VETERAN CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST AND NATIONAL BLACK WALL STREET LEADER STARTS PETITION ON CHANGE.ORG FOR MINISTER LOUIS FARRAKHAN'S CALL FOR MEETING WITH NATIONAL BLACK LEADERSHIP
http://www.change.org/petitions/rev-al-sharpton-rev-jesse-jackson-marc-morial-ben-jealous-martin-luther-king-iii-and-other-national-black-civil-rights-leaders-respond-to-the-call-to-meet-with-minister-louis-farrakhan-and-other-black-nationalist-leaders-with-civil-rights-leaders-f?share_id=znpdWnDSsG&utm_campaign=twitter_link_action_box&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=share_petition via @change
In a recent editorial of The Final Call Newspaper by Editor Richard Muhammad states that "Following in the path of his leader and teacher, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has asked leaders of Black organizations and mainstays of the 2013 March on Washington if they would be willing to sit down with him to plot a new destiny for our people.
Despite not being invited to the 2013 march, the Minister applauded the coming together of Black America to speak to serious issues facing this country. Min. Farrakhan has a history as a bridge builder whether it is Black pastors, embattled Black organizations, or civil rights leaders who are under attack. His actions, frankly, have sprung from a strong desire for unity and an understanding of the power of our collective effort.
Rev. Al Sharpton, of the National Action Network, who has been called the lead organizer of the 2013 march, added, “The reason we have not made the progress we needed is we’ve been too disconnected.” “We’ve been too worried who would get the credit rather than fighting the fight,” he said. "
Finally, as one of my other elder Civil Rights Movement mentors Rev. Willie Taplin Barrow teaches is that "we are no much divided as we are disconnected." NOW is the time for Black leadership to CONNECT for the betterment of the least of God's people that we serve, and I feel uniquely qualified to
Rev. Al Sharpton, of the National Action Network, who has been called the lead organizer of the 2013 march, added, “The reason we have not made the progress we needed is we’ve been too disconnected.” “We’ve been too worried who would get the credit rather than fighting the fight,” he said. "
Finally, as one of my other elder Civil Rights Movement mentors Rev. Willie Taplin Barrow teaches is that "we are no much divided as we are disconnected." NOW is the time for Black leadership to CONNECT for the betterment of the least of God's people that we serve, and I feel uniquely qualified to
As a 40 year veteran activist from both the Civil Rights and Nationalist communities, I know that there is a common agenda by which our most noted Black leaders can show a united front and show operational unity when it comes to building and rebuilding the Black political and economic agenda. And I know how this united front will spread to cross sections oif supporters and the masses of Black people and Black communities. And as a current national leader of the National Black Wall Street movement I know that the spirit and example of Black Wall Street is an agenda at the core that our collective leaders from Civil Rights, Nationalist, Religious, Civic, Grassroots and others can and MUST form a public showing of operational unity.
http://www.change.org/petitions/rev-al-sharpton-rev-jesse-jackson-marc-morial-ben-jealous-martin-luther-king-iii-and-other-national-black-civil-rights-leaders-respond-to-the-call-to-meet-with-minister-louis-farrakhan-and-other-black-nationalist-leaders-with-civil-rights-leaders-f?share_id=znpdWnDSsG&utm_campaign=twitter_link_action_box&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=share_petition via @change
Finding the path to unity
Richard B. Muhammad
Editor
The Final Call Newspaper
Editor
The Final Call Newspaper
 |
Holding a copy of the “21st Century Agenda for Jobs and Freedom,” National Urban League CEO Marc Morial spoke not only of a new plan for meeting Black needs but of using a new weapon—unity.
EDITORIAL
In the past the problem of disunity or perceived disunity helped to compound the challenge of dealing with the serious business of Black suffering and inequality, he said.
“We decided instead of joining the chorus of cynics and complainers, that we would create a new course and that would be the course of unity, cooperation and collaboration,” said Mr. Morial.
Rev. Al Sharpton, of the National Action Network, who has been called the lead organizer of the 2013 march, added, “The reason we have not made the progress we needed is we’ve been too disconnected.” “We’ve been too worried who would get the credit rather than fighting the fight,” he said.
The agenda released Aug. 23 was forged through the efforts of Mr. Morial, Rev. Sharpton, Benjamin Jealous of the NAACP and Melanie Campbell of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation.
