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Illuminating the Voices of Liberation

Posted on May 19, 2016
http://blog.freedomarchives.org/illuminating-the-voices-of-liberation/

Yuri Kochiyama from Blue Magazine #13

Today we honor the birthdays of Ho Chi Minh, Malcolm X, Yuri Kochiyama and Lorraine Hansberry. All were extremely important in their unyielding fight for self-determination, national liberation and against racism in all its forms. We’re happy to have all of their voices contained somewhere in the Freedom Archives along with other archival materials like Ho Chi Minh’s poetry and former political prisoner and member of the Angola 3 Robert King Wilkerson interviewing Yuri Kochiyama. Below are a couple of the many digitized materials we have featuring Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh.
An essential component of the Freedom Archives is to preserve and spread the wisdom and lessons of our movement elders. Connecting issues of today with historical content is an important task in building strong, sustainable and inter-generational movements. Your financial support plays a key role in making all this work happen, creating greater access for newer generations to use our materials and helping to broaden their vision for a more just future.
Ho Chi Minh Speaks to the US Anti-War Movement (in English): http://freedomarchives.org/audio_samples/Viet/Ho%20English.mp3

Malcolm X on African Liberation: http://freedomarchives.org/audio_samples/Mp3_files/Malcolm%20X.Odinga.AfricanFreedomFighters.mp3
Supporting the archives is easy. You can send us a check or click here to give online.

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Thanks so much and visit our search site to check out our entire collection.

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Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org

I Remember Yuri

I remember Yuri

so kind deferential honorable to me

Oh, Marvin X, we love you so much she would say

every time we met

Marvin, we love you

for a long time didn't know she held Malcolm X in her arms

blood running from veins

didn't know Yuri was there

holding our Black Shining King, Malik el Shabazz

love you Yuri

always and forever.

Yuri 

Revolutionary Woman Warrior!

--Marvin X  

5/19/16

Hapi b day, El Haj Malik El Shabazz, Malcolm X

Malcolm X and Maya Angelou

Marvin X on Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad

Marvin  X in Harlem, 1968

photo Doug Harris 

Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X influenced my life greatly, one can say I am that I am because of these two men, of which there are no divisions in my heart, I love them both deeply, always have and always shall. Shit happens in revolutions, friends become enemies, enemies become friends, there are no permanent friends, only permanent interests.

If you were a gambler (and I am not) but if you had to bet on a certain relationship that was successful for 12 years, but when divided, one individual didn't live 12 months, would we not say the twelve years of stability speaks for itself, no matter how rocky it may have been.

On a deeper level, jealousy and envy kill from within, thus it was almost inevitable that Malcolm's prominence would be challenged by senior officials jockeying for power, authority and influence, add to this the US government's Cointelpro or Counter Intelligence Program. NOI officials were FBI agents, although some confessed and continued working in the NOI. When I went to Chicago underground, 1968, and went to the NOI confessing my sin of fornication, I had to face the top officials, including Supreme Captain Raymond Sharieff, Elijah Muhammad, Jr., John Ali. They gave me time out of the NOI. When I finally arrived in the Bay Area and reconnected with my criminal Muslim brothers, they told me I was a punk motherfucker for confessing anything to those wicked officials. My Muslim brothers were former prisoners who didn't submit to anyone, especially anyone who hadn't spent time in prison. For their attitude, they were called "hypocrite Muslims" because they refused to be pimped and were free thinkers. Any free thinker was considered a hypocrite. The believers were taught to say away from such free thinkers or "hypocrite Muslims" even before Malcolm defected.

Free thinkers studied the Qur'an, Hadith and Sufi writers such as Rumi, Hazrat Inayat Khan and Ibn Khaldun, to say nothing of the West African Islamic mystics and scholars such as Bamba. His holy city of Touba in Senegal is as sacred as Mecca to West African Muslims. When I was in North Carolina riding in a taxi, I asked the Senegalese driver if he knew of Bamba? He turned around and showed his T-shirt with a picture of Bamba. I then asked him if Bamba was a holy man? He replied, "He was beyond holy!"

