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The Roundtable interviews Ms. Elner Clark, sister of Black Panther Party organizer Mark Clark, who, along with Chairman Fred Hampton, was assassinated by Chicago Police in the early morning of December 4, 1969. 

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From The Final Call Newspaper

More than an idea: A Black movement to separate is happening now

By Michael Z. Muhammad, Contributing Writer
- March 2, 2021





“Separation is the best and only solution to the racism, violence, tyranny, and oppression plaguing Blacks in America.”

—The Honorable Elijah Muhammad



Saviours’ Day 2021 closed its first day of workshops with a timely panel discussion that included historic and current film clips demonstrating the progress made when the Black community separates from the enemy and unites with itself.



The plenary session was titled “The Best and Only Solution: The Separation Process has Started” and was moderated by Atty. Ava Muhammad, national spokesperson for the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and Nation of Islam. For the past several years, she has been crisscrossing the country holding town hall meetings educating the community on the importance of establishing an independent territory where Black people can build and thrive.

Such labor is bearing fruit for independence through self-determined and successful efforts in education, farming, business, community development, and policing. The plenary session Feb. 26 allowed for sharing of work underway to make Black people independent and to discuss plans moving forward.

The afternoon’s panelists included Donnie Muhammad, an educator from Raleigh, N.C.; Shahid Muhammad and his wife Shahidah, educators and new farm owners; Cheryl Mango of Petersburg, Va., and Virginia State University professor; Michael Muhammad, owner of MSGLG Farms; Abdul Akbar, businessman and community developer, and Cardio X, a law enforcement officer.

Separation has been an essential part of the Nation of Islam’s program. Point Number Four of What the Muslims Want states in part: “We want our people in America whose parents or grandparents were descendants from slaves to be allowed to establish a separate state or territory of their own, either on this continent or elsewhere, we believe that our former slave masters are obligated to provide such land and that the area must be fertile and minerally rich … . Since we cannot get along with them in peace and equality after giving them 400 years of our sweat and blood and receiving in return, some of the worst treatment human beings have ever experienced. We believe our contributions to this land and the suffering forced upon us by White America justifies our demand for our complete separation and a state or territory of our own.”

That separation process has begun.

“We’re not here tonight beloved because of failure. We’re here tonight because of success. Allah, God, never fails to keep his promise. At the forefront of the immeasurable volume of that work was done by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the demand that America let go of the descendants of her former slaves. Only if we leave will we be able to obey God’s command to us come out of her, my people,” said Student Minister Ava Muhammad in opening remarks.

Providing an historical context, Ava Muhammad noted that in June 2018, the Nation of Islam initiated a series of town hall gatherings around the country to discuss separation. “These town hall meetings were predominantly Black and, in some cities, such as Phoenix, Arizona, and Los Angeles, they included a large turnout of the indigenous people of this continent, the Red and the Brown,” she said. “We traveled with a team to 21 cities. And that team was made up of Muslims who not only volunteered to be part of this but paid their own way to help take part in this great day that our parents prayed would come. The final city that we held a town hall in was Detroit, Mich., last year as Saviours’ Day 2020 at the legendary Shrine of the Black Madonna. The meetings were paused due to Covid-19,” she said.

But, added Ava Muhammad, “The response to the town hall meetings has been overwhelming.”

“Saviours’ Day 2020 a year ago was entitled ‘The Unraveling of a Great Nation.’ Two weeks after Minister Farrakhan delivered that message; all hell broke loose in America. And she moved into the last days of her fall. It is in progress at this moment. The words of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad are now in force. He said to the Black man and woman, Allah will make you separate. We are past the mercy given to us by Allah and his Christ through the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s presence as a spiritual leader. He is now the commander in chief and the head of the new Black nation bringing in a new reality,” said Ava Muhammad.

With those words, the plenary session was off and running.

Using an astute attorney’s skills, Ava Muhammad established her case through video media, taking plenary participants back to the early 1900s when Black people built independent towns, banks, schools, and businesses. She demonstrated a precedent for success by showcasing past Black independent thought and unity.

