 pm
ROBERT,
WHITE HISTORY MONTH IS EVERY MONTH OF THE YEAR,TAUGHT IN OUR SCHOOLS.WHERE WERE YOU?
Comment by DP — May 31, 2008 @ 2:10 am
White history month is Jan skips Feb picks back up in Mar and goes to Dec. You should ask when is Hispanic month or Native American month or Asian month. Alot of races/cultures have had a part in American history. I think white history months can afford to give up a few. Better lets just have Amercian history with the truth in all books. I guess that just makes to much sense.
Comment by Troy — May 31, 2008 @ 10:03 am
Hmmmmmmm sounds to me like theres no White History Month..Theres no White Entertainment Channel either...I mean why the double standard..If your a Klansman..your a hate filled Racist..if your a Black Panther...just patriotic to your race..Why is that..hmmm I guess we could ask Obama...he has link to the Black panthers on his site...right next to the Whitey created aids to kill us po black folk section..
Comment by Robert Gibbons — May 31, 2008 @ 3:20 pm
After doing some review of Pitts it's easy to conclude that he has a liberal agenda. He's pro-Obama, anti-conservative, and he gives the impression that he's more concerned about who receives "justice" by race rather than whether the guilty get punished.
Visiting the NAACP website shows its chairman comparing the GOP to Nazis, yet they call this organization non-partisan. Julian Bond kicked out its former president simply because he wanted to give an NAACP Image Award to Condoleeza Rice and because he wanted to reach out to President Bush for community solutions.
Shanna, do you think the NAACP is representative of the broad African-American community?
Oh, Jim. I keep telling you to check your fixation with partisan politics. It compartmentalizes your thinking, which is reflected in your question to me. To which I'll respond: Is the NAAWP representative of the "broad" white community?
The once-formidable civil rights group (established by whites and merged a year later with DuBois' Niagara Movement) has lost its way in recent decades.
Bruce Gordon, the executive director to whom you refer, resigned for a number of reasons. (Not sure what you're speaking about because Condi received the NAACP President's Image Award a few years back.) But for those of us who don't view the world through partisan-colored glasses, Gordon resigned because he wanted to take the struggling organization in a new direction.
The NAACP's Old Guard was mired in wanting to continue the emphasis on discrimination, racial injustice, etc. As many blacks understand today, there is a need to continue those battles. But of greater urgency is the necessity for the organization to address issues of economic and educational empowerment within the black community.
Additionally, I read a statement Gordon wrote after he resigned. The longtime Verizon executive got tired of the board of directors micromanaging him. Who can't relate to that?
As for calling Pitts "liberal," it's easy to hurl names at someone you don't know. I'm called "liberal" fairly frequently. Not that there's anything wrong with liberals, but I'm not one. You should spend some time reading Pitts' "What Works" series.
The series reflects the values of self-improvement, hard work, educational attainment and professional exposure, better health care, etc. Those values aren't "liberal" or "conservative." They're values that anyone regardless of political affiliation can appreciate.--s
Comment by Jim — May 31, 2008 @ 5:02 pm
Robert, as your ideals are well thought out, you seem to miss the point. 90% of all television, achievements, and battles for freedom in our history point toward one race.
From the Revolutionary War to Iraqi Freedom, even the inventing of the "Braking System" used in all mordern cars today. Blacks, Japanese, Filipinos, American Indians, Mexican Americans all nationalities have played a part in shaping this country into what we have today.
Yet History books and television, basically the History Channel doesn't reflect this but one (1) time a year February for "Black Americans", and other nationalities as a sprinkling. And the American Indian as the intruder upon "White Heritage" and their ability to survive.
As Hillary believes, signing into law those basic rights that each "United States Citizen" should have, never equals the same as being beaten, tear gassed, imprisoned, and ultimately murdered to help your fellow man.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
First conceived to help African Americans, the bill was amended prior to passage to protect women in courts, and explicitly included white people for the first time.
Origin
The bill had been introduced by President John F. Kennedy in his civil rights speech of June 11, 1963, in which he asked for legislation "giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public—hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments," as well as "greater protection for the right to vote."
November 1963, but was then referred to the Rules Committee, whose chairman, Howard W. Smith, a Democrat from Virginia, indicated his intention to keep the bill bottled up indefinitely.
It was at this point that President Kennedy was assassinated. The new president, Lyndon Johnson, utilized his experience in parliamentary politics and the bully pulpit he wielded as president in support of the bill.
Comment by Backlash — June 1, 2008 @ 10:45 am
ROBERT OBVIOUSLY SLEPT THRU HISTORY CLASS AND FROM WHAT I CAN TELL ENGLISH/GRAMMAR AS WELL.OR MAYBE HE DIDN'T EVEN MAKE IT THAT FAR IN SCHOOL.ONE WORD ROBERT-(EDUCATION).
Comment by DP — June 4, 2008 @ 4:43 am