NYPEOPLESCONVENTION.ORG THE NEW YORK CONSTITUTION OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2017 11
The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself
BY BERTHA LEWIS
Since New York entered the Union on
July 26, 1788, essentially only 7 women
and 2 people of color have had a
direct impact on our state Сonstitution.
How is this possible in a state that
prides itself on diversity? Well, our
state’s Constitution was largely written
at New York’s 1894 Constitutional Convention.
At that Convention, only one
woman and no people of color served
as delegates. Since 1894, the only time
our Constitution has been substantively
revised was at the 1938 Convention. At
that Convention, there were 6 women
delegates and two people of color:
Thomas Dyett, an assistant district
attorney in Manhattan, and Chauncey
Hooper, who would later go on to be a
general in the U.S. Army.
This appalling lack of representation
is absolutely unacceptable. At a time
when the federal government is at best
ambivalent about the resurgence of
white supremacy, we cannot afford to
allow the once-in-a-generation opportunity
for us to right this wrong by holding
a new Constitutional Convention to slip
us by.
It is incumbent upon New York to
create a guard rail against the noxious
racial politics emanating from the
White House. The only way to achieve
this critical end is by first voting “YES”
this November 7 on the Constitutional
Convention ballot referendum and
then electing the most diverse delegation
to any Convention in New York’s
history.
Both of these accomplishments are
well within our grasp. Though prior
Conventions have failed woefully to
ref lect our state’s demography, each
Convention has become steadily more
diverse. The last time we held a Сonvention,
in 1967, 26 of the delegates were
people of color and women. Unfortunately,
the impact upon our Constitution
of these delegates, including such
trailblazing New York leaders as Guy R.
Brewer, Herman Badillo and David Dinkins,
was negated because the amendments
proposed by the Convention were
defeated at the polls.
It is now 2017—50 years since New
York’s last Constitutional Convention.
Over that time period, our state and our
country have fundamentally changed.
There is no reason to believe that a
Convention called this year would not
only be the most diverse yet, but that
it would be led by people of color and
women.
Of course, we will not accomplish
this aim by sitting back idly. This is why
I am personally committing myself to
ensuring that the delegation we send
to the Convention is the most diverse
in our history by a long shot.
I will not, and cannot, wait another
20 years for a chance to fundamentally
change our state. There is so much I
want to change! I want voting rights; I
want a strong equal rights amendment;
the right to organize; and an end to
gerrymandering once and for all.
I also want our state to tackle the root
causes of inequality, such as inadequate
funding of our public schools, and to establish
a minimum wage that realistically
accounts for the cost of living in our
state. And finally, I want to strengthen
our public pensions by reducing Albany’s
ability to reduce them for new workers,
as the members of the state Legislature
have been doing for years.
Any honest observer of our state
Legislature will admit that none of these
accomplishments are possible with the
current leadership we have in the capital.
Opponents of the Сonvention like to
argue that the risks of having one are
too high, while conveniently neglecting
to mention that virtually all of the provisions
in our state Constitution that we
hold most dear, like those that protect
unions and the environment, came out
of previous Сonstitutional Сonventions.
Convention opponents say our hardfought
rights will be lost to moneyed
interests, glossing over the fact that the
deep-pocketed lobbyists and special interests
are who control Albany now.
When fear mongering is not enough,
the opposition resorts to blatant falsehoods.
A prime example of their deceit
is the lie that a Convention would cost
the New York taxpayer $300 million. Th is
false statistic is derived from an article by
a reporter for the Times Union, who misunderstood
a point made by Convention
scholar Gerald Benjamin, a professor at
SUNY New Paltz. To the reporter’s great
credit he wrote a mea culpa correcting
the record, which pegged the Convention’s
actual cost at closer to $47 million.
By asking us to forfeit the profound
power to call a Convention, these opponents
are defending a system that promulgates
the school-to-prison-pipeline,
voter disenfranchisement, and Albany’s
dysfunction.
Communities of color in New York
know all too well that these problems
will not be solved by relying on the
same politicians and special interests
who have created the systems of oppression
we fight daily.
People of color and women know
that rights are never given; they must
be taken. We cannot afford to be afraid,
we have too much to lose.
Bertha Lewis
is the founder and president
of Th e Black Institute.
UNEQUAL REPRESENTATION
Total
Delegates
Women
Delegates
African-
American
Delegates
Hispanic
DHeilsepgaantiecs
Delegates
1894 175 1 0 0
1894
1967 168 6 2 0
1938
1967 186 10 11 5
1967