Malcolm's personal relationship with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was enough to make even the simple minded jealous and his defection and attack on HEM was sufficient for any follower to take him out. Elijah was our father and mother, especially for those who'd never had such. Don't condemn Minister Farrakhan for fanning the flames of Malcolm's assassination. Again, the lowest follower condemned Malcolm for attacking HEM.

Let us try to understand the trauma and pain in our community at the death of Malcolm, which is like the deathly tensions between Sunni and Shia, especially in the Near East. When Malcolm turned Sunni it created sectarian tensions among North American Africans approaching the level of madness in Iraq, Syria and Pakistan and elsewhere with those dogmatic believers so narrow minded they will kill anyone not professing the orthodox religiosity. As my mystic teacher Sun Ra taught me, "Sometimes you can be so right you wrong!"

Let us remember the classic master teacher relationship between Rumi and Shams of Tabriz. Shams was murdered by Rumi's jealous students, jealous of his relationship with Master Teacher Shams, thus the Sufi whirl and whirl into states of ecstasy  in mourning with their teacher, Rumi, who whirled and recited poetry in his grief. One of his poetic lines:

If you come to the garden
it doesn't matter
If you don't come to the garden
it doesn't matter...

And so I mourn both my teachers, Elijah and Malcolm, love them both no matter what happened between them, shit happens in revolution, get over it and move on to higher ground! Didn't Malcolm tell you the only bloodless revolution is the Negro revolution? And didn't Elijah Muhammad teach all his followers to trust no one? Some of us didn't get the lesson and ain't got it yet. As per Supreme Wisdom, a brother told me, "Yes, I got it but I didn't get it!"

Master Teacher, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and Malcolm X

Assassinations happen in all revolutions, betrayal is part of revolution, grow up, study revolution, friends betray each other, long time associates, look at Fidel and Che, Stalin and his friends. Even Noble Drew Ali had problems with friends, jealous, envious. They killed him.

Elijah ran for seven years from the jealous ones who said they would eat a grain of rice a day until Elijah was killed after he was appointed leader by Master Fard Muhammad. Check out the Mexican revolution, a history of betrayal. The Palestinians kill each other then hug and pray together in the mosque. In my last meeting with Black Panther Party co-founder, Dr. Huey P. Newton (see my play One Day in the Life or the one-act Salaam, Huey Newton, Salaam), I reminded him how Arabs reconcile after internecine war, and wished he and Eldridge Cleaver would come together, but he told me, "We ain't Arabs!" Huey also said, "There's too much blood on the path between me and Eldridge, too many BPP members lost loved ones behind Eldridge's bullshit, so in respect to them, I cannot, will not, reconcile with Eldridge even though, personally, I would like to do so."

Negroes will hate you forever over two cents, don't hate the white man for inflicting 400 years of slavery, suffering and death down to the present moment.

In truth, most of us ain't done a damn thing Malcolm or Elijah taught us and don't intend to do a damn thing! When I finally went to prison for refusing to fight in Vietnam (after fleeing into exile twice, Canada, Mexico, Belize), brothers told me inside Federal Prison, Terminal Island, San Pedro, California, a fish factory town, "Marvin, you might think it's stinking fish that you smell but it ain't fish. It's these dead, stinking Negroes and fake ass Muslims! Allah loves a warrior, He hates a coward!" 

Happy birthday, Malik El Shabazz, Malcolm X

2nd Breakfast for Muslim Brothers once Incarcerated, Ban the Box, All of us or none

Boston: From Malcolm X to Black Lives Matter

~ Program ~

(5:30 pm – 7:45 pm)
Welcome/Opening Remarks............................Vanessa Silva
Panel Discussion.........................................Guest Speakers
Dr. Muhammad Ahmad
Malcolm X's former political assistant and co-founder of RAM
Saladin Muhammad
African People’s Party (APP) and Black Workers for Justice (BWFJ)
Askia Toure
SNCC, RAM and leader of the Black Arts Movement
Nino Brown
Mass Action Against Police Brutality (MAABP) and ANSWER Coalition
Lanise Frazier
Black Lives Matter Boston (BLM)
Michelle Santana
We Are The Ones (WATO)
Khlaida Smalls
Services Employees International Union (SEIU) and A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI)
Reflections
Please keep comments brief so others may share
Closing Remarks..................................Tony Van Der Meer

