MAY 19th MALCOLM X REMEMBERED

Sankofa........
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I strongly believe it is important to remember our "Great Warriors for Justice and Equality". Brother "Malcolm fit's the Bill".

Malcolm legacy is one that doesn't get much air time, radio time etc...

So I feel that we should grasp on to their day of birth , their legacy,their sacrifices put forth to bring about a change for people of African ancestry.

Em-Hotep*
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MALCOLM X Champion for Justice

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'He taught us how to think'


“In the minds of his people, he has been brought back to life.”



El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) was assassinated 44 years ago, on Feb. 21, 1965, because of his attempt to internationalize the African American struggle for self-determination.




Complicated legacy
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Malcolm X was one of the most charismatic and feared figures in the civil rights movement, a former convict who changed his name from Malcolm Little, and propelled the Nation of Islam from a 500-member sect in 1952 into a political and religious organization with 30,000 members by 1963.
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On December 1, 1963, when he was asked for a comment about the assassination of President Kennedy, Malcolm X said that it was a case of "chickens coming home to roost". He added that "chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they've always made me glad."

The New York Times wrote, "in further criticism of Mr. Kennedy, the Muslim leader cited the murders of Patrice Lumumba, Congo leader, of Medgar Evers, civil rights leader, and of the Negro girls bombed earlier this year in a Birmingham church. These, he said, were instances of other 'chickens coming home to roost'."


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Pilgrimage to Mecca

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On April 13, 1964, Malcolm X departed JFK Airport in New York for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. His status as an authentic Muslim was questioned by Saudi authorities because of his United States passport and his inability to speak Arabic. Since only confessing Muslims are allowed into Mecca, he was separated from his group for about 20 hours.

According to his autobiography, Malcolm X saw a telephone and remembered the book The Eternal Message of Muhammad by Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam, which had been presented to him with his visa approval. He called Azzam's son, who arranged for his release. At the younger Azzam's home, he met Azzam Pasha, who gave Malcolm his suite at the Jeddah Palace Hotel. The next morning, Muhammad Faisal, the son of Prince Faisal, visited and informed Malcolm X that he was to be a state guest. The deputy chief of protocol accompanied Malcolm X to the Hajj Court, where he was allowed to make his pilgrimage.


On April 19, Malcolm X completed the Hajj, making the seven circuits around the Kaaba, drinking from the Zamzam Well and running between the hills of Safah and Marwah seven times.[119] Malcolm X said the trip allowed him to see Muslims of different races interacting as equals. He came to believe that Islam could be the means by which racial problems could be overcome.[120]


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Africa
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Malcolm X visited Africa on three separate occasions, once in 1959 and twice in 1964During his visits, he met officials, gave interviews to newspapers, and spoke on television and radio in Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanganyika (now Tanzania), Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Sudan, Senegal, Liberia, Algeria, and Morocco.Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, and Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria invited Malcolm X to serve in their governments.










In 1959, Malcolm X traveled to Egypt (then known as the United Arab Republic), Sudan, Nigeria, and Ghana to arrange a tour for Elijah Muhammad. The first of the two trips Malcolm X made to Africa in 1964 lasted from April 13 until May 21, before and after his Hajj. On May 8, following his speech at the University of Ibadan, Malcolm X was made an honorary member of the Nigerian Muslim Students' Association. During this reception the students bestowed upon him the name "Omowale", which means "the son who has come home" in the Yoruba language. Malcolm X wrote in his autobiography that he "had never received a more treasured honor."

On July 9, 1964, Malcolm X returned to Africa.[127] On July 17, he was welcomed to the second meeting of the Organization of African Unity in Cairo as a representative of the Organization of Afro-American Unity. By the time he returned to the United States on November 24, 1964, Malcolm had met with every prominent African leader and established an international connection between Africans on the continent and those in the diaspora.

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When Malcolm visited Africa in 1964, he visited Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. It was during that trip that he met with Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta, Ugandan President Dr. Milton Obote, and President Julius K. Nyerere and Muhammad Babu of Tanzania. Babu, Malcolm and Leroi Jones (now Amiri Baraka) held a meeting during this period in New York City. Malcolm talked about meeting President Kenyatta. Malcolm, however, was also aware of Kenya’s Oginga Odinga.









photo, taken June 1, 1963, reads: “Nairobi, Kenya – Waving his ‘wisk’ the newly-elected Premier of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta (R, foreground), greeted throngs of cheering citizens as he rode through the streets of Nairobi. Accompanying Kenyatta are Tom Mboya (L), Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs; A. Oginga Odinga, Minister for Home Affairs; and James S. Gichuru, Minister for Finance. The motorcade was part of the National Holiday celebrations which marked the start of internal self-government for the African nation.”




