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caption: Dr. Arthur A. Fletcher delivers an emotional speech at the celebration of the 40th Anniversary of The 1964 Civil Rights Act at the Statehouse in Annapolis, Md. Fletcher was the first African American to play professional football and coined the phrase “A mind is a terrible thing to waste”. He also served as a plaintiff in the historic Brown vs. The Topeka Board of Education suit. AP Photo/ Matt Houston.Mr. Afirmative ActionBy Rev. Barbara ReynoldsNNPA Columnist On July 21, I attended the funeral of “Mr. Affirmative Action,” Arthur Fletcher at Greater Mt. Calvary Holy Church (GMCHC) in Washington, D.C. Fletcher’s efforts have brought billions of dollars into the American economy through opening up avenues for African-Americans, women, Hispanics and the physically challenged to gain employment and promotions. Fletcher’s funeral should have attracted at least half the national media coverage of the funeral of singer Luther Vandross. It didn’t. The highest ranking Republicans should have attended Fletcher’s funeral, but they didn’t.Michael Steele, Maryland’s Black Lt. Governor spoke, but compared to the other GOP big fish- White House officials, congressional leaders and cabinet members, he wasn’t even Charlie the Tuna. National leaders, such as D.C. delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, Dorothy Height, former Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman spoke. One of America’s greatest orators, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, eulogized Fletcher. Elder Tejado Hanchell, of GMCHC, officiated. Fletcher was an honorable Republican at a time when I can’t think of many honorable ones, White or Black. Justice Clarence Thomas is a shamefully bird-brained Uncle Tom; Secretary Condoleezza Rice is admired by progressives for her intellect, but not for how she uses it. Gen. Colin Powell had his reputation tarnished by President Bush who sent him out to drumbeat for a phony Iraqi War with false information about weapons of mass destruction. But Fletcher, whose father was a Buffalo soldier, was able to rise up through the Republican ranks to become an assistant Secretary of Labor under Richard Nixon and author the Philadelphia Plan, one of the strongest federal affirmative action program in history. The very programs President George Bush and his crew are undermining through packing the Supreme Court and starving federal agencies that watch over affirmative action are the very legacies that Fletcher helped push into the workplaces of America. Many Blacks, Hispanics and women have their big important jobs with their names on the doors because Fletcher, the first Black player for the Baltimore Colts, ran with the ball for the have-nots. Fletcher showed us that to be a Republican or Democrat you don’t have to go where the party is, but you bring it where we are. And when Fletcher got enough of the Republicans shenanigans, this 6 foot five former linebacker would stand straight and say so. For example, before launching a short-lived campaign for the president in 1995, he said, “My party has designed a top-down strategy, which says the wealthy, the rich, the affluent belong to this party. It’s time to stop that and say there’s room for anybody who wants to participate in the Republican Party.” I talked to Fletcher some months ago. At that time I recalled our earlier conversations where he told me that he was busy building his legacy. That legacy was not about money or amassing powerful friends, it was about leaving his footsteps for you and I to follow in, whether we are White, Black, male, female, rich or poor, Democrat or Republican. A portion of that legacy which he has been working on over the decades was read at his funeral: “I believe my living will not be in vain because I am convinced that in serving God’s cause and sustaining my own life and being of benefit to mankind and humanity, my deeds, private and public will become the building blocks out of which a victorious life is built.” Others spoke of his legacy. Alexis Herman, who was the first African-American female Secretary of Labor, said, “He set the stage to ensure we know how to have affirmative action. He made the promise of America, the practice of America.” Dorothy Height spoke from a wheelchair with dignity and power. “He was a man who fully lived for others. Now it a time when our rights are being so threatened, his strong voice is so much needed.” Rev. Wright concluded: “It didn’t matter what side of the aisle he sat on, what mattered most about him is what he stood for.” It is a good question are there any insiders cut from the Fletcher model who can stand inside the Republican Party which President Bush, himself, has described a party of the “have-mores.” For that matter there are a few, but not many Democratic insiders who will keep the fire lit under the feet of the top officials. Who can maintain that kind of balance? Unfortunately, despite Fletcher serving as chairman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights and being an executive director of the United Negro College Fund, even some so-called intellectual Blacks have overlooked Fletcher. I looked in the AFRICANA, a 2,094 page encyclopedia of the African and African-American experience compiled by editor Henry Louis Gates. Under “affirmative action,” the book gave President Nixon all the credit for writing the first federal affirmative action policies. No mention of Fletcher. I looked under the F’s for information about Fletcher. Nothing there. But there was a lengthy write-up about Roberta Flack. Rev. Barbara Reynolds, the religion columnist for NNPA. She is a graduate of the Howard University School of Divinity and the United Theological Seminary, where she earned a doctorate degree in ministry.