In moving to the panel presenters, Minister Ava Muhammad linked Minister Farrakhan’s call to make our communities better and safer places to live. “And so when he said make your own communities, I kept thinking on that, our own communities are not these colonies called ghettos or ’hoods that White people have designated for us. Our own community is a community where we control everything from the dirt, all the way up to the education of our children, growing our food, our businesses. Adding reparations is really about land,” Ava Muhammad noted. “If you don’t control the land, somebody else is controlling you.”

During his presentation, Donnie Muhammad, a school administrator, discussed the role education must play in the separation initiative. “At the root of education, it intends to extract the light from the student, the light that is a divine gift that the student is already endowed with the use of mathematics, the use of reading the use of science to extract those great gifts,” stated Donnie Muhammad. He went on to explain how many educational options are available with school choice.

Shahid Muhammad, the famed “Math Doctor” who teaches at the Muhammad University of Islam in Chicago, shared how he and his wife, Shahidah, were able to acquire farmland in New Buffalo, Mich. They own Al Jana Farms. “It is our desire, my wife and I, to transform those five acres into a paradise and garden for our children, in particular. But for really all of our people, it’s going to be an educational center with agribusiness teaching botany,” said Shahid Muhammad. “These learning labs will teach our children science, technology, arts, engineering, and mathematics. We plan to have hiking trails, walking trails, obstacle courses, with plans to teach cultural dance, meditation, agroforestry, water purification. We plan to use every square inch to make a profit and be productive.”

“Many of us are in effect alive and sensible enough to know that coming to terms with our oppression does not have to mean further assimilating into oppression,” pointed out Dr. Cheryl Mango, a history professor at Virginia State University, in her presentation.

“In fact, since the NOI popular campaign against what many may call the irrationality of chasing what’s often a mirage of equality, the community has witnessed an uptick and a turn inward, meaning depending on self to secure liberating freedom where ownership and control do not come from asking others who control you,” Dr. Mango said.

Perhaps the most impressive presentation of the evening came from Michael Muhammad, owner of the 22-acre MSGLG farm located in Pennsylvania. He initially set out to buy a small one-acre farm, and Allah (God) blessed him mightily.

Michael Muhammad brought down the house with his story about how he purchased two cows and put them in his SUV back seat with his children after buying the farm.

“We only saw an acre in our mind, and Allah increased the reward because we stepped out on some faith,” he said. “I tell you, Believers. This is our time. It’s our time.”

“This is in 2020, the whole year was filled with the pandemic, but we’re not experiencing the impact because Allah wanted us to know this was our time. This was our moment. This belongs to us. Some Believers who got inspired—Brother Sultan and his wife, Sister Khadijah out of Muhammad Mosque Number 12—said: ‘Hey, I want to buy some land.’ And we went out and bought some land about eight miles up the road because I wanted some hay.

“And I literally just wanted to buy some hay, but come to find out, the property that was selling the hay was also selling the farm itself. And I said, ‘why would I buy hay when I could buy the farm?’ But I didn’t want to go in by myself.” He, Sultan Muhammad their families came together to buy the farm. Because of the pandemic, the mortgage payments on the farm have been held in abeyance, said Michael Muhammad.

Akbar Kurt Muhammad, a Chicago-based community developer, gave a moving story about how he was inspired by Minister Farrakhan while incarcerated. The owner of several successful businesses, he is in the process of developing the community around Mosque Maryam. He is in the process of developing a city block, where he opened a laundromat. The Woodlawn neighborhood where his business is located is considered a food and health care desert. His vision is to rebuild the block and connect it to health care, financial literacy and entrepreneurship, food and nutrition, and agriculture. His not-for-profit Salaam Community Wellness Center, a health care facility, hopes to connect the best of non-Western medicine with the best of Western medicine, including acupuncture, yoga, deep breathing, tai chi and meditation, among other tools.

The Wellness Center also will serve as a training site for master’s degree level social work student interns to provide virtual and on-site case management for patients with limited transportation or who are better served in their homes. Another building will house entrepreneur training where participants will learn how to write a business plan, pitch ideas to investors and do a feasibility study, among other trainings. A dine-in restaurant that focuses on serving nutritious food will be part of the complex. The restaurant will be supplied with vegetables from a community garden that will be planted on an adjoining vacant lot. The garden will also serve as a source for agricultural training and an area for meditation. Akbar Muhammad already operates nine self-service laundry facilities.

