Black Nationalism and its Role in Black Liberation Struggles

Hotep (An Ancient Afrikan word for Peace)!!!

Take notes!!!!!!!

“One of the major dilemmas inherent in the attempt by black people to break through the cultural aspects of white imperialism is that posed by the use of historical knowledge as a weapon in our struggle. We are virtually forced into the invidious position of proving our humanity by citing historical antecedents; and yet the evidence is too often submitted to the white racists for sanction. The white man has already implanted numerous historical myths in the minds of black peoples; and those have to be uprooted . . . It is necessary to direct our historical activity in the light of two basic principles[:]

Firstly, the effort must be directed solely towards freeing and mobilising black minds. There must be no performances to impress whites, for those whites who find themselves beside us in the firing line will be there for reasons far more profound than their exposure to African history.

Secondly, the acquired knowledge of African history must be seen as directly relevant but secondary to the concrete tactics and strategy which are necessary for our liberation. There must be no false distinctions between reflection and action . . .

If there is to be any proving of our humanity it must be by revolutionary means.”

-Walter Rodney

I start my commentary with Hotep!!! This word Hotep is our ancient Afrikan word for peace!!! It comes out of the Medu Neter in Kemet (Egypt), Afrika. Europeans and Arabs call it the hieroglyphics. Hotep is the oldest word for peace in human history!!! Hotep predates the Hebrew word shalom and the Arabic word salaam for peace. The struggle for freedom started with Black people fighting back capture for enslavement in Afrika, fighting back enslavement on the slave-ships, and fighting back enslavement on slave plantations in the Americas. This commentary is extensive, but it must be. Our oppression has been long and enduring. But in the millennium, there is so much misinformation and miseducation on Black liberation struggles. Brother Malcolm X (Omowale El Hajj Malik El Shabazz), the Black nationalist freedom fighter and human rights leader of the 1950s and 1960s, summed up the oppression of Black people, and people of color, in many of his speeches. He argued that it is due to a world-wide conspiracy of White supremacy and systematic racism. I have spent almost a year preparing to go back to college to finish my masters and PhD graduate studies in history. Because of Malcolm X's lucid critiques White hegemony to dominate and subjugate Black people, and people of color; I want to compete my studies and research on the ideological creation of White supremacy in America, and in the world, that has left Black communities in an abject state of oppression. I will also center my studies and research on Black people's reaction to White supremacy in America, and in the world, in our fight against White hegemony using the strategy of Black nationalism.

White supremacy is the idea that White hegemony created in the 1700s. It was used to make White superior, and their culture, religion, language, philosophy, mores, norms, values, names, economic systems, and history are inherently superior to all Black people and all people of color. This concept of White supremacy develops as White people began to establish capitalism, exploit cheap labor in Afrika, and acquire indigenous people's land in the Western Hemisphere of the world. As a consequence of systematic racism, a falsified concept of whiteness, and colorism, leads to the Europeanization of the Black mind, destabilization of Afrikan countries, the capitalist exploitation of Afrika and Black people, the mass incarceration of Black people, the oppression of Black people and people of color, chemical warfare in Afrikan American communities, the murder of Black leaders, the disaccreditation of Black nationalism, and the promotion Black self- hatred. All of those things I mentioned in the above sentence have its foundations rooted in White supremacy.

For nearly 300 years, the ideology of White supremacy was used to justify the European Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the enslavement of Black people (Maafa), the Arab Slave Trade, European colonialism in Afrika, US Cointelpro (the United States Counter intelligence program), racial violence towards Black people, lynchings, police violence in the Black community, South Afrikan apartheid, the sexual oppression and exploitation of Black Women, the emasculation of Black men and Black women, the creation of the n-word, White cultural domination of Black people, and US segregation.

Over the centuries, White supremacy has targeted Black people, and Afrika, so effectively and efficiently to point of creating the conditions for us to be the victims of social and economic racial disparities for generations.

In reaction to White supremacy, and systematic racism in America and in the world, Black people began to resist. Some of our greatest community ancestors such as Fredrick Douglass, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, began to fight for the civil rights of Black people. They inspired Black people to challenge the United States to live up to its democratic creed established by the founding fathers. Thomas Jefferson, a founding father, wrote in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence America’s basis for the human right (Albeit only property owning White people) to freedom in the world on July 4, 1776. He said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Although many of the founder fathers were contradicting themselves, because many of them were slave owing Whites. However, their ideas of freedom resonated with Black people.

