The audio version of this story is AI generated and is not human reviewed. It may contain errors or inaccuracies. Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can r ead more about the section here. In every generation, a song, a slogan or a slang comes along that becomes more like a cultural anthem. I am a proverbial lover of a myriad genre of music. Being a musician/organist/arranger/singer/recording artist for almost 70 years, I am always enthralled when something new catches my attention. Whether it’s gospel, classical, blues, a love ballad, traditional, transposition, hymns or freedom songs, I am supportive of artists who can take lyrics and make them come alive through the gift of heartfelt music. For the past several months, the chart topping rendition of “Boots on the Ground – Where Them Fans At?” by Douglas Furtick, under the stage name 803Fresh has taken different cultures by storm, myself included. I am sure I am “preaching to the choir,” but allow me to share some historical context. Historically and traditionally, this familiar term was a recent addition to English, gaining traction during the Vietnam War in 1955 and resurging during the wars in Iraq in March 2003 and Afghanistan in October 2001. It refers to active ground troops in a military campaign, physically present and fighting in a war zone. Flonzie Brown Wright was the first Black woman to hold an elected public office in Mississippi. Credit: Zachary Oren Smith, Mississippi Today Back in the Day during the Civil Rights Movement, the definition was expanded to take on a different connotation. It became more and more familiar in relation to a call to action to march to the courthouses to try to register and to vote, as well as a call to other communities that help was needed. As an example, when a community called for help on a given day to march or to protest racism, selective buying campaigns, discrimination in obtaining the right to not only register, but to vote, the call was sent that help was needed – “Boots on the Ground.” Winter, spring, summer or fall, all they had to do was call and we would be there. Whether it was in Meridian, Vicksburg, Canton, Carthage, Port Gibson, Fayette, Biloxi, Natchez, Alabama, Georgia, we borrowed cars, rented buses to go because our fellow activists needed help. Where them fans at is more than a catch phrase. It has a certain kind of cadence that brings out our inherent ability to be able to move to the rhythm. We also used fans – old church fans, fans from the local funeral homes, fans from the “dime” store –  to keep us cool as we marched in 100-degree weather. As I look at the landscape of America today and how rapidly the national political machine is putting into place laws, unqualified heads of departments, executive orders to roll back many of the gains that we have struggled all our lives to gain, I worry that if we don’t put those “Boots on the Ground,” we will witness in our generation up close and personal more accelerated poverty, soup lines, blatant denial of health care and much more to come that we can’t even conceptualize. As we witness the dehumanization of tearing families apart, food rotting in warehouses, mass job loss, a critical lack and loss of health care, erratic decisions, open season on snatching men, women, boys and girls who have been in this country for years, a lack of decency in this administration, I am very troubled. How willing are we to put our “Boots on the Ground” to recommit going to the polls and voting in every election? It was in my lifetime that I could NOT vote. A few months ago, I heard a report that over 8 million African Americans did not vote in 2024. How can that be? Did we forget so soon that in many of our lifetimes, many in MY generation were killed for trying to get the right to vote? How can we forget the lynchings, the bombings, the burnings, the shootings, the assassinations, the jailing the beatings and many other atrocities that our people faced? I cannot count the calls that I have had since November 2024, asking me,“Ms. Flonzie, what happened?” My answer was and still is a simple one: First stop crying and remember we were warned of all the things that could happen. Having said that, we are witnessing “promises made, promises being kept.” Now what? During this Black History Month celebration, please allow me to encourage the readers who may have lost hope to remember the struggle and sufferings of Wharlest Jackson, George Metcalfe, Vernon Dahmer, George Raymond, Armelia Boynton, John Lewis, the four little girls in Birmingham, Viola Liuzzo, the Rev. James Reed, Dr. Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Emmett Till, Annie Devine, the Rev. Jessie Jackson, Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney and thousands more and then lace up those boots and march to the polls.  And, oh yes, don’t forget them fans It’s hot out here, in more ways than one. You will need them!!! Bio: Flonzie Brown Wright is the first African American female elected to public office in the state of Mississippi. On Nov. 5, 1968, she won the position of election commissioner in Madison County. She is president and CEO of FBW Associates, Inc., a marketing consulting firm and is the founder of the Flonzie B. Wright Scholarship Foundation, a foundation which has provided more than $50,000 in scholarship dollars to students and other enhancements to encourage students to stay in school.  ...read more read less