Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer, a Washington institution and the second highest-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives and former House Majority Leader, has given a riveting endorsement of a new book on hope that is set to be published in April at a time when the nation is at an inflection point.
The book, HOPE: On The Mountain Of Fear by the nationally acclaimed Detroit journalist and standard-bearer for economic justice issues Bankole Thompson provides a realistic prescription for how to engender hope and resilience in these challenging times in the nation. It is a compendium of insightful and analytical essays expertly written by diverse individuals from around the country who are described as messengers of hope in the book on some of the most pressing issues facing the nation ranging from healthcare affordability including veterans care, the future of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities, state of the news media to the debilitating housing crisis. It offers pragmatic and thoughtful solutions to end the nightmare of hopelessness that many are currently dealing with.
“Everyone in the Congress – and the country – ought to read my friend Bankole Thompson’s book. At a time when division, inequality, and injustice in America often feel inescapable, Thompson reminds us that there is a way out: the path of solidarity, democracy, and hope,” Hoyer wrote in endorsing the book.
Congressman Hoyer received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1966 and has been in Congress for more than four decades as the longest-serving Democrat. He plans to retire at the end of his current term. His endorsement of Thompson’s book coming from a key player in national politics is the latest from a cross-section of diverse leaders from around the country including those in academia, public policy, civil rights, business as well as advocates for social change.
For example, March Morial, one of the nation’s most prominent civil rights leaders and former president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and who is the president and CEO of the National Urban League, the nation’s largest civil rights organization, wrote the book’s epilogue. In it Morial described Thompson as an “award-winning journalist and public thinker,” while calling the book a “groundbreaking anthology,” adding that, “In a time of division, uncertainty, and urgent questions about the future of the American democratic experiment, HOPE: On The Mountain Of Fear is a resounding call to courage, conviction, and collective purpose.”
Sister Simone Campbell, one of the most powerful voices for social and economic justice in the modern American Catholic Church, a close ally of the late Pope Francis’ anti-poverty crusades and a 2022 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, wrote the book’s foreword.
“Hope can weave us together in challenging times if we stay connected in community of some sort. Wherever we look there are opportunities to make a difference by being part of the fabric of our society. None of us have to do BIG things, but we each must do SOME thing. Hope in these challenging times might just be the new green shoots of spring time growth that we need. That is what will see us through,” Campbell wrote in the foreword.
Bankole Thompson, one of the first Black editors to conduct a series of historic exclusive sit-down interviews with former President Barack Obama, is the founder and dean of the national anti-poverty and economic justice think tank, The PuLSE Institute, a twice-a-week opinion columnist at The Detroit News and the host of the podcast, Bankole’s Nation.
A member of the National Press Club of Washington D.C., Thompson is an accomplished author of several books, including Fiery Conscience, about his decades of speaking truth to power reviewed by Forbes and listed as a reference in the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division of the New Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He has appeared severally on CNN and other major news outlets.
Thompson’s work which is defined by a rigorous focus on economic justice, racial equality and poverty is often linked to the tradition of Frederick Douglass speaking truth to power.
In January of 2018, the late civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson Sr., personally presented Thompson with the Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s Let Freedom Ring Journalism Award for being a preeminent voice of conscience and courage during a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In a rare honor, the University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library established the Bankole Thompson Papers in 2015 to preserve his work alongside the papers of Michigan governors. In 2018, he received the U.S. Congressional Record of Testimonial placing his body of work into the official record of the 118th Congress.
“Congressman Steny Hoyer is an elder statesman in our enduring democratic experiment with a long and distinguished record as a powerful legislator. He has been at the center of the undying need to rescue democracy from the clutches of exclusionary politics to a liberated inclusive vision,” Thompson said. “I feel honored that he sees HOPE: On The Mountain Of Fear as an urgent roadmap to create a more perfect union and for the surgeons of freedom in this dispensation to use the book as a necessary panacea to perform on the maladies of wounded justice that is lurking behind the emergency rooms of racial and economic injustice.”
Thompson added, “Inequality is choking the life out of many communities around the country. Others are living in abject fear of not knowing what tomorrow will bring. True leadership should inspire hope not despair. And hope in Congress right now calls for bipartisan men and women of conviction and courage who are willing to make real the promises made in the opening words of the Declaration of Independence that all are created equal.”
As a champion for economic justice issues, Thompson’s advocacy has been partly centered on what has been called the Bankole Thompson Doctrine, which declares that business leaders have a moral and ethical obligation to invest in anti-poverty efforts.
HOPE: On The Mountain of Fear is his sixth book.