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France and the United Kingdom
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On November 23, 1964, on his way home from Africa, Malcolm X stopped in Paris, where he spoke at the Salle de la Mutualité.A week later, on November 30, Malcolm X flew to the United Kingdom, where he participated in a debate at the Oxford Union on December 3. The topic of the debate was "Extremism in the Defense of Liberty is No Vice; Moderation in the Pursuit of Justice is No Virtue", and Malcolm X argued the affirmative. Interest in the debate was so high that it was televised nationally by the BBC.

On February 5, 1965, Malcolm X went to Europe again. On February 8, he spoke in London, before the first meeting of the Council of African Organizations. Malcolm X tried to go to France on February 9 but he was refused entry. On February 12, he visited Smethwick, near Birmingham, which had become a byword for racial division after the 1964 general election, when the Conservative Party won the parliamentary seat after rumors that their candidate's supporters had used the slogan "If you want a nigger for your neighbour, vote Labour."




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“Malcolm didn’t build buildings or pass legislation,” said the activist Sharpton. “He taught us how to think. And when he changed our minds, we could build buildings and we could pass legislation.”



The Manhattan theater where Malcolm X was assassinated held a commemoration on Monday, the 40th anniversary of the civil rights leader’s death.

The Audubon Ballroom, where the activist was gunned down Feb. 21, 1965, is being turned into a history center that will re-examine his legacy by cataloging his life and work and showing how he championed human rights, his family said.

Aiyana Jones, 7-Year-Old Shot And Killed By Detroit Police

SPIRIT OF SANKOFA...........

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As I viewed the report on this precious baby girl. I heard something that was even more disturbing then Aiyana being murdered in cold blood.

This is when they brought Aiyana's life-less body out of the house they carried like she was not human at all, but like a dead animal!

This Clearly sets off bells and whistles and it also shows, the lack of concern for what DPD did in cold blood, then tried to cover it up.

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Aiyana Jones Was Sleeping According To Family












DETROIT - A family in Detroit mourns the loss of a seven-year-old girl accidentally shot and killed by police during a raid. The death of Aiyanna Jones is making national headlines, and there are currently many questions. How could something like this happen? What went on inside an east side Detroit home early Sunday morning?

Relatives of Aiyanna met with attorney Geoffrey Fieger on Monday and re-created the scene for his investigators. The girl was sleeping on a couch around 12:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 16 when officers with the Detroit Police Special Response Team threw a flash grenade through the window and an officer went inside, allegedly scuffled with her grandmother and then his gun went off. Aiyanna was hit in the neck.

Police were there looking for 34-year-old Chauncey Owens, suspected but not yet charged in the shooting death of 17-year-old Jerean Blake on Friday. Owens is the fiancee of Aiyanna's aunt, Lakrystal Sanders. He was arrested in the upstairs flat.

Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee says Detroit Police are handing their investigation over to Michigan State Police.

"We need an independent eye so, that from a community confidence standpoint, whatever findings are turned over to the prosecutor the community can have confidence that this was an independent investigation," he said.

Godbee says a thorough review of police tactics and procedures is underway.

The television show "The First 48" on A&E had been on scene with homicide investigators at Friday's shooting. "The First 48" videographers were also at the scene at the east side Detroit home. Detroit Police have given "The First 48" access to their investigations for several seasons. There is no financial component to the deal, and Detroit Police say their videographers did not go inside the flat and had no impact on their operation.

"'The First 48,' they were there. We're in the process of acquiring the footage so we can assess it, but we don't have that concern at this time," Godbee said.

The Coalition Against Police Brutality demonstrated outside an event where Attorney General Eric Holder was speaking, hoping to get the attention of the federal government.

"We want him to hear us. We want him to hear the pain of the people. We want him to hear about the young girl that was killed," said Ron Scott with the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality.

We understand the officer involved in this shooting is a 14 year veteran and has been on the Special Response Team for about six or seven years. He was involved in a police shooting one other time. It involved a barricaded gunman. That person fired at police and they returned fire. He was cleared of any wrongdoing in that case.

Meanwhile, Aiyanna's family has decided to take legal action against the Detroit Police Department. Their attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, says he has seen video of the raid and it goes against what police say happened Sunday morning.