The goals outlined in the agenda include efforts to “achieve economic parity for African Americans; promote equity in educational opportunity; protect and defend voting rights; promote a healthier nation by eliminating healthcare disparities and achieve comprehensive criminal justice system reform.”
The agenda was an outgrowth of meetings last December and in January 2013, said the conveners. Participants included nearly 60 leading civil rights, social justice, business and community leaders. Conference calls were used to help develop the agenda, according to Mr. Morial.
It is laudable that leaders of civil rights groups are seeing the value of unity to deal with the serious problems facing Black America.
The need for a Black United Front is clear and reflects an appeal from the Hon. Elijah Muhammad in the 1960s and a telegram sent to the leaders of these same organizations, with the exception of the National Action Network which did not exist, calling for a meeting to discuss the plight of our people and joint efforts by us to save us. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., actually met with Mr. Muhammad.
Following in the path of his leader and teacher, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has asked leaders of Black organizations and mainstays of the 2013 March on Washington if they would be willing to sit down with him to plot a new destiny for our people.
Despite not being invited to the 2013 march, the Minister applauded the coming together of Black America to speak to serious issues facing this country. Min. Farrakhan has a history as a bridge builder whether it is Black pastors, embattled Black organizations, or civil rights leaders who are under attack. His actions, frankly, have sprung from a strong desire for unity and an understanding of the power of our collective effort.
When it was not popular he supported Rev. Jackson’s run for the White House in 1984. When Rev. Sharpton was seen as a firebrand and outsider in the 1980s and 1990s, it was Minister Farrakhan who stood with him to deal with the cases of Tawana Brawley, Yusuf Hawkins and other racially charged battles for justice in New York.
When members of the Congressional Black Caucus, then federal Alcee Hastings, and state lawmakers were targeted for investigations, Min. Farrakhan defended them.
When he convened the Million Man March in 1995, the largest public gathering in the history of this country, Rev. Jackson, Rev. Sharpton, Martin Luther King, III and Black pastors and political leaders spoke and spoke in prime time. Many of these same individuals did nothing to promote the march and some opposed the march outright.
None of that mattered to the Minister because in the end, the important thing was stopping the self-destructive actions and outside assaults on Black people.
The word unity has true meaning in the heart and mind of this man, who has borne repudiation and censure for no other apparent reason than fear of what the enemy and those outside of our community think.
Min. Farrakhan has never made total acceptance of his views and his position a prerequisite for working with any Black leader or organization. Rather his focus has been on commonality, whether it is the principles of faith or the desire to help, serve or save Black America.
Shortly before the Supreme Court made its decision to gut provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Min. Farrakhan was part of a whistle-stop tour with leader of the Southern Christian leadership Conference and others to call for protection of those rights.
It is time to put the division over tactics and philosophies aside and to coalesce on the things that can be agreed upon. We can agree that Black America is in a crisis. We can agree that mass incarceration is devastating our community. We can agree that Black youth are besieged on all sides from police brutality to failing schools and nonexistent opportunity. We can agree that America needs to be held accountable and that we can better handle the $1 trillion that comes through our hands for our own benefit.
Those simple points seem like enough to get started and big enough fields for us to do serious work without hurting or insulting one another.
In his remarks Aug. 23, Rev. Sharpton referred to the biblical picture of the dry bones in the valley and that the bones could not stand until they were reconnected. That is true. But there is also a missing element, the bones rattled and only came together after the winds of hard times blew on them. Do we need more tragedy, more loss of life and more despair to know the winds are blowing on Black America now and it is time that we find the path to unity?
