Walter L. Fields is the founder of South Orange-Maplewood Black Parents Workshop. The sentiments are his own.

Today marks the 56th anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee. It is appropriate on this day to remind the South Orange-Maplewood community of the hypocrisy that Dr. King called out before his death, and how his words ring true in the context of present circumstances in the local school district.

At the time of his death, Dr. King had abandoned the hopeful and aspirational language that had transformed him into a national civil rights leader. His final book, “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community,” published after his death, was written with a foreboding tone and a sense of dread over the direction of the nation. Dr. King had grown weary over the betrayal by white allies and some Black leaders, and their cowardice in addressing injustices.

“A leading voice in the chorus for social transition belongs to the white liberal, whether he speaks through the government, the church, the voluntary welfare agencies or the civil rights movement. Over the last few years many Negroes have felt that their most troublesome adversary was not the obvious bigot of the Ku Klux Klan or the John Birch Society, but the white liberal who is more devoted to “order” than to justice, who prefers tranquility to equality.”

The quote above by Dr. King from his last book speaks directly to what we are witnessing today in the South Orange-Maplewood community. Behind the facade of progressivism, the community exhibits the prejudices and biases of the Jim Crow era while professing to support diversity, equity, and inclusion. The current embrace of a criminally-charged school principal and disregard for a Black, female, special needs student-victim is just the latest example of the hypocrisy Dr. King identified. It is not the first time we have witnessed this phenomenon in SOMA. Eight years ago, the Board of Education was informed that the Maplewood police had assaulted students. The Board took no action. It took the intervention of the Black Parents Workshop to bring the incident to light and fight for justice for the student-victim.

Why is it that educational leadership in this school district habitually deems Black children liars? Worse is the cowardice of not stating that is their belief and concocting a narrative to undermine the truth and stain the reputation of a Black child.

In this latest episode of “White People Know Best,” a former School Board Member, Courtney Winkfield, has fabricated an incident that did not occur—a fight. Ms. Winkfield knows better or should know better. There are policies and procedures in place in the school district to record the occurrence of a fight, just as there is a procedure to account for the suspension of a student. Ms. Winkfield believes that if you repeat a lie, it will magically become truth. She does know the power of a cult-like embrace of a lie, as we have witnessed this on the national political stage with the MAGA movement. Her first claim on social media was there was a fight, but then she changed the narrative to “Mr. Sanchez was on his way to break up a fight.” Winkfield is touting a lie in search of facts. Like a screaming “Karen,” Ms. Winkfield is playing the same role hysterical white women played hurling racial epithets at Black children who were trying to integrate public schools in the 1950s and 1960s.

When did Ms. Winkfield learn of this incident during her Board tenure? Did Ms. Winkfield question the delay in the reporting of this incident to the authorities? Was Ms. Winkfield aware that the student-victim was suspended without proper notification? Is Ms. Winkfield aware that child endangerment extends beyond the act to the failure to properly report such an act? Can Ms. Winkfield explain the need for two reports from contract counsel and why the same firm reaches two different conclusions? We see a dereliction of duty and a cover-up, and possible official misconduct of an elected official. Mr. Sanchez’s own union has offered no support or defense of this suspended principal, but Ms. Winkfield chooses to be his human shield. We stand on our truth and the record of the incident as detailed by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.

It is not just white voices in this community that seek to crush the dignity of this Black student.

So, we are not surprised or confused when Khalil Muhammad defends Mr. Sanchez while showing no regard for a young Black girl. This is the same man who was sympathetic to cuts to school libraries while serving as the director of a branch of the New York Public Library and made peace with an errant “slave auction” in an elementary school. Muhammad criticizes BPW Chairman James Davis but can produce no evidence of taking a single stand for Black children in a school district that has come under multiple federal investigations for discriminatory practices. After all, he removed his own son from Columbia High School at the same time BPW was issuing warnings over the treatment of Black students in the school district.

It was Muhammad’s own great grandfather, Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad, who called out this behavior in his book “Message to the Black Man in America.” The elder Muhammad reflected on his critics,

“The Negroes opposing Muhammad [substitute BPW] are mostly egged on to it by personal jealousy or motivated by their own white ‘sponsors’ who must not be offended or denied unless they have the ground cut from under them in politics, business or social circles.”

Muhammad’s great grandson, Khalil Muhammad, is more concerned with comforting white fragility than standing on truth. He, and others, serves the role of White Whisperer, willing to trample the rights of a Black child to gain favor. His ridiculous assertion that James Davis is “weaponizing the law” reveals the disingenuousness of this trained social scientist. He knows better but chooses to curry favor with a white audience. If the likes of lawyers like Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, Constance Baker Motley, and others, had not used litigation as a tool to exact justice for Black Americans, Khalil Muhammad’s social status would be a figment of his imagination.

Litigation would not be necessary if the school district did right by Black children. BPW will use the courts whenever we deem it necessary, without apology. Given the history and behavior of this school district, we suspect that the courts will be busy.

On this somber anniversary, the Black Parents Workshop remains steadfast in its commitment to advocate for and support Black children in the South Orange-Maplewood Public School District. The Black Parents Workshop supports the student-victim of Frank Sanchez and is not deterred by lawn signs or a glaringly racist “defense fund” for a criminally-charged school administrator. Like Dr. King, our question remains, does the South Orange-Maplewood community want chaos or community? To date, it has chosen the former and has made our choice easy