Dr. Muhammad Ahmad

https://vimeo.com/19174560

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ccbh/mxp/stanford.html

Saladin Muhammad

http://theblm.net/saladin/

http://livestream.com/accounts/2710797/events/5302091

~ Resources ~

Malcolm X
http://www.brothermalcolm.net http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ccbh/mxp/finalmonths.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9AmuYqjRyg

Askia Toure https://vimeo.com/19921546 https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=p8O-dyEEOuE Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) http://search.freedomarchives.org/search.php?view_collection=129 Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_student_nonviolent_coo

rdinating_committee_sncc/ A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI) http://apri.org/ Act Now to Stop War & End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition http://www.answercoalition.org/boston Black Lives Matter Boston (BLM) https://www.facebook.com/BlackLivesMatterBOS http://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2015/08/20/5-questions-with-the-leader-of-black- lives-matter-boston Mass Action Against Police Brutality (MAAPB) https://www.facebook.com/maapb617/ Services Employees International Union (SEIU) http://www.seiu.org/ We Are The Ones (WATO) https://www.facebook.com/wearetheonesboston http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adebukola-ajao/the-reeducation-of-we-are_b_6600800.html

“History rewards all those who research it.” Malcolm X

Our Man in Toronto, Norman Richmond, aka Jalali on Malcolm X and Music

           

By Norman (Otis) Richmond aka Jalali

Malcolm X, loved then and now by the people, eulogized by Ossie Davis as our “Black Shining Prince”

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) was assassinated 51   years ago, on Feb. 21, 1965, because of his attempt to internationalize the struggle of African people inside the United States. Malcolm was born 91 years ago on May 19, 1925. While U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama has acknowledged Kwanzaa, I doubt very seriously if he will show Malcolm the same love.

The late Manning Marable’s volume, “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,” sparked a renewed interest and debate about Malcolm. Previous works like Karl Evanzz’ “The Judas Factor: The Plot to Kill Malcolm X,” Zak Kondo’s “Conspiracies: Unraveling the Assassination of Malcolm X” and Bill Sales’ “From Civil Rights to Black Liberation: Malcolm X and the Organization of Afro-American Unity” are all being reopened.

Contrary to popular belief, it was Malcolm, not Martin Luther King, who first opposed the war in Vietnam. Malcolm was the first American-born African leader of national prominence in the 1960s to condemn the war. He was later joined by organizations like the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Junta of Militant Organizations (JOMO) and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. This was in the tradition of David Walker, Henry Highland Garnet, Martin R. Delaney, Bishop Henry McNeil Turner, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Ella Baker and Paul Robeson.

Malcolm continued to link the struggles of African people worldwide. King came out against the Vietnam War in his famous April 4, 1967, speech at Riverside Church in New York City. Malcolm spoke against this war from the get-go.

Musicians have done their part to keep Malcolm’s legacy alive. Long before Spike Lee’s 1992 bio-pic, “X,” hip hop, house, reggae and R’n’B artists created music for Malcolm, high-life and great Black music (so-called jazz) artists first wrote and sang about Malcolm. The dance of Malcolm’s time was the “lindy hop,” and he was a master of it. “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” which Malcolm wrote with the assistance of Alex Haley, gives a vivid description of his love of dancing.

Years later, on a visit to the West African nation of Ghana, Malcolm spoke of seeing Ghanaians dancing the high-life. He wrote: “The Ghanaians performed the high-life as if possessed. One pretty African girl sang ‘Blue Moon’ like Sarah Vaughan. Sometimes the band sounded like Charlie Parker.” Malcolm’s impact on Ghana was so great that one folk singer created a song in his honor called “Malcolm Man.”

After Malcolm’s death, many jazz artists recorded music in his memory. Among them, Leon Thomas recorded the song, “Malcolm’s Gone” on his “Spirits Known and Unknown” album; saxophonist-poet-playwright Archie Shepp recorded the poem, “Malcolm, Malcolm Semper Malcolm,” on his Fire Music album. Shepp drew parallels between Malcolm’s spoken words and John Coltrane’s music.

