democratic - Blogs - TheBlackList Pub2024-03-29T09:00:11Zhttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/democratic1968 protests at Columbia University called attention to ‘Gym Crow’ and got worldwide attentionhttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/1968-protests-at-columbia-university-called-attention-to-gym-crow2018-08-29T01:46:45.000Z2018-08-29T01:46:45.000ZNana Baakan Agyiriwahhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/NanaBaakanAgyiriwah<div><h1>1968 protests at Columbia University called attention to 'Gym Crow' and got worldwide attention</h1><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233695/original/file-20180827-75972-19v0afj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="File 20180827 75972 19v0afj.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1" /><br />Black power militant H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael (right) appeared at a sit-in protest at Columbia University in New York City on April 26, 1968. <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-New-York-United-/1aea42ff04f2da11af9f0014c2589dfb/287/0">AP</a></span><p></p><p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/stefan-m-bradley-540901">Stefan M. Bradley</a>, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/loyola-marymount-university-2631">Loyola Marymount University</a></em></span></p><blockquote><p>“If they build the first story, blow it up. If they sneak back at night and build three stories, burn it down. And if they get nine stories built, it’s yours. Take it over, and maybe we’ll let them in on the weekends.”</p></blockquote><p>This is what <a href="https://snccdigital.org/inside-sncc/the-story-of-sncc/">Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee</a> and Black Panther Party affiliate <a href="https://snccdigital.org/people/h-rap-brown/">H. Rap Brown</a> told a crowd of Harlem residents at a community rally in February 1967.</p><p>They were there to protest Columbia University’s construction of a gymnasium in Morningside Park, the only land separating the Ivy League university from the historic black working-class neighborhood. The gym, along with the discovery that Columbia was affiliated with the <a href="https://www.ida.org/">Institute for Defense Analysis</a> – a national consortium of flagship universities and research organizations that provided strategy and weapons research to the U.S. Department of Defense – stirred students to protest for more decision-making power at their elite university.</p><p>When considering the key events of 1968, such as the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/tet-offensive">Tet Offensive</a>, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/01/01/1968s-chaos-the-assassinations-riots-and-protests-that-defined-our-world/?utm_term=.3eae1a9710a2">assassinations of national leaders</a>, demonstrations at the <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/protests-at-democratic-national-convention-in-chicago">Democratic National Convention</a> and the <a href="http://time.com/3880999/black-power-salute-tommie-smith-and-john-carlos-at-the-1968-olympics/">Olympics</a>, as well international events concerning democracy, the Columbia uprisings merit attention.</p><h2>Issues converge on campus</h2><p>As I detail in my book – <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/69erx5xt9780252034527.html">“Harlem vs. Columbia University: Black Student Power in the Late 1960s”</a> – all the issues of the 1960s and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/New-Left">New Left</a> collided on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia. Students contended with the war in Vietnam, institutional racism, the generational divide, sexism, environmentalism and urban renewal – all while trying to find dates and attend classes.</p><p>Everything came to a head on April 23, 1968 – just weeks after the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. That was when members of the Columbia chapter of Students for a Democratic Society hosted a <a href="http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs19680424-01&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------">rally</a> on campus to decry the war – and, what many considered the racist gym in Morningside Park. Members of the Students’ Afro-American Society, or SAS, and Columbia varsity athletes – known as jocks – were in attendance as well. SAS followers showed up to resume an earlier fight they had with the jocks who supported the construction of the gymnasium.</p><hr /><p><em><strong>Read more: <a href="http://theconversation.com/revolution-starts-on-campus-102243">Revolution Starts on Campus</a></strong></em></p><hr /><p>Some students had been working with Harlem community groups. They saw the gym as a symbol of the university’s “power” over a defenseless and poverty-stricken black neighborhood. They joined local politicians who opposed the gym for a myriad of reasons, including its concrete footprint in a green park and the inability of the community to have access to the entire structure once built.</p><h2>Troubled relations</h2><p>The situation was, of course, complex. Columbia had long been a contentious neighbor to Harlem and Morningside Heights. The campus gym was decrepit and prevented the university from competing with its Ivy peers effectively in terms of facilities and space. Regarding the park, Columbia had constructed softball fields that initially community members could use. By 1968, however, only campus affiliates could access the fields. Then, white faculty members had been mugged in the park.