WATCH by Felipe Luciano
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Oakland screening of Panther film, Vanguard of the Revolution
Screening of New Doc Shows Panther Power Still Alive in Oakland
By Cecilia Lei
It was Tuesday evening, two days after Beyoncé’s dramatic halftime
Superbowl Sunday performance, when the Oakland community gathered at
Grand Lake Theater to watch a screening of PBS’s upcoming documentary, Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.
There was a palpable electric buzz (and debate) about what Beyoncé did in front of nearly 112 million viewers: declaring her love of being a black woman while dancing with afro’ed backup dancers clad in Black Panther gear. Beyoncé had managed to create a perfect pop culture segue for the dialogue slated for this evening, asserting not only the historical relevance of Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, but also why the themes that drove the movement then are still so painfully relevant to our discussions of race relations and gender today.
The night opened with a powerful musical performance by Antique Naked Soul, and remarks from Susie Hernandez (KQED, Director of Programming), Noland Walker (ITVS, Senior Content Director), Maira Benjamin (Pandora, Director of Engineering) and Lynette Gibson McElhaney (Oakland City Councilwoman, District 3). Hernandez and Walker both touched on how public media provides both an opportunity and a platform for communities to tell and share their own stories in an authentic way. Benjamin reminded audiences that the theme of the evening was “revolution” and highlighted her role as a woman of color in technology. Her message, “Bring revolution to all the spaces you represent,” was met with cheers and applause from the crowd. McElhaney was hopeful about how elections and civic engagement can trigger change and she encouraged people to stay informed and embrace the possibilities.
Next, eight young black women walked in a line to the front of the theater, wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the words “The Black Woman is God.” Members of San Francisco-based Youth Speaks, the Black Sheroes delivered the most rousing performance of the night. The crowds whooped and hollered and shot their fists into the air. Older generations, including former Black Panther Party members, nodded and bobbed their heads as the women made it plain: our people are still in pain, and injustice is still alive. The performance, a mixture of spoken word and singing, started with a rendition of “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child” and ended as the women roared out their love of being black women in the face of police brutality, intolerance and racism.
Just before the film screening, Ashara Ekundayo (Impact Hub, Chief
Content Officer) moderated a dialogue with Ericka Huggins, a former
political prisoner and Black Panther Party leader, and Cat Brooks,
#BlackLivesMatter Bay Area member and founder of the Anti Police-Terror
Project. Ekundayo opened with a brief moment of silence to honored
activists who died after giving their lives to revolutionary causes.
Asked by Ekundayo to describe the Black Panther Party in three words, Huggins replied: “Commitment. Love. People.” She recalled being a young girl, attending the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, one of the largest political rallies in American history. It was a life-changing moment that defined her activism.
“A vow arose in my heart,” Huggins recalled, “that I will serve people for the rest of my life.”
In describing her own personal commitment over the years, as a leader in the Party and an educator in Oakland, she gave a shout-out to a special audience member that she had met earlier that evening: 7-year-old Vivian, the precocious daughter of KQED’s Hernandez. “When I meet young girls like Vivian, I realize: I don’t have the right to be tired.”
Brooks chose her three words carefully: “Power. Passion. Beauty,” adding, “Black people are damaged, tired, and traumatized.” Her hope lies in the current wave of activism. For the first time, thanks largely to the Black Lives Matter movement, there has been “Lots of talk about self-care in activism.” There is a long journey ahead, Brooks asserted, and “We’re figuring it out as we stumble along,” adding that progress can be sustained if activists take time to take to practice self-care as they fight for their communities.
The unspoken theme of the night, judging by those who were doing the speaking, was the role of women in activism. Brooks proudly declared that there was a feminine current running through today’s movements in the black community. Huggins attributed this to the “legacy of feminine principles” in the Black Panther Party. As she spoke, Tarika Lewis, the first woman to join the Party, stood up in the crowd with her fist raised.
“The FBI destroyed the men in the Black Panther Party – Newton, Seale, and many others – but they forgot something: us women,” declared Huggins. She noted the bond shared by the women in the Party, who ran the revolution from beginning to end, saying, “We were connected by love and service.”
Before the lights dimmed and the screening of Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution began, the audience was left with some parting wisdom: Be with one another. Practice non-judging awareness. Work in coalition and communion. Think globally. For this community, the evening captured not only the Party’s legacy but also the demands for justice that are still painfully relevant today. From a small film screening to the largest stage in a football stadium, it is evident that 50 years later the revolutionary spirit of the Black Panther Party continues to live on in the impassioned communities and people they inspired.
There was a palpable electric buzz (and debate) about what Beyoncé did in front of nearly 112 million viewers: declaring her love of being a black woman while dancing with afro’ed backup dancers clad in Black Panther gear. Beyoncé had managed to create a perfect pop culture segue for the dialogue slated for this evening, asserting not only the historical relevance of Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, but also why the themes that drove the movement then are still so painfully relevant to our discussions of race relations and gender today.
The night opened with a powerful musical performance by Antique Naked Soul, and remarks from Susie Hernandez (KQED, Director of Programming), Noland Walker (ITVS, Senior Content Director), Maira Benjamin (Pandora, Director of Engineering) and Lynette Gibson McElhaney (Oakland City Councilwoman, District 3). Hernandez and Walker both touched on how public media provides both an opportunity and a platform for communities to tell and share their own stories in an authentic way. Benjamin reminded audiences that the theme of the evening was “revolution” and highlighted her role as a woman of color in technology. Her message, “Bring revolution to all the spaces you represent,” was met with cheers and applause from the crowd. McElhaney was hopeful about how elections and civic engagement can trigger change and she encouraged people to stay informed and embrace the possibilities.
Next, eight young black women walked in a line to the front of the theater, wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the words “The Black Woman is God.” Members of San Francisco-based Youth Speaks, the Black Sheroes delivered the most rousing performance of the night. The crowds whooped and hollered and shot their fists into the air. Older generations, including former Black Panther Party members, nodded and bobbed their heads as the women made it plain: our people are still in pain, and injustice is still alive. The performance, a mixture of spoken word and singing, started with a rendition of “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child” and ended as the women roared out their love of being black women in the face of police brutality, intolerance and racism.
Asked by Ekundayo to describe the Black Panther Party in three words, Huggins replied: “Commitment. Love. People.” She recalled being a young girl, attending the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, one of the largest political rallies in American history. It was a life-changing moment that defined her activism.
“A vow arose in my heart,” Huggins recalled, “that I will serve people for the rest of my life.”
