MAYOR FENTY: AVANTGARDE OR 'BAMA?

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty of Washington, D.C., is a thoroughly modern politicians, according to criteria used by the contemporary press. He's a "comer" who may be leading a Democrat presidential ticket in eight or ten years. This is especially true if the "movers and shakers" in D.C., including Capitol Hill, can "upgrade" the District of Columbia" into the "State of Columbia." A "make-over" certainly seems possible, especially if all the really positive, enlightened people put their shoulders to it. Governor Fenty is a better platform for president than Mayor Fenty.

Besides being, in the words of Woody Allen, a "glibe, young cosmopolitan," Mayor Fenty is a man of vision. He sees a shining city in a swamp. It's future D.C. All that's needed is a little funding. Construction will be a big part of it, and Metropolitan Washington D.C. has some of the richest builders in America just waiting for politicians to offer them a deal they can't refuse.

Therefore, Mayor Fenty appears to be a "hot" politician. He gets things done.

Still, for all the glittery facade, there is reason to believe that he's just another D.C. 'Bama.

The African American Establishment in Washington, D.C., arose from ambitious sons and grandsons of slavery. A steady train of African Americans worked their way north to D.C., as well as to other places. The liberating forces that began most significantly during the FDR/Truman years carried more of these African Americans into prosperity. The "Ole Southern Charm" of Washington, D.C., was, in a sense, preserved by the established African Americans, rather than the dwindling numbers of White Southerners who still called Washington, D.C., home. The "Gold Coast" in Washington, D.C., was the heart of "Black Dixie."

For many years observant African Americans in small towns throughout the South could see what the White leadership was doing that was working well and what they were doing that was not working well. There was no money-generating plot that worked better than "taxing" Yankee cars passing through the town. They could be "nailed" coming and going. Sheriff's could be creative about moving violations.

A favorite trick was for a major route, allowing 65 miles an hour speed for cars, to pass through a "town" of ten shacks that mandated 15 mile an hour speed limits. Additionally, car break-downs in these robber-barron citadels could end up costing a bundle, starting with the tow.

As Yankees got wealthier and yearned to sample Florida sunshine, the flood of cars heading South became a bonanza. None of this was lost on the leaders of the African America communities in these scattered but numerous towns throughout the New York to Miami corridor. They saw the Scott-Irish preying on their northern neighbors' caravans. They saw that it worked. Ambitious people don't forget money-making schemes. They may re-package them, but they are going to use them again. Why? Because they have seen that they work.

African Americans came up from the South, perhaps bearing little material wealth, but they had within their heads the knowledge of the tried and true means of making money. Tax the "strangers' cars." Money from various routes came to this core of 'Bamas during their transplant years in Washington, D.C. Many grew very wealthy. They created the African American Gold Coast and came to dominant the very important African American institution in D.C., the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge.

It is the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge that has given the local community most of its African American leaders. It has also preserved the "hidden knowledge" of the 'Bama: Tax the Strangers' Cars.

Mayor Fenty is a scion of this tradition. I would be surprised if he was not a member of the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge. I would be surprised if he were not well-known to the Gold Coast Establishment. But, even were he an alien to both, he would still bear in his soul the essence of the D.C. 'Bama: Tax the Strangers' Cars.

Mayor Fenty and former Mayor Williams were and are the High Priests of Vehicular Terrorism. It is my thesis that Robber-Barons aren't "Knights in Shining Armor." This conclusion should be perceived as a political caveat.