By Akwasi Evans
(NNPA) - The African culture in North America has, from
its origin, produced individuals of exceptional courage, ability, and conviction.
There were many Kunta Kintes. There was The Real McCoy, Harriet Tubman,
Fredrick Douglass, Madame C.J. Walker, Richard Allen, John Russwurm, Fannie
Lou Hamer, the Buffalo Soldiers, the Massachusetts Fighting 53rd,
Sojurner Truth, Elijah Muhammad, Muhammad Ali, Angela Davis, John Coltrane,
Louis Armstrong, Jack Johnson, Mary McLeod-Bethune, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson,
Ida B. Wells, Jackie Robinson, Mahalia Jackson, W. Johnson, W.E.B. Dubois,
Daisy Bates, Colin Powell, Barbara Jordan, Michael Jordan, Malcolm X, Crispus
Attucks, Nat Turner, ....I could go on beyond exhaustion. Two, however,
stand out for the way they allowed themselves to be martyred in the cause
of liberty. They were visionary men or God. They both were Baptist preachers.
And, they both often risked - and eventually gave - their lives to awaken
the country to the utter immorality of slavery and racism.
The first was Nat Turner. His insurrection in New Jerusalem,
Virginia in 1831, roused White people to the horror they would feel if
they were terrorized the way Blacks had been by the good Christians in
South Hampton County. The "Great Bandi" commanded a guerilla army that
attacked Putman Moore's plantation and several others. They killed several
of the "masters," and he was the first one massacred by the insurgent slaves.
Turner and his men were eventually captured and killed, but their revolt
led to the Civil War and the overthrow of slavery.
The other martyr was the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. who led the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960'. With unmatched eloquence,
Dr. King challenged racist discrimination so effectively that those committed
to White Supremacy by any means necessary felt compelled to kill the messenger.
They have not stilled the message, however, Dr. King's legacy will live
forever, while the cowards who assassinated him have died and are dying
in infamy and will undoubtedly burn in hell.
People across the nation marched in memory of Dr. King
during the third week of January. They sought and created a harmony of
hope that the new millennium might bring about the peaceful cohesion of
clashing cultures. With blissful illusion they sang, chanted and hugged
one another. Most left feeling good all over.
Were Dr. King alive today, it is doubtful that he would
have joined any of the commercial celebrations of a dream still deferred.
He would most likely have been engaged in what he called, "creative protest".
Back in the '60s, marching was creative protest, now it is just a performance
of the pretense that we really want to peacefully co-exist. The real racist
in America will never voluntarily allow the children of working class Black
Americans to step on the playing field of power politics and global economics
in real competition with the prodigy of the oligarchy.
Dr. King's assault was not against the poor, ignorant
high school dropouts who joined the Ku Klux Klan, His target was the corporate
and governmental structures, institutions that determined who lives well
and who dies horribly in the world. Dr. King condemned the Hoover Institute,
the Tir-lateral Commission, Hollywood, the World Bank, police departments
across the nation, hospitals that showed preferential treatment and schools
that intentionally cheated and shortchanged Black people.
Dr. King's vision was for 'a genuine revolution of values.'
One where our loyalties "must become ecumenical rather then sectional."
He called for "a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond
one's tribe, race, class and nation." Dr. King knew that those who did
not love one another, did not love God. And he sought to unmask the bigoted
bullies of Beelzebub who commit these unjust, egregious crimes against
humanity.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered because those
who hold power by force feared his truth. They silenced his voice, but
they did not tarnish his vision. White America will flourish or perish
by the reciprocity attracted through its treatment of all its citizens
blessed with more
Dr. King's dream was not just of halting racial discrimination
against Black folk, it was also about stopping the spiraling descent of
White folk's souls. Red, Yellow and conscientious working class people
of European descent.
America's martyr for peace knew that love would ultimately
conquer hate. And he knew hate would inevitably self-destruct. Those of
us who followed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. continue to "pray for those
who hatefully despise us." We do so, not just out of righteous love, but
also because we have a sense for what is in store for them.
Those of us who love ourselves, each other, America, the
world and God still have a dream. And we fully intend to get to the mountaintop.
Akwasi Evans is the publisher of NOKOA Newspaper in
Austin, Texas. You can reach him by email at noka@netscape.net