In describing her own personal commitment over the years, as a leader in the Party and an educator in Oakland, she gave a shout-out to a special audience member that she had met earlier that evening: 7-year-old Vivian, the precocious daughter of KQED’s Hernandez. “When I meet young girls like Vivian, I realize: I don’t have the right to be tired.”
Brooks chose her three words carefully: “Power. Passion. Beauty,” adding, “Black people are damaged, tired, and traumatized.” Her hope lies in the current wave of activism. For the first time, thanks largely to the Black Lives Matter movement, there has been “Lots of talk about self-care in activism.” There is a long journey ahead, Brooks asserted, and “We’re figuring it out as we stumble along,” adding that progress can be sustained if activists take time to take to practice self-care as they fight for their communities.
The unspoken theme of the night, judging by those who were doing the speaking, was the role of women in activism. Brooks proudly declared that there was a feminine current running through today’s movements in the black community. Huggins attributed this to the “legacy of feminine principles” in the Black Panther Party. As she spoke, Tarika Lewis, the first woman to join the Party, stood up in the crowd with her fist raised.
“The FBI destroyed the men in the Black Panther Party – Newton, Seale, and many others – but they forgot something: us women,” declared Huggins. She noted the bond shared by the women in the Party, who ran the revolution from beginning to end, saying, “We were connected by love and service.”
Before the lights dimmed and the screening of Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution began, the audience was left with some parting wisdom: Be with one another. Practice non-judging awareness. Work in coalition and communion. Think globally. For this community, the evening captured not only the Party’s legacy but also the demands for justice that are still painfully relevant today. From a small film screening to the largest stage in a football stadium, it is evident that 50 years later the revolutionary spirit of the Black Panther Party continues to live on in the impassioned communities and people they inspired.
Black Bird Press News & Review: Black History is World History by Marvin X, the USA's Rumi, Plato, Saadi, Hafiz
Black Bird Press News & Review: Black History is World History by Marvin X, the USA's Rumi, Plato, Saadi, Hafiz:
By
Marvin X
Before the Earth was
I was
Before time was
I was
you found me not long ago
and called me Lucy
I was four million years old
I had my tools beside me
I am the first man
call me Adam
I walked the Nile from Congo to Delta
a 4,000 mile jog
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
I lived in the land of Canaan
before Abraham, before Hebrew was born
I am Canaan, son of Ham
I laugh at Arabs and Jews
fighting over my land
I lived in Saba, Southern Arabia
I played in the Red Sea
dwelled on the Persian Gulf
I left my mark from Babylon to Timbuktu
When Babylon acted a fool, that was me
I was the fool
When Babylon fell, that was me
I fell
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY....
Black History Is World History
By
Marvin X
Before the Earth was
I was
Before time was
I was
you found me not long ago
and called me Lucy
I was four million years old
I had my tools beside me
I am the first man
call me Adam
I walked the Nile from Congo to Delta
a 4,000 mile jog
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
I lived in the land of Canaan
before Abraham, before Hebrew was born
I am Canaan, son of Ham
I laugh at Arabs and Jews
fighting over my land
I lived in Saba, Southern Arabia
I played in the Red Sea
dwelled on the Persian Gulf
I left my mark from Babylon to Timbuktu
When Babylon acted a fool, that was me
I was the fool
When Babylon fell, that was me
I fell
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY....
to continue reading, go to link above
Monday, February 22, 2016
Marvin X speaks at Oakland City Hall Black History Celebration
Marvin X speaks at Oakland City Hall Black History Month Reception
Marvin X at Berkeley Juneteenth Festival, 2015
photo Harrison Chastang
Black Arts Movement poet and BAMBD planner Marvin X will speak and exhibit his Black Arts Movement archives. His archives were acquired by the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
The Black Arts Movement Poet's Choir and Arkestra at the University of California, Merced
50th Anniversary celebration of the Black Arts Movement, 2014, produced by Kim McMillan
and Marvin X.
BAM poet Marvin X with his Poet's Choir and Arkestra, featuring David
Murray and Earle Davis, all three were associated with San Ra. This
performance is from Oakland's Malcolm X Jazz/Art Festival, 2014
photo Adam Turner
BAM Poet's Choir and Arkestra at Malcolm X Jazz Festival, 2014
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Marvin X's fictional interview with President Obama and speech to Muslims
Friday, June 24, 2011
Obama Drama, Scene #3: Interview with Marvin X
Marvin X Interviews President Obama
Marvin X, Thank you Mr. President for agreeing to meet with me.
Prez, The pleasure is all mine. I've been reading your blogs and find them quite interesting.
MX, I hope you don't say what Minister Farrakhan said about my comments on him.
Prez, What did he say?
MX, He said I raked him over the coals.
Prez, I agree with Minister Farrakhan. You can be quite hard hitting.
MX, They call me the sledgehammer.
Prez, Indeed you are.
MX, Call it tough love.
Prez, OK.
MX,
Furthermore, I supported you wholeheartedly from the beginning. You
obviously haven't seen my book Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and
Yoself.
Prez, No I haven't.
MX,
But I must agree with our mutual friend Dr. Cornell West. I'm sure you
are aware that he said we must protect you, respect you, but check you.
Prez, Yes, I heard his remarks. And you know what I said, "You brothers need to cut me some slack."
MX, Prez, you don't need slack. You need us riding your back like Roy Rogers on Trigger.
Prez, Don't you think I have enough pressure on me?
MX,
Well, I once forced the resignation of the president of Fresno State
University. Well, actually he said he was pressured from above (Gov.
Ronald Reagan) and below (student protests after the college refused to
hire me). So we see you are the type of guy who must be pressured from
above and below, from the right and the left.
Prez, How much pressure you think a person in my position can take?
MX, You got Mechelle to chill you out!
Prez, You're right about that.
MX, But I wrote about her putting a foot in your ass when you get weak.
Prez, I don't think that's necessary
MX, Well, you seem to capitulate at every turn. You call it the nature of politics, of course.
Prez, Well, I certainly don't call it capitulation. That's a bit harsh. I try to negotiate and compromise with my opposition.
MX, Prez, It seems to me you give in too quickly, sometimes when it ain't even necessary.
Prez, Marvin, it's the nature of the beast I'm dealing with.
MX,
Ever heard of playing hardball? I mean I was happy you got the health
insurance plan through but at what price, selling out to the insurance
lobby?
Prez, I don't call it selling out, it was compromise, the best we could do under the circumstances.
MX, Prez, why have you not created a jobs program? You bailed out the banks and corporations but not the people, why?