This became a rallying call for many Black civil rights activists in America. Our ancestors began to write, speak, and organize Black people to ignite in them a movement to force White people to insure us our equal rights and freedom in America. It was long struggle to make civil rights a mass movement. However, in 1955, a sparked was lite in the spirit of Black people. The Afrikan American community got tired of centuries of legalized second class citizenship. Our mass acceptance of Black oppression come to an end. Afrikan Americans began take on segregation on public buses in Montgomery, Alabama with the threat of losing their jobs and their very lives. This was led by Black civil rights leaders such as, E. D Nixon, Rosa Parks, and a young Pastor named the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. For over year, Black people boycotted the city’s buses until their demands for equality were met and respected in Montgomery. Our people successfully challenged and changed racist laws on public buses regulating Afrikan Americans to the back of the bus. This massive social justice action gave rise to the modern day Civil Rights Movement.

From 1955 to 1965, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr arose to leadership inspiring masses of Black people all over America to fight against racial discrimination. He popularized the need for Civil Rights for Black people and all oppressed people. He helped to make it a mass movement inclusive to many religions, races and cultures in America to struggle with Black people for racial, social, political, and economic equality. Today’s Black progressivism is deeply rooted in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

But prior to the civil rights movement, another movement of Black people began to develop in America, and all around the Americas, to fight for Black equality and freedom; but they stressed Black unity, Black pride, Black independence, land, and nation-building. It will be called in the 20th century-Black nationalism. Some Black progressives have their roots in Black nationalism as well in America.

The ideology of Black nationalism was born out of slavery in the late 1700s Americas and under the colonization of Afrika in the late 1800s. It became a legitimate movement for social, political, economic, religious, and cultural pathway for Black equality. It advocated for the right of Black people to fight for freedom, empowerment, independence, and self-determination. But most importantly, Black nationalism became the means to rescue,,reconstruct, and restore Black humanity and the Black nation broken into pieces by White domination.

Out of the oppression of Black people in the United States, and around the Americas, arose Black nationalist leaders absolutely committed to re-establishing Black life trapped under the weight of slavery, colonialism, overt racial violence, and racial inequality. One such figure was a Christian Black nationalist and abolitionist named Richard Allen. He lived from February 14, 1760 to March 26, 1831. He committed his entire life to advocacy of the freeing of enslaved Black people.

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Richard Allen, a devout Christian, was constantly discriminated against in the White Christian church. He could not practice his faith equally with Whites. Therefore, instead of fighting with Whites to let him in their church, Brother Allen decided to create his own Black church to give Afrikan Americans the freedom to worship God and practice Christianity absent from racial discrimination. But brother Allen did not want a church that would continue to Europeanize Black people. He wanted a church that reconnected Black people to their lost Afrikan roots during American slavery. Richard Allen went on to establish the first independent Black church in America called-the African Methodist Episcopal church in 1794. Richard Allen’s AME Church went on to be one of the most independent bases for the struggle end slavery and for civil rights. The AME Church is still in existence today.

Another Black nationalist that came on the scene to fight for the re-establishment of a Black identity and for civil rights was a brother named Prince Hall.

He was born sometime between 1735–1738. He died in 1807. However, in life brother Prince Hall was an abolitionist and leader in the free black community in Boston, Massachusetts. Facing discrimination in White freemasonry, brother Hall founded the Prince Hall Freemasonry for Black people to freely practice masonry in America. Prince Hall lobbied for education rights for Afrikan American children. He was a staunch supporter and outspoken activist for the back-to-Afrika movement in Black community before the Honorable Marcus Gavery was born. (The Honorable Marcus Garvey was the founder of the largest Back-to-Afrika in modern history.) His Prince Hall freemasonry went on to be one of the most independent bases for the struggle to end slavery for Black people and for civil rights. He died in 1807, but his organization of Prince Hall Masons are still in existence today.

In the Black community (freed and unfree) in the 1700s and 1800s America, arose leadership that advocated for Black nationalism as a path to freedom, independence, and Black liberation.

Another individual, many people do not know about is a Black man named Paul Cuffe.

Brother Paul Coffe lived from January 17, 1759 to September 7, 1817. He was born free into a Native American—Afrikan American family on Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts. He became a successful businessman, merchant, sea captain, whaler, and abolitionist.

