Keeping Hope Afloat in a Sea of Uncertainty 

President Barack Obama believed that Change Will Come, echoing the decades-old call from civil rights activist Jesse Jackson for Black Americans to Keep Hope Alive. Yet, despite these inspiring words—words that fueled the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and paved the way for a Black man to walk into the White House—many in our community have struggled to live by them.

Who can deny that Nelson Mandela’s rise to the presidency of South Africa helped soften the resistance of those who once vowed never to support a Black leader—let alone envision a Black woman seated in the Oval Office? Mandela’s journey was made possible, in part, by the fact that South Africa’s 90% Black population was long ruled by a small, entrenched white minority known as the Afrikaners.

Fast forward to today, on Buffalo’s East Side, where Black residents face mounting challenges: renting an apartment, buying a home, or securing one of the thousands of vacant lots scattered across the city like a bizarre game of Tic Tac Toe. Even those with the means to build from the ground up find themselves blocked by systemic barriers.

Many middle-class African American wage earners have left Buffalo—not out of despair, but out of necessity. The reasons they share with me are sobering:

1. A lack of affordable housing

2. Inadequate education in Buffalo Public Schools

3. A shortage of credible and reliable childcare providers

4. Limited job opportunities for Black high school and college graduates

And yet, the love for the Buffalo Bills remains strong, even when their performance falters. Our collective love for Buffalo is enduring and unwavering—even as some city leaders continue to neglect entire neighborhoods based not on the color of residents’ money, but on the color of their skin.

Still, this writer will always Keep Hope Alive. On April 4, 1968, I was just 17 miles from the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Jesse Jackson stood and where the Honorable Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. transitioned to Ancestorhood. And to my president—forever President Barack Obama—I say: Change will come. We Black Americans must work to ensure we are on the right side of that change.