Honoring Malcolm X on His Birthday

Malcolm X

(born Malcolm Little; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965),
also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz,[ was an American Black Muslim minister and a spokesman for the Nation of Islam.

After leaving the Nation of Islam in 1964, he made the pilgrimage, the Hajj, to Mecca and became a Sunni Muslim. He also founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Less than a year later, he was assassinated in Washington Heights on the first day of National Brotherhood Week.


Historian Robin D.G. Kelley wrote, "Malcolm X has been called many things: Pan-Africanist, father of Black Power, religious fanatic, closet conservative, incipient socialist, and a menace to society. The meaning of his public life — his politics and ideology — is contested in part because his entire body of work consists of a few dozen speeches and a collaborative autobiography whose veracity is challenged. Malcolm has become a sort of tabula rasa, or blank slate, on which people of different positions can write their own interpretations of his politics and legacy. Chuck D of the rap group Public Enemy and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas can both declare Malcolm X their hero.

Make it Plain -an essential documentary(Part 1)
[parts 1-14 can readily be watched ion YouTube-Gatsby]


Malcolm X returning from Mecca, Saudi Arabia on 21 May 1964, after having performed Hajj.


Oxford University Debate:

"I read once, passingly, about a man named Shakespeare. I only read about him passingly, but I remember one thing he wrote that kind of moved me. He put it in the mouth of Hamlet, I think, it was, who said, "To be or not to be." He was in doubt about something. Whether it was nobler in the mind of man to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, moderation, or to take up arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them. And I go for that. If you take up arms, you'll end it, but if you sit around and wait for the one who's in power to make up his mind that he should end it, you'll be waiting a long time. And in my opinion, the young generation of whites, blacks, browns, whatever else there is, you're living at a time of extremism, a time of revolution, a time when there's got to be a change. People in power have misused it and now there has to be a change and a better world has to be built and the only way it's going to be built is with extreme methods. And I, for one, will join in with anyone, I don't care what color you are, as long as you want to change this miserable condition that exists on this earth.” –MX

From his very last speech:

"Recently when I was blessed to make a religious pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca where I met many people from all over the world, plus spent many weeks in Africa trying to broaden my own scope and get more of an open mind to look at the problem as it actually is, one of the things that I realized, and I realized this even before going over there, was that our African brothers have gained their independence faster than you and I here in America have. They've also gained recognition and respect as human beings much faster than you and I. Just ten years ago on the African continent, our people were colonized. They were suffering all forms of colonization, oppression, exploitation, degradation, humiliation, discrimination, and every other kind of -ation. And in a short time, they have gained more independence, more recognition, more respect as human beings than you and I have. And you and I live in a country which is supposed to be the citadel of education, freedom, justice, democracy, and all of those other pretty-sounding words. So it was our intention to try and find out what it was our African brothers were doing to get results, so that you and I could study what they had done and perhaps gain from that study or benefit from their experiences." Malcolm X makes it plain that he is opposed to the philosophy of Martin Luther King.” –MX

Eulogy by Ossie Davis:

This Black Man Doesn't Die

He lives on, he lives on because he has sparked in us- the activist sort- a flame so full of fury and passion for justice and the virtue of a moral driven life- that one can not imagine the burden he carried which is now carried by thousands.

He was one, now is many. He was a man, now he is man, women and child. He was black, now he is white, yellow, red and all hues of humanity. He was a slave, and those who submit to no one have no fear. He was a martyr and in his martyrdom we learn the redemptive value of faith and how one can develop and be elevated when one sticks to their faith.

He was poor and yet so rich. He was denied an education, and yet he did not allow it to be his prison. He lived the worst of America to see that it lived a future that was best for it. He wanted to tear America apart, and yet, he realized through self growth and faith that there is more to an idea then what we experience.

"I realized racism isn't just a black and white problem. It's brought bloodbaths to about every nation on earth at one time or another. Brother, remember the time that white college girl came into the restaurant — the one who wanted to help the [Black] Muslims and the whites get together — and I told her there wasn't a ghost of a chance and she went away crying? Well, I've lived to regret that incident. In many parts of the African continent I saw white students helping black people. Something like this kills a lot of argument. I did many things as a [Black] Muslim that I'm sorry for now. I was a zombie then — like all [Black] Muslims — I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man's entitled to make a fool of himself if he's ready to pay the cost. It cost me 12 years. That was a bad scene, brother. The sickness and madness of those days — I'm glad to be free of them."

If he were alive today, he would be a ripe age of 83. He, however, was murdered on February 21, 1965.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Gathering of the Tribe

[col. writ. 6/19/07] (c) '07 Mumia Abu-Jamal

Ona Move! LLJA!

