Political Consultant Jerry Austin in Beachwood tonight; Wyatt Tee Walker and Hugh Masakela leave us

Cuyahoga Politics Today

Renowned political consultant tells compelling tales

​I read Jerry Austin’s True Tales From The Campaign Trail: Stories Only Political Consultants Can Tell pretty much in one afternoon.

That wasn’t my expectation when I started in on it, but the stories have a crescendo effect. Each one made me want to read the next one. Since they average only a page or two, the book almost had a hypotic, slot-machine effect.

Political consultants appear to be a small self-selected group. They seem to enter the field through different doors but I suspect it’s the same few themes that draw them inside the hidden walls of campaigning.

One of the common traits of the best of them, it would seem, is a wry sense of humor. I wouldn’t call many of the stories Austin shares “funny”, but several have wrinkles that remind you of our common humanity.

In its heyday, Reader’s Digest magazine had a feature that I loved called “Life in These United States”. As I remember, the feature consisted of eight or so vignettes depicting incidents in the lives of a handful of folk with whom we millions of readers were sharing national borders.

Austin’s compilation of stories from his friends, colleagues and competitors evokes that feeling along a narrower trail. The cumulative effect is to give readers a sense of what it’s like to be inside a political contest, to appreciate the vagaries of candidates and campaigns alike.

Among the highlights of Austin’s career are directing Dick Celeste’s two successful Ohio gubernatorial campaigns and managing Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign.

Austin will discuss his book and career at Beachwood Public Library tonight from 7PM-8:30PM. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing. There are sure to be a number of political junkies in the audience.

Beachwood Library is a branch of the County Public Library located at 25501 Shaker Blvd.

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The following tribute is from a social media post by the Rev. Dr. Jawanza Colvin of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio.

A MIGHTY OAK HAS FALLEN

The Reverend Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker

Civil Rights Icon • Prophet • Pastor • Scholar
Genius • Renaissance Man • Gentleman

Thank You for...

• Providing Leadership to SCLC under MLK

• Developing the Strategy for Birmingham in 1963

• Smuggling out of Dr. King’s cell the “Letter from The Birmingham Jail”

• Pressuring the World Council of Churches into taking a stand against Apartheid in S. Africa

• Showing us the African Roots of Black Sacred Music and Sounds

• Picking up the mantle from Adam Clayton Powell Jr. as the Prophet of Harlem for all those years at Canaan Baptist Church of Christ

• AND SO MUCH MORE...May You Now Find Rest

Wyatt Tee Walker was a key strategist of the Civil Rights Movement, a confidant of Martin Luther King, and a leading pastor and civic leader in Harlem. He died yesterday in Virginia at 88.

The following is from the New York Times article reporting his death:

In 1989, speaking from the pulpit of Riverside Church in Manhattan to celebrate Dr. King’s 60th birthday, he said that the establishment of a national holiday to honor King had “seduced us into becoming too comfortable.”

He added, “It is insufficient for us to come together on his birthday, sometimes in an artificial way, white and black together, and sing ‘We Shall Overcome’ and hold hands and get a warm feeling and then go back to business as usual in white racist America.”

We recommend your reading the entire article. We also commend this resource on Dr. Walker.

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The great jazz trumpeter Hugh Masakela also died yesterday in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was 78. His death and life were reported here (NPR) and here (NYT).

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