This is what police say happened between the officer and the girl's grandmother: "Exactly what happened next is a matter still under investigation, but it appears the officer and the woman had some level of physical contact," said Godbee.

"That statement is a complete and utter falsehood," said Fieger.

The attorney is armed with at least two lawsuits that will be unveiled Tuesday and says he saw video tape from an unnamed source that shows a flash-bang grenade-type device was thrown into a window.

"And then within milliseconds of throwing that, firing a shot from outside the home while the Special Response Team was on the porch," Fieger said.

The bullet that killed Aiyanna, Fieger says, was fired before officers entered the home according to the video he saw. His case says there is a cover up by the Detroit Police Department.

Fieger also says the tape shows Aiyanna's body being removed by officers quickly.

"You see her being carried out by one officer, and it's not like she's a human being. She's out of that house faster than you would have expected," said Fieger.

Detroit Police late Monday said if Fieger does have video evidence, he should pass it along to the Michigan State Police for their investigation. Meanwhile, he is asking the department to tell what happened and leave the grandmother out of it.

"I would like the disclosure of how and why police officers came together in an attempt to blame a grandmother, who had nothing to do with anything for the death of a little girl," Fieger said.

So, there will be two lawsuits, one state and one federal, coming from Fieger's office against the police department. There will also be a lawsuit from the grandmother for being arrested on that night.

The family will be at Fieger's Southfield office Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. where they will be holding a news conference with their lawyer talking about Aiyanna and her untimely death.








But Fieger said the video shows an officer lobbing the grenade and then shooting into the home from the porch.

"There is no question about what happened because it's in the videotape," Fieger said. "It's not an accident. It's not a mistake. There was no altercation."

"Aiyana Jones was shot from outside on the porch. The videotape shows clearly the officer throwing through the window a stun grenade-type explosive and then within milliseconds of throwing that, firing a shot from outside the home," he said.












A woman brings balloons and flowers to a memorial at the house where a 7-year-old girl was shot and killed by police in Detroit, Monday, May 17, 2010. State police will take over the investigation of the fatal shooting of 7-year-old Aiyana Jones by a Detroit police officer during a weekend raid at the girl's home, a prosecutor said Monday. Aiyana was asleep on the living room sofa in her family's apartment when Detroit police, searching for a homicide suspect, burst in and an officer's gun went off, fatally striking the girl in the neck, family members said.



RIP HOPEFULLY JUSTICE WILL BE DONE!


Report:
MyFox Detroit News

Singer, Actress, Civil Rights Activist Lena Horne dies at 92

Lena Horne appeared in “Jamaica,” a musical that ran on Broadway from 1957 to 1959.



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Singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist Lena Horne


Lena Horne, who was the first black performer to be signed to a long-term contract by a major Hollywood studio and who went on to achieve international fame as a singer, died on Sunday night at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. She was 92 and lived in Manhattan.

Her death was announced by her son-in-law, Kevin Buckley.








Ms. Horne and Cab Calloway in “Stormy Weather.” The title song became one of her signatures.







Ms. Horne was stuffed into one “all-star" musical after another -- “Thousands Cheer" (1943), “Broadway Rhythm" (1944), “Two Girls and a Sailor" (1944), “Ziegfeld Follies" (1946), “Words and Music" (1948) -- to sing a song or two that could easily be snipped from the movie when it played in the South, where the idea of an African-American performer in anything but a subservient role in a movie with an otherwise all-white cast was unthinkable




Even before she came to Hollywood, Brooks Atkinson, the drama critic for The New York Times, noticed Ms. Horne in “Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds of 1939,” a Broadway revue that ran for nine performances. “A radiantly beautiful sepia girl,” he wrote, “who will be a winner when she has proper direction
















She had proper direction in two all-black movie musicals, both made in 1943. Lent to 20th Century Fox for “Stormy Weather,” one of those show business musicals with almost no plot but lots of singing and dancing, Ms. Horne did both triumphantly, ending with the sultry, aching sadness of the title number, which would become one of her signature songs. In MGM’s “Cabin in the Sky,” the first film directed by Vincente Minnelli, she was the brazen, sexy handmaiden of the Devil. (One number she shot for that film, “Ain’t It the Truth,” which she sang while taking a bubble bath, was deleted before the film was released — not for racial reasons, as her stand-alone performances in other MGM musicals sometimes were, but because it was considered too risqué.)



