President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris arrive at the White House, Nov. 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Gregg Marcel Dixon, a Lowcountry teacher and activist running for Congress to represent South Carolina’s 6th Congressional District seat in 2022, will be vying against longtime majority whip Rep. James Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives. Dixon is pro-reparations, and this is not sitting well with some supporters of the DNC establishment.
The Lowcountry is an area along the South Carolina coast that has its own unique culture.
The 6th Congressional District consists of Allendale, Bamberg, Clarendon, Colleton, Hampton, Jasper, and Williamsburg counties, as well as parts of Beaufort, Berkeley, Calhoun, Charleston, Dorchester, Orangeburg, Richland, and Sumter counties.
“I am running because James Clyburn and the Congressional Black Caucus could push President Joe Biden to issue an executive order to start a committee for reparations and also bring back the Freedmen’s Bureau, but it has not been done,” Dixon told Bluffton Today. “Black America needs real representation.”
Dixon said he decided to run after attending a town hall meeting hosted by Clyburn on July 6 in Ridgeland, where he asked Clyburn about reparations.
Aniview code:Clyburn was on a multi-city “Help Is Here” town hall tour to discuss child tax credit payments and the Affordable Care Act. At one of those town hall meetings, activist, journalist and healing arts practitioner Jameion Fowler, asked Clyburn about reparations. Clyburn admitted he had never heard of ADOS (American Descendants of Slavery).
He said, “I have no idea who that is,” Dixon said.
Dixon announced his run against Clyburn in July.
So far, the Joe Biden Administration, including Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black woman to hold the post, has yet to support monetary reparations.
“Since being in office, Joe Biden has signed executive actions for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, for the LGBTQ community, for Native Americans, but where is his executive action for Black Americans?” Dixon asked. “Joe Biden could easily do an executive action and bring back the Freedmen’s Bureau, whose job was to close all disparities between Black Americans who are descendants of freedmen and white Americans. Joe Biden, with just the stroke of a pen, could start a commission to study reparations and implement them. You are our representative. We cannot show up everywhere. It’s your job to speak up for us.”
Dixon, 36, is fully behind reparations for Native Black Americans, and Biden-Harris supporters have attacked him on Twitter. One user, upset that Dixon had challenged Clyburn on his stance on reparations, threatened to feed Dixon to the alligators.
The threat said in part, “Pull that stunt you pulled on Clyburn when my family and I are in attndance…the Bay Swamp & the Gators will have a new guest.”
Dixon felt that the online threat was a violation of Twitter’s rules and he complained. However, Twitter deemed the tweet was not a violation.
“So @Geechee4YoDaddy threatens me, I report it to @twitter, and this is what they tell me. See it for yourselves but #Freedmen get suspended for just saying the word ‘knee-grow’. They really do fear us #Reparationists#reparations.”
“The swamp gators having a new neighbor is a threat. Twitter support needs to be suspended,” tweeted Miss Jacks0n@1783Amer1can.
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Online supporters of Vice President Harris, known as the #KHive, also went after Dixon when he challenged her efficiency.
Dixon has never run for office but said he has been involved in the reparations movement for about three years.
Campaigning to Fix H.R. 40, Dixon said he supports his decision to run for office. H.R. 40 would establish a commission to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans.
Dixon was born in Savannah, Georgia. His professional experience includes working as a teacher. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 2009 and a graduate degree in 2013 from Fort Hays State University, according to Ballotpedia.
The general election is scheduled for Nov. 8, 2022.
Photo: President Joe Biden, with Vice President Kamala Harris, arrives to speak before signing the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill into law during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Nov. 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