Brother Cardio X, a police officer in Harvey, Ill., discussed the importance of a different kind of policing as essential to a new way of protecting Black people. He called for a more human approach but said our communities will need security. He currently works in a majority Black city and interacts with people using knowledge and the respectful manner learned in the Fruit of Islam. He said the way he conducts himself has been well received. And he doesn’t tolerate brutality. While arresting a shoplifting suspect, a security guard punched the man, said Cardio X. He immediately arrested the security guard.

In wrapping the session up, Ava Muhammad closed with video clips of believers all over the country who are buying land, farming, establishing independent schools. The separation process has truly begun in earnest.

 

From The Final Call Newspaper

Snow, suffering, loss are signs of America’s downfall Latest onslaught of unusual, deadly and punishing weather is driven by divine chastisement

By Michael Z. Muhammad, Contributing Writer
- February 23, 2021





In boxing parlance, it’s called a shoeshine.

It’s when an opponent is hit with a flurry of devastating combinations, leaving him dazed and confused.

From Massachusetts to the Mexican border, Winter Storm Uri wreaked havoc with a lethal shoeshine combination of snow and ice from coast to coast, including the deep South and Southwest. It caused death and destruction in its path leaving America dazed and confused as we sit ringside witnessing what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the patriarch of the Nation of Islam, called “The Fall of America.”

NEWS ANALYSIS

Messenger Muhammad, in his monumental book of the same name, states, “America has mistreated the Black man for four hundred years, and she does not think that there is ever a God who will accept her Black slave and return on her head the injustice done to her Black slave.”

“The Bible prophesies of the plagues that would come upon America—and these plagues are falling on America now,” he writes. “The four Great Judgments that Allah (God) promises to destroy America are now coming upon her … hail, snow, drought, earthquake. Allah (God) has reserved His treasures of snow and ice to be used against the wicked country America in the day of battle and war.”

Headlines in many major newspapers across the United States bore witness to this divine insight as record snow and ice placed a crippling blow on the country.

As if to send a wider message to the world, snow fell in the deserts of Saudi Arabia baffling camels.

U.S. suffers under destructive and deadly weather

But the USA was the number one target for the storms and destruction as many thought winter was coming to an end. In early February, all 50 states suffered from below freezing temperatures and broke a record set in 2013.

Severe weather that followed wasn’t just snow, ice and cold.

“Deadly winter storms battering the country’s South and the heartland left millions without power in Texas … and spawned a possible tornado that killed at least three people in North Carolina. More freezing weather and dangerous travel conditions were predicted in the coming days,” reported CBS News Feb. 16.

People struggling to stay warm triggered house fires. Image: Youtube

“The suspected tornado that hit North Carolina’s Brunswick County around midnight ripped homes from foundations, snapped trees in half, and injured at least ten people,” the county’s emergency services said.

“Across the country, at least 31 people have died since the punishing winter weather began last week. Some died in crashes on icy roads, others succumbed to the cold and others were killed when desperate attempts at warmth turned deadly,” said media reports Feb. 19.

As electricity was being restored in the Lone Star State, water woes rose.

Many of the millions of Texans who lost power for days after a deadly winter blast overwhelmed the electric grid now have it back, but the crisis was far from over in parts of the South, with many people lacking safe drinking water.

More than 190,000 homes and businesses remained without power in Texas, according to poweroutage.us Feb. 19, down from about 3 million two days earlier, though utility officials said limited rolling blackouts were still possible.

Sara Castillo loads firewood into her car Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021, in Dallas. Castillo said the fire would be used to burn for warmth as her family has been without power since Sunday due to blackouts caused by extreme cold. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

The storms also left more than 330,000 from Virginia to Louisiana without power and about 71,000 in Oregon were still enduring a weeklong outage following a massive ice and snowstorm.

The snow and ice moved into the Appalachians, northern Maryland and southern Pennsylvania, and later the Northeast as the extreme weather was blamed for the deaths of at least 58 people, including a Tennessee farmer trying to save two calves that apparently wandered into a frozen pond and 17-year-old Oklahoma girl who fell into a frozen pond.