For what do we gather -- we youths and elders -- if not to try to find some clue to how to remake this world that is obviously going wrong?

Why gather, unless there is at least some hope that some words, some key, some insight may be gained that will glow like the proverbial light bulb over the head of the guy in the comics? But -- as an elder who was a revolutionary before he was 15, please lend your ear to my thoughts. I wish to share with you some ideas that I've always shared with young folks. I try to remind them that Huey P. Newton, who founded the Black Panther Party, did so at the tender age of 24. Twenty-four years old!His friend and co-founder, Bobby Seale, was only a few years older.

I say this to remind you, especially young people, of what young folks are capable of, when they put their minds and hearts to it. Huey didn't ask Martin Luther King, Jr. for permission. He didn't ask Malcolm X for his OK.Like most young people of his time, he talked to other young folks, and before you know it, a dozen young brothas and sistas were with him, trying to build the Party from scratch.

What's my point?Am I suggesting that this was/is easy? Or that, if Huey could do it, you could too?No. It would be dishonest of me, and dangerous for you, to do that.It's important to remember that old adage by Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."It's important for you to learn mistakes of the past, so that you can side-step them in the future.

Among the Ashanti people in West Africa, the following proverb is used: " A wise man who ceases to learn ceases to be wise."Study. Study. Seriously study our people's history of resistance, so that you can remake this world {that is} on the brink of chaos.Huey P. Newton studied the works of Malcolm X; he studied anti-Imperialist movements in Cuba, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. He studied the writings of Mao, of Che, of Kwame Nkrumah and beyond.Then he put his studies into practice.

The great Frantz Fanon, a revolutionary psychiatrist who helped {in} the Algerian Revolution said, "Every generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, and fulfill it or betray it."That is your task. It can't be handed to you like a ticket.It must emerge from the inner recesses of the soul, from the red embers of collective and personal history.You must own it, and make it yours, by seizing the stage of history - by taking it.For, as elders return to their ancestors, the earth becomes the inheritance of the living.The challenge is great; the threats are daunting; but the promise of freedom, of true liberation couldn't be sweeter.

Thank you! Ona Move!From Life's Row, this Mumia Abu-Jamal

*******

Mumia Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner in the United States, with what could be the final decision on his legal appeals possibly coming down this summer. That decision could give Mumia his freedom, a new trial, life in prison, or execution. It is time to turn up the heat against this injustice.

Free Mumia!

Free Imam Jamil Al-Amin!

The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) has recently issued a campaign pack to demand justice for "prisoner of faith" Imam Jamil Al Amin (formerly known as H. Rap Brown).

The 19-page pdf document includes a brief background of Imam Jamil and his many contributions to the Muslim community in the US, a summary of the case against him, and action items to help end the injustice he is facing.

The report also includes model letters and address that leave no excuse for anyone not to start a letter writing campaign (hint, hint).

Below are excerpts from the report (jazaks to Sabeen Shaiq for forwarding the link):

Background

Imam Jamil (formerly known as H. Rap Brown) was one of the most articulate and outspoken critics of the tyranny and oppression perpetuated by the Jim Crow laws of the 1960’s which served to legally segregate whites from blacks. Known as a bold and daring fighter for the rights of the oppressed and unjustly treated, he was accorded the same status by media personalities and law-enforcement officials as that given to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcom X). During this period, Imam Jamil received his ‘violent’ label by these individuals who sought to demean his advocacy of self-defence against US government-induced terrorism against the black communities and racist Ku Klux Klan activities. Throughout the 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s, Imam Jamil has proven himself to be an outstanding Islamic leader as exemplified through the following:...

The Case

Imam Jamil was charged with 13 counts of murder and felony murder in March 2000 after shootings outside his grocery store earlier in the same month which resulted in one deputy being killed. Ultimately, he was found guilty of all 13 counts and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

The trial followed the extremely muddled and chaotic investigation of the shootings in which flaws have been well documented....

The Freedom of Information Act revealed that there are over 44,000 documents compiled on Imam Jamil’s life since the 1960s when he was known as H Rap Brown, which Imam Jamil himself has made reference to on several occasions. The media coverage of Imam Jamil has conveyed him as being ‘some kind of gun-toting, irresponsible Black thug’, according to a close friend of his. ...

All these connotations have been projected, even though since his conversion to Islam in 1971, Imam Jamil has worked hard for the Muslim community in America. He established the Community Mosque of Atlanta and in 1983 formed the National Islamic Community, an amalgamation of 30 mosques. Friends have described Imam Jamil as humble and respectful and he has been widely credited on the work he has undertaken with ‘...ridding his neighbourhood of drug dealers...’ Perhaps then, it is not difficult to believe him when he stated, after his arrest in Alabama, “It’s a government conspiracy”.