Prez, Marv, you know I have a most difficult job and we tried a stimulus package, and it worked to some extent.
Prez, Marv, please, what are you suggesting, revolution?
Prez, Well, corporations are people now.
MX, Prez, you know what I mean.
Prez, Of course.
Prez, You're right, Marv.
Prez, Go for it!
MX, Do you feel like a white man or black man?
Prez, Well, when I'm with Mechelle, I feel black. When I'm with my Secretary of State, Hilliary, I feel white.
MX, OK. On a more serious matter, how long did you know Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan?
Prez, We had him under surveillance for some time.
Prez, a long time.
Prez, That's up to you.
MX, C'mon, Prez, do I look like Willie Foofoo?
Prez, Marv, are you calling me a liar?
Prez, We concluded that was the best way to end the matter of a man who murdered three thousand Americans.
MX, Prez, how many Muslims have you murdered since you became President?
Prez, I can't answer that.
MX, Between Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, how many, especially with the collateral damage?
Prez, We tried but couldn't pull it off.
Prez, I'm not aware of them.
MX, What about the man in Yemen you are trying to kill who is an American citizen?
MX, Does this include having your friends in Israel do the same?
Prez,
Events are rapidly changing in North Africa and the Middle East.
Therefore we must all make a paradigm shift in our thinking and
behavior, including Israel.
MX, And Bahrain?
Prez, It's a special case. We have strategic interests there.
--Marvin X
5/18/11
Marvin X Writes Obama's Speech to Muslims
As-Salaam-Alaikum
I, Barack Hussein Obama, President of the United States of America, come before you tonight in the name of Almighty God Allah. We, the America people, are pleased to see the people of North Africa and the Middle East rising up against our long time friends in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere.
Of course we instituted a no fly
zone over Libya but it is most difficult to do the same in Gaza. The
recent unity of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority is nice but simply
not in the interests of our dear friends in Israel, nor is it in the
long term strategic interests of America and her friends throughout the
region, especially our brothers in the House of Saud.
While
we endorse the cries for freedom in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen, we
cannot support the people in Bahrain. We suspect they are simply agents
for Iran and therefore we cannot support their cries for freedom. We
have no plans of moving our Fifth Fleet from Bahrain, especially since
it is a counterweight to Iranian provocations. We therefore endorse the
sending of Saudi troops to crush the Shia uprisings in Bahrain.
As
per Saudi Arabia, we love democracy but it is simply not in our
interests to have the Saudi regime destabilized because of a few unhappy
citizens, again, many of them are agents of Iran, especially those
Saudi women who want to drive cars.
As per Iran, we
call for democracy in that nation, even though we accept full
responsibility for overthrowing the democratically elected leader,
Mossedeq, and installing the Shah who oppressed his people for many
years.
We know you share our joy with the elimination of the hated terrorist Osama Bin Laden. Even though we created him and supported him, the time came for his removal, even though we were aware he was living in a mansion with his three wives in Pakistan. He served us well, but the time came for his disposal. You know how we handle those who outlive our usefulness, e.g., Saddam Hussein.
We promised a total troop removal from Iraq, but circumstances may prevent this unless it is expedient for my upcoming election. We hope the people of Iraq understand, especially that guy Sadr and his army of the poor in Sadr City who fought with us to no avail.
Our regional partners, namely the Sunni neighbors of Iraq, have warned us not to leave Iraq under a Shia regime, again this will only benefit Iran, the enemy of world peace. Not Israel and certainly not America who is the champion of world peace as you all know throughout the Muslim world, not matter that we are now occupying Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and making inroads into Libya. You may be surprised to learn that it is not the oil we want in Libya but the water. Yes, water will be a precious commodity in the coming days. We pray to Allah you can understand why we do what we do.
As per Afghanistan,
we have promised the Taliban if they lay down their arms, we will give
them schooling, housing and employment. We wish we could offer the same
to our boys and girls in the hoods of America who are terrorizing their
communities with drugs and guns, but our budget crisis will not allow
education, housing and jobs for the boys and girls in the hood, although
we can do this for the Taliban. As you know we did this in Iraq and
this was the real cause of the decrease in violence, not the socalled
surge of Baghdad under General Betrayus.
As you know,
General Betrayus will be taking over the Central Intelligence Agency. We
appreciate his role in prolonging the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. We
feel he has been successful in routing the 100 to 500 Al Quida in
Afghanistan, especially after we sent him thirty thousand additional
troops.
Finally, our friends in Pakistan may have some misgivings about the unilateral move we made to eliminate Osama bin Laden, but we want them to get over it and not make any silly moves like seeking revenge with their nuclear option.
I close in the name of peace, As-Salaam-Alaikum.
President Barack Hussein Obama
Saturday, February 20, 2016
US Elections: A Message from Sister Cynthia McKinney, Warrior Woman
Scourge of US elections: Electoral College, hackable voting machines & obscure rules
By
Cynthia McKinney
After serving in the Georgia Legislature, in 1992, Cynthia
McKinney won a seat in the US House of Representatives. She was the
first African-American woman from Georgia in the US Congress. In 2005,
McKinney was a vocal critic of the government’s response to Hurricane
Katrina and was the first member of Congress to file articles of
impeachment against George W. Bush. In 2008, Cynthia McKinney won the
Green Party nomination for the US presidency.
Published time: 15 Feb, 2016 13:10
Republican U.S. presidential candidates Senator Ted Cruz
(L) and Senator Marco Rubio (R) both gesture at businessman Donald
Trump (C) during the Republican U.S. presidential candidates debate in
Greenville, South Carolina February 13, 2016 © Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
Jesus once remarked to a wealthy man that “it is easier for a
camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to
go to heaven.”
Today, we could amend the words of that Biblical reference with the US presidential race underway:
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a voter in the US to know and understand the rules regulating the administration of all elections, including elections for President of the United States.”
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a voter in the US to know and understand the rules regulating the administration of all elections, including elections for President of the United States.”
Let’s start with the phenomenon of what is called a “minority president.”
No, that is not a president who identifies as an ethnic or racial
minority in the US. A minority president is one who has failed to win a
plurality of the votes cast in the race for president, and yet is still
able to become President of the United States. This is the exact
opposite of what a true democracy would require; perhaps not even a pure
democracy would entertain such a position such as the 'Office of the
Presidency'. But that is an entirely different matter.
Super-duper-delegates: 'Undemocratic system used by Democratic Party'
The United States has actually had several minority presidents
in its history, while the 21st century began ominously enough with yet
another minority President: George W. Bush, the Republican who failed to
secure the most votes cast by the people [in the 2000 election, the
Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, decided the victor of the race after
moving to halt the recount process in the state of Florida].