Said Shepp: “I equate Coltrane’s music very strongly with Malcolm’s language, because they were just about contemporaries, to tell you the truth. And I believe essentially what Malcolm said is what John played. If Trane had been a speaker, he might have spoken somewhat like Malcolm. If Malcolm had been a saxophone player, he might have played somewhat like Trane.”

Shortly before Malcolm’s death, he visited Toronto and appeared on CBC television with Pierre Berton. During the visit, Malcolm spent time with award-winning author Austin Clarke talking about politics and music. Time was too short to organize a community meeting, but a few lucky people gathered at Clarke’s home on Asquith Street. Clarke had interviewed Malcolm previously, in 1963 in Harlem, when he was working for the CBC. Clarke recalled they “talked shop,” but also discussed the lighter things in life, like the fact that both their wives were named Betty.

It is not surprising that Malcolm made his way to Canada. His mother and father, Earl Little, met and married in Montréal at a Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) convention. Both were followers of Marcus Garvey. His mother, Louise Langdon Norton, was born in Grenada but immigrated first to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and later to Montreal in 1917. Jan Carew’s book, “Ghosts in Our Blood: With Malcolm X in Africa, England, and the Caribbean,” documents this aspect of the life of the pan-Africanist.

While on a visit to Nigeria, Malcolm was given the name Omowale, which means in the Yoruba language, “the son who has come home.” It was in this period of his life that he visited Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Senegal, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Guinea and Tanzania. It was during this period that he met with Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Julius K. Nyerere, Nnamoi Azikiwe, Sekou Toure, Jomo Kenyatta, Dr. Milton Obote, Abdul Rahman Muhammad Babu and others. During this visit he also met Ras Makonnen, a legendary pan-Africanist from Guyana, Richard Wright’s daughter Julie Wright, Maya Angelou, Shirley Graham Du Bois, the wife of W.E.B. Du Bois, and Chinese Ambassador Huang Ha.

It must be mentioned that Paul Robeson, W.E.B. Du Bois, his wife Shirley Graham Du Bois and Robert F. Williams all supported the 1949 Chinese revolution. Malcolm also was a huge supporter of the People’s Republic of China. He was delighted when China tested its first nuclear weapon.

Babu talked about the significance of this event at the Malcolm X: Radical Tradition and a Legacy of Struggle Conference in New York City in 1990.

In Nigeria, Malcolm was given the name Omowale, “the son who has come home.” This photo was taken in 1964.Says Babu: “When Malcolm X came to Tanzania, I took him to meet President (Julius) Nyerere on another historic date. Because that very day, China exploded her first nuclear bomb. And as we went to see Nyerere, Nyerere said, “Malcolm, for the first time today in recorded history, a former colony has been able to develop weapons at par with any colonial power. This is the end of colonialism through and through.”

Malcolm was the chief organizer of the Nation of Islam and the founder of the group’s newspaper Muhammad Speaks. He split with the nation and its leader Elijah Muhammad in 1963. At the time of his death he headed two organizations. The secular group, the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), was his political arm. He also organized the religious group, Muslim Mosque Inc. (MMI), which practiced Sunni Islam.

Today Islam is the second largest religion in the United States and Canada. Many credit Malcolm with helping spread Sunni Islam as well as revolutionary Black Nationalism and pan-Africanism among African people in the Western Hemisphere.

Like Augusto Cesar Sandino of Nicaragua or Sun Yat-sen of China, Malcolm was embraced by all sectors of the Black Nationalist and pan-Africanist movements. All Nationalists and Pan-Africanists claimed to follow his example. Revolutionary Nationalist groups like the Black Panther Party and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers emerged in the late 1960s, after Malcolm’s death. Even after the BPP and the League embraced Marxism, Malcolm was still their man. The cultural Nationalists who maintained that the Cultural Revolution must precede the political one also embraced Malcolm.

Fidel Castro was demonized when he came to New York City in October 1961 to speak at the United Nations, but he felt safe in Harlem when he and his delegation moved from a hostile hotel to the Hotel Theresa, where he was welcomed by Malcolm.