This courage of this Afrikan American is remarkable. Brother Coffe is absolutely necessary and worth mentioning on the pantheon of Black nationalists. The basis of Black nationalism is land. Brother Coffe committed his entire life to set up land in Afrika to help Black people be independent, free, and equal

He sailed to England to meet with members of The African Institution, who were also leading abolitionists in Europe, and offered his recommendations for improving the lives of Black people in Sierra Leone. Brother Cuffe became involved in Britain’s efforts to develop a colony in Sierra Leone, Afrika. England had transported many former enslaved Black people from America in 1700s. Some were enslaved Black people who had sought refuge and freedom with British military during the American Revolutionary war.

Cuffe’s recommendations were well received in London. And he subsequently made two more trips to Sierra Leone to try to implement his plans to free Black people.

On his last trip in sometime between 1815–16, he transported nine Black families of free Afrikan American community members from Massachusetts to Sierra Leone. He assisted and worked with the former enslaved Black people, and other local residents, to help Afrikan American become more self - reliant. Some historians called his last trip to Afrika the real Back-to-Afrika movement. It was not.

But that particular movement back during Cuffe’s day was established by racist White people. At the time, they were promoting repatriation of Black people to Afrika through the American Colonization Society (ACS). This organization was mainly led by American Southern slave owners who were more interested in removing free Black people from the US to preserve slavery than helping Black people and Africa.

The leaders of the ACS had sought Paul Cuffe's advice and support for their efforts. After some hesitation, and strong objections by free Black people in Philadelphia and New York City, brother Cuffe chose not to support the ACS and saw his efforts very differently as providing training and machinery and boats to the people of Africa so that they could improve their condition and rise to be free in the world.

Between our advocates for Black nationalism, abolition, and civil rights were many Afrikan American freedom fighters such as Harriet Tubman, David Walker, Denmark Vessey, Gabriel Prosser, the Haitian Revolution, and Nat Turner, to name a few. In the interest of time, I will not go into their individual histories and contributions to Black liberation. However, each and every one of them are worth reading and studying. They all have contributed to our freedom struggle.

However, we have Black individuals that we often overlook as founders of Black nationalism. But their histories must be read and studied.

One such Black leader was Martin Delany. He is the real father of Black Nationalism in America hands down.

He lived from May 6, 1812 to January 24, 1885. He was a great Afrikan American abolitionist, journalist, physician, and soldier. However, his writings laid the foundation for the principles of Black nationalism in America to this date. Delany coined the Pan-Afrikan slogan of "Africa for Africans."

In 1850, Delany was one of the first three black men admitted to Harvard Medical School, but all were dismissed after a few weeks because of widespread protests by racist white students. Delany had traveled in the South back in 1839 to observe American slavery firsthand. Beginning in 1847, he worked alongside Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York to publish the North Star. (The North Star was an independent newspaper dedicated to the abolition of enslaved Black people in America.)

Fredrick Douglass, the greatest Black abolitionist in America, once said about Delany, “I thank God for making me a man simply, but Delany always thanks him for making him a Black man.”

In 1852, Martin Delany published his book titled, ‘The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States.’ It is the book to read on the definition of Black nationalism. This great Afrikan ancestor argued in his book that the Black community in America is a nation within a nation.

Delany said, “we are a nation within a nation; as the Poles in Russia, the Hungarians in Austria, the Welsh, Irish, and Scotch in the British dominions.

But we have been, by our oppressors, despoiled of our purity, and corrupted in our native characteristics, so that we have inherited their vices, and but few of their virtues, leaving us in character, really a broken people.

Being distinguished by complexion, we are still singled out-although having merged in the habits and customs of our oppressors-as a distinct nation of people; as Poles, Hungarians, Irish, and others, who will retain their native peculiarities, of language, habits, and various other traits. The claims of no people, according to established policy and usage, are respected by any nation, until they are presented in a national capacity.”

Until his death, he dedicated his life to liberating Black people through Black nationalism.

In America, towards the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s, Black nationalism begins to take different strategies in the struggle for equality, independence, and empowerment from White domination in and outside the United States.

Three Black Trinidadians names H. Sylvester Williams, George Padmore, and C.L.R. James will take Black nationalism internationally. They believed that Afrika and the struggle for Black people to be free must be unified throughout the world. Brothers Williams, Padmore, and James called their form of Black nationalism Pan-Africanism. They held their first Pan-Afrikan conference in 1900. These powerful Black leaders led to the foundation for six Pan Afrikan conferences However, in 1945 in Manchester, England, at the fifth Pan-Afrikan conference all their hard work payed off. These Pan Africanist Trinidadians work attracted Black leaders from around world, and from the continent of Afrika, such as Jomo Kenyatta, Nandi Azikiwe, and Kwame Nkrumah. The Pan-Afrikan nationalists led Ghana to her independent in 1957 from English colonialism. And many other Afrikan revolutionary nationalists will lead Afrika from grip of European colonial rule. The main thrust behind the fifth Pan Afrikan conference was the great Dr. W. E. B DuBois. By 1945, he is a respected civil rights activist, but a committed Pan Africanist. But before 1945, Dr. DuBois was forming his arguments against racial injustice by criticizing the great Booker T. Washington in his book of essays called-‘The Souls of Black Folks’published in 1903.

