Tavis Smiley is an African-American PBS talk show host who has hosted 3 day panels called The State of the Black American Union for the past several years. Recently, Mr Smiley has criticized Black leaders including Ben Jealous of the NAACP, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and Harvard law Professor Charles Olgetree for not holding President Obama's feet to the fire regarding the plight of African-Americans during a meeting held at the White House earlier this year. Smiley has come under fire for the method he used to criticize the President and has been accused of being an ego-maniac. The verbal attack was done on a morning radio show, the Tom Joyner Morning Show. Rev Sharpton and Professor Olgletree noted that Joyner voiced his complaint on air without discussing the matter with them first.

On March 11, 2010, Mr. Smiley offered this response on the Tom Joyner Morning show (TJMS):

Tavis:         I'd like to use the balance of my time this morning to reconstruct, if you will, the journey that has led us to Chicago  State on Saturday, March 20, for this conversation about a Black agenda in the era of Obama, in a so-called "post- racial" America.

The reconstruction of this timeline, this 14-year back-story to our gathering at Chicago State, is absolutely essential to understanding why this meeting matters. You can join us at Chicago State by registering at www.tavistalks.com, you can watch us on C-SPAN at 8:00am CST or you can join us live on www.ustream.tv/tavissmiley and post your comments live during our conversation.

Fourteen years ago in 1996, we aggressively and unapologetically started to engage in a politics of advocacy and direct action.  No longer was the TJMS just  about entertaining listeners, the program decided it wanted to empower listeners.

So, in advance of the 1996 presidential elections, we got busy with a grassroots  campaign; in fact, a high tech campaign for voter registration.  The Tom Joyner Sky Show, in fact, started out as a voter registration event. As Tom called it, a "party with a purpose."

Bill Clinton was easily re-elected that year, 1996, but by the time we got to the end of his second term in 2000, we had realized a few things.  The polls indicated that most Black folk thought Bill Clinton had done, on balance, a pretty good job as President.

 I say "on balance" because Clinton had failings as well.  He abandoned Lani Guinier after nominating her to a top Justice Department post; he signed a Crime Bill which legalized this racist 100 to 1 crack to powder cocaine discrepancy which has led to mass incarceration of Black men and women; he presided in fact over the fastest growth of the prison industrial complex on record; he signed the so-called Welfare Reform Bill which caused the husband of the great freedom fighter Marian Wright Edelman, Peter, to resign in protest from the Clinton administration.

But most damning, Clinton moved too slow, by his own admission, getting into Rwanda where ethnic cleansing was underway between the Tutsis and the Hotus.

Since most all of my Tom Joyner Morning Show commentaries are published in two books and a box set, my commentaries holding Clinton accountable on these and other transgressions are readily available.

Al Gore was the Democratic nominee in 2000 and because there was concern that Gore might not even be as "progressive" as Clinton was, we started the State of the Black Union conversations, as a way to be heard, to hold Al Gore accountable and to leverage our Black vote.

 Bush goes on to "steal," I mean goes on to "win" that election... and you know what happens next.  Tax breaks for the rich and the lucky; no Bin Laden in Afghanistan; no WMDs in Iraq; the torture of prisoners in violation of the Geneva Conventions; lying to Congress, spying on the American people, flying over New Orleans... you all remember the Bush years. And as a parting gift, Bush bequeathed to President Obama the worst recession since the Great Depression.

But we kept on meeting every year in February to hold Bush and all other leaders accountable to the best interests of Black people, indeed, the best interests of the nation.

It was during the Bush years, then, that we started discussing and eventually produced a text called the Covenant with Black America.  In no uncertain terms, the book was unapologetically a Black agenda, to which we all agreed that we would hold all candidates accountable who were running for the White House in the coming election of 2008.

We were in such agreement in Black America on that issue about this Black agenda that it went to #1 on everybody's bestseller list and stayed there for weeks.  In fact, Reverend Joseph Lowery, who gave the benediction at Obama's inauguration, was the one who suggested during that symposium live on C-SPAN that we call it "a covenant," not merely "a contract" with Black America.

 Indeed if you go to your bookshelf later today and pick up your copy of The  Covenant, you'll see inside a whole bunch of Black leaders who were then calling for a Black agenda, but they're saying something a little bit different now.  Read the text for yourself.

And for the record, Mr. Obama was not even in the U.S. Senate when The Covenant was created, much less a candidate for the White House.  He wasn't on the national scene at the time.

 And so this accountability document, The Covenant, could never have been about  singling him out or holding him to a higher or different standard.  This argument, my grandfather might say, is about as weak as pre-sweetened Kool-Aid.

 We put out a second text, THE COVENANT In Action, to show people how to take the Black agenda, laid out in The Covenant, and put it "into action."  This argument that all we have done is to talk, talk, talk; that we never produced an agenda or a plan, is simply not true.

Furthermore, the argument that this has been about selling books and making money is equally untrue.    All the money from the first book stayed on the Southside of Chicago at Third World Press.   All the money from the second book, the second New York Times bestselling book, THE COVENANT In Action, went to create a website that's still up and running, www.thecovenantwithblackamerica.com, which does not generate revenue, it only disseminates information.

The Black agenda, though, laid out in these two books, allowed us to have two live presidential debates on prime time television. Now, by then, of course, Senator Obama was in the race for the White House, but he was trailing Senator Clinton almost 3-1 in Black opinion polls.  He was trailing 3-1 in Black America when he was on the stage at Howard University.  That was the case until he won Iowa.

And then, as the Obama campaign predicted, once Black folk got to know him, they would support him.  And, they did. The switch was on, and some Negroes started acting like they'd been down with Obama from jump.

Now, silly me, I'm thinking that no matter who the candidate is, we're still going  to talk about holding everybody accountable to this Black agenda that we've agreed.   Sillyme.  Because what I heard was, "Move B, get out the way, get out the way, get out the way!"

 And so, by the time we get to the final book in this trilogy, Accountable, Negroes have done a 180 degree turn on this Black agenda, and nobody seems interested in  that conversation.  And so, Accountable doesn't get anywhere near The New York Times bestseller list.

What's been funny for me is to look at the names printed in the back of The Covenant book.  People who supported that accountability agenda, that Black agenda, back in the day; and through this radio program sent in their ancestors' and baby photos for the covers of these books.  How funny for me now to look at the names printed in the back of those books. Many of these same folk have since sent me some of the nastiest e-mails and written some of the most virulent blogs I have ever read.

 Now, finally, for those who say that this is about Obama not showing up in New Orleans for the SOBU in 2008, excuse me?  He showed up for SOBU in 2009 as the President of the United States of America.      He thanked me and I thanked him.  You all need to let that argument go.   Here again, an argument that's about as weak as rain water.

As much as folk want to make this about me, it is not about me now, it has never been about me, and it never will be about me.  And please know that I am okay with the long view of history on the depth and the consistency of my love to a Black agenda in the best interests of Black folk.

 And so, here we are on our way to Chicago State in 2010.  Staying true to what  we believed then, and what we believe now.   That when you make Black America better, you make all of America better.

The Chicago State University Conference will be held on March 20th and will be broadcast on C-SPAN at 900AM EST, 800AM CST, and 600AM PST.

Further details including Smiley's initial statement about the Sharpton, et al meeting with the President  and the clip of the recording above can be found at  Smiley's website

 http://www.tavistalks.com/we-count-black-agenda-american-agenda

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