In 1945 the critic and screenwriter Frank Nugent wrote in Liberty magazine that Ms. Horne was “the nation’s top Negro entertainer.” In addition to her MGM salary of $1,000 a week, she was earning $1,500 for every radio appearance and $6,500 a week when she played nightclubs. She was also popular with servicemen, white and black, during World War II, appearing more than a dozen times on the Army radio program “Command Performance.”











“The whole thing that made me a star was the war,” Ms. Horne said in the 1990 interview. “Of course the black guys couldn’t put Betty Grable’s picture in their footlockers. But they could put mine.”

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Touring Army camps for the U.S.O., Ms. Horne was outspoken in her criticism of the way black soldiers were treated. “So the U.S.O. got mad,” she recalled. “And they said, ‘You’re not going to be allowed to go anyplace anymore under our auspices.’ So from then on I was labeled a bad little Red girl.”
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By the 1960s, Horne was one of the most visible celebrities in the civil rights movement, once throwing a lamp at a customer who made a racial slur in a Beverly Hills restaurant and in 1963 joining 250,000 others in the March on Washington when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech. Horne also spoke at a rally that same year with another civil rights leader, Medgar Evers, just days before his assassination.

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Ms. Horne later claimed that for this and other reasons, including her friendship with leftists like Paul Robeson and W.E.B. DuBois, she was blacklisted and “unable to do films or television for the next seven years” after her tenure with MGM ended in 1950.


This was not quite true: as Mr. Gavin has documented, she appeared frequently on “Your Show of Shows” and other television shows in the 1950s, and in fact “found more acceptance” on television “than almost any other black performer.” And Mr. Gavin and others have suggested that there were other factors in addition to politics or race involved in her lack of film work

Although absent from the screen, she found success in nightclubs and on records. “Lena Horne at the Waldorf-Astoria,” recorded during a well-received eight-week run in 1957, reached the Top 10 and became the best-selling album by a female singer in RCA Victor’s history.

In the early 1960s Ms. Horne, always outspoken on the subject of civil rights, became increasingly active, participating in numerous marches and protests.

In 1969, she returned briefly to films, playing the love interest of a white actor, Richard Widmark, in “Death of a Gunfighter.”



Widowed in 1971, Horne moved to New York City and continued her stage and concert work, and even did the occasional movie role, including that of Diana Ross's fairy godmother in the 1978 'The Wiz.'

Horne's other roles included 'I Dood It,' a Red Skelton comedy, 'Thousands Cheer' and 'Swing Fever,' all in 1943; 'Broadway Rhythm' in 1944; and 'Ziegfeld Follies' in 1946.


RIP SISTER LENA HORNE**

Malcolm X killer freed after 44 years

Sankofa's opinion.........


It seems strange to me after a 45 years span that authorities handling this case, only has one suspect. There were a combination of forces at work here.

Is it because it was Malcolm why there wasn't a thorough investigation of all possibilities? Whether or not who is implicated?

We all know this is wishful thinking.... In a land that claims "freedom of speech" why was he assasinated in cold blood? We should all remember our Ebony Prince, and what He stood for.


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There's outrage among some African-Americans, they said, that he being released. Would he be set free, if he had killed an iconic white leader?


Malcolm X is best known as the fiery leader of the Nation of Islam who denounced whites as "blue-eyed devils." But at the end of his life, Malcolm X changed his views toward whites and discarded the Nation of Islam's ideology in favor of orthodox Islam. In doing so, he feared for his own life from within the Nation.

Malcolm X remains a symbol of inspiration for black men, in particular, who are moved by his transformation from a street hustler to a man the late African-American actor Ossie Davis eulogized as "Our Own Black Shining Prince."





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(CNN) -- Thomas Hagan, the only man who admitted his role in the 1965 assassination of iconic black leader Malcolm X, was paroled Tuesday.

Hagan was freed a day earlier than planned because his paperwork was processed more quickly than anticipated, according to the New York State Department of Correctional Services.

Hagan, 69, walked out of the minimum-security Lincoln Correctional Facility at 11 a.m. The facility is located at the intersection of West 110th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard.


Hagan had been in a full-time work-release program since March 1992 that allowed him to live at home with his family in Brooklyn five days a week while reporting to the prison just two days.

Last month, Hagan pleaded his case for freedom: To return to his family, to become a substance abuse counselor and to make his mark on what time he has left in this world.

He was dressed in prison greens as he addressed the parole board. He had been before that body 14 other times since 1984. Each time, he was rejected.