Both the US House and the US Senate are charged with counting the Electoral College
votes, and this is a process in which I have participated. The
constitutionally mandated process was circumvented by the
precedent-setting Bush v. Gore Supreme Court ruling that instructed future Courts not to use the decision as a precedent!
As
this case aptly proved, it’s not the people who have the last word in
US elections. It’s a non-democratic construct called the Electoral
College that does, except in those rare instances when it doesn’t.
Despite Bernie’s landslide victory, Hillary receives more New Hampshire delegates
Hacking Democracy
Add to the above debacles, the US Congress and the election authorities in the 50 states have authorized and encouraged the use of hackable electronic voting machines that are used for vote casting and vote tabulation. Bev Harris and her company, Black Box Voting, has accumulated horror stories surrounding the non-transparency of US elections. I have worked closely with Harris because the danger of these machines is self-evident to everyone except the officials who continue to purchase them for millions of dollars, putting millions of voters’ most precious political asset at risk.Bernie beat Hillary by 22% but she'll break even in New Hampshire because of SuperDelegates. That is not democracy. The system is rigged.— John Dardenne (@johndardenne) February 10, 2016
Such a scenario is what led former President Jimmy Carter to comment he “absolutely” could not be elected today under such conditions, going so far as to characterize the United States as an oligarchy, not a democracy.
In addition to the insecure hardware, I am sorry to write that the voter list is kept on an electronic device and if the voter’s name fails to appear on the list, the voter has little recourse.
In the US, votes and vote tabulation processes are done without any traceable back-up procedures. In other words, there is no paper trail - no receipt of a vote, as it were - whatsoever. In one of my Congressional elections in which the electronic voting machines “failed,” not only was I unable to obtain the election data despite a lawsuit having been filed, an expert witness for the state of Georgia testified that voters have to simply “trust” that the announced winner is the actual winner. Meanwhile, candidates have no access to the raw election data because that information is “owned” by Diebold—the company that produced the electronic voting machines and the software used by them (The documentary ‘American Blackout’ tells my own personal story with US elections). It is difficult to place trust in the US election system when we learn about the number of votes cast that go uncounted. In the 2000 Presidential election between Bush and Gore, between two million and five million Americans went to the polls and voted, yet their votes were thrown out, disqualified for any number of reasons. Half of those uncounted votes were cast by Black Americans.
Money, money, money
Add
to these procedural vagaries, the influence of private money in US
elections and even the pretense of holding transparent, free, and fair
elections is stood completely on its head. As I wrote in a previous post,
the rules have given rise to super-wealthy individuals who lurk in the
shadows while becoming the power behind the public faces of candidates:
Marco Rubio has Norman Braman as his closest and most important backer. Hillary Clinton has Haim Saban as one of her top donors; Sheldon Adelson
is a “player” at the Presidential level in US politics. Billionaire
Donald Trump self-finances his Presidential bid and former New York
Mayor Michael Bloomberg is rumored to be willing to spend one billion dollars in his still-to-be-announced independent presidential run.
The
situation is so dire that one wealthy individual could legally bankroll
an entire Congressional campaign and a roundtable of them could do the
same with the US Presidency. So-called campaign finance reform blew the
existing loopholes wide open instead of closing them. The Citizens
United Supreme Court ruling stood the revered Freedom of Speech First
Amendment to the US Constitution on its head by allowing a few wealthy donors to have more 'free speech' than 300 million other Americans.The sad truth is that much of what takes place resembles a horse race, or some kind of political theater designed specifically for public consumption. Each step of the process, whether it’s the hunt for delegates in the political party primary or the hunt for Electoral College votes after nominations have taken place, the real action takes place in the darkest recesses of the system, out of view. One could go so far as to say that the real action of US “democracy” takes place in the shadows.
So, what we are witnessing for public consumption is the hunt for delegates among the presidential contenders in the Republican Party and between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Party. Until February 1, everything was basically kabuki theatre, advertising in order to lure an ample audience to enhance the profits of the major television, radio broadcasters and newspaper publishers. Donald Trump made this point repeatedly just before he decided to not participate any longer in the pre-February Republican Party Primary debates. He challenged CNN to donate some of its profits from debate ad sales to veterans’ charities—which, of course, CNN refused to do.
On February 1, the first popular voting actually took place. The Iowa Caucuses kicked off the delegate hunt. The Democratic candidates are trying to garner 2,382 delegates to win the nomination; Republican candidates need 1,144. Across the state of Iowa, registered voters gathered to cast their vote for their preferred party primary candidate. Yet the rules for the caucuses are far from straightforward, as are the rules for counting of votes and assignment of delegates.
Thus, several results in the Iowa Democratic caucuses were actually decided by a coin toss; one Clinton precinct captain
didn’t even live in the precinct to whose caucus he had been assigned
to manage. As a result of the massive confusion as to who actually won
the Iowa Caucuses, the Sanders campaign has launched a quest to get the
raw vote totals—as yet unavailable from the Iowa or national Democratic
Party that declared Clinton the winner.
The next vote took place
in the New Hampshire primary, which is different than a caucus. And
there, too, the rules change by state for which primary voters are
eligible to vote.
The next round of voting will take place on what
is called ‘Super Tuesday’ when a number of states allow their voters to
express their presidential preferences in primaries. But, that’s only
if your preferred presidential candidate has been able to secure ballot
access. Not all of the candidates are able to run in all states because
each state has its own requirements for gaining ballot access. This is
not a problem for either the Democratic or Republican parties, but is a
huge issue for other parties. Therefore, most American voters don’t even
get to see the full range of candidates and political parties on their
ballots!
All of this popular voting is to assign delegates to each
candidate. Those delegates will represent their candidate at the
political party’s nominating convention. Or at least that’s the way it’s
supposed to work. And so, the candidate with the most delegates will
win the party’s nomination, right? Well, not necessarily, due to
something called “super delegates” who are not bound by the
popular vote. So, theoretically, unless Bernie Sanders wins the popular
vote by a commanding margin in the Democratic Party primary, Hillary
Clinton could actually walk away with the party’s nomination, due to the
power of superdelegates
whose role is similar to that of the Electoral College—to make sure
that the plebes don’t ever really think they are in control. However, if
something like that were to occur, the credibility of the Party might take a beating.
So,
there you have it. When there is no challenge to the shadow players,
everything rolls just fine and the flaws in the system are not clearly
evident. But, for candidates who do not have shadow blessing, the
election process can become a nightmare. Imagine then, America's
increasingly alienated voters trying to overcome all of the information and process hurdles.