He was a controversial figure. Actor Ossie Davis eulogized him as our “Black Shining Prince” while the director of the U.S. Information Agency, Carl T. Rowan, referred to him as “an ex-convict, ex-dope peddler who became a racial fanatic.”

He was loved by the oppressed and hated by the oppressors. Malcolm spoke about the MMI and OAAU in these terms: “Its aim is to create an atmosphere and facilities in which people who are interested in Islam can get a better understanding of Islam. The aim of the OAAU is to use whatever means necessary to bring about a society in which the 22 million Afro-Americans are recognized and respected as human beings.”

“The Autobiography of Malcolm X” by Alex Haley and other books by and about Malcolm continue to sell worldwide. Some of his books have recently been published in Cuba. Rosemari Mealey's volume, Fidel & Malcolm X: Memories of a Meeting.  Malcolm was one of the few Black Nationalist leaders who welcomed Cuban leader Fidel Castro to Harlem in 1960.

Many Nationalists didn’t want to be identified with communism. Carlos Cooks, the leader of the African Nationalist Pioneer Movement, absolutely refused to have anything to do with Castro. But African people in the West could easily identify with the slogan, “When Africa called, Cuba answered.” Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) was fond of reminding us that the only place in the United States that Fidel felt safe was in Harlem.

Toronto-based journalist and radio producer Norman (Otis) Richmond can be heard on Diasporic Music the last Thursday of every month at 8-10 p.m., Uhuru Radio every other Sunday 2-4 p.m., Saturday Morning Live on Saturdays 10 a.m.-1 p.m. He can be reached by e-mail at norman.o.richmond@gmail.com.

~ Program ~

(5:30 pm – 7:45 pm)
Welcome/Opening Remarks............................Vanessa Silva
Panel Discussion.........................................Guest Speakers
Dr. Muhammad Ahmad
Malcolm X's former political assistant and co-founder of RAM
Saladin Muhammad
African People’s Party (APP) and Black Workers for Justice (BWFJ)
Askia Toure
SNCC, RAM and leader of the Black Arts Movement
Nino Brown
Mass Action Against Police Brutality (MAABP) and ANSWER Coalition
Lanise Frazier
Black Lives Matter Boston (BLM)
Michelle Santana
We Are The Ones (WATO)
Khlaida Smalls
Services Employees International Union (SEIU) and A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI)
Reflections
Please keep comments brief so others may share
Closing Remarks..................................Tony Van Der Meer

Dr. Muhammad Ahmad

https://vimeo.com/19174560

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ccbh/mxp/stanford.html

Saladin Muhammad

http://theblm.net/saladin/

http://livestream.com/accounts/2710797/events/5302091

~ Resources ~

Malcolm X
http://www.brothermalcolm.net http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ccbh/mxp/finalmonths.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9AmuYqjRyg

Askia Toure https://vimeo.com/19921546 https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=p8O-dyEEOuE Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) http://search.freedomarchives.org/search.php?view_collection=129 Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_student_nonviolent_coo

rdinating_committee_sncc/ A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI) http://apri.org/ Act Now to Stop War & End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition http://www.answercoalition.org/boston Black Lives Matter Boston (BLM) https://www.facebook.com/BlackLivesMatterBOS http://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2015/08/20/5-questions-with-the-leader-of-black- lives-matter-boston Mass Action Against Police Brutality (MAAPB) https://www.facebook.com/maapb617/ Services Employees International Union (SEIU) http://www.seiu.org/ We Are The Ones (WATO) https://www.facebook.com/wearetheonesboston http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adebukola-ajao/the-reeducation-of-we-are_b_6600800.html