</p><p>The university, seeking to expand in the postwar period, purchased US$280 million of land, mortgages and residential buildings in Harlem and Morningside Heights. That resulted in the <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/69erx5xt9780252034527.html">eviction of nearly 10,000 residents</a> in a decade, 85 percent of whom were black or Puerto Rican.</p><p>Columbia acted in coordination with Morningside Heights, Inc., a confederacy of educational and religious institutions in the neighborhood that also sought to “renew” the area to serve their mostly white patrons. David Rockefeller, grandson of oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, acted as MHI’s first president. Columbia was the lead institution.</p><p>Despite being close to a black neighborhood, the university admitted few black students and employed a handful of black instructors. For instance, as I report in my book, in the 1964-1965 school year, there were only 35 black students out of 2,500 students enrolled in Columbia’s College of Arts and Sciences, and just one tenured black professor. By spring 1968, there were more than 150 black students enrolled.</p><p>On April 23, protesting students attempted to take over the administration building but were repelled by campus security. Then, they walked to the gym construction site where they tore down fencing and physically confronted police. From the park, they returned to campus where they finally succeeded in taking over a classroom building, Hamilton Hall. In doing so, they surrounded the dean of the college, Henry Coleman, who chose to stay in his office with his staff. To “protect” Coleman, <a href="http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs19680424-01.2.2&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------">several jocks stood guard</a> outside his door.</p><h2>Clashes with police</h2><p>What started as a racially integrated demonstration of students took a turn in the late night when H. Rap Brown and several community activists showed up at the invitation of the Students’ Afro-American Society. The student group, Brown and the community activists agreed that black people solely should occupy Hamilton Hall and that white activists should commandeer other buildings. The white demonstrators accommodated, leaving Hamilton and taking over four other buildings. That forced Columbia officials to contend with not just a student protest but a black action on campus at that height of Black Power Movement. Incidentally, the community activists removed and replaced the jocks as sentries of the dean’s office.</p><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233697/original/file-20180827-75996-1t09zhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" /><br /><span class="caption">Participants of a student sit-in assist each other in climbing up into the offices of Columbia University President Grayson Kirk on April 24, 1968.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-New-York-United-/e464d889dde6da11af9f0014c2589dfb/297/0">AP</a></span><p></p><p>To the ire of many white university administrators of the period, Stokely Carmichael of SNCC and the Black Panthers fame showed up to explain – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1968/04/27/archives/facultys-effort-fails-to-resolve-columbia-dispute-protest-leader.html">through the press</a> – that the university deal either with the student activists on campus or militants coming from Harlem. This insinuated the tone of the demonstrations would change drastically. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated less than three weeks before. From offices in Morningside Heights, Columbia administrators had watched Harlem burn as residents mourned and reacted to the black leader’s death. The only thing that separated the elite white institution from angry black rebels was the park in which the university was building a gymnasium <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/69erx5xt9780252034527.html">against the will of many community members</a>.</p><p>In consultation with New York Mayor John Lindsay, Columbia administrators chose to end the demonstrations by calling 1,000 New York police officers to clear the five occupied campus buildings on April 30. <a href="http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs19680430-01&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------">Chaos and brutality prevailed</a>. As the NAACP and other Harlem community organizations stood watch, black students vacated Hamilton, which SAS had renamed Malcolm X Hall, and were arrested peacefully. In the building that national Students for a Democratic Society leader and <a href="http://michiganintheworld.history.lsa.umich.edu/antivietnamwar/exhibits/show/exhibit/origins-of-students-for-a-demo/port_huron_statement">Port Huron Statement</a> author Tom Hayden occupied, police and demonstrators collided physically. One of the most iconic documents of the postwar period, the 1962 Port Huron Statement outlined the need for young people to be in the vanguard of the movement to eradicate racism and grind the military-industrial complex to a halt; it centered the notion of participatory democracy, which called for greater inclusion of the citizenry in decision-making. In other buildings, students found themselves on the hurt end of police batons when they resisted arrest.</p><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233699/original/file-20180827-75978-mpc9p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" /><br /><span class="caption">Police rush toward student protesters outside Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library on April 30, 1968.