A growing number of people have perished trying to keep warm. In and around the western Texas city of Abilene, authorities said six people died of the cold—including a 60-year-old man found dead in his bed in his frigid home. In the Houston area, a family died from carbon monoxide as their car idled in their garage.

Utilities from Minnesota to Texas used rolling blackouts to ease strained power grids. But the remaining Texas outages were mostly weather-related, according to the state’s grid manager, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

Federal Emergency Manage-ment Agency acting administrator Bob Fenton said teams were in Texas with fuel, water, blankets and other supplies.

Deadly pileup caused by ice storms. Image: Youtube

“What has me most worried is making sure that people stay warm,” Mr. Fenton said on “CBS This Morning,” while urging people without heat to go to a shelter or warming center.

Rotating outages for Texas could return if electricity demand rises as people get power and heating back, said Dan Woodfin, the council’s senior director of system operations.

Adding to the misery: The weather jeopardized drinking water systems. Authorities ordered 7 million people—a quarter of the population of the nation’s second-largest state—to boil tap water before drinking it, following the record low temperatures that damaged infrastructure and pipes. In Abilene, a man died at a health care facility when a lack of water pressure made medical treatment impossible.

Water pressure dropped after lines froze and because many people left faucets dripping to prevent pipes from icing, said Toby Baker, executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Gov. Abbott urged residents to shut off water to prevent more busted pipes and preserve municipal system pressure.

President Joe Biden said he called Gov. Abbott and offered additional support from the federal government to state and local agencies.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said residents will probably have to continue to boil tap water in the fourth-largest U.S. city for a few days.

Power lines failed due to heavy ice storms. Image: Youtube

Federal emergency officials sent generators to support water treatment plants, hospitals and nursing homes in Texas, along with thousands of blankets and ready-to-eat meals, officials said. The Texas Restaurant Association was coordinating food donations to hospitals.

Two of Houston Methodist’s community hospitals had no running water and still treated patients but canceled most non-emergency surgeries and procedures for roughly two days, said spokeswoman Gale Smith.

As of afternoon Feb. 18, more than 1,000 Texas public water systems and 177 of the state’s 254 counties had reported weather-related operational disruptions, affecting more than 14 million people, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

About 260,000 homes and businesses in Tennessee’s largest county, which includes Memphis, were told to boil water after cold temperatures led to water main ruptures and problems at pumping stations. Memphis International Airport canceled all incoming and outgoing passenger flights Feb. 19 due to water pressure issues.

Public health, public policy debacle

In Texas, more than 300 flights in and out of Dallas and Houston were canceled, according to flightaware.com. Particularly affected was American Airlines, headquartered in Fort Worth.

Feb 16 weather map. Image: Youtube

In Jackson, Mississippi, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said most of the city of about 161,000 was without water the night of Feb. 18. Crews pumped water to refill city tanks but faced a shortage of chemicals to treat the water, he said.

“We are dealing with an extreme challenge with getting more water through our distribution system,” Mayor Lumumba said.

About 85 seniors in a Jackson apartment building lost water service and were relying on deliveries from a building manager, said resident Linda Weathersby.

Ms. Weathersby went outside collecting buckets of ice to melt it so she could flush her toilet and said “my back’s hurting now.”

Before the wintry weather moved from Texas, the city of Del Rio along the U.S.-Mexico border, got nearly 10 inches of snow, surpassing the city’s one-day record for snowfall.

Among millions hit by the power outages were areas around Galveston and Houston, according to a website tracking the outages.

Deadly pileup caused by ice storms. Image: Youtube

The National Weather Service also warned: “Snow and freezing rain were expected to persist, raising travel concerns for parts of the eastern Great Lakes to New England … . Frigid Arctic air and dangerous wind chills were forecast in the Great Plains and Mississippi Valley.”

Low temperatures spread across the country, striking from Arkansas to Indiana and Illinois with record-low temperatures from Oklahoma City to Minnesota’s Iron Range, where thermometers dipped to minus 38, the National Weather Service added.

