Garvey's ''Up Ye Mighty Race'' and Tawana Brawley
Garvey's ''Up Ye Mighty Race'' and Tawana Brawley
by ALTON H. MADDOX JR.
It never dawned on white law enforcement officials, including Steven Pagones and Harry Crist Jr., that the kidnapping and rape of Tawana Brawley would have the unintended consequence of furthering the philosophies and opinions of Marcus Garvey. I am certain that none of these culprits had ever heard of Mr. Garvey in November 1987.
Black activists including Min. Louis Farrakhan, Sonny Carson, Viola Plummer, Revs. Al Sharpton and Sol Williams, and attorneys C. Vernon Mason and Michael Warren met and led a mass rally in Newburgh, NY, on December 12, 1987 to pledge, relentlessly, their lives and their resources to avenge the heinous crimes perpetrated against a fifteen-year-old Black girl. Given these pledges of support, I accepted the Brawley family's request to represent them.
By June 1988, Tawana's mother, Glenda Brawley, would be in sanctuary in the historic Bethany Baptist Church, skirting a fugitive slave warrant, for refusing to violate the parent-child privilege, while surrounded by Attorney General Robert Abrams and his posse. After being in the church for ''forty days and forty nights,'' a daring escape, in broad daylight, occurred on July 16, 1988.
Through police intelligence, Abrams learned that the fugitives and their accomplices were headed to the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. He stationed his posse at the Verrazano Bridge, the planned escape route. Our ancestors, however, steered the bus through the Underground Railroad and under the Hudson River. Abrams was last seen at the bridge with egg on his face.
After the political convention in Atlanta, a coterie of activists were bent on forming an organization to continue waging the struggle on behalf of the Brawley family and to continue resisting white supremacy. These were seasoned activists.
While Sharpton would preside over UAM, initially, the political theorist and guru was attorney Joseph Mack. He breathed Mr. Garvey's philosophies and opinions into it. UAM was established on August 17, 1988, in honor of Mr. Garvey. Seven years later, UAM would stop Pennsylvania from executing Mumia Abu-Jamal on Mr. Garvey's birthday.
Many longtime activists in the tri-state area, like Harold and Eloise Dicks, joined UAM. Harold recently made his transition from the physical realm into the spiritual realm and has joined his faithful companion, Eloise. UAM's birthplace was Friendship Baptist Church but the Slave Theater became its place of business.
Reportedly, the district attorney of Kings County is attempting to seize this historic theater from former Judge John Phillips. After the Giuliani administration sued me and UAM for violating the municipal (slave) code which requires the presence of whites at all Black meetings, Phillips abruptly ended his landlord-tenant relationship with UAM.
UAM's weekly forum became the most democratic institution in the Black World. It featured speakers of all political stripes and especially speakers who were public enemies of white supremacy. The New York Times, for example, connected the fire at Freddy's in Harlem to the teachings coming out of the Slave Theater. These African-centered forums prompted Curtis Sliwa, Minoo Southgate and Michael Meyers to sound the bugle.
The centerpiece of the Patriot Act is not surveillance but its provisions against giving material aid and support to ''terrorists'' like Mumia Abu-Jamal, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin and Colin Ferguson. No liberation movement can exist without adequate financing.
Blacks understood Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's message. Many would now stay away from the forums, and most who did attend left their wallets at home. We are still programmed to finance our own oppression. The cost of each priceless forum exceeded two thousand dollars. ''We sick boss?''
Mr. Garvey inspired Malcolm X's parents and they dutifully taught their children the virtues of Pan-Africanism. White supremacy obligates Black women to teach Black boys to be subservient and sycophantic. Malcolm's mother violated this rule. The punishment was swift and certain. Her husband was murdered and her children were seized and dispersed.
Maintaining single parent homes in the Black community is an official policy in the United States. The roots of this policy can be found in the slave codes and has also been enforced under welfare codes. These machinations, designed to uproot the Black family, are badges of slavery and are supposedly outlawed by the Thirteenth Amendment.
Prison and the Nation of Islam helped Malcolm reconnect to Mr. Garvey's teachings. This reconnect would prove fatal, however. SNCC sent John Lewis on a fact-finding mission in Africa. Lewis wrote, ''Malcolm's impact on Africa was just fantastic.''
Malcolm was now advancing Mr. Garvey's teachings: ''We don't want to move over here physically. What we want is to have a cultural and psychological migration here, like the Jews have migrated to Israel philosophically and culturally.''
This advice was given while emerging African states were designing their own flags, many in the colors of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and Ethiopia. Both Mr. Garvey and Malcolm have had a lasting impact on Africa.
In his last speech, Malcolm advised Blacks to ''help Africa in its struggle to free itself from western domination. No matter where the Black man is, he will never be respected until Africa is a world power.'' Previously, Mr. Garvey had said, ''A race without power and authority is a race without respect.''
This respect must first be internal and must be bestowed on the Black woman. In order for her to do her job, she must be sheltered and protected. The person who rocks the cradle rules the nation. Black women are still required to be surrogate mothers.
Resistance to the racially motivated and well-publicized kidnapping and rape of Tawana Brawley is a test of the Black man's will and commitment to Black liberation. I find it interesting that many of the activists who showed up in Newburgh in 1987 refuse to utter Tawana's name in 2005. Compromise and co-optation spur white supremacy.
by ALTON H. MADDOX JR.
