Ron rocks the boat again
By: Shannon Gibney
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 11/6/2002

New book, NAACP presidency bid continue Edwards’ activist career

Ron Edwards is one of those people for whom controversy is as essential as the air he breathes. In over 40 years of public and political service in the Twin Cities, he has bemoaned inaction on the part of various African American advocacy groups and indicted area white institutions for their myopic vision and neglect of communities of color. At key moments he has gone public with the names of individuals and organizations who have been less than forthright with the facts.

The year 2002 is shaping up to be no less intriguing for Edwards. With the release of his new book, The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes [see related review in Entertainment], and his bid for the Minneapolis Branch NAACP presidency, Edwards is giving Twin Cities communities plenty to talk about.

"I’m a person of disbelief," says Edwards. "I don’t play games, I don’t go to church. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t raised in the church; I have great respect for it... But I maintain that you only pass this way once. And to pass this way and leave nothing and to do nothing, I think is the greatest insult that you do to yourself as a being and whatever spirit it is that you reach out to." To that end, Edwards is doing his best to offer his little piece of the universe, Minneapolis, something transformative.

"In 1997, 1998, we started saying to Nellie Stone Johnson [the third African American in Minnesota elected to political office], ‘It’s important that your life be captured,’ and as I was saying that, I was thinking the same thing," says Edwards, whose book chronicles the triumph of individuals and the system over the masses and the dispossessed in Minneapolis. When the opportunity presented itself for Edwards to do an "oral history" project similar to Stone Johnson’s he was "fascinated with it," and jumped at the opportunity.

"I believe very much as a Black person in the importance and the significant features of oral history that were the cornerstones of our ancestors in Black Africa," he says. "It’s a talent that’s been lost — we’ve somehow or other been convinced that it no longer has relevance to the era of technology, etcetera."

Since Edwards did not have time to write the book, Editor Peter Jessen taped over 100 hours of interview tapes and subsequently transcribed them. "One of the things that was insisted upon was that we had to authenticate everything, so that when people get ready to be critical or to attack or praise the book, that you can authenticate that which has taken place," says Edwards.

Regarding the book’s title, Edwards has no compunction about stating the book’s perspective. "The book is, of course, seen through my eyes. Which means it’s biased. There’s been no assembly of delegates put together to authenticate, there has been no committee put together... Of course, I reserve the right to authenticate what I saw through my own eyes, just like any other human being has the opportunity to do so.

Regarding the book’s title, Edwards has no compunction about stating the book’s perspective. "The book is, of course, seen through my eyes. Which means it’s biased. There’s been no assembly of delegates put together to authenticate, there has been no committee put together... Of course, I reserve the right to authenticate what I saw through my own eyes, just like any other human being has the opportunity to do so.

"But the book is also a teaching instrument. Particularly in the latter part of the book, I talk about solutions and resolutions. Everybody maintains that — and this is one of the criticisms that has emerged far too often for Black America (and it’s used also as a race card, if you will) — that we bitch and complain and ‘never got no solutions.’ I’ve seen many. I’ve seen many authors in this country — Cornell West and others. Men of solution and resolution."

Edwards is hoping that The Minneapolis Story can be used, especially by young people, as one of these solutions. He sees it as a resource for getting information that might not otherwise be available.

Edwards sees the presidency of the Minneapolis Branch NAACP as another opportunity to create solutions for Black communities. "I first joined the NAACP in 1961, when Dr. Thomas Johnson decided to challenge for the presidency. In 1928, ‘29, you had 200 Negroes — at an NAACP Branch meeting in St. Paul! On a Sunday, in 1928, addressing the issues, the mundane issues of the day," says Edwards.

"They were imparting this information, that the reason Doc Johnson is going to run in 1961, they were saying, "We want to return this to where it was 30 years ago. And we know that you youngsters can’t relate to that, because you’re all sitting here — 18, 19, 20. So we had to have an appreciation of that."

Edwards believes that the current branch regime needs an invigorating shock to the system, just as it did in 1961.

"I don’t measure the personality, I measure the issue," he says. "It’s 1996 [when Edwards returned to the NAACP, after serving in the Minneapolis Urban League for 15 years], and there’s no housing for Black folk in this town. Hollman had basically wiped out the heart, just as our freeway 35 years before in St. Paul wiped out the Rondo community. So in ‘96 I’m seeing no addressing. I was forced out of the Urban League — the Urban League was not going to be an advocacy organization." At this time, Edwards maintains, the Urban League was trying to make money and get programs going.

"My position is, once you [start] getting money, and you write articles for newspapers and etcetera, and talk in terms of what we’re doing and the money and funding we’ve got, you really can’t rock the boat and get the money — not in this society." That’s why Edwards has only served as a volunteer for any organization in which he participates. He has always had other jobs or sources of revenue to cover his living expenses.

"The system learned its lesson coming out in the 1960s when they misread the intellect of the young turks all across the country — the young brothers and sisters who had tremendous imagination and tremendous energy, were visionary, knew how to take stuff and come out with concepts that were absolutely revolutionary," he says.

If elected president of the Minneapolis Branch NAACP, Edwards says that his main objective will be to reinvigorate the organization and make it relevant in the lives of everyday African American residents again. "The NAACP reached a low of 182 members just two months ago. ...The first thing we need to do is get the numbers back up. Also, the Minneapolis NAACP has not continued to do what its mission says it’s supposed to do when it first met as the Niagra Movement, over 100 years ago."

Edwards would like to see the Minneapolis Branch advocate and agitate the causes of the entire spectrum of Black experience in the Twin Cities, not just those in power. "The system in this town saw the opportunity to compromise what for a long period of time was an acceptable system of balance," says Edwards.

"It’s okay to have your Urban League and your social clubs and etcetera, and the Armstrongs, Williams and Steeles of the world, but you continue to lose the Fannie Lou Hamers, the Martin Luther King Jr.s, the Farrakhans. You must have that [a balance between conservative and radical elements], because that is the only way both to preserve hope, and to preserve the race."

Shannon Gibney welcomes reader comments at sgibney@spokesman-recorder.com .
http://www.spokesman-recorder.com/News/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=18127&sID=13
The Minneapolis Story is now available in Minneapolis at Ruminator Books and other independent bookstores, at the MSR office, and www.amazon.com