“This is a public health disaster and a public health emergency,” Dr. Samuel Prater, an emergency room physician at Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center, said in a news briefing. He was referring to dozens of cases of carbon monoxide poisoning in the wake of power outages, said the Weather Channel.

In terms of magnitude, the storm created the greatest forced blackout in U.S. history as a result of a systemic and multifaceted failure, according to Bloomberg.com.

Politically, Sen. Ted Cruz was lambasted for taking his family on a Mexico vacation while his constituents suffered and died.

Storms bring economic pain

“The winter storm that barreled across much of the United States over the holiday weekend severely disrupted businesses including large car factories, retail chains and the delivery services that people are deeply reliant on for basic necessities,” observed the New York Times.

“General Motors, Ford Motor, Toyota, Nissan, and other automakers suspended or shut down production at plants from Texas to Indiana as rolling blackouts, natural gas shortages and icy conditions made it difficult to keep assembly lines running.”

“Walmart was forced to close as many as 500 stores across the South and Midwest, according to a map that was being updated in real-time on its website. Pharmacy chains also shut stores, potentially making it harder for customers to collect prescriptions and also delaying vaccinations against the coronavirus, which had begun at many pharmacies at the end of last week,” the Times added.

“The storm dealt a blow to huge economic hubs that are accustomed to hurricanes and tornadoes but not extreme winter weather that strains power grids and sends temperatures well below averages for this time of year.”

Winter Storm Uri caused an epic drop in U.S. oil production, according to Fox News. “Frigid temperatures knocked out electricity across Texas and resulted in one of the largest U.S. oil production disruptions ever. Shut-ins related to the winter storm have removed about 3 million barrels of daily oil production, or 27 percent of U.S. output, much of which comes from the oil-rich Permian Basin located in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. Refining capabilities in Houston have also been knocked offline,” the report states.

“It really is a perfect storm,” said Stephen Schork, founder, and editor of the daily oil subscription newsletter The Schork Report. “We’ve had hurricanes, but this is an all-encompassing storm, the likes of which the North American or the U.S. refinery and oil market have never seen before.”

Up to one-half inch of ice made roads slick in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky, including Baton Rouge and Jackson, Mississippi.

According to the Weather Channel, snow from Uri also blanketed parts of the Ohio Valley, Great Lakes, and interior Northeast.

“By the morning of February 16, 73 percent of the area of the Lower 48 states was covered by snow, the most widespread snow cover in the contiguous U.S. in at least 17 years,” the Weather Channel reported.

“The Texas agricultural commissioner has said that farmers and ranchers have to throw away millions of dollars worth of goods because of a lack of power. ‘We’re looking at a food supply chain problem like we’ve never seen before, even with COVID-19,’ ” the commissioner told one local news affiliate.

“An energy analyst likened the power crisis to the fallout of Hurricane Katrina as it’s becoming increasingly clear that the situation in Texas is a statewide disaster,” reported Truthout.org.

“We know that according to the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, there are four great judgments for America,” said Dr. Abdul Haleem Muhammad, the Nation of Islam Southeast Regional Student Minister based in Houston. He also leads the NOI mosque in the city.

“We see America’s arrogance and God’s ability to humble her using the forces of nature exacerbated by human-made errors and mistakes, for example, the failure of the power grid in Texas,” he said.

“It’s a national and international embarrassment that the quote ‘energy capital of the world’ has an energy failure of epic proportions,” he said.

Dr. Muhammad, who holds a Ph.D. in urban planning, also pointed out to The Final Call the disaster’s economic impact.

“The economic impact will be in the hundreds of millions to billions of dollars because there’s a disruption of the economy from top to bottom,” he said. “Without electricity, without power, you can’t do anything. Food is spoiling, busted pipes creating massive insurance repercussions. So the infrastructure, the cost of daily commerce, cost of the logistical supply chain in terms of freight, shipping, gas production. So there is a long-term economic cost that will be tabulated. Still, I suspect it will be in the hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars.”

Dr. Muhammad added, “There are long lines and empty shelves at area grocery stores. People are not prepared for the fall of America. They really don’t see it. They don’t see the perfect storm of God’s judgment, the pandemic, the pestilence from heaven, racial reckoning, political gridlock, and now these calamities. They’re not prepared.”