Booker T. Washington emerges as a major voice for Black liberation. He lived from April 18, 1856 to November 14, 1915. Washington rose to prominence to become the Black elite. He was an powerful American educator, author, orator, and adviser to multiple presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the Afrikan American community. Brother Washington was from the last generation of Black leaders born into slavery. He became the leading voice of former enslaved Black people and their many descendants. Unfortunately, at the end of the 19th Century, White hegemony completely tightened its racial grip on the Black community. Black people sank deeper into the permanent wells of racial oppression in the United States by the political disenfranchisement under segregation’s discriminatory laws enacted in the post-Reconstruction Southern states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

But Washington makes accommodations to racism. His strategy was to find the money and resources to train Black people in vocational education without directly challenging white supremacy. His belief of Black empowerment is deeply rooted in self-reliance. Washington’s philosophy of Black nationalism was to help Afrikan Americans become independent to White people. Although he takes major criticisms from another major leader in the Black community named-Dr. W. E.B. DuBois for not taking a more aggressive position against White supremacy, he struggles onward without Dr. DuBois’ support. He eventually establishes a school to educate Black people in the trades called-The Tuskegee Institute now called Tuskegee University in Alabama.

In 1897, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois becomes the first Black man in the world to earn a Phd from Harvard University. His dissertation was called the Suppression of the African Slave Trade. Dr. DuBois committed himself to researching, writing, and documenting the oppressive conditions in Afrikan American community due to capitalism and racism. But he began writing the history of Black people in America and in the world. Dr. DuBois was a world class scholar and activist. He went on to also help create the Black nationalist militant civil rights organization called-Niagara Movement. But Dr. DuBois also co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois lived from February 23, 1868 to August 27, 1963. He was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, writer, and editor. He will eventually abandoned America for citizenship in Ghana.

(In retrospect, after analyzing the political disagreements between Booker T. Washington and Dr. W.E.B. DuBois from Afrikan centered perspective, we learn that their differences were small. We learn that both of their strategies were needed to help free liberate Black people White hegemony.)

Washington’s Black nationalism inspires another great Black leader named the Honorable Marcus Garvey. After reading Washington’s book, ‘Up From Slavery’, it moved Gavery to help free and empower Black people. This Black Jamaican came to the United States to meet Booker T. Washington in 1915. Unfortunately Washington died that year.

Brother Gavery struggled onward in America without ever meeting Washington. He established the largest modern day Back-to-Afrika movement in history.

The Honorable Marcus Gavery lived from August 17, 1887 to June 10, 1940. He was a political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. He became the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL, commonly known as UNIA). Garvey based his organization Ideologically squarely on Black nationalism and Pan-Africanism. His ideas came to be known as Garveyism; which consisted of Black unity, Black pride, Black self-reliance, and Black self-determination. He worked night and day to rebuild the Black nation all over the world. But his goal was Afrika. Gavery based his movement in Harlem, New York City. Unfortunately, some Black leaders in the Afrikan American community objected to his Black nationalist and separatist ideas, particularly Dr. W.E.B. DuBois. However, masses of Black people followed his leadership.

(In retrospect, after analyzing the political disagreements between Honorable Marcus Gavery and Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, Afrikan centered perspective, we learn that their differences were small. We learn that both of their strategies were needed to help free and liberate Black people from White hegemony.)

Although he never reached Afrika, along the way Garvey built a ship called a the Black Star Line, a Black owned newspaper named The Negro World, and created a universal flag for Black people all over the world. The Flag consisted of the following colors: Red, Black, and Green. The color Red symbolizes the shedding of innocence Black blood, Black symbolizes Black people all over the earth, and Green symbolizes mother Afrika.

Unfortunately, Garvey became a threat to White hegemony. In 1923 Garvey was convicted of mail fraud for selling the company's stock. He was imprisoned in the United States Penitentiary Atlanta for nearly two years. Many historians argued that the trial was politically motivated to silence brother Garvey and his Black nationalist movement by a young F.B.I. director named -J Edgar Hoover. Eventually, the United States government deported the Honorable Marcus Garvey to Jamaica. He continued doing political work to empower Black people until his life came to an end in 1940.

