{"id":10792,"date":"2024-01-04T20:08:41","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T20:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=10792"},"modified":"2024-01-04T20:09:07","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T20:09:07","slug":"representative-harold-m-love-jr-president-elect-of-the-national-black-caucus-of-state-legislators-tells-how-his-rise-could-affect-the-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/04\/representative-harold-m-love-jr-president-elect-of-the-national-black-caucus-of-state-legislators-tells-how-his-rise-could-affect-the-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Representative Harold M. Love, Jr., President-Elect of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, Tells How His Rise Could Affect the Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael A. Grant, J.D.
\n<\/strong>Special to The Truth<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tennessee Representative Harold M. Love, Jr., the next president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL), served as host to the NBCSL\u2019s recent conference held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in downtown Nashville. Representative of Tennessee\u2019s 58th<\/sup>\u00a0legislative district, Love is now president-elect of the NBCSL.\u00a0He will be sworn in as president next December 2025 in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing that I have thought about when it comes to leading NBCSL once I\u2019m sworn in is to continue some of the work I\u2019m doing now as president-elect. And one of the main focal points that I have been charged with by the current president is to establish a series of regional quarterly meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love says the NBCSL will begin holding in-person meetings throughout the year instead of one annual meeting, a strategy envisioned by current president, Alabama Rep. Laura Hall, and assigned to Rep. Love.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe benefit is that we can address issues a lot faster than to wait for the annual conference at the end of the year. Most legislators are in session part time and the issues that we have to address happens in many states and affects constituencies that we represent from voting rights to educational attainment to affordable housing and health issues,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so, to have regional meetings on a quarterly basis will allow us to respond faster collectively and that\u2019s the strength of NBCSL. We are a collection of caucuses from across the country\u2026We work in silos, but it does help when we have an organization that can galvanize us and make us aware of issues that are moving from state to state. So much happens from January through November that we now can no longer wait to convene.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representative Love has been groomed for national leadership since his youth.\u00a0His father, the legendary Harold Love, Sr., served in the Tennessee state house for nearly 30 years.\u00a0His mother, an educator, taught math for 10 years and acted as director of the federal government\u2019s local Upward Bound program for 47 years at Tennessee State University.\u00a0She passed away one year after retirement.<\/p>\n

Representative Love lavishes praise on both of his parents who taught him how to serve others.\u00a0All of their efforts resulted in his finally being elected after three unsuccessful attempts to hold public office.\u00a0According to Representative Love, who earned a master\u2019s degree from Vanderbilt University in Theological Studies and a doctorate from Tennessee State University in public policy and who is also Senior Pastor at Lee Chapel AME Church, received some sage advice from his mentor, Rev. Sonnye Dixon: \u201cDo the work for the community outside of elected office.\u00a0Then you will be able to continue this work after you are elected\u201d.<\/p>\n

From that, Rep. Love took that there are many paths to public service and to elective office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know some people who worked for individuals and for campaigns and then ran for elective office the first time and won. That was not my case. Even though I worked in my father\u2019s campaign, even though I was fairly active in my community, I did not win until my fourth time running,\u201d he recalls.\u00a0\u201cIt was in that space that Rev. Dixon said to me, \u2018I know you want to do well. I know you want to help your community. Put that to work outside the office. And then if you get in the office then you\u2019ve done well. But even if you don\u2019t get elected, you still engaged in helping to shape policy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

There are many ways to serve, Love says. \u201cWe get caught up in the moment-in-time snapshot of election day\u2026But we must also look for opportunities to serve on local and state level boards and commissions. We miss that. Local and state level boards. Or we can shadow someone in a legacy organization like the NAACP and the National Urban League and engage in that work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2010 flood that damaged a section of Black Nashville, gave Dr. Love the opportunity to put Reverend Dixon\u2019s advice to work.\u00a0By taking the initiative and helping to organize the recovery funded by FEMA, a grateful community encouraged Representative Love to seek office again.\u00a0This time, in 2012, he was resoundingly elected to represent the 58th<\/sup>\u00a0district of the Tennessee General Assembly.<\/p>\n

The 2010 flood was a deep learning experience for Rep. Love.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe often times do not adequately look into the long-lasting damage that is done to African-American communities post a national disaster. You think about the uprooting of a family, you think about the one of several entities that can appreciate in value \u2013 that\u2019s the home \u2013 and what that looks like for that thing to now be gone. What it looks like for a person to have to relocate their entire family to another part of town and acclimate themselves to a new community, new amenities to all that is new. What does that disruption look like from the standpoint of the ripple effect because it doesn\u2019t just affect them. We\u2019re talking about a whole neighborhood. It affects their families and affects their friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three major initiatives to date are accomplishments of Representative Love.\u00a0They are as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Legislation to require TennCare to track and report on the most current treatment modalities for Sickle Cell Anemia.\u00a0This legislation allowed constituents to hold TennCare accountable for keeping the public apprised of the latest developments in Sickle Cell research.\u00a0Eleven states have subsequently passed similar legislation.<\/li>\n
  2. Representative Love introduced legislation to amend the property tax freeze program\u00a0for citizens 65\u00a0years of age and older who met the income requirements.\u00a0He got the income ceiling lifted from $31,600 to $60,000 annual income.\u00a0This legislation has allowed countless seniors to maintain their status as homeowners.\u00a0Regardless of the increase in house values, the freeze would cap the property tax rate through the duration of homeownership.<\/li>\n
  3. Finally, through a joint committee, headed by Representative Love, the historical under-funding of Tennessee State University, a Land Grant college, has been publicized.\u00a0This gross inequity, dating from 1957-2020, has resulted in a finding that the State of Tennessee owes the school some half a\u00a0billion dollars for capacity grant matching funds withheld.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Asked what his vision for the NBCSL\u00a0will be when he assumes office, Representative Love, with a comprehensive and methodical mind, stated that he wants to get his fellow legislators to take notice of the trend to empower state legislators by political conservatives and be prepared for what is coming at minority communities across the country, such as voter disenfranchisement and intimidation.\u00a0He wants voters across the country to realize that voting is their obligation in a democracy.\u00a0Also, that they should stay engaged in the political process from election day to the implementation of policies designed to ensure inclusion in government created opportunities.<\/p>\n

    Rep. Love believes America\u2019s leading issue is \u201cWithout a shadow of a doubt, voting rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

    He says he believes voting rights \u201cimpact everything else that we\u2019ve been discussing. When you talk about voting rights it\u2019s not just the surface-level election day process. The whole concept of who governs is linked into access to voting. If I don\u2019t have easy, consistent access to vote, then I don\u2019t get to engage in the process of deciding who governs. If I don\u2019t get to decide who governs, then the person who\u2019s dealing with legislation, that person may not have my interests at heart and I didn\u2019t get to engage in a process to choose them or to not choose them\u2026So, that is where it starts and ends as far as I\u2019m concerns. Because without the ability to decide who governs, everything else is almost unattainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Michael A. Grant, J.D. is a former president of the Nashville Branch of the NAACP and the National Bankers Association in Washington, D.C.<\/em><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Michael A. Grant, J.D. Special to The Truth Tennessee Representative Harold M. Love, Jr., the next president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL), served as host to the NBCSL\u2019s recent conference held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in downtown Nashville. Representative of Tennessee\u2019s 58th\u00a0legislative district, Love is now president-elect of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[210],"class_list":["post-10792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10793,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10792\/revisions\/10793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10792"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=10792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}