The total damage and economic loss caused by the historic storm could be between $45 billion and $50 billion, said AccuWeather founder and CEO Dr. Joel N. Myers, whose damage estimates reflected the projections made by Dr. Muhammad.

To put the economic toll of the storm into context, AccuWeather’s estimate for the entire 2020 hurricane season, the most active hurricane season on record, was $60-65 billion.

“We have been experiencing one of the stormiest patterns seen in decades,” said Mr. Myers, who has been studying the economic impact of severe weather for over 50 years. The damage has been exacerbated by record cold temperatures that have pushed all the way to the Gulf Coast. Mr. Myers’ expert analysis helps emphasize the magnitude of the life-threatening crisis’s impact and the U.S. financial ramifications, reported AccuWeather.

Weather reflects political social climate in the U.S.?

Student Minister Rodney Muhammad from Muhammad Mosque No. 12 in Philadelphia told The Final Call the weather almost mirrors America’s mental atmosphere and social environment. “The weather’s devastating impact and aftermath, the consequences, it comes with a sense of destruction in it. And then it leaves a whole challenge. In some areas, millions are cut off from power,” he said.

“And so I thought about the snow and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad talking about snow and freezing temperatures and how it’s widespread, but he used the term ‘unusual weather.’ This weather and its timing as the government itself is tearing itself apart, I just think that the social atmosphere, the high level of dissatisfaction, a lot of public and social unrest, I think it’s demonstrated in the weather.”

“The people in the South traditionally they’re not even set up for this kind of weather. It’s always unusual when it’s occurring in areas that traditionally are just not accustomed to having that kind of weather. They found themselves totally unprepared. During the Capitol uprising, you had congressmen and senators running down hallways looking for places to hide totally unprepared,” he added from a northeastern city hit by snow, ice and cold.

“And so what we’ve had at the Capitol building is a false sense of security. And what we may have in different parts of the country being accustomed to a certain kind of weather was a false sense of security. I’m sure now if you live in Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, you’re going to start remembering the unusual weather that came in,” Student Minister Rodney Muhammad said.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

From The Final Call Newspaper

Race, Rats and Revolutionaries: Flippin’ the Switch on the Snitch Myth

By J.S. Adams, Contributing Writer
- February 16, 2021

Young private detective man sitting inside car and photographing with slr camera


Black power. That’s what most people associate with the late 1950s all the way to the 1970s. From the afros to the anthems, Black people across the United States organized and mobilized to bring about a social and political change.

But with Black leaders on the rise, the FBI planned their demise.

The new movie “Judas and the Black Messiah” follows the tragic story of Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party, and how the FBI used a fellow Black man named William O’Neal to aid in his assassination.

With rave reviews and a line-up of young, bright, Black actors telling the story, it brings back to the forefront the ugly reality of the bureau’s Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) and how Black informants have been used to assist enemies of Black liberation to bring down the movement.


Fred Hampton, a young Black revolutionary, targeted “Judas and the Black Messiah” has become more than just a biographical drama––but a launching pad for a deeper look at Black history and surveillance in America.

Multiple media outlets have penned essays on the unsettling reality of the film, as well as offering a deeper look at the Black Panthers and what they fought for.

The movie follows true events of the 1960s surrounding Mr. Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and deputy chairman of the national Party, as he became more known and influential throughout the community. Mr. Hampton, played by Daniel Kaluuya, who starred in the 2017 horror “Get Out,” pushed the Panther’s famous Free Breakfast For School Children program and worked toward building a community medical clinic. The movie shows how he even united Chicago-area movements followed by Whites and Puerto Ricans against police brutality and injustice.

William O’Neal, played by LaKeith Stanfield, who also played in “Get Out,” was recruited by the FBI to infiltrate the chapter and provide information on its dealings, which ultimately led to the assassination of Mr. Hampton.

“There were suspicions about William O’Neal,” said Prof. Raymond Winbush, director of the Institute of Urban Research at Morgan State University. He helped provide research for the movie. “We talked to people who were very suspicious of this guy. He was always trying to incite them to do big things, you know, to kill cops and stuff like that.”

