A unique aspect of African American slave life was the defiant nature when it came to their spiritual worship. By rejecting the religious teachings of the slave master suggesting that slaves were preordained by God to spend a life in bondage, slaves would wait until late in the evening to have ìchurchî their way. Slaves would sneak off to the ìBush Arbor,î where they could not be seen and worship a god of liberation and freedom, rather than a god of oppression and bigotry.
In this like manner a group out of Buffalo, New York, following the trail paved by the defiant nature of African American chattel slavery created Grassroots Inc. By establishing a quiet and seemingly non-threatening organization, completely out of the view of the New York Democratic Party machine has successfully transformed Grassroots Inc. into major power broker within the state. Grassroots Inc. began 17 years ago by several block association leaders and community activists, based on the desire to provide more political and governmental attention on issues important to those constituents. ìOur concept was to find away to make change and to be more proactive in determining who the elected officials would be who represented our community,î said Maurice Garner, the individual most acknowledge as the founder of Grassroots Inc.
Grassroots started out by running leaders for the posts of state committee members within the Democratic Party, as a mechanism to control the party infrastructure. ìWe found that when you control he infrastructure, when vacancies came up, you can control the process,î said Mr. Garner. By the mid-1990ís two of Grassroots members were elected to the Buffalo City Council and others in the Erie County legislature. In 2000, another member, Byron W. Brown, defeated an incumbent, Alfred T. Coppola, becoming the first black stated senator outside of the New York City area. Perhaps most impressive was the district that Mr. Brown won was 60 percent White, 34 percent Black, and 5 percent Hispanic.
Today, Grassroots Inc. is a political source of power that few Democrats running for office throughout the state of New York would ignore. The political acumen of Grassroots Inc. is so noteworthy that United States Senator Charles Schumer recently said, ìI think they are one of the smartest, savviest political groups in the Untied States. They know how to get things done and they have brought lots of young people into politics.î Adding, ìTheyíre a breath of fresh air.î There are two keys to Grassroots Inc. success. First, rotating leadership. By rotating the leadership, Grassroots Inc. does not get bogged down in the traditional top down leadership style that can plague grassroots efforts whereby the importance of the organization can never exceed that of the entrenched leader.
The historical demise of grassroots efforts have been paved on a road of over dependence on a single individual. The rotational leadership also serves to spread the responsibility, increasing the number of individuals accountable to its overall success. Second, by placing their initial focus on smaller races allowed Grassroots Inc. to garner momentum below the radar. It is important for any organization to create some initial momentum, to do so they must garner some ìwinsî in order to sustain themselves during the difficult days. By focusing on offices that represented the bottom rung of Democratic politics positioned Grassroots Inc. to influence the party infrastructure.
The success of Grassroots Inc., especially in areas where there is not a majority of African Americans does suggests that African American candidates, with the proper infrastructure can win in areas that does not require it being a majority African American district. The direction of the latest census data suggest that if African Americans want to increase or merely maintain their present political representation they must do so by appealing to larger non-African American constituencies. Fortunately, the strategy implemented by Grassroots Inc. is paving the way to achieving that goal.