Hagan was no ordinary prisoner. He is the only man to have confessed in the killing of Malcolm X, who was gunned down while giving a speech in New York's Audubon Ballroom in 1965.

"I have deep regrets about my participation in that," he told the parole board on March 3, according to a transcript. "I don't think it should ever have happened."




Hagan had been sentenced to 20 years to life imprisonment after being found guilty at trial with two others in 1966. The other two men were released in the 1980s and have long denied involvement in the killing.

To win his release, Hagan was required to seek, obtain and maintain a job, support his children and abide by a curfew. He must continue to meet those conditions while free. He told the parole board he's worked the same job for the past seven years. He told the New York Post in 2008 he was working at a fast-food restaurant.


The ballroom where he was killed has now been converted into The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. Board Chairman Zead Ramadan said the center doesn't have a position on Hagan's release.

"I personally find it strange that for a couple decades any person convicted in the assassination of such an iconic figure would be allowed such leniency," Ramadan said.

"It's really a struggle for Muslims to contemplate this issue, because our faith and our religion is full of examples where we have to exert mercy," he added. "The Malcolm X story has not ended. His populuarity has grown in death. ... Only God knows why this was allowed to happen."

The center is preparing for a special service next month to celebrate what would have been Malcolm X's 85th birthday. Would the center welcome Hagan if he asked to attend?



"We'd cross that bridge if he called us," Ramadan said, "Think about that: How far-fetched is it that he could meet one of the daughters of Malcolm X? And what's going to happen then? Mercy, fury, anger, emotions -- who knows?"



Killed in front of his family
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Malcolm X was 39 when he was gunned down in 1965.
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On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X took to the stage of the Audubon Ballroom, a site often used for civic meetings. His wife, Betty Shabazz, and four children were in the crowd.

Malcolm X was 39 when he was gunned down in 1965."I heard several shots in succession," his wife later told a Manhattan grand jury. "I got on the floor, and I pushed my children under the seat and protected them with my body."

Gunshots continued to ring out, she said. Her husband's body was riddled with bullets. The native of Omaha, Nebraska, was 39.

"Minister Malcolm was slaughtered like a dog in front of his family," A. Peter Bailey, one of Malcolm X's closest aides, told The New York Times on the 40th anniversary of the killing.



The assassination came after a public feud between Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam's founder, Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm X had accused Muhammad of infidelity and left the Nation in March 1964.

"For the next 11 months, there was a pattern of harassment, vilification and even on occasion literally pursuit in the streets of Malcolm by people associated with the Nation," said Claude Andrew Clegg III, author of a biography on Elijah Muhammad called An Original Man.

"Malcolm felt that if Elijah Muhammad snapped his fingers, then he could stop the escalation of the violent tone around the split of the two men. And I think there's some truth to that."

Over the years, the killing of Malcolm X has been the subject of much debate, with conspiracy theories involving the Nation of Islam and others. The Nation of Islam has repeatedly denied any involvement in Malcolm X's assassination.



On a deadly mission
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Hagan, then known by the name Talmadge X Hayer, was in his early 20s and a radical member of the Nation of Islam the day he entered the ballroom armed and ready to kill. His allegiance was to the Nation's founder, and he was outraged Malcolm X had broken from its ranks.

After the shooting, Hagan tried to flee the scene but he was shot in the leg. He was beaten by the crowd before being arrested outside.

Thomas Hagan is pictured here in a mugshot from 2008.Last month, he told the parole board he felt the urge to kill Malcolm X because of his inflammatory comments about the Nation's founder.

"It stemmed from a break off and confusion in the leadership," Hagan said. "Malcolm X broke with the Nation of Islam, separated from the Nation of Islam, and in doing so there was controversy as to some of the statements he was making about the leader."


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He added, "History has revealed a lot of what Malcolm X was saying was true."
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Two other men, Muhammad Abdul Aziz and Kahlil Islam, were also found guilty of murder in 1966 and received 20 years to life. Both proclaimed their innocence. Hagan, who eventually admitted his part in the murder, testified at trial and subsequent parole hearings that both men were innocent. Aziz was paroled in 1985; Islam was freed in 1987.

At last month's parole hearing, Hagan again maintained that Aziz and Islam were not the other assassins. He said it was two other men who helped plot, plan and participate in the killing.

Did they receive orders from the Nation to carry out the killing?

"I can't say that anyone in the Nation of Islam gave us the idea or instructed us to do it. We did this ourselves for the most part, yes," Hagan told the parole board.