“History rewards all those who research it.” Malcolm X

A poem by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD: Horse Day

horse day by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD sun baked day like all days just a day until it is something more the horses came two lean large eyed looking hungry horses two prosperity after hunger after want after white light so bright blinded now we can see what the hard ground will yield when we have more muscle only as good as the tools we use he used to say pride in his dark eyes leading thin horses up a rocky hill our horses our hill our chance a extra hot water cornbread day like sunday on tuesday celebration signs of our right to be lucky to continue to struggle in the storm to continue performing the miracle of pulling our skinny life from the dirt god sent horses we will eat only beans for a month to pay for them say hallelujah and pass the hot water corn bread pour the last of the syrup we fall down to get up always reaching we go forward no chance turned to slim chance we dance thankful for the promise in the horses we will fatten them planting hope in them like the seeds we will plant in hopes of harvesting more than ill will rolling down like the rain we pray up in the heat of 0ur deep hunger in soul to rise like the sparse shoots that defy odds to keep us just alive enough to want more two horses lead by a slender rope harnessing our future Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD | May 17, 2016 at 1:27 PM | Tags: ayodele wordslanger nzinga, narrative poetry, North American African Perspective | Categories: The Horse Eaters | URL: http://wp.me/p14Q31-262 Comment    See all comments    Like

Dirty South greatest HIV risk for Gay, Bisexual Men

New Map Reveals HIV Risk Greatest in Southern Cities for Gay, Bisexual Men

Estimates of MSM (Men who have sex with men) by race are also not available, though the CDC estimated in February that half of black MSM and a quarter of Latino MSM will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime. 

“To stop the spread of HIV in the U.S., we have to understand how, where, and among whom the epidemic is striking the hardest,” Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, said during today's news conference. 

 

MICHAEL NEDELMAN,ABC News 32 minutes ago

A map documenting HIV rates for gay and bisexual men has revealed they are most at risk for becoming infected in multiple southern cities, according to a report being presented today by Emory University researchers.

The cities with the highest rates included Columbia, South Carolina, El Paso, Texas, and Jackson, Mississippi. In these cities, more than 25 percent of men who have sex with men (MSM) had been diagnosed with HIV.

“This is really the first time we’ve been able to examine the HIV infection burden ... at such fine levels of geography,” Eli Rosenberg, assistant professor of epidemiology at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health, said during a news conference today.

According to the report, the South is home to 21 of the 25 metropolitan areas with the highest HIV prevalence among MSM. The analysis provides “new evidence” of a growing disparity between the HIV epidemic in the South relative to the rest of the U.S. -- but it is unclear whether this says more about rising transmission rates in the South, or public health successes in other regions.
Overall, gay and bisexual men are more than 57 times more likely to be diagnosed with HIV than other men in the U.S., the study authors said.

“Where HIV is most a problem are places that are failing gay men,” said George Ayala, executive director of the Global Forum on MSM and HIV, a leading advocacy group that was not involved in the report.
Where health systems fail, according to Ayala, is in the process of identifying people who have HIV and immediately linking them with care. Gay and bisexual men may be more likely to face additional barriers such as poverty and stigma, he said.

Because federal and state funding for HIV prevention can be directed to where the disease hits hardest, knowing where HIV is most concentrated may enable public health agencies and local organizations to tweak how they distribute resources at the local level, according to Rosenberg.
“We really want this to be a tool for public health practitioners and policy makers,” he said.
While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publishes the prevalence of HIV among different races and age groups, it reports only the raw number of cases among MSM. The Emory researchers used other national surveys, such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, to estimate where MSM were distributed across the country.

Estimates of MSM by race are also not available, though the CDC estimated in February that half of black MSM and a quarter of Latino MSM will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime.

“To stop the spread of HIV in the U.S., we have to understand how, where, and among whom the epidemic is striking the hardest,” Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, said during today's news conference.

Mermin said that a major focus of HIV prevention programs will be expanding access to HIV testing, treatment, and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), especially among gay and bisexual men of color and transgender individuals. The CDC earmarks targeted funds as a supplement to state and local health departments.

According to one CDC study, these programs could prevent up to 70 percent of new infections over the next five years.

That's why experts say it is important that southern states and cities get on board. CDC data show that the South lags behind the rest of the U.S. when it comes to HIV-positive people getting the treatment they need, or even knowing they’re infected in the first place, Mermin said.

“You see disease concentrated in places that are poorly supported in terms of health infrastructure,” said Ayala. “Those things are really an important part of the story to tell about HIV in the United States."