Within the Muslim Ummah (community), Black nationalists Muslims emerged in America in early 1900s. They committed themselves to the struggle for Black equality, Black unity, Black pride, Black self-reliance, and Black self - determination.

The first Muslim to come into existence to struggle for Afrikan American equality was a Black man named Noble Drew Ali. He lived from January 8, 1886 to July 20, 1929. Ali established the Moorish Science Temple of America in Newark, NJ in 1913. Then he relocated to Chicago, Illinois.

Ali unified aspects of Al-Islam and Black nationalism to create a roadmap for Black liberation. He taught that Afrikan Americans were all Moors, whom he claimed were descended from Northwest Afrika. He claimed that Islam and its teachings are more beneficial to our earthly salvation, and that Black folks 'true nature' had been withheld from them from White domination. Male members of the Temple wear a fez or turban as head covering; women wear a turban. He urged Black people to identify as “Moorish-Americans.” Ali rejected derogatory labels, such as "Black," "colored," and "Negro.” He urged Americans of all races to reject hate and embrace love. Afrikan American members of the Moorish Science Temple of America drooped their surnames to adopt the name Bey. Although Noble Drew Ali has departed, his movement is still around making a safe place for Black people to embrace our culture while practicing western religion.

The next two Muslim Black nationalists to come on the scene in America to fight for Black equality and Black liberation were Master Fard Muhammad and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. They called their movement the Lost-Found Nation of Islam in the West (N.O.I). An organization that combined the tenants Al-Islam and Black nationalism to make it safe for Afrikan Americans to be Muslims and fight for Black liberation.

Master Fard Muhammad, the founder of the Nation of Islam, came from Makkah, Saudia Arabia to North America to liberate oppressed Black people on July 4, 1930 with Al-Islam and Black nationalism from White racial domination. He was born on February 26, 1877. His death is unknown. However, Master Fard Muhammad remained in the US until he raised up his greatest student-the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. By 1933, he mysteriously disappeared from US.

The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad was born on October 7, 1897 in Sandersville, Georgia. He and Master Fard Muhammad met one another in Detroit, Michigan. Master Fard Muhammad taught Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad many things, such as Afrikan History, European history, American history, Native American history, the system of racism, the system of White supremacy, Black self hatred, the system of oppression, agriculture, health, food science, women's history, fatherhood, motherhood, politics, economics, military sciences, politics, government, and theology. But Master Fard Muhammad required the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad to read and study 104 books on Al-Islam. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad favorite book was the Holy Qu’ran. However, Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad was instructed by Master Fard Muhammad to specifically teach Black people a thorough knowledge of ourselves before teaching even prayer.

In America, from the 1930s to the 1970s, Al-Islam primarily under the leadership of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and the Nation of Islam, bursted on the scene to offer Black people a path to free ourselves from racial oppression in America. Masses of Black people embraced Al-Islam as taught by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. The Nation of Islam grew to a mass movement for Islam and Black nationalism. It developed within many Black people a new sense of Black pride, the need for Black unity, and it paved the way for our people to be Afrikan centered in their Black consciousness. All of their members had to dropped their surnames to take on the letter X. The X represented our stolen Afrikan names due to American slavery. Most importantly, the Nation of Islam challenged Afrika America to discard the name negro and replace it with Black.

(Please note: in the twentieth century arose many Black leaders and Black organizations. Some were Black nationalists, progressives, or both. But they all borrower from the tenants of Black nationalism. Their names are many. But they contributed greatly to Black equality and Black liberation such as Black fraternities and sororities, Madam C. J. Walker, Black Wall Street Tulsa, Oklahoma, Rosewood, Florida, Paul Robeson, A Philip Randolph, Carlos Cooks, Dorothy Height, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Robert Williams, to name a few. Now back to the Nation of Islam.)

The Nation of Islam established a Black owned newspaper called Muhammad Speaks, Black owned farms, supermarkets, Banks, restaurants, and many other Black businesses to serve the Afrikan American community. It's members included famous Black Muslim leaders such as, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Clara Muhammad, Clarence 13x (the Founder of the 5% Nation of Islam), Imam Suraj Wahhaj, Dr. Khalid Abdul Muhammad, Minister Conrad Muhammad (now Rev. Conrad Tillard), Minister Abdul Rahmam Muhammad, Minister Akbar Muhammad, and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.