And,
by the way, not all adult citizens in the US are eligible to vote. In
some states, people in the criminal justice system with felonies may
forfeit their right to vote altogether. At the same time, some states
require state-issued identification cards in order to vote. Even voting
machines are positioned by precinct history, not by need. Thus, Blacks
voting in Ohio and other places around the country waited for hours to
vote while White majority precincts had no wait at all to vote.
It is little wonder, then, that so few citizens of voting age actually participate in the process. According to one study,
only approximately 55 percent of the voting age population actually
voted in 2012. For citizens tying to unravel all of the rules and
regulations, how a candidate moves through the process to become a
nominee and then incumbent is “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”
So
the next time the victor of a US presidential race system says that he
or she will destabilize a foreign government or wage a war against a
foreign country in order to 'fight for democracy', the entire world, led
most of all by the voters of the United States, should greet the news
with a hearty laugh.
The
statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
New Supporters of the Black Arts Movement Business District
FYI, the Black Arts Movement Business District has received pledges of support from the following:
KPOO Radio's Donald Lacy
Donald Lacy, KPOO Radio and Love Life Foundation
Donald told BAMBD planner Marvin X, he stands ready to do whatever is necessary to make the
district a success.
Sisters Angela and Fania Davis
Fania E. Davis, Executive Director of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth
Fania says she will get the youth she works with involved in the BAMBD. Marvin
told Fania, "Please tell Angela we need her support as well."
Margaret Gordon, West Oakland Environmentalist and Social Justice Activist
Margaret Gordon, God Mother of West Oakland, is ready to do all she can to enable
the BAMBD project to succeed. She pointed out several spaces in West Oakland BAMBD
can use. As per the coal train coming to West Oakland, she was critical of certain ministers
who seem more interested in gold dust than coal dust! Margaret Gordon said the BAMBD request for a one billion dollar trust fund is on point.
Another person said she is ready to donate $1,000.00 as soon as the BAMBD legal papers are in order. She added, "If every Black person donated $5.00, the BAMBD can get off the ground."
Black Bird Press News & Review: Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale interviewed by Marvin X
Black Bird Press News & Review: Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale interviewed by Marvin X: Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale interviewed by Marvin X
Marvin X and Bobby Seale discuss their days at Merritt College, how they were self educated into Black consciousness to become the Neo-Black intellectuals; how Bobby performed in Marvin's play Come Next Summer; Bobby recites his favorite Marvin X poem "Burn,Baby,Burn" about the 65' Watts rebellion; how Bobby and Huey evolved into Black Panthers. Interview reveals Bobby's excellent memory of black history down to the minute, second, microsecond. Get it from the horse's mouth rather than swallow revisionist history told by muddle headed academics and intellectuals in perpetual crisis.--Marvin X
www.itsabouttimebpp.com/Media/Media_index.html
Bobby Seale interviewed by Marvin X 2000 [Video: 64 min]
Marvin X and Bobby Seale discuss their days at Merritt College, how they were self educated into Black consciousness to become the Neo-Black intellectuals; how Bobby performed in Marvin's play Come Next Summer; Bobby recites his favorite Marvin X poem "Burn,Baby,Burn" about the 65' Watts rebellion; how Bobby and Huey evolved into Black Panthers. Interview reveals Bobby's excellent memory of black history down to the minute, second, microsecond. Get it from the horse's mouth rather than swallow revisionist history told by muddle headed academics and intellectuals in perpetual crisis.--Marvin X
www.itsabouttimebpp.com/Media/Media_index.html
Bobby Seale interviewed by Marvin X 2000 [Video: 64 min]
Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale speaks at Merritt College
The Barbara Lee and Elihu Harris Lecture Series presents
Bobby Seale Founding Chairman & National Organizer, Black Panther Party (BPP) Saturday, February 27, 2016 7:00pm Location: Merritt College, Huey P. Newton & Bobby Seale Student Lounge 12500 Campus Dr., Oakland, CA Co-Produced by the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Center and Merritt College |
Thursday, February 18, 2016
New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
The New Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man
Featuring fifteen explosive new chapters, this
expanded edition of the classic New York Times million-copy bestseller
brings the story of economic hit men up to date and, chillingly, home to
the United States. It also gives us hope and the tools each of us can
use to change the system.
In this astonishing tell-all book, former Economic Hit Man John Perkins shares new details about the ways he and others cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. From the U.S. military in Iraq and infrastructure development in Indonesia, to Peace Corps volunteers in Africa and jackals in Venezuela, Perkins exposes the corruption and failed policies that have fueled instability and anti-Americanism around the globe, with consequences reflected in our daily headlines and lives.
He then reveals how the deadly Economic Hit Man cancer he helped create has spread far more widely and deeply than ever in the United States and everywhere else—to become the dominant system of business, government, and society today. Finally, he gives an insider’s view of what we each can do to change it.
In this astonishing tell-all book, former Economic Hit Man John Perkins shares new details about the ways he and others cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. From the U.S. military in Iraq and infrastructure development in Indonesia, to Peace Corps volunteers in Africa and jackals in Venezuela, Perkins exposes the corruption and failed policies that have fueled instability and anti-Americanism around the globe, with consequences reflected in our daily headlines and lives.
He then reveals how the deadly Economic Hit Man cancer he helped create has spread far more widely and deeply than ever in the United States and everywhere else—to become the dominant system of business, government, and society today. Finally, he gives an insider’s view of what we each can do to change it.
Part Two: Sistah Q interview with Marvin X, February 18, Harambee Radio
Listen to Part Two of Sistah Q's interview with poet/playwright/essayist/organizer Marvin X on Harambee Radio. He discusses the Black Arts Movement Business District, downtown Oakland CA.
