By Frederick A. Hurst

I often end the year with predictions for the next year and this year is no exception except I will be making only two predictions and they will both address the same issue. I’m happy to say that my first prediction for 2021 is bright and hopeful but I’m sorry to say that my second prediction for 2021 is dim and hopeless. Both predictions address the state of Black politics in Springfield but only one can be accurate. The problem is―I don’t know which one.

PREDICTION I Without question, the seeds of hope for Black politics in Springfield have been sown in the last few years by a younger, brighter crowd of Black politicians who have occupied local seats on the Springfield City Council and School Committee and by many other younger involved Black folks who are determined to make change in the way things happen (or don’t happen) in the city. And their determination and courage have been a source of pride to most of us as they struggle to assert a unified voice in pursuit of heretofore elusive possibilities for inclusion at all levels of power. I predict that these younger and relatively new voices will dominate Black politics in 2021 even more so than in 2020, a year in which they have accomplished so much but not enough to declare victory because theirs has been merely a great beginning. I further predict that 2021 will be the year that these young leaders become the clearly recognized front-line voices of the Black community as their elders gracefully assume the status of statesmen and stateswomen available for advice and counsel mostly off the playing field and that Black Springfield will begin a new, invigorating future that finally casts off the petty and divisive bickering of the past and unifies, like never before, to focus on the real future prizes of expanded political power and economic parity for themselves, their community and their posterity.

PREDICTION II
My second prediction for 2021 is that Black politics in Springfield will become even more divided as the poison of the past descends on it like a dark cloud enveloping and consuming the youthful promise for its future. Permanent schisms will develop among Springfield’s young Black leaders – elected and otherwise – and one significant cause of the schisms will be the lingering influence of remnants of the “old guard.” The consequence will be that the impressive progress made by the younger political leaders and their social peers will completely dissipate and the Black community of Springfield will continue to suffer for decades in the future from the same relative political stagnation that characterized so much of our political past as Black folks, with our one state representative, bear witness to the continuing impressive economic and political emergence of the much younger Puerto Rican community–which Black folks’ arrival in Springfield predated by many decades–with its current three state legislators: one senator and two state representatives…and Cheryl Rivera running the Hampden County Registry of Deeds. My further prediction is that after so many recently hopeful years, when so many younger Black folks stepped up to the plate to carry the torch that we who came before them lit, Black politics in Springfield in 2021 will deteriorate most probably beyond future reprieve for the simple reason that the time for silliness, selfishness and divisiveness is no longer on our side.
Needless to say, I hope, when 2022 comes around, my first 2021 prediction will have been proven right and my second prediction proven wrong. But it’s not my call. It is entirely up to the generations that followed me and my peers…those who are now the legitimate leaders. My generation did the best that it knew how but somehow I don’t think we did the best that we could have done. Let’s hope that those who have followed us will do better and their progeny even much better and that 2021 will forever be celebrated as our pivotal year. Happy New Year! ■