By Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony

President Detroit NAACP

“Because power corrupts, society’s demand for authority and character increases as the importance of the position increases,” John Adams.

The unrelenting power grab by the current occupant of the White House, is most visible regarding Black women. The most recent power grab can be seen as we view the attack made against Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook.

Cook is a Black woman with impeccable credentials. A graduate of Spelman College (magna cum laude), BA in Physics and Philosophy, Marshall Scholar earning another BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, attended Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal, and received a PhD in Economics from the University of California Berkley.

Her academic work is in Macro-Economics and Economic History. She served as a Professor of Economics at Michigan State University and a member of the Executive Committee of the American Economic Association. President Joe Biden nominated her to the Federal Reserve in 2022.

Cook is the first Black woman on the Federal Reserve Board. She has now been accused of mortgage fraud by the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte, a Donald Trump appointee known as the “Mini-Trump.” Pulte, founder of Pulte Capital Partners, with housing developments throughout Michigan, leads an agency whose mission is to oversee Fannie Mae, Federal National Mortgage Association, and

Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. Pulte, a graduate from Northwestern University with a degree in Broadcast Journalism, seems to be overseeing the Federal Reserve, another independent agency.

No criminal charges have been filed against Cook. Firing her Cook would provide another opportunity for an appointment by president Trump to the Federal Reserve. Board Chairman Jerome Powell has refused to lower interest rates demanded by the President. A special donation of $500,000 to a Super PAC which supported President Trump, made by Diana Pulte, raised questions as to a violation of campaign finance. The Federal Election Commission determined that the contribution made by Mrs. Pulte was improperly reported, indicating the funds originated from an LLC rather than from her personally. There appears to be a double standard as Pulte accuses Cook of almost the same type of error.

Dr. Sydney Carr-Glenn, political scientist at the College of Holy Cross, who studied Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, has said, “Black women have certainly been breaking barriers. It has also come at an interesting time in our American government and democracy when we are seeing this rise in authoritarianism.”

Attacks against Black women like Carla Hayden, first Black person and woman to serve as Librarian of Congress; Charlotte Burrows, Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Gwynne Wilcox, the first Black woman to serve on the National Labor Relations Board, who was unlawfully dismissed by president Trump, was found by the courts to be “blatantly illegal.”

In cities run by Black women mayors, National Guard and federal troops are being deployed. Local police collaboration with other law enforcement agencies is to be encouraged. Populus declarations and militaristic invasion by the powers that be are not the real answers. Cities need resources to fight crime, including increased police presence, proven community violence intervention programs, and expanded mental health services. Billions in critical funding have been gutted from the federal budget, undermining these essential efforts. Mayors Karen Bass of Los Angeles, Muriel Bowser of D.C., Barbara Lee in Oakland, California, LaToya Cantrell of New Orleans, along with Brandon Johnson in Chicago and Brandon M. Scott of Baltimore, all leading Black cities seem to be victims of this reckless power grab. The crime rate is down in five of the six cities named. One must ask why is there no intervention of National Guard and federal troops in the so-called red states where the crime rate is even, in Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, and Missouri to name only a few? The state of Louisiana is still up for grabs.

This is a power grab not for the people but for a president leading us down the road to authoritarianism. Americans must not take that road. Edmund Burke, the philosophical founder of conservatism, left us with a meme, “the greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.” Leonardo da Vinci painted an even clearer portrait when he said, “Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.”

Americans must not be silent in this most crucial era. Let us remember, “The Fierce Urgency Of Now.”