marksallen2800@aol.com
Chairman & COO National Black Wall Street Chicago
(Rev. Willie T. Barrow Consumer Education and Consumer Action Project)
Founder/Lead Organizer, Illinois Voter Restoration Civic Education Project
Chief of Staff to National Chairman, National Black Wall Street USA
"And The Ordinary People Said" News Blog, www.chicagonow.com
Chairman, Community Reinvestment Organizing Project
Listed in 2012 Edition Who' Who In Black Chicago
4655 South King Drive, Suite 203
Chicago, Illinois 60653
(Office) 773-268-6900 or direct 773-392-0165
The Rev. Al Sharpton calls Mark Allen "one of Chicago's legendary political activists and one of the best organizers of his generation"
Chairman & COO National Black Wall Street Chicago
(Rev. Willie T. Barrow Consumer Education and Consumer Action Project)
Founder/Lead Organizer, Illinois Voter Restoration Civic Education Project
Chief of Staff to National Chairman, National Black Wall Street USA
"And The Ordinary People Said" News Blog, www.chicagonow.com
Chairman, Community Reinvestment Organizing Project
Listed in 2012 Edition Who' Who In Black Chicago
4655 South King Drive, Suite 203
Chicago, Illinois 60653
(Office) 773-268-6900 or direct 773-392-0165
The Rev. Al Sharpton calls Mark Allen "one of Chicago's legendary political activists and one of the best organizers of his generation"
https://theblacklist.net/
Replies
Rev. Al Sharpton, of the National Action Network, who has been called the lead organizer of the 2013 march, added, “The reason we have not made the progress we needed is we’ve been too disconnected.” “We’ve been too worried who would get the credit rather than fighting the fight,” he said. "
well, he also forget to mention the fact that there are some negropeans, since the early twentieth century, who have been accomplices in the preservation of the enslavement of afrikan people on this side of the planet. and he's one of them, contrary to poplar opinion. so there are those of us who have learned to take back our minds from them negropeans and have learned to see the world through our own black eyes, and have drawn our own conclusions from angles like seldom before. we are now able to see through the jive and bullshit of so-called black leadershit, from dubois to whomever it may concern.
we've heard the same ole call before, sitting down to discuss what course we should be taking, when the course was already plotted out by the great marcus garvey until the negropeans, led by dubois, helped the government take him down and out of the country; and then replaced garveyism with what? integration, reform, what?
and the nerve of that negropean to talk about why we haven't been able to sit down, because the different cliques want the credit. well, there are different cliques because there are four different types of melanated people on amerikkkan soil: afrikans, blacks, negropeans and niggas. the facts are the facts. hell, i'm not going to waste my time with negropeans who are fond of amerikkkan ideals, negropeans who pledge allegiance to the red, white and blue, and won't having nothing to do with the red, black and green. to hell with them. yeah, that's right, from the mind of an afrikan-n-amerikkka who knows what time it is.
some of the same people who'd be willing to sit down betrayed malcolm x, and still do when they fail to mention him thoroughly in their speeches to our youth. and i can go on and on naming others, such as chairman fred hampton sr, assata shakur, jalil muntaqim, russell maroon shoatz, albert nuh washington, bunchy carter, huey p. newton, h. rap brown, queen mother moore, george jackson tarik haskins, sekou odinga, sundiata acoli, the angola 3, mutula shakur, robert f. williams, vernon johns, stokely carmichael, willie ricks (mukasa dada), geronimo pratt, safiya bukhari, kathleen cleaver, eldridge cleaver, jonathan jackson, sayd shakur, amari obedele, ramona afrika, pam afrika, and the black liberation army.
and you want to have a sit down! a sit down to do what? to continue rendering services to caesar or to off his @#$%&* head like malcolm x so correctly said at the cost of blooshed, because freedom ain't to be given. it must be taken. shit!
we are the new, real and true fighters of freedom, some of us revolutionaries, who are in tune with the streets, the occupied colonies held in check by the p.i.g.s. (protectors of ill-natured governmental systems), and the common masses of the oppressed and outcasted afrikan people who have been used and abused not only by the enemy but by some who look just like us, those caught up into careerism, professional filibustering, intellectual masturbation, jive feel-good slogans, selling gate-keeping programs at the behest of the corporate euro-amerikkkan pheens.
we might as well get something straight right now! it's our freedom or our continued death via the various malthusian methods of genocide for the sake of white preservation, ideals, and orthodox standards. and by the way, yeah i'm mad as a mutha@#$%&! and i have the right to be, but i'm also disciplined and have been blessed in ways the negropeans can't even imagine. freedom ain't no joke!
UHURU!
Thank you for your words and candor. So are you against the National Black leadership meeting called by Minister Farrakhan? I have also watched over 30 years of "WE" are the leaders we have been looking for and many of those who used to be the "we" are now who we are complaining about so when does sit end? And YES even the agenda of Marcus Garvey can be achieved if those of us the respective leadership don't ever bet together and discuss it. so I will continue to push for the current call by Minister Farrakhan and hope that far too many of us with good input dont sit on the sidelines.
I'd love some feedback, as I look at 90 people who have least read this piece, YET I have less than 30 signatures on the united petition., WHY? Do people NOT believe in National Black leadership unity?;