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Is Rep. Hakeem Jeffries Really a "Pathetic Democratic Leader"? I Beg to Differ [1]
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Date: 2025-01-31
I was inspired to write this piece in response to Paleo’s post Democrats saddled with a pathetically weak House leader. His dismissive characterization of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries seems to portray him as a “pathetically weak” leader who uses biblical quotes and prayer as a substitute for action. To me, this characterization reveals a mistaken belief that nonviolent resistance is inherently passive and tantamount to surrendering to superior force. It also betrays a limited understanding of the role of religion in our struggle for freedom and equality.
I see this narrow view of Rep. Jeffries as based on a double standard that sees Representative Jeffries as a “passive” prayer junkie while seeing SMJ (“Sanctimonious Moses” Johnson)—who appears to pray a lot more in the House chambers than Rep. Jeffries—as a more “effective” House leader. Really?
Black History Month begins tomorrow, so I urge you to learn how different Black churches’ approach to prayer is from that of Caucasian churches in the US. Today however, let me school you on the role of prayer in the African American struggle for freedom. I have standing to do this as a 76-year-old Black man raised in a Black church and the 1950s-1960s civil rights/Black Power struggle. I do not,however, claim to be a preacher or theologian. I’m just a brother who educated himself about the African American struggle for freedom from numerous sources other than the Web.
There is a saying among Black church folk—even those like me that have left the church for other reasons—that we must Watch, Fight, and Pray. This hearkens back to the need for enslaved and oppressed black folks to watch out for white racist enemies (slaveholders, KKK vigilantes, rogue cops, or MAGA thugs), fight for their freedom through nonviolent or violent means (ranging from sabotage and escape from the plantation to armed uprisings), and pray for deliverance from evil by a God who defended the helpless and oppressed.
We prayed knowing that “heaven helps those who help themselves.” Another gem of Black church folk wisdom was “Faith (prayer) without work is empty and work without faith is blind.” Finally, civil rights leaders like the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us that nonviolent resistance is not necessarily passive in nature. For example, during the 1955-1956 Montgomery AL Bus Boycott, Black workers nonviolently stayed off the buses in solidarity with Ms. Rosa Parks (who was arrested for not giving up her bus seat to a white man). They walked or carpooled to work in a strategic and coordinated way that nearly bankrupted the city’s segregated bus system. This was as much an economic boycott as a civil rights boycott. IOW, it was Black people putting their dollars and their feet in the same place—out of Jim Crow’s reach.
The 1960s police assaults and mass arrests of Black and white/Jewish civil rights workers helped sway national public opinion against southern segregation because those workers didn’t carry themselves like helpless victims or violent rioters. Their prayerful dignity and singing of church-based freedom songs even under violent attack allowed their attackers to be seen in all their cruel inhumanity. “Pulling off the KKK sheets,” so to speak, sparked public outrage that hastened the passage of landmark civil rights legislation between 1964 and 1968.
My main point is that the defenders of white supremacy in the US have nearly always used violent force with impunity to get their way with Black people. We, on the other hand, have had to nonviolently resist our oppression in a strategic way so as not to invite wholesale massacres like that of Tulsa, OK’s Greenwood community (“Black Wall Street”) in 1921.
Back to House Minority Leader Jeffries. First, his ability to keep the House Dem caucus in almost lock-step discipline during former President Biden’s last two years enabled him to function as the de facto House Speaker. Nearly every key bill that passed the House needed Dem votes to do so because of the MAGA GQP caucus’s dysfunction and disarray. Mr. Jeffries supplied these votes without breaking a sweat. Under his leadership, the House Dem caucus has begun to mold itself into a true opposition party. Meanwhile, SINO (Speaker in Name Only) Mike Johnson remains perpetually 10 or fewer votes away from losing his job.
To sum it up, I’ll say this. Don’t think that Rep. Jeffries’ use of biblical quotes in his speeches is just empty superstition or wimpy helplessness. This country’s Black rhetorical tradition has always been church-inspired but never despairing, even in the face of overwhelming opposition. The African American community is heir to a centuries-long tradition of making a way out of no way.We “give God the glory” for our triumphs over adversity but we don’t “give God all the credit.” Above all, Black prayer is a coded language that exhorts our people to continue our struggle for freedom against great odds.
Hopefully, you’ve learned something from my layperson’s mini-lesson on the role of Black prayer in our struggle for freedom. Peace.
GOTV in 2026 and 2028. Aluta Continua!
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