After the departure of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad in 1975, his seventh son Wallance Muhammad, who would later change his name to Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, took over the reign of leadership in the Nation of Islam. He moved the Nation of Islam into Sunni Al-Islam. In less than six months, the Nation of Islam cease to exist. However, in 1978, disagreeing with the direction of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan (the next former spokesman after Malcolm X) left Sunni Al-Islam to rebuild the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam all over again in US and in the world. There are other factions of the Nation of Islam since 1975, but the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has been the most successful at the re-establishment of the Nation of Islam.

But back during 1950s and the 1960s, the Nation of Islam had a large following in America and in the world due to another Muslim Black nationalist named-Malcolm X (Omawele El Hajj Malik El Shabazz).

He became popular with Black and oppressed people through his uncompromising stances against White hegemony, White supremacy, systematic racism, and Black self hatred. Malcolm X was the greatest student of the Elijah Muhammad. He lived from May 19, 1925 to February 21, 1965. The Nation of Islam grew tremendously under Malcolm's leadership as the National Spokesman for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Unfortunately, he and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad disagreements came to head in 1963 over the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy. By 1964, Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam.

However, Malcolm X pressed on fighting for Black liberation. At the root of his social, cultural, political, economic, and political philosophy was Black nationalism. In fact, in a speech titled, ‘the Ballat or the Bullet’ he gave in 1964, He said, I am Muslim, but I also a Black nationalist freedom fighter.” After he returned from his Islamic Hajj (pilgrimage) in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, and his tour of revolutionary movements against European colonialism in Afrika; Malcolm X founded two Black nationalist organizations: Muslim Mosque Incorporated (MMI) and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). Malcolm X’s American version of the OAAU was formed from the example of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). (The Organization of Afrikan Unity was formed by Afrikan nationalists on May 25, 1963, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.)

On February 21, 1965, a group of rogue members of the Nation of Islam assassinated brother Malcolm X (Omawele El Hajj Malik El Shabazz) at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York City. Yes, Black Muslim hands pulled the trigger, but the US government, and her policing agencies (i.e. New York Police Department, the FBI, the CIA, etc) created the atmosphere that lead to the execution of Malcolm X.

Brother Malcolm did not die in vain. His Black nationalist teachings gave fuel to a fire in Black people that changed the racial, political, and cultural landscape forever in America and in world, particularly the Afrikan / Afrikan American community.

The new movement he inspired was called the Black Power Movement. It last from 1966 to 1975.

Out of the Civil Rights Movement, came activist Kwame Toure', aka Stokely Carmichael.

Frustrated with White supremacy, and the systematic institutionalization of racism, Toure' called for Black people to unite around Blackness. He was aided by another community activist named Willie Mukassa Ricks. During the March Against Fear in 1966, Toure' called for Black people to rally and organize around a Black nationalist idea called Black Power. The March Against Fear was a major 1966 demonstration in the Civil Rights Movement in the South. Civil rights activist James Meredith launched the event on June 5, 1966, intending to make a solitary walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, a distance of 220 miles. His objective of the March was to counter the continuing racism in the Mississippi Delta after passage of federal civil rights legislation in the previous two years and to encourage Black people in the state to register to vote. On the second day of his walk, June 6, 1966, Meredith was shot and wounded by James Aubrey Norvell-a racist white sniper.

After this march, Black Power spread like wild fire.

Ron Everett, he later changed his slave name to adopt the Afrikan name Maulana Karenga, will become the co-founder of a community-based Black nationalist organization called Us on September 7, 1965 in Los Angeles, California. The Us Organization used the best of Afrikan culture as the basis for Black people's struggle against social degradation, economic exploitation, White supremacy, and racism. The Us origination will also create a revolutionary Black nationalist cultural philosophy called Kawaida and a Pan Afrikan centered holiday called Kwanzaa. Kawaida (Kiswahili word meaning "tradition" or "reason," pronounced ka-wa-EE-da), Karenga defines Kwaida as, "a communitarian African (Afrikan) philosophy created in the context of the African (Afrikan) American liberation struggle and developed as an ongoing synthesis of the best of African (Afrikan) thought and practice in constant exchange with the world." The holiday of Kwanzaa is celebrated from December 26 to January 1.

A young talented writer and playwright named LeRoi Jones from Newark, NJ and a young gifted community activist scholar in Los Angeles, California named Ron Everett were inspired by brother Malcolm X as well in the 1960s.