Marvin X interviewed by WURD Talk Radio, Philadelphia, Black Power Babies Conversation,
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Donald Lacey interviews Marvin X, Saturday, KPOO Radio, 89.5FM
WHATEVER
YOU DO... DO NOT... I REPEAT DO NOT MISS A SPECIAL 5 HOUR SALUTE TO THE
BLACK PANTHER PARTY AS WE COMMEMORATE THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE
FOUNDING OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY BY HUEY NEWTON AND BOBBY SEALE IN
OAKLAND CALIFORNIA.. THE BLACK PANTHERS WENT ON TO BECOME AN
INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN ORGANIZATION THAT CHANGED THE WORLD. SATURDAY
FEBRUARY 20@ 7 AM -12 NOON..PST INCLUDING ARCHIVAL INTERVIEWS FROM HUEY
NEWTON.. LIVE IN STUDIO CO FOUNDER BOBBY SEALE.. LEADER OF THE
BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT PLAY WRITE AUTHOR MARVIN X...BLACK PANTHER MEMBER
AND HISTORIAN BILLY JENNINGS... DOCUMENTARY ON ASSATA SHAKUR ..KATHLEEN
CLEAVER.. AND A SPEECH FROM THE GREAT FRED HAMPTON.. TELL A FRIEND AND
TUNE IN TO THE REVOLUTION WILL BE BROADCAST ON KPOO 89.5 FM AND ALL OvER
THE WORLD ON www.kpoo.com .. #freedomfighters #oakland #revolution #blackpanthers #wakeupeverybody #e14TH
Marvin X interviewed by WURD Talk Radio, Philadelphia, Black Power Babies Conversation,
produced by Muhammida El Muhajir.
DJ: Donald Lacy, KPOO Radio 89.5
Marvin X interview
Wake Up Everybody
Saturday, 7AM-Noon Music, news, and commentary
KPOO Radio's Donald Lacey will conduct a long awaited
interview with Marvin X, 3pm, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2016
89.5FM
kpoo.org
The SNCC Legacy Project: Black Power 50th Anniverssary
SNCC: The Importance of its Work, the Value of its Legacy
by Charles Cobb
The time was 1960, the place the U.S.A.
That February first became a history making day
From Greensboro all across the land
The news spread far and wide
That quietly and bravely youth took a giant stride
Heed the call
Americans all
Side by equal side
Brothers sit in dignity
Sisters sit in pride
—Ballad of the Sit-Ins by Guy Carawan, Eve Merriam and Norman Curtis
Beginnings
You can never tell when a spark will light a fire. So, on February
1, 1960 when four Black students attending North Carolina A&T
College sat down at the lunch counter in a Greensboro, North Carolina
Woolworth Department store, ordered food, were refused service and then
remained seated until the store closed, few could have predicted how
rapidly similar protests would spread across the south; or the lasting
impact on the south and the nation of the sudden direct action by these
students.
Over the next two months, student sit-ins spread to 80 southern
cities and were involving thousands of young people, most of them
attending historically black colleges and universities like A&T,
although in several cities high school students launched and led
sit-ins. Two and a half months after Greensboro—the weekend of April
15-17—student sit-in leaders gathered at Shaw College (now Shaw
University) in Raleigh, North Carolina to meet one another, share
experiences and to discuss coordinating future actions.
Ella Baker, one of the great figures in 20th century civil rights
struggle had organized this gathering. She was then executive director
of Rev. Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC), a group she had been instrumental in organizing. In the 1940s
she had been the NAACP’s director of southern branches, and in the early
1950s deeply involved with supporting southern Black community leaders
facing economic reprisals because of their civil rights activities. As
the sit-ins unfolded, she recognized that beyond energetic protests, the
students were bringing something fresh and new to civil rights struggle
and at the Shaw conference encouraged them to consider forming their
own organization. Thus was born the Student Non-violent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC, pronounced “Snick”). Her fundamental message to the
students was, “Organize from the bottom up.” She emphasized her belief
that, “Strong people don’t need strong leaders.”
Ella Baker provided a corner of the SCLC office in Atlanta to SNCC.
In this cramped space SNCC’s sole staff member was Jane Stembridge, a
volunteer stirred by the sit-ins who was the white Georgia-born and
raised daughter of a Baptist preacher. A newsletter—The Student
Voice—was created and circulated to student protest groups. It mainly
provided information about what the various SNCC-affiliated campus-based
organizations were doing. The first check to SNCC—$100—in support of
its existence and efforts, came from Eleanor Roosevelt.
Soon, however, discussion among some of the students turned to what
beside sit-ins could be done by young people, especially outside of
urban centers. Within a year of SNCC’s founding, a small group dropped
out of school and became the first SNCC organizers or “field
secretaries.”
These organizers, armed with the names of grassroots contacts Ella Baker had developed over many years, even decades, began digging into southern black belt communities. By the fall of 1961 SNCC had established two significant organizing projects: Southwest Mississippi and Southwest Georgia. Both regions, rural and containing majority Black populations, were characterized by violent and vicious opposition to Black voting rights with terror and reprisal encouraged and supported by state and local government in response to any civil rights activity.
The Black Organizing Tradition and SNCC
Community organizing is a very old tradition in Black America.
Slaves, after all, were not sitting-in at the plantation manor dining
room seeking a seat at the table; nor picketing the auction block in the
town square. They were organizing—sometimes an escape, or sometimes a
rebellion, and constantly, the ways and means of survival in a new, very
strange and hostile land. Ella Baker, and the community leaders she
introduced them to, brought SNCC field secretaries into this organizing
tradition. And what these Black community leaders wanted help organizing
was voter registration campaigns. Black people had the numbers; if they
could get the vote they could begin to dismantle the system of
oppression that had dominated Black life for all of the 20th century;
indeed, since the abandonment of Reconstruction in 1876. Mississippi
NAACP leader Amzie Moore put this on the table at SNCC’s second
conference in October 1960. And SNCC’s black belt organizing efforts
increasingly revolved around voter registration.
SNCC organizers embedded themselves in rural black belt communities
to work to empower some of the poorest of the poor in America. This was
a relatively new, even radical approach to civil rights struggle. The
ruthless white violence directed at any civil rights effort in the rural
deep south black belt engendered belief that little was possible
through direct organizing efforts. More traditional civil rights
organizations did not concentrate much effort in this geography or among
this category of people, giving priority instead to legal battles to
strike down laws enforcing white supremacy and segregation. So in some
respects, despite the existence of some truly heroic NAACP leaders, SNCC
organizers were also entering virgin political territory. And they were
embraced by local people in these communities; invisible as actors in
the civil rights struggle but who had long desired change. Out of this
work emerged new voices from the grassroots like Mississippi’s Fannie
Lou Hamer, a sharecropper who became a powerful national spokesperson
for civil rights. She was also, at 46-years-of-age in 1962, SNCC’s
oldest field secretary. This kind of close relationship with people at
the grassroots would characterize SNCC during its entire existence.