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Columbia-Protests-Anniversary/76748e36da3c4dac84fd27e87105c29f/9/0">AP</a></span><p></p><h2>Worldwide attention</h2><p>In opening the door to violence, the university turned what was a local matter into an <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/03/the-students-behind-the-1968-columbia-uprising">international story</a> and radicalized moderate students and neighborhood residents. Young radicals abroad learned of “Gym Crow” and university-sponsored defense research. In solidarity, they supported the Columbia student activists’ causes and chanted “two, three, many Columbias” – a refrain that gained popularity among American student protesters.</p><p>After the demonstrations in April, ensuing violent demonstrations in May, and a <a href="http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs19680501-01&e=23-04-1968-30-06-1968--en-20--1--txt-txIN-Strike------">six-week student strike</a>, the university did not build the gym in the park and <a href="http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs19680920-01.2.11&srpos=8&e=23-04-1968-30-12-1968--en-20--1--txt-txIN-IDA------">renounced its membership</a> in the Institute for Defense Analysis.</p><p>In my view, elements of the 1968 Columbia rebellion are inspiring and instructional for today’s students, protesters and community residents. As <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/10/atlanta-super-gentrification-eminent-domain">gentrification threatens</a> the homes of poor black people in urban areas today, activists should recall that 50 years earlier young people believed they could cut their university’s ties to war research and prevent a prestigious white American institution from expanding into black spaces at the same time. They succeeded.</p><p><em>Our new podcast “<a href="https://heatandlightpod.com">Heat and Light</a>” features Prof. Bradley and Columbia University’s Michael Kazin discussing this issue in depth.</em></p><p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/heat-and-light/id1424521855?mt=2"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233721/original/file-20180827-75984-1gfuvlr.png" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="134" height="34" /></a> <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9oZWF0YW5kbGlnaHRwb2QuY29tL2ZlZWQucnNz"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233720/original/file-20180827-75978-3mdxcf.png" alt="" width="134" height="34" /></a> <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=221807&refid=stpr"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233716/original/file-20180827-75981-pdp50i.png" alt="Stitcher" width="116" height="34" /></a> <a href="https://radiopublic.com/heat-and-light-WYDE55"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233717/original/file-20180827-75990-86y5tg.png" alt="Listen on RadioPublic" width="105" height="34" /></a> <a href="https://tunein.com/podcasts/History-Podcasts/Heat-and-Light-p1149068/"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233723/original/file-20180827-75984-f0y2gb.png" alt="Listen on TuneIn" width="86" height="34" /></a></p><p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/stefan-m-bradley-540901">Stefan M. Bradley</a>, Chair, Department of African American Studies, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/loyola-marymount-university-2631">Loyola Marymount University</a></em></span></p><p>This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/1968-protests-at-columbia-university-called-attention-to-gym-crow-and-got-worldwide-attention-102093">original article</a>.</p></div>FOOL ME ONCE SHAME ON YOU; FOOL ME TWICE…https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/fool-me-once-shame-on-you-fool-me-twice2012-09-07T17:43:05.000Z2012-09-07T17:43:05.000ZTziona Yisraelhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/TzionaYisrael<div><h1>FOOL ME ONCE SHAME ON YOU; FOOL ME TWICE…</h1><p align="center"> </p><p>I have been watching the Democratic National Convention for the re-election of President Obama, and I find it much like the one in 2008. People are high on “words of promise”, tears are flowing, and there appears to be much belief in a “man”...AGAIN - that he will give everyone a fair chance at success and at the American Dream (not necessarily in those words, but something very much to that effect). </p><p> </p><p>So far the First Lady, Michele Obama, hit the ball out of the park, or as has been said, “burned down the barn”. Yes indeed, she spoke well and had people admiring her for her belief in her husband and for again making the attendees at the DNC hope that President Obama would provide more jobs, establish a quality educational system for all, and produce equity for everyone…AGAIN!!!</p><p> </p><p>I am probably in the minority with my opinion, but before Obama became president, there was no fairness among the peoples of the US, and even after this term (re-elected or not) there will not be any either – not to mention that hardly anything of what he promised came to fruition. First Lady Michele’s speech was viewed through rose-colored glasses, and in truth, has deceived many. </p><p> </p><p>No one can make me believe that President Obama truly believes he can rid the United States of the deeply embedded race hatred that governs this place, that he can use Congress to achieve his goals, and that he can make the changes he desires given what he is up against – racist republicans determined to be an obstacle for all his endeavors. However, President Obama did make a difference in the lives of Gays, Hispanics, Whites, and so-called “Jews”, but he shut the door on Blacks. The facts speak for themselves.