LeRoi Jones, who would later dropped his slave name for his new Afrikan name, Imamu Amiri Baraka, became the founder of the Black Arts Movement. Black Artists, poets, writers, dancers, musicians, and singers unified their creative artistic gifts around the best of Afrikan culture to be used as a tool for Black liberation.

Even in R&B music, artist reflected Black nationalism. Artist such as James Brown produced a song called-‘I’m Black and I’m Proud.’

Another group of Black people influenced by Malcolm's Black nationalist philosophy were Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton. Both Seale and Newton will eventually establish the Original Black Panther Party as a vehicle for Black people to struggle against police brutality and economic oppression from monopoly capitalism on October 15, 1966 in Oakland, California. The Original Black Panther Party believed that Black revolutionary nationalism was needed in the Black liberation struggle to end the racist and class exploitation of Black people.

In Detroit, Black nationalist Imari Obadele and Chokwe Lumumba created the Republic of New Afrika in America. The Republic of New Afrika (RNA) was founded in 1968 as a Black nationalist organization. Black nationalists members of the RNA advocated for the creation of an independent Black country situated in the Southeastern United States in the heart of an area of black-majority population. The RNA movement demanded from the United States the payment by the federal government of several billion dollars in reparations to descendants of former enslaved Afrikan for the damages inflicted on Black people by chattel enslavement, Jim Crow laws, and modern-day forms of racism. Lastly, the RNA fought for a referendum of all Black people to determine our on desires for citizenship; RNA movement leaders said that they were not offered a choice in this matter after slavery ended in 1865 following the US Civil War. Some of the most famous members of the RNA were Robert F. Williams, Queen Mother Moore, and Dr. Betty Shabazz-the widow of Malcolm X. In 2013, Chokwe Lumumba became the Mayor of Jackson Mississippi. He died while in offce. He succeeded by son Chokwe Lumumba, Jr in 2017.

Eventually, Ture', Obadele, Lumumba, Baraka, Williams, Seale, Newton, and Karenga will become some of the most respected Black nationalist activists in America, in Afrika, and in the world Afrikan community. Their activism began defining, directing and contributing greatly to a national movement for Black liberation.

As result of all this revolutionary Black nationalist activism; some Black power leaders and movements, such as Amiri Baraka, Dr. Maulana Karenga, and the Us Organization directed their Black nationalist goals towards electoral politics.

Amiri Baraka was not only a talented writer and poet, he was a brilliant political theoretician and organizer. In 1972, he help to co-convene the National Black Political Conference in Gary, Indiana. Tens of thousands of Black people came to the conference of Across America to begin a movement to seize Black political power to help rebuild the Black nation. The rallying cry was "Its Nation Time". Black nationalists left Gary, Indiana with a road map for a Black agenda for Black power in predominate Black cities. The rate of Black elected officials dramatically increase in America due to the activism of Black nationalists from the Black National Political Convention.

In Newark, Amiri Baraka led Black people in the fight for Black political power. Under Amiri Baraka leadership, Black people united with Latinos in the city to take city hall. Black nationalists won a victory against White supremacy and racism by filling Newark city hall with a Black mayoral candidate named Kenneth Gibson. Black people and Latinos, inspire and organized by Black nationalists, elected Gibson as the city's first Black Mayor, with several Council seats going to Black people. One of these Councilpersons would become Mayor of the city in the 1980s. His name is Mayor Sharpe James. The current Mayor is Amiri Baraka’s second son Ras J. Baraka.

From 1966 to 1975, Black nationalists were changing the Black political, economic, and cultural landscape of Black people in America. Black nationalists inspired many other oppressed groups in America to fight for power, such as women, Latinos, and even the Gay community. (The Gay community's Rainbow Gay pride flag was inspired by Black nationalism). The popularity of Black nationalists inspired masses of Black people to struggle for Black studies, Afrocentricity, Black liberation theology, Black independent schools, Black unity, Black pride, wear Afros and Afrikan dashiki, Afrikan names, connection to mother Afrika, and Black owned Afrikan centered cultural centers and businesses.

Unfortunately, White hegemony, White supremacy and the systematic institutionalization of racism became threatened by Black nationalists and the Black Power movement in America. Again, the US government used their Cointelpro tactics to launch a secret war against Black people to discredit and destroy Black nationalism and the Black Power Movement in America. Many Black nationalists leaders were jailed, imprisoned, framed, shot, and killed in the United States. A climate of disunity were directed towards Black nationalist organizations. Many Black nationalists organizations were pitted against one another by the US government, so that the Black power movement would be weakened, and eventually, destroy itself. Ultimately, Cointelpro won its battle against Black nationalists. Black nationalist and the Black Power movement in America became an insignificant voice for oppressed Black people.

