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July 18, 2006
Art Torres, Chairman
California Democratic Party
1401 21st Street, Suite 200
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Chairman Torres:
I am a 56-year-old black American female and, until now,
a lifelong Democrat. I recently ran as a Democratic candidate
for Governor of the State of California. I was the only
woman Democrat running for Governor. As far as I can
determine, I was the first black woman gubernatorial
candidate who ever ran in this state on the Democratic
ticket.
Yet, on Saturday, April 22, 2006, the West LA Democratic
Club sponsored a Democratic Candidates Forum and I was
not invited to participate. The only two Democratic candidates
for Governor advertised as attending this event were Phil
Angelides and Steve Westly.
I was invited via email by the Progressive Democrats of
America to speak on Saturday, April 29, 2006, at the California
State Democratic Convention in Sacramento. I accepted the
invitation. However, two days before I was scheduled to
speak I received a call from a Democratic Party representative
uninviting me to speak. I was told that instead of speaking,
I would be limited to standing at an informational table
at the convention for a 30-minute slot! This was an unbelievable
suggestion, which I, of course, declined.
I also called you, Mr. Torres, to complain about these
matters and, to date, you have not returned my call.
So today I am writing to ask you a question as well as
to inform you of a decision that I have made.
First the question: Based on the treatment that I have
just described, why should I, a woman of color, continue
to be a Democrat?
In 1964, the Democratic Party allowed racial bias to trump
fairness when Fannie Lou Hamer—black American female,
former sharecropper and member of the Mississippi Freedom
Democratic Party—challenged the Democratic Party.
She had traveled to the National Democratic Convention
in Atlantic City that year expecting to have her duly elected
68-person delegation seated. The Dixiecrats, the Southern
segregationist wing of the Democratic Party, pressed to
permit only two people from that 68-member black delegation
to be seated at the national convention. Ms. Hamer refused
such a compromise. Instead, she and all of her unseated
delegates protested outside the convention hall, sitting
for hours in the rain.
Now, 42 years later, I stand in the shadow cast by the
courage of Fannie Lou Hamer as I fight the 21st century
version of those Dixiecrats: California Democratic leadership
that is allowing race and class bias to dishonor the Democratic
Party.
At your April 22nd Democratic Forum, for example, only
white male multimillionaires running for Governor were
recognized and fêted by Democrats; all other legitimate
gubernatorial candidates were excluded. The Party in 2006
has transformed itself from Dixiecrats to Richiecrats—money
counts, equality of treatment does not. This is shameful.
The message to us everyday folks from today’s Democratic
Party is that the votes of black, brown, poor and middle
class people matter to Democratic Party leadership only
because the Party needs those votes. But the actual people—the
ordinary, non-millionaire members of the electorate—do
not really matter.
On July 22, 1964, when Fannie Lou Hamer spoke at the Democratic
National Convention she recounted her battle to register
to vote and then to seat her 68 Democratic delegates. She
ended her presentation by stating that it was her delegation’s
desire to become first-class citizens, and she questioned
the promise of America if her delegates were not seated.
It is now 2006 and I know I am a first-class citizen. So
I question not America but the Democratic Party: Does this
Party know that I am a first-class citizen and deserve
to be treated as such?
The evidence would indicate otherwise.
As a consequence, I have made a decision. After 30 years
as a registered Democrat, I will no longer be a member
of this political party. I will no longer support a Party
that doesn’t fundamentally support me and the issues
that are important to people like me: ending the death
penalty, three-strikes and the participation of California’s
National Guard in the Iraqi war, for example.
Today I am joining the Green Party and will tell my story
of discrimination and bias to every person of color with
whom I come in contact, encouraging them to leave this
out-of-step Democratic Party and become a Green.
A disappointed citizen,
Barbara Becnel
Former Democratic Candidate for Governor of California
cc: Howard Dean, Chairman
Democratic National Committee
430 South Capitol Street, SE
Washington,
DC 20003 |