</p><p> </p><p>Before President Obama was Senator of Illinois he worked in Roseland, a Ghetto in Chicago, as a community leader where is a wall bearing the names of the Blacks who are killed in this neighborhood. He knows well the impoverishment in Roseland and in all urban environments. Yet, he acts as though he knows nothing about the discrimination and hatred of Blacks in this GOD-forsaken country: enslavement, lynching, Jim Crow Laws, police brutality, double standards, and gross injustices. These ills are still against Black Peoples. The incidents just take on other identities. Maybe President Obama just chooses to delude himself. </p><p> </p><p>As I listened to President Obama at the Democratic National Convention, I was reminded of the Late Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Dream” speech. Dr. King’s speech gave Blacks false hope, as well. Blacks at that time thought Dr. King was a Messiah, saviour, and an answer to their prayers at that time, too. But quickly, ever so quickly, the White Man made Blacks face reality and put Blacks right back in their place and made it clear that Blacks are a subjugated people, descendants of Slaves who will serve them and NOT be compared with them. Thus, President Obama should stop making Blacks believe he can bring hope and change and justice to a country built on Slavery, that thrives on White Supremacy, and that believes in survival of the fittest and isolation of Blacks. </p><p> </p><p>Does President Obama not see the power in the powers-that-be? These republicans have made it possible that almost two million Blacks will not be voting this presidential election because of some trumped up notion about voter fraud, preventing Blacks from voting for Obama. </p><p> </p><p>President Obama sees his position as one of glory and honor, and he wants to be the first Black man in the White House and for two terms. He has achieved an opportunity for many but none for my people. Blacks continue to reap benefits only from what falls from the White Man’s table, and the powers-that-be will have it no other way. President Obama should realize that ALL GLORY belongs to the CREATOR GOD of this Universe!</p><p> </p><p>So, what is the alternative? Seek the CREATOR GOD and seek HIS TRUTH. Abandon the White Man’s man-god who has done nothing to save you out of anything. What sense does it make to worship the god of the people who savagely enslaved you for 400 years? Is it not like befriending a snake that continues to bite you leaving you paralyzed to prevent its conniving and wicked brainwashing?</p><p> </p><p><b><u>FIGHT FOR REPARATIONS</u></b> in order to establish our own communities <b><u>in OTHER COUNTRIES</u></b>. Enough of living under the ideals and laws of the descendants of the Slave Masters – people who have no compassion for our progeny. We are the best to know our needs and to know how to rise above this oppression and suppression we endure in this captivity. Self-determination of Blacks requires we leave out and establish a CONSTITUTION for our peoples that will indeed make us a power to be reckoned with. ENOUGH of Blacks filling prisons, Blacks dying in the streets because they have no real roll models and know not how to hope in themselves. ENOUGH of Ghetto gravesites of squalor and devastation! It is time for the “Dry Bones” to wake up (Ezekiel 37<sup>th</sup> Chapter) to the GOD’s TRUTH!</p><p> </p><p>I do vote, but I vote for a “<i>sure fire”</i>. I vote for the ONLY ONE able to bring Blacks out of this Holocaust of captivity, oppression, and suffering. I vote for the CREATOR GOD that has a PLAN for all who call upon HIM and who are obedient to HIS Ways. It was HE that scattered us into this Hell, and it will take HIM to bring us out of it. Read the CREATOR’s PLAN if we will only Call upon HIM!</p><p> </p><p>“<u>But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find <i>him</i>, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, <i>even</i> in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; (For the LORD thy God <i>is</i> a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee</u>, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.” Deuteronomy 4:29 - 31</p><p> </p><p>“And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call <i>them</i> to mind among all the nations, <u>whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee</u>, And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee. If <i>any</i> of thine be driven out unto the outmost <i>parts</i> of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: <u>And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee. And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day</u>.” Deuteronomy 30:1 - 8</p><p> </p><p>“For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. <u>Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, <i>and</i> with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them</u>: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim <i>is</i> my firstborn. Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare <i>it</i> in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd <i>doth</i> his flock. For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of <i>him that was</i> stronger than he.” Jeremiah 31:7 – 11</p><p> </p><p>“Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye <i>even</i> to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he <i>is</i> gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.” Joel 2:12,13</p><p> </p><p>“This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.</p><p> </p><p>But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.” Isaiah 43:21,22</p><p> </p><p>“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I <i>am</i> God, and <i>there is</i> none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth <i>in</i> righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.” Isaiah 45:22</p><p> </p><p>Perhaps now you can understand why the White Man has you looking to his god. The CREATOR GOD will not hear you if you are calling upon another god. Reason being HE is a JEALOUS GOD, and we are serving our enemies for worship of false gods. The Slavers knew this!!!