Cointelpro (Counter Intelligence Program) has lived from 1956 to the present. It is a series of covert and illegal projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting American political organizations. Under J. Edgar Hoover, there were five goals of Cointelpro, the fourth point of Cointelpro is the most revealing. It reads, “Prevent militant black nationalist groups and leaders from gaining RESPECTABILITY, by discrediting them to three separate segments of the community. The goal of discrediting black nationalists must be handled tactically in three ways. You must discredit those groups and individuals to, first, the responsible Negro community. Second, they must be discredited to the white community, both the responsible community and to “liberals” who have vestiges of sympathy for militant black nationalist [sic] simply because they are Negroes. Third, these groups must be discredited in the eyes of Negro radicals, the followers of the movement. This last area requires entirely different tactics from the first two. Publicity about violent tendencies and radical statements merely enhances black nationalists to the last group; it adds “respectability” in a different way.”

After the destruction of Black nationalism and the Black power movement in America, Black people have been working to rebuild the Black power movement throughout the late 1970s to the present. It has been a long struggle. In many quarters of the Black community, Black nationalism and Black power have been put on the back burner. White hegemony has even concocted their own versions Black leadership to direct and define Black liberation. Fortunately, and thankfully, some grassroots Black leaders have struggled onward, exposing artificial Black leadership and their fake commitments to empowering the Afrikan American community, to fight for Black Power.

Some of Malcolm X’s Black nationalism inspired a new movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s called Afrocentricity. The movement of Afrocentricity is an Afrikan centered intellectual movement challenging White supremacist and racist notions about Black people, Afrika, Afrikan History, Afrikan culture, Afrikan spirituality, Black people, World History, Caribbean History, western religions, and American History. Some of Its leaders consists of the following scholars: Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop, Dr. John Henrick Clarke, Dr. Yosef Ben Jochannan, Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, Dr. Asa Hilliard, Professor Jacob Carruthers, Professor Ashra Kwesi, Tony Browder, Professor Dr. Runoko Rashidi, Professor James Smalls, Dr. Naim Akbar, Dr. Lenard Jeffries, Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, Dr. Marimba Ani, Dr. Charshee McIntyre, Dr. Amos Wilson, Dr. Maulana Karenga, and Dr. Molefe Kete Asante.

Afrocentricity was so popular in the streets of Black America that inspired a new genre of Hip Hop called conscious rap

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Black nationalism has also inspired new Black power organizations such as various Black Panther Party formations, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, the Uhuru Movement, the Black Is Black Coalition, to name a few. But back to Black nationalism.

Many Black people have heard the call to arms for the Black community to follow Black nationalism for centuries. Black nationalism has been our response to White supremacy and systematic institutionalization of racism. The philosophy of Black nationalism became the movement in the streets of Black America heavy, particularly in Newark, NJ, in the late 1960s and early 1970s due to Malcolm X’s influences on Black people. One of the achievements Black nationalism established was Black political power in predominantly Afrikan American cities. In these cities, Black people fought to control city hall, the Board of Education, the fire department, and the police department. However, Black nationalists have not reach the goal of making Black people completely free of White hegemony, White supremacy and the systematic institutionalization of racism. Black nationalists are still in the struggle to make Black people independent to fully achieve Black Power.

Because White domination has not been destroyed in America and in world, Black nationalism is still resisting Whiteness. With our youth, Black nationalism is again making its presence known in the millennium. The slogan ‘Black Lives Matter’ has manifested the tenants of Black nationalism. The struggle continues for Black freedom and Black self - determination.

Hotep!!!

Asante sana (Kiswahili for thank you very much) for reading my commentary.

O Dabo (Yoruba for go with God until we meet again)!!!

Bashir Muhammad Akinyele is a History Teacher, Black Studies Teacher, Community Activist, Chairperson of Weequahic High School's Black History Month Committee in Newark, NJ, commentary writer, and Co-Producer and Co-Host of the All Politics Are Local, the number #1 political Hip Hip radio show in America.

Note: Spelling Afrika with a k is not a typo. Using the k in Afrika is the Kiswahili way of writing Africa. Kiswahili is a Pan -Afrikan language. It is spoken in many countries in Afrika. Kiswahili is the language used in Kwanzaa. The holiday of Kwanzaa is celebrated from December 26 to January 1.
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