Youth
No civil rights action in history had ever swept the South the way
that the sit-in movement did; certainly no action driven and led by
young people. SNCC’s youthfulness was important to what it was and what
it became. The number and manner in which young people began emerging as
leaders in the civil rights movement in 1960, was unprecedented. As
Martin Luther King put it at a Durham, North Carolina civil rights rally
less than a month after sit-ins erupted in Greensboro, “What is new in
your fight is the fact that it was initiated, fed, and sustained by
students.” An often ignored effect of this student action was their
making legitimate going to jail for a principle. And this changed the
students, laying the foundation for everything they would do as SNCC
organizers. Charles Sherrod from Petersburg, Virginia was the first of
the sit-in students to postpone his education to work full-time with
SNCC. He pioneered grassroots organizing in Southwest Georgia. But a few
months before going there to begin that work, on the first anniversary
of the Greensboro sit-in, he sat-in and was arrested in Rock Hill, South
Carolina. He refused bail and served a 30-day sentence of hard labor on
a road gang. Upon his release, Sherrod offered a vivid articulation of
how students like himself were changing: “You get ideas in jail. You
talk with other young people you have never seen. Right away we
recognize each other. People like yourself, getting out of the past.
We’re up all night, sharing creativity, planning action. You learn the
truth in prison, you learn wholeness. You find out the difference
between being dead and alive.”
And in a 1962 field report, 22-year-old Sam Block, who was the
first SNCC organizer to begin working in the Mississippi Delta,
demonstrates a courage and commitment that can perhaps only belong to
youth: “We went up to register and it was the first time visiting the
courthouse in Greenwood, Mississippi, and the sheriff came up to me and
he asked me, he said, ‘Nigger where you from?’ I told him, Well I’m a
native Mississippian. He said, ‘Yeh, yeh, I know that, but where you
from? I don’t know where you from.’ I said, Well, around some counties.
He said, ‘Well I know that, [but] I know you ain’t from here ‘cause I
know every nigger and his mammy.’ I said, You know all the niggers, do
you know any colored people? He got angry. He spat in my face and he
walked away. So he came back and turned around and told me, ‘I don’t
want to see you in town any more. The best thing you better do is pack
your clothes and get out and don’t never come back no more.’ I said,
Well, sheriff, if you don’t want to see me here, I think the best thing
for you to do is pack your clothes and leave, get out of town, ‘cause
I’m here to stay; I came here to do a job and this is my intention. I’m
going to do this job.…”
SNCC Organizing Projects
The organizing work was both dull and dangerous, mostly involving
door-to-door canvassing in an effort to persuade legitimately fearful
potential Black registrants to brave the risks of going to county
courthouses to register to vote knowing that the chances of actually
getting registered were virtually nil. Courthouse clerks could ask
anyone attempting to register questions like how many bubbles were in a
bar of soap; or to interpret a complex section of the state constitution
to their satisfaction as a requirement for registration. And almost
always, economic or violent reprisal followed attempts by Blacks to
register to vote. At a deeper level than the immediate political concern
with voter registration, SNCC’s work was also about cultivating new
local leadership and reinforcing existing local leadership. SNCC field
secretaries did not see themselves as community leaders but as community
organizers, a distinction that empowered local participants by
reinforcing the idea at the heart of SNCC’s work in every project that
“local people” could and should take control of their own lives.
Much of
what SNCC organizers did was demonstrate they were willing to stay in
these communities despite the violence; that they could not be run out
by the violence. Conversations on front porches, in dirt yards, amidst
crops in cotton, tobacco and sugar cane fields, in small church meetings
and in plantation sharecropper shacks, explored citizenship and the
idea of gaining control of the decision-making affecting daily life.
Being able to do this on a large scale was uncertain because fear kept
many doors closed, but even attempting to do this sort of work in the
rural black belt south could be counted as a breakthrough, a modest but
important victory of commitment over terror. And though large numbers
did not publically and politically surface in response to SNCC
organizing efforts, a small number of the very brave did, teaching the
SNCC “organizers” how to listen as well as how to talk; how to
understand the communities they were in; and to know when they were in
danger and when they were not. “We were the community’s children,” wrote
SNCC’s legendary Mississippi project director Bob Moses in his book
Radical Equations. “And that closeness rendered moot the label of
‘outside agitator.’”
There is not enough space here to detail every single one of SNCC
organizing projects, but during the eight years of its existence SNCC
had projects in Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina,
Virginia, Maryland, and Texas. There were more SNCC field secretaries
working full time in southern communities than any civil rights
organization before or since. And there were two notable organizing
projects that need mentioning here and are important to SNCC’s legacy:
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party: In Mississippi and
throughout the black belt, the savage never-ending oppressive cycle that
kept black people politically disenfranchised had two connected halves.
1) Blacks were deliberately and systematically kept illiterate (and the
public school system was part of this) while at the same time literacy
was the primary requirement for voter registration. 2) Violence and
reprisal was the response to any Black effort aimed at gaining the
political franchise; but because few blacks were willing to brave the
virtually certain terroristic response to seeking the franchise, they
were said to be “apathetic.”
To attack this cycle in Mississippi, SNCC and other civil rights
organizations in the state established in churches, small shops and
other places within Black communities, voter registration facilities;
safe places for voter registration. More than 80,000 people “registered
to vote” under these simpler and more comfortable conditions, thus
arming organizers with concrete evidence that apathy was not the
problem. This “freedom registration” was followed-up with the organizing
of a “freedom party”—the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP).
Unlike the all-white so-called “regular” state Democratic Party, the
MFDP was open to all without regard to race. Carefully following all of
the delegate selection rules for the 1964 Democratic Party national
convention, the MFDP challenged the legitimacy of seating Mississippi’s
official all-white delegation. Although the MFDP lost the challenge in a
still bitterly remembered political fight which brought the weight of
the White House down on them, their challenge forced changes that
dramatically reshaped both the state and national Democratic Party.
The Lowndes County Freedom Organization: When a small group of SNCC
organizers, led by Stokely Carmichael, entered notorious Lowndes County
Alabama shortly after the Selma-to-Montgomery march, not a single black
person in this county, whose population was 80 percent Black, was
registered to vote. In fact, no Black person in this county nicknamed
“Bloody Lowndes” was known to have been registered to vote in the entire
20th century. Remarkably, in less than a year, despite violence that
included the murder and the attempted murders of civil rights
organizers, Blacks were a majority of the registered voters in Lowndes
County. This success in voter registration was assisted by the August
1965 signing into law of the Voting Rights Act. But SNCC’s organizing
here took root around the idea of an independent Black political party.
That party, the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO) pioneered the
development of written and visual materials clearly illustrating
through words and pictures the importance of the vote, or as one
organizer put it years later, “regime change.”