</p><p><b> </b></p><p><b> </b><b><a href="http://www.thelawkeepers.org/DEUTERONOMY%2028TH%20CHAPTERandPICTURES.Adoc.htm" target="_blank" title="http://www.thelawkeepers.org/DEUTERONOMY 28TH CHAPTERandPICTURES.Adoc.htm">http://www.thelawkeepers.org/DEUTERONOMY%2028TH%20CHAPTERandPICTURES.Adoc.htm</a></b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b><a href="http://www.thelawkeepers.org/">http://www.thelawkeepers.org</a></b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b>thelawkeepers@yahoogroups.com</b></p></div>It's Hamer Timehttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/it-s-hamer-time2011-10-21T05:11:41.000Z2011-10-21T05:11:41.000ZRaynard Jacksonhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/RaynardJackson<div><p><b>October 20, 2011</b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b>Raynard Jackson</b></p><p><b> </b></p><p>Fannie Lou Hamer (pronounced hay-mer) was one of the unsung pillars of the civil rights movement in the U.S. She was a phenomenal woman—a woman of great determination and great purpose. She was not one to hold back her feelings, especially when fighting for equality.</p><p> </p><p>In 1964 she was elected Vice-Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). Their stated purpose was to challenge Mississippi’s all-white delegation to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) which was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey.</p><p> </p><p>Democratic President, Lyndon Johnson was furious that a group of Blacks would challenge the Democratic Party and interfere with his reelections plans. Johnson often referred to Hamer as “that illiterate woman.”</p><p> </p><p>Out of desperation, Johnson sent top Democratic Party officials to negotiate with the MFDP, most notably, Senator Hubert Humphrey from Minnesota (he was lobbying very hard for Johnson to choose him as his running mate for Vice President). </p><p> </p><p>Johnson offered to give the MFDP two non-voting seats at the upcoming convention in exchange for their silence and had secured the endorsement of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).</p><p> </p><p>Humphrey had indicated to the group that if the group didn’t agree to this deal, Johnson would not choose him as his running mate. Hamer was always considered the moral conscious of the group and here is her response to Humphrey: “<i>Do you mean to tell me that your position is more important than four hundred thousand black people's lives? Senator Humphrey, I know lots of people in Mississippi who have lost their jobs trying to register to vote. I had to leave the plantation where I worked in Sunflower County, Mississippi. Now if you lose this job of Vice-President because you do what is right, because you help the MFDP, everything will be all right. God will take care of you. But if you take [the nomination] this way, why, you will never be able to do any good for civil rights, for poor people, for peace, or any of those things you talk about. Senator Humphrey, I'm going to pray to Jesus for you."</i></p><p><i> </i></p><p>As a result of her principled stand, Hamer was excluded from future negotiations. Johnson was so afraid of Hamer that he pressured the MFDP to agree to allow the DNC to select the two delegates to be seated in order to prevent Hamer from being chosen. The MFDP ultimately rejected the proposed deal.</p><p> </p><p>But what does that say about the rest of the leadership of the MFDP—that they would allow their “moral conscious” from attending future meetings? </p><p> </p><p>Black leadership, those sanctioned by whites, have always been easy to silence because they have no conscious. They want to be liked. They want to seen in photographs.</p><p> </p><p>Of all of her many accomplishments, she was best known for what would eventually be the epitaph that would be written on the tombstone on her grave: “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired."</p><p> </p><p>Where are the Fannie Lou Hamers of today? I cannot imagine Hamer allowing Obama, Pelosi and Reid to get away with their total disregard of issues of concern to the Black community. I can’t imagine her “cutting a deal” just to get an invitation to the White House are to be seen standing next to someone in power. She never lost sight of the goal.</p><p> </p><p>Hamer had very little leverage, other than moral suasion, to use against Johnson and the Democrats; but yet forced the DNC to change their platform for the 1968 election. Today, Blacks have money, votes, and media; but lack the will to use moral suasion or any other means to affect change.</p><p> </p><p>The supposed Black leaders of today seem only to be concerned about being invited to the White House for a photo opportunity. Black Elected officials are too afraid of criticizing Obama. But what are they afraid of? Obama hasn’t given them anything that he could take away from them! Yet, in my private conversations with many of these people, they constantly complain about how Obama is ignoring them and their issues. </p><p> </p><p>Are they not “sick and tired of being sick and tired?”</p><p> </p><p>California representative Maxine Waters is one of the few elected officials to publically criticize Obama, but she also apologizes to him in the same sentence.</p><p> </p><p>So, to all my Black Democratic friends, I challenge you to get on the phone to your Black leaders and all the Democratic Party officials and let them know in no uncertain terms that “it’s Hamer time!”</p><p> </p><p><i>Raynard Jackson is president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a D.C.