Editorial Posted: September 5, 2007 on the Black Information Highway
WHY IS IT THAT NO BLACK BANK IS ALLOWED TO BE A MEMBER OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM; CALL FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS TO BE ISSUED ON FEDERAL RESERVE
Note to Travelers:
Editorial Posted: September 5, 2007 on the Black Information Highway
WHY IS IT THAT NO BLACK BANK IS ALLOWED TO BE A MEMBER OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM; CALL FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS TO BE ISSUED ON FEDERAL RESERVE
By Arelya J. Mitchell, Publisher
The Mid-South Tribune
The Mid-South Tribune ONLINE
And the Black Information Highway
Here we are in the 21st Century, in a war, fighting terrorism and yet economic terrorism continues against African American and Native American citizens and African American and Native American businesses in the United States of Continued ‘Color’ Economic Oppression.
This time we are focusing on why we are getting no answers from the Federal Reserve Bank System on why no African American Bank has been allowed to be a member; yet foreign countries are allowed to be members of this distinguished group—or rather of this good- ole-white bank network.
What is also at issue now is that the Federal Reserve Bank System has refused to honor U.S. Treasury Notes through its member banks from African Americans and Native Americans. The trick here is by the U.S. Department of Treasury who released African American and Native American assets in the form of U.S. Treasury checks THAT CAN ONLY BE CASHED through A MEMBER BANK OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM.
BUT THE LOWEST TRICK is that the U.S. Department of Treasury knows that there is no Black Bank member of the Federal Reserve Bank System. By the U.S. Department of Treasury’s action it has tacitly given permission to the Federal Reserve System to violate the 1964 Civil Rights Law prohibiting 1) Denying participation 2) Denying benefits; thereby causing or allowing discrimination to occur.
This is the reality from the appearance and perception of their actions of NOT certifying African American and Native American member banks of the Federal Reserve System.
The reality from the appearance and perception of their actions seem to indicate that any banking entity that deals with African Americans and Native Americans in redeeming/cashing the U.S. Treasury checks will be retaliated against.
Those with some type of alleged clout are too frightened of the big bad wolf to say anything. Why?
“Usually strange things, a lot of strange things happen to Blacks who aspire to break into the mainstream of our business and economic system in our so-called system of ‘Free Enterprise’. For Blacks the system is not free or enterprising but a lot of headaches encountered to overcome a variety of unfair market practices coming from both the government and white-owned businesses. Such practices are designed to keep Black and Black-owned enterprises out of the system to prevent them from making it BIG! Blacks are not allowed to come into the main stream of our business and economic system through the front door like everybody else; but have to on their own initiative, find a unique and different way to get in, usually through the back or hidden door unknown to those who control the system.” This quote is from an article my late father, W.B. Mitchell, a professor of economics, and head of several business departments of what we now call Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’S), wrote back in the 70’s. He had made the same assertion earlier during the height of the civil rights struggle, when he worked with the likes of Medgar Evers, Aaron Henry, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—and so many unsung heroes and heroines from all races.
It is often overlooked that in his last speech “I Have Seen the Mountaintop”, Dr. King was talking about Black economic freedom.
Now as we go further into the 21st Century, one of the most prominent bastion of racism remains: the Federal Reserve Bank System. Why not?
Why shouldn’t the Federal Reserve System continue to spread its virus of racism when it has all the accoutrements of stock, bonds, and cash to snub its green nose at the U.S. Constitution?
We mere citizens have to obey the laws because we are not allowed to use the ‘Color of Money’ to blatantly discriminate without consequence.
Isn’t it odd that this country passed the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments and put into the law the 1964 Civil Rights Act; yet, the Federal Reserve System still has the privilege of ignoring the laws of the land? The Federal Reserve Bank System has the privilege of ignoring the laws of the land as long as the U.S. Dept. of Treasury has not certified an African American member bank into the Federal Reserve System.
Why is it that the U.S. Congress made it illegal to have separate schools, separate water fountains, separate bus sections, separate lunch counters; YET, the U.S. Congress has done absolutely nothing to demolish segregation and nouveau Jim Crow laws that through the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 the U.S. Department of Treasury has allowed the Federal Reserve System to erect.
On the 150th Anniversary of the Dred Scott Decision, isn’t this reflective of the same Democratic and Republican Congress that instituted the Jim Crow laws that de facto instituted this 19th, 20th, and 21st century economic slavery of African Americans?
It is time for African Americans to take their place as a swing bloc and do what is in their economic best interest.
In the words of Frederick Douglass (which is also our credo in The Mid-South Tribune), “Power concedes nothing without demand.”
Fellow citizens from across the color barriers, we ask you again why is it that the Federal Reserve System does not have one Black bank as a member? If it did, we would not be having this discussion today.
In Black Enterprise Magazine’s Annual B.E. 100s list, twenty-five Black banks are listed; the oldest dating from 1904. Let us consider: this particular 1904 bank has seen World War I, World War II, Korean Conflict, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq—and still it cannot become a member of the Federal Reserve System (klan).
Why has nothing been done to integrate the Federal Reserve System? The Federal Reserve System is no more than the 21st Century Klan in economically lynching Black citizens and Black businesses. If this type of behavior had been so boldly exhibited by any other citizen and/or business, all hell would have already broken lose. If the Federal Reserve System had been Don Imus, every civil rights group would have been calling for its chairman’s head.
We say to Ben Bernanke, as the present Federal Reserve System chairman, take the leadership and do the right thing by people of color. DIVERSIFY THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM and cash the U.S. Treasury checks from African Americans and Native Americans.
Enough is enough.
Who am I? I am a voice of the African Diaspora and that allows me to keep yelling out that the Federal Reserve System should be made to uphold the U.S. Constitution. The Federal Reserve System should be hit with a Writ of Mandamus filed before African American Senior Judge Harry Edwards, U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit for the U.S. Supreme Court to require the Federal Reserve System to uphold the laws prohibiting the exclusion from participation, the denial of benefits, and the prohibition against discrimination based on race, color, or national origin pursuant to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
It is a shame that Mr. Bernanke and his ‘(k) clan’ feel that it should continue to behave like a private country club where Blacks and Native Americans are allowed to caddy but not play?
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USUALLY STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN TO BLACKS IN BUSINESS by Prof. W. B. Mitchell
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