The symbol of the LCFO was a black panther, making it the first
black panther party in the nation. In 1966, the LCFO fielded candidates
for county offices and the party’s instructions were simple: “Pull the
Black Panther lever and go home.” (The symbol of Alabama’s Democratic
Party was a white rooster with the words “white supremacy for the right”
written above it.) Fraud by the county’s white powers denied the LCFO
victory and the election was followed by the expulsion of Black
sharecroppers and tenant farmers supporting the LCFO. Nonetheless, in
1970 the first Black Sherriff was elected in Lowndes County. Meanwhile,
the black panther symbol had leapt across country to Oakland, California
where the now much better known Black Panther Party was formed by Huey
P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Here, too, in Lowndes County are the roots of
Stokely Carmichael’s 1966 call for Black Power as chairman of SNCC.
LEGACY
In the broadest sense, SNCC’s legacy is the legacy of grassroots
organizing. Within this frame, SNCC and the field organizers of CORE,
SCLC and the NAACP are really an interconnected force that in just one
intense decade successfully challenged and changed America for the
better. But there are specific aspects of this broad legacy that belong
to SNCC and justify a formal effort to both collect and create material
that will help future generations understand, draw lessons from, and
perhaps use the SNCC experience in continuing efforts to fashion “a more
perfect union” here in the United States.
First, by putting their lives continuously at risk through
committed grassroots organizing, this relatively small group of young
people broke the back of a racist and restrictive exclusionary order
that was tolerated at the highest levels of government. Much of what
kept white supremacy and segregation in place was the absence of direct
and continuous challenge to it and the undramatic grassroots work on the
back roads and in the towns and villages of the deep south for voting
rights also made it impossible to ignore the will to freedom. And it
needs to be said here that this work liberated Whites as well as Blacks.
Indeed, the MFDP and that party’s 1964 challenge not only led to a
two-party system in Mississippi and the south, but also forced via the
1972 “McGovern Rules” changes in political practices that have
permanently expanded the participation of women and minorities. There is
a straight line connecting the MFDP with the election of Barak Obama to
the U.S. presidency.
Nationwide, student struggle was also inspired by the southern movement and these movements expanded and accelerated in the decade of the 1960s. SDS’s grassroots Educational and Research Action Projects (ERAP) in the North grew out of discussions with SNCC and observation of its work. The Northern Student Movement (NSM), initially formed in 1961 to aid SNCC, became an activist organization with nearly 50 campus chapters taking on welfare reform, dysfunctional schools and other community organizing projects.
The Mississippi Summer Project of 1964 which brought nearly 1,000
students from around the nation to Mississippi for a “freedom summer”
conveyed the ideas and ideals of the southern freedom movement into a
whole generation from which the future leadership of the country would
be drawn. Most immediately, the free speech movement that erupted on the
University of California campus at Berkeley during the 1964-65 school
year, was initiated by Mississippi Freedom Summer volunteer Mario Savio.
SNCC’s articulation of “Black Power” fostered a new black
consciousness. The Black and Africana studies departments on college
campuses today have roots in the Mississippi “freedom schools” of 1964,
the earlier Nonviolent High School created in 1961 by SNCC in McComb,
Mississippi when students were expelled for protesting, and the general
idea of education for liberation that is taking the form today in the
growing struggle over quality public education as a civil right.
Other movements gained strength from the pool of ideas found in
SNCC: Chicano farm workers, who were facing sheriffs and going to jail
in the late 1950s, invited SNCC workers to help with their efforts in
the late 1960s. Discussion of sexism and women’s rights within SNCC, as
well as SNCC’s real life examples of empowered, respected women who led
local movements and held key positions in the organization, encouraged
and reinforced a burgeoning feminist movement.
But more than anything else, the SNCC legacy is found in the
veterans, many of who have continued to work for “a more perfect union.”
Five SNCC veterans have been recipients of MacArthur Foundation Genius
awards. Former SNCC communications director Julian Bond became board
chair of the NAACP. Former SNCC chair John Lewis is now serving his 15th
term as congressman from Atlanta’s 5th congressional district. Across
the country, and especially in the south, SNCC veterans are influential
leaders and activists. Once young and mentored by “elders” who had long
labored in the fields of social change, SNCC veterans now continue that
tradition and are now, who “they” were. Ella Baker’s words best define
this legacy: “We who believe in freedom cannot rest.”
RECOMMENDED READING FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
On The Road To Freedom, A Guided Tour of the Civil Rights Trail, by Charles E. Cobb Jr.
Hands on the Freedom Plow, Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC, edited by Faith Holsaert, et. al.
Deep in Our Hearts, Nine White Women in the Freedom Movement, by Joan Browning, et al.
Many Minds, One Heart, SNCC’s Dream for a New America, by Wesley Hogan
SNCC, the New Abolitionists, by Howard Zinn
In Struggle, SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s by Clayborne Carson
Ready For Revolution, the Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael, by Stokely Carmichael with Ekueme Michael Thelwell
The Making of Black Revolutionaries, by James Forman
The River of No Return, by Cleveland Sellers with Robert Terrell
Walking With the Wind, by John Lewis with Michael D’orso
Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement, by Barbara Ransby
Ella Baker, Freedom Bound, by Joanne Grant
The Wrong Side of Murder Creek, by Bob Zellner with Constance Curry
Freedom Song, by Mary King
Letters From Mississippi, edited by Elizabeth Sutherland Martinez
Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt, by Hasan Kwame Jeffries
Radical Equations, Civil Rights From Mississippi to the Algebra Project, by Robert P. Moses and Charles Cobb
Hands on the Freedom Plow, Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC, edited by Faith Holsaert, et. al.
Deep in Our Hearts, Nine White Women in the Freedom Movement, by Joan Browning, et al.
Many Minds, One Heart, SNCC’s Dream for a New America, by Wesley Hogan
SNCC, the New Abolitionists, by Howard Zinn
In Struggle, SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s by Clayborne Carson
Ready For Revolution, the Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael, by Stokely Carmichael with Ekueme Michael Thelwell
The Making of Black Revolutionaries, by James Forman
The River of No Return, by Cleveland Sellers with Robert Terrell
Walking With the Wind, by John Lewis with Michael D’orso
Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement, by Barbara Ransby
Ella Baker, Freedom Bound, by Joanne Grant
The Wrong Side of Murder Creek, by Bob Zellner with Constance Curry
Freedom Song, by Mary King
Letters From Mississippi, edited by Elizabeth Sutherland Martinez
Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt, by Hasan Kwame Jeffries
Radical Equations, Civil Rights From Mississippi to the Algebra Project, by Robert P. Moses and Charles Cobb
Black Power 50th
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