-public relations/government affairs firm. He is also a contributing editor for ExcellStyle Magazine (</i><a href="http://www.excellstyle.com/"><i>www.excellstyle.com</i></a><i>), Freedom’s Journal Magazine (</i><a href="http://www.freedomsjournal.net/"><i>www.freedomsjournal.net</i></a><i>), and U.S. Africa Magazine (</i><a href="http://www.usafricaonline.com/"><i>www.usafricaonline.com</i></a><i>).</i></p></div>SIERRA LEONE: PDL DETERMINED TO PARTICIPATE IN 2012 ELECTIONS.https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/sierra-leone-pdl-determined-to2010-08-24T16:00:54.000Z2010-08-24T16:00:54.000ZTheBlackListhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackList<div><table border="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top"><p style="text-align:center;margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal" align="center"><b><span style="font-size:16pt;" lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb"><font face="Times New Roman">SIERRA LEONE PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC LEAGUE</font></span></b>
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<p style="text-align:center;margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal" align="center"><b><span style="font-size:16pt;" lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb"><font face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></span></b></p>
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<p style="text-align:center;margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal" align="center"><b><span style="font-size:16pt;" lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb"><font face="Times New Roman">PDL DETERMINED TO PARTICIPATE IN 2012 ELECTIONS</font></span></b>
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<p style="margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><br />In 2006, the Sierra Leone People’s Democratic League (PDL) announced its intention to participate in the 2007 national elections for
Parliament and the Presidency but rescinded decision because the whole process
was a farce and well-wrapped fraud. The results thereinafter the exercise
vindicated the PDL. Whether the present political dispensation in Freetown
reflects the democratic freedoms and aspirations of the people we do not
know.<br /><br /></font></span>
</p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Two points which are clear, and these are, the version of democracy in Sierra Leone’s national body politics since the imposition of the
one party dictatorship rule in 1978 is a mere deception. And second, Sierra
Leone needs a change of the wicked, spurious, ethnic-based, rotten system.
Sierra Leone needs a new crop of leadership that is credible, creative,
imaginative and patriotic, and more especially leaders who are true sons and
daughters of the soil, and who are also committed to the protection of the
interests of all Sierra Leoneans.<br /><br /></font></span>
</p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Sierra Leone urgently needs patriotic, god-fearing, progressive leaders and not demi-gods to save the nation from further public
ridicule and scorn. Sierra Leoneans no longer trust the system-a bogus political
culture in which opulence, immorality, political prostitution, rude tribalism,
dishonesty, nepotism, corruption,, capital flight, disease, mass illiteracy,
hunger, starvation, mal-nutrition, indignities, want and insecurity of life and
legally owned property have replaced decency, social harmony and prosperity in
the country’s national and private life.<br /><br /></font></span>
</p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Those who know Sierra Leone in the early years of flag independence may ask today if there is no capable leadership and political
culture after the death of the country’s first Prime Minister, Sir Milton Margai
in 1964 to lead the nation to prosperity. <br /><br /></font></span>
</p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">With the country’s elections approaching to go, the Sierra Leone People’s Democratic League (PDL) is proud to announce its readiness
to participate in the forthcoming elections to be held in 2012. PDL will contest
for all parliamentary seats and the office of the presidency to serve the Sierra
Leonean people and expose the general ills of the system.<br /><br /></font></span>
</p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">We have no intention to boycott the elections as our detractors want the public to believe. The PDL will engage the government in
Freetown on key election issues ahead of the 2012, though the government of
President Ernest Bai Koroma is too reluctant to allow the purification of the
present election body to prevent political interference and to conform to
democratic norms and political decency. Time and again PDL has stressed that to
boycott the elections will do more harm to the nation, because such dishonest
action will provide the APC cum PMDC government in Freetown with more power to
continue its confused, deceptive and retrogressive policies that rendered life
unbearable for the masses of our people.</font></span>
</p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Boycotting any elections now that the country needs change for the good of its people would eventually heighten the state of passive
indifference among the general public. The marginalisation and alienation of the
people is a sign that Sierra Leone is unstable and on the verge of abysmal
collapse, which can only be avoided through active political activism, and
encouraging people to vote in elections and participate in the decision-making
process of their country’s future direction.<br /><br /></font></span>