Hagan said he received a master's degree in sociology while incarcerated and that helped him deal with his actions from 45 years ago.



"I understand a lot better the dynamics of movements and what can happen inside movements and conflicts that can come up, but I have deep regrets about my participation in that."

He added, "Unfortunately, I didn't have an in-depth understanding of what was really going on myself to let myself be involved in anything like that. ... I can't really describe my remiss and my remorse for my actions -- basically a very young man, a very uneducated man. "

He is still a Muslim but no longer a member of the Nation of Islam. He volunteers at a mosque to help young men. He told the parole board he hopes to become a qualified substance abuse counselor.

His primary mission is to help his four children, ages 21, 17, 14 and 10. He has two other grown children.

"My focus is to maintain my family and to try to make things a little better for them. It's upward mobility, and to encourage my children to complete their education because it's a must."



(CNN)



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Malcolm X's legacy ignored 45 years after his murder

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Malcolm X speaks to television news men at Duffy Square, New York, Feb. 13, 1963.

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Apparently, Malcolm X does not exist. At least that's what you might think while visiting the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. During our rally for the Heather Ellis case, the young woman who faced 15 years in prison after cutting line at a Wal-Mart, I took a tour of the museum. After completing the hour-long tour, I realized that they'd forgotten something. Even though the museum had hundreds of pictures of other events representing the civil rights struggle in America, I saw only one picture of Malcolm X.

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This incredibly disappointing display at the Civil Rights Museum is a reflection of how Malcolm's legacy has been treated like the neglected step-child of the African-American struggle for freedom and equality. Malcolm fought for civil rights just as diligently as Dr. King. He was just as impactful as Dr. King. He gave his life like Dr. King. But for some reason, most of us don't remember Malcolm's birthday. We've never considered having a holiday to commemorate his contribution. He is rarely discussed in the same sentence with Dr. King. We just ignore him and this has got to change.
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It's easy to understand why mainstream America has been conditioned not to appreciate the legacy of Malcolm X. They dislike Malcolm for the same reasons that the British dislike George Washington. Malcolm wasn't an apologist and challenged black folks to respect themselves, which was in direct contrast to a strategy of constrained and oppressive integration.


Our goal was to get a seat at the table, even if we were given the scraps, and some are wondering if we are better off because of it. Malcolm kept a crystal ball in his mind which told him that a distorted, imbalanced marriage between blacks and whites would lead to terrible inner city schools, huge imbalances of wealth and unemployment and a lack of willingness by politicians to acknowledge serious concerns within the African-American community. Hence, you have the year 2010.



MALCOLM X DISCUSS JOBS & VOTER EDUCATION
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While the social, economic and political relationships of blacks and whites have presented quite a few gains for African-Americans, they don't work when there is still a fundamental disrespect for black people themselves. Malcolm was not necessarily against these kinds of ties, but he might agree that this union should only take place when there is definitive proof of mutual respect.


Rather than embracing concepts such as ownership and institution-building, African-Americans have positioned themselves as an occupied state which leaves itself vulnerable to distorted economic and political condition. Many of us understand that the dreams of neither Malcolm nor Martin have been fully realized.

It's time for us to evolve our thinking. If we continue to use the same models, we will continue to get the same results. Martin Luther King was an undeniably great man, but to some extent, mainstream media has chosen him as an African-American hero.


In the same way Lil Wayne has been promoted extensively by non-black music executives, Martin Luther King is tossed at us like the latest Jay-Z song or those Democratic nominees that none of us have ever heard about. We've never been given the opportunity to choose our own iconic figures. Instead, we are taught that Dr. King fought the entire struggle for civil rights all by himself.

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We must make a collective effort to raise Malcolm from the dead to give him the appreciation he deserves. We can first start by learning Malcolm's birthday, which is May 19, 1925 and the date of his assassination, Febuary 21, 1965. We can also study his life, and his contribution to the country in which we live today.
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Malcolm gave black people pride and courage, which are just as valuable as eating at the same lunch counter at whites. He encouraged an honest recollection on our experience as slaves, which is far better than being taught that slavery should be forgotten. He helped us understand that black history is a living, breathing phenomenon, determining how we name ourselves, what we eat and what we think. In many ways, Malcolm gave black America a new beginning.

Malcolm, Martin and thousands of others fought to get us where we are today, and we know that. It's time to talk differently about our history. So, as we go to one MLK dinner after another, we must make a point to stop and give respect to Malcolm.




Source: THE GRIO