Prof. Winbush referenced a scene in the movie where Mr. O’Neal tries to get Mr. Hampton to blow up city hall. 

“While he was doing that, he had a tape recorder on so he could bring that back to the FBI,” Mr. Winbush said.

Mr. O’Neal cooperated in the FBI’s COINTELPRO, created by former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in 1956. According to FBI documents, the series of operations had the purpose of disrupting, discrediting Black militant groups and preventing the rise of a “Black messiah.” One of the goals was also to “prevent the long-range growth of militant Black nationalist organizations, especially among youth.”

The FBI weaved its way into these organizations through Black informants.

Throughout Twitter, many have focused on how Mr. Hampton was only 21 years old at the time of his tragic killing.

“Fred Hampton was 21. Let that sink in, Fred Hampton was 21. A 21 year old became a chairman of the Black Panthers, fed families, led a revolution, & united rival gangs in Chicago & gave an entire group of people hope. Our government was scared of & assassinated a 21 year,” one Twitter user wrote.

“I want to remind people that Fred Hampton brought together the black and white working class in Chicago. Helping to feed, organize, and educate disenfranchised people about revolutionary politics. At 21 he was murdered by CPD in his bed,” another user said.

“I’m glad ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ is being shown,” said Atty. Nkechi Taifa, who is also a scholar and an advocate for justice. “This is history for a lot of people, including the current [generation]. This is information people need to know about.”

Unfortunately, the story of Mr. Hampton is not the first of its kind. The FBI has infiltrated many Black organizations, including the NAACP, the Nation of Islam and has linked to the harassment, suppression and demise of Black leaders. But this history of Blacks betraying their own by providing information to Whites at the head of the table is old history.

Black Power met with White resistance

In the 1800s, the title “informant” had not yet been coined. But the role wasn’t any less familiar than it was during the Black Power movement.

“You can go way back to 1800 with Gabriel Prosser who was getting ready to lead a slave rebellion in Virginia and at the last minute, several enslaved people told their so-called masters what he was doing and he was caught and executed,” Mr. Winbush said.

In 1822, Denmark Vesey, a wealthy freed slave in South Carolina, organized a slave rebellion, he added.

“Keep in mind at that time, Black people in South Carolina in 1822 outnumbered White people. That would’ve been a successful rebellion,” Mr. Winbush noted. “Again, at the last moment, he was betrayed by several Black people who told. They rounded up Denmark, had a speedy trial for him and there were gates [around] Charleston at that time and they hung him on those gates.”

As far as the FBI goes, Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey of the 1920s was of the first known target of official federal infiltration of Black movements prior to the birth of COINTELPRO. The first Black FBI special agent, James Wormley Jones, was assigned to infiltrate Mr. Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association. The information he provided to the bureau led to Mr. Garvey’s arrest on mail fraud charges in January 1922.

“Garvey didn’t know who [Mr. Jones] was because at that time, the FBI was a new organization,” Mr. Winbush said. “Marcus Garvey was deported; he was put in an Atlanta federal prison and then he was deported back to Jamaica.”

Mr. Winbush pointed out that a photographer who followed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., worked for the FBI. Furthermore, Mr. Winbush said the man who gave Malcolm X mouth-to-mouth after he was shot in 1965 and was supposed to be his security worked for the New York Police Department. Eugene Roberts would later become a co-founder of the New York Chapter of the Black Panther Party and continue spying for the police department. He was promoted to detective and retired from the NYPD.

Another group that is familiar with the FBI is the Nation of Islam. According to NOI.org, the bureau fabricated information against the Nation of Islam’s founder, Master Fard Muhammad, trying to pin him as a criminal. A 1997 article published by The Final Call newspaper also reports that the bureau was involved in framing Malcolm X’s daughter, Qubilah Shabazz, for an alleged murder plot against the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. In this case a high school friend and Jewish White informant for the FBI, Michael Fitzpatrick, was the secret government source. Min. Farrakhan condemned the federal government, declared the FBI was no friend, rallied with supporters of Dr. Betty Shabazz to protect the family and her daughter and exposed the scheme. The powerful Black response led to the federal government essentially walking away from the case and it started a process of reconciliation between the Minister, the Nation and the widow of Malcolm X. Surveillance of the Nation of Islam has not stopped.