It never dawned on white law enforcement officials, including Steven Pagones and Harry Crist Jr., that the kidnapping and rape of Tawana Brawley would have the unintended consequence of furthering the philosophies and opinions of Marcus Garvey. I am certain that none of these culprits had ever heard of Mr. Garvey in November 1987.
Black activists including Min. Louis Farrakhan, Sonny Carson, Viola Plummer, Revs. Al Sharpton and Sol Williams, and attorneys C. Vernon Mason and Michael Warren met and led a mass rally in Newburgh, NY, on December 12, 1987 to pledge, relentlessly, their lives and their resources to avenge the heinous crimes perpetrated against a fifteen-year-old Black girl. Given these pledges of support, I accepted the Brawley family's request to represent them.
By June 1988, Tawana's mother, Glenda Brawley, would be in sanctuary in the historic Bethany Baptist Church, skirting a fugitive slave warrant, for refusing to violate the parent-child privilege, while surrounded by Attorney General Robert Abrams and his posse. After being in the church for ''forty days and forty nights,'' a daring escape, in broad daylight, occurred on July 16, 1988.
Through police intelligence, Abrams learned that the fugitives and their accomplices were headed to the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. He stationed his posse at the Verrazano Bridge, the planned escape route. Our ancestors, however, steered the bus through the Underground Railroad and under the Hudson River. Abrams was last seen at the bridge with egg on his face.
After the political convention in Atlanta, a coterie of activists were bent on forming an organization to continue waging the struggle on behalf of the Brawley family and to continue resisting white supremacy. These were seasoned activists.
While Sharpton would preside over UAM, initially, the political theorist and guru was attorney Joseph Mack. He breathed Mr. Garvey's philosophies and opinions into it. UAM was established on August 17, 1988, in honor of Mr. Garvey. Seven years later, UAM would stop Pennsylvania from executing Mumia Abu-Jamal on Mr. Garvey's birthday.
Many longtime activists in the tri-state area, like Harold and Eloise Dicks, joined UAM. Harold recently made his transition from the physical realm into the spiritual realm and has joined his faithful companion, Eloise. UAM's birthplace was Friendship Baptist Church but the Slave Theater became its place of business.
Reportedly, the district attorney of Kings County is attempting to seize this historic theater from former Judge John Phillips. After the Giuliani administration sued me and UAM for violating the municipal (slave) code which requires the presence of whites at all Black meetings, Phillips abruptly ended his landlord-tenant relationship with UAM.
UAM's weekly forum became the most democratic institution in the Black World. It featured speakers of all political stripes and especially speakers who were public enemies of white supremacy. The New York Times, for example, connected the fire at Freddy's in Harlem to the teachings coming out of the Slave Theater. These African-centered forums prompted Curtis Sliwa, Minoo Southgate and Michael Meyers to sound the bugle.
The centerpiece of the Patriot Act is not surveillance but its provisions against giving material aid and support to ''terrorists'' like Mumia Abu-Jamal, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin and Colin Ferguson. No liberation movement can exist without adequate financing.
Blacks understood Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's message. Many would now stay away from the forums, and most who did attend left their wallets at home. We are still programmed to finance our own oppression. The cost of each priceless forum exceeded two thousand dollars. ''We sick boss?''
Mr. Garvey inspired Malcolm X's parents and they dutifully taught their children the virtues of Pan-Africanism. White supremacy obligates Black women to teach Black boys to be subservient and sycophantic. Malcolm's mother violated this rule. The punishment was swift and certain. Her husband was murdered and her children were seized and dispersed.
Maintaining single parent homes in the Black community is an official policy in the United States. The roots of this policy can be found in the slave codes and has also been enforced under welfare codes. These machinations, designed to uproot the Black family, are badges of slavery and are supposedly outlawed by the Thirteenth Amendment.
Prison and the Nation of Islam helped Malcolm reconnect to Mr. Garvey's teachings. This reconnect would prove fatal, however. SNCC sent John Lewis on a fact-finding mission in Africa. Lewis wrote, ''Malcolm's impact on Africa was just fantastic.''
Malcolm was now advancing Mr. Garvey's teachings: ''We don't want to move over here physically. What we want is to have a cultural and psychological migration here, like the Jews have migrated to Israel philosophically and culturally.''
This advice was given while emerging African states were designing their own flags, many in the colors of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and Ethiopia. Both Mr. Garvey and Malcolm have had a lasting impact on Africa.
In his last speech, Malcolm advised Blacks to ''help Africa in its struggle to free itself from western domination. No matter where the Black man is, he will never be respected until Africa is a world power.'' Previously, Mr. Garvey had said, ''A race without power and authority is a race without respect.''
This respect must first be internal and must be bestowed on the Black woman. In order for her to do her job, she must be sheltered and protected. The person who rocks the cradle rules the nation. Black women are still required to be surrogate mothers.
Resistance to the racially motivated and well-publicized kidnapping and rape of Tawana Brawley is a test of the Black man's will and commitment to Black liberation. I find it interesting that many of the activists who showed up in Newburgh in 1987 refuse to utter Tawana's name in 2005. Compromise and co-optation spur white supremacy.
posted by Attorney Alton Maddox at 7:56 PM
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