</p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">PDL holds the belief that there is still hope for transformation of Sierra Leone through meaningful participation in the 2012
elections. PDL therefore intends to push the ruling APC cum PMDC oligarchy to
tolerate negotiations for a binding election rule to be put in place. We believe
if a fair, honest, transparent, democratic election is to take place in Sierra
Leone it will highly depend on whether the ruling class is willing to hold talks
on the binding law of election. Our aim is to engage the ruling class in
Freetown in a pre-election negotiation on key subjects such as access to Media
for campaign, the rule of law, human rights, absence of violence, free flow to
international observers, the independent and democratisation of the election
body and a stop to misuse of state apparatus to intimidate voters.<br /><br /></font></span>
</p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">In the course of our campaign we will advance the socialist alternative to the rotten system being entrenched by the ruling cabal.
This is historic mission and we cannot afford the luxury of betraying the
conscience of the Sierra Leonean nation in view of the fact that the APC cum
PMDC bandwagon has remained dysfunctional and has fail due to its own
in-fighting, inefficiencies and paralysis. We will therefore call for unity of
purpose among all PDL members and supporters and work towards wrestling power
from the ruling cabal in 2012.<br /><br /></font></span>
</p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">We call upon the legal body of PDL to do everything to secure the registration of PDL with the National Elections Body. We also ask the
Information and Mass Mobilisation Bureau of PDL to start a grassroots process of
forming basic committees to boast membership of PDL across the country.
<br /><br /></font></span>
</p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">We urge the Sierra Leonean public to shoulder their national duty and prevent fraud by participating in the election process. The
way to fight corruption is through the massive participation in the 2012
elections, because it will be an opportunity to energise the people and expose
the practices of the APC cum PMDC opportunists who have stockpiled advantage of
the deepening negativity and indifference among the people.</font></span>
</p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span style="color:#000000;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">PDL is an affiliate organization of</font> <a href="http://www.greencharter.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#000000;text-decoration:none;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Green Charter International</font></span></a> <font face="Times New Roman" size="3">(GCI), for peace, democratic good governance, human
rights, rule of law, freedom and dignity. PDL stands for Burehism and for the
transformation of the Sierra Leonean society. We fight to replace the wicked
capitalist system with socialism; an economic system based on social need and
environmental protection rather than private profit and ecological
destruction.<br /><br /></font></span>
</p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span style="color:#000000;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">We seek a New Sierra Leone that functions not as an island but as part of a living, breathing network
of humanity. A network that will recognise that Sierra Leoneans and in deed
Africans everywhere are part of nature, and that will build a global society
that lives within the limits of the earth’s ecosystems. We seek to extend
support and solidarity to the struggles of the oppressed humanity, from the
Palestinian just struggle in Gaza against Israel’s occupation to the trade
Unionists in Colombia, the peace movement in Afghanistan to the benighted
indigenous peoples of Australia.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span style="color:#000000;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><br /></font></span></p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span style="color:#000000;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">God Help Sierra Leone!</font></span>
</p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"></p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span style="color:#000000;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Sender:</font></span></p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"></p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span style="color:#000000;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">MULKU SULAIMAN SALIEU DUMBUYA</font></span>
</p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span style="color:#000000;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">PDL Deputy Secretary for Information and Mass Mobilisation</font></span>
</p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span style="color:#000000;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Tel: 00232-78-237695.</font></span><br /><a href="freedomsal@yahoo.fr">freedomsal@yahoo.fr</a></p>
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<p style="margin:auto 0in;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span style="font-size:14pt;" lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb"><font face="Times New Roman">FREETOWN</font></span></p>
<p style="margin:auto 0in;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;" class="yiv1071950374msonormal"><span style="font-size:14pt;" lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb"><font face="Times New Roman">August 23, 2010.</font></span></p>
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