In spring, our time of renewal, we are forced to say farewell to Tom Blagburn and Jack Kemp, two men who devoted their lives to making the nation’s capital a better place to live.
I wrote about Blagburn’s passing last week; his funeral was a moving moment and a call to action. Kemp died over the weekend.
On Monday, integrated Washington, D.C., came out to bid farewell to Blagburn. Folks from many races and places and economic ranges and ages filled the pews at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church — as Tom would have wanted.
Mayor Adrian Fenty stopped by for a bit of face time. Former Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly sat through the Mass. Cops came to honor the godfather of community policing. Former Chiefs Burtell Jefferson and Ike Fulwood were on hand. They joined Melvin High, who served with Blagburn and went on to become chief in Prince George’s County.
Sitting in the wooden pew in one of the four churches that define Chevy Chase Circle, I considered the most important qualities shared by Kemp and Blagburn: Both had big hearts, and both devoted themselves in selfless ways to the city that is the nation’s capital.
In Kemp’s case, becoming D.C.’s champion could be seen as self-destructive. For a Republican who served in Congress after finishing his career in pro football, lobbying for a city of black Democrats is not exactly a resume builder. Yet Kemp joined former Virginia Rep. Tom Davis as two of the few GOP voices for voting rights in D.C.
“Kemp became the happy warrior for the D.C. voting rights movement,” says Ilir Zherka, executive director for DC Vote, an advocacy group. “When ground was dedicated on the National Mall for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Kemp spoke more passionately about D.C. voting rights than any other speaker that day.”
Why? Not because it would strengthen the party vote or meet some political or moral litmus test. Kemp believed D.C. residents should have a vote in Congress because it was just and democratic.
If Kemp wanted all D.C. residents to have the vote, Tom Blagburn wanted those at the bottom of the heap to have a chance. He started working for kids in 1970 as a roving leader for the recreation department. He then spent 18 years in the D.C. police department advising chiefs in ways to prevent crime by nurturing communities and caring for kids on the edge. From the inside, at the highest levels, he asked whether it made sense to fill jails rather than fill minds.
Like Kemp, Blagburn did some of his best work for D.C. in what some might call retirement. He rattled cages, from the mayor’s to council members’ to mine — to bring attention to kids who could be saved by schooling or mentoring or parenting.
“Who will carry on Tom’s passion?” the Rev. Aisha Karimah asked in her eulogy. “Who here will take up the work for the least and the lost?”
I fear both Blagburn and Kemp will be impossible to replace.