“All of these factors, disruption and destroying of the Black movement, to stop the growth of militant Black organizations, especially among the youth, specific tactics plus the advance to stop these groups from recruiting young people, I mean come on. This was evil. It was just evil what they did. It just kind of makes your blood boil,” Ms. Taifa said.

Government targeting, surveillance today

Atty. Taifa says it’s important to remember that these events in the past still follow us into the present.

“It’s not just history. People need to connect the dots. It’s still going on today,” she said.

The FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Analysis Unit sent out a memo in 2017, identifying some Black leaders and organizations as “Black Identity Extremists (BIE),” claiming they were “motivated [by] perceptions of police brutality against African Americans” and “spurred an increase in premeditated, retaliatory lethal violence against law enforcement.”

“It’s very unfortunate and it’s important for people to understand that no, as far as I’m concerned COINTELPRO did not end, it just shifted shape,” Ms. Taifa said. They claimed BIE had ended, but it probably just shifted into something else.”

According to an article published by the Organization of American Historians, “Agents pinpointed the ‘August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri,’ and the ‘declination to indict the police officers involved’ as politicizing BIEs. In other words, the FBI claimed that the Black Lives Matter movement—started by three Black women—was ground zero for their renewed interest in targeting and surveilling Black activists.”

In 2019, a group of Black-led organizations met with congressional members concerning BIE and continued FBI surveillance, under a campaign called #ProtectBlackDissent. The delegation led by MediaJustice, an organization fighting for racial, economic and gender justice in the media, continues to work toward FBI transparency.

Atty. Taifa believes stopping this sort of infiltration and betrayal starts with knowing the history.

“There needs to be a connection of the generations to help inform this generation that’s coming up now,” she said. “We come up with solutions for accountability, solutions for protection, solutions for defense. I don’t have the answer, but I think we need a group of people to get together and start doing some of that. And educating the community.”

“What happens is that we always recognize these traitors after the person that they have successfully betrayed is either dead or exiled or whatever. I think we better start recognizing some of these people in our midst,” Dr. Winbush said. “How do you deal with these secret betrayers? We have public betrayers … They do their stuff out in the front. Those are easy to spot, but the ones who infiltrate are the ones that really … is scary about them.”

From The Final Call Newspaper

Cicely Tyson: Tribute to a groundbreaking legend

By The Final Call
- February 9, 2021

Cicely Tyson (Photo by John Sciulli/WireImage)


by Starla Muhammad, Anisah Muhammad, Nisa Islam Muhammad and Tariqah Shakir-Muhammad

Radiant, dignified, elegant, classy, refined, draped in beautiful, bold, and breathtaking Blackness. That was stage, TV and film legend Cicely Tyson, but she was so much more. The world will have the chance to pay their final respects to the iconic Ms. Tyson during her homegoing service at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York on Feb. 15. She will lie in repose from 10 a.m.– 6 p.m. and the service will observe Covid-19 protocols.

Cicely Tyson poses with her Emmy statuettes at the annual Emmy Awards presentation in Los Angeles, Ca., May 28, 1974. Tyson won for her role in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” for actress of the year, special, and best lead actress in a television drama for a special program. (AP Photo)

The pioneering and legendary Ms. Tyson, whose career spanned seven decades was the recipient of multiple NAACP Image Awards, received an Oscar nomination for her role as the sharecropper’s wife in “Sounder,” won a Tony Award at age 88 and touched TV viewers’ hearts in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” passed away Jan. 28 at age 96.

Sentiments poured in from all over the world from those whose lives she impacted, inspired, and touched through her unapologetic portrayals of Black women. Her distinct voice, distinguishing presence and radiant smile endeared her to Black folks who yearned to see non-stereotypical portrayals of themselves on screen.

Marty Austin Lamar, coordinator for the BFA Musical Program at Howard University, was at a football game when he met Cicely Tyson for the first time.

“I went to Florida A&M University for undergrad, and this was the Florida Classic and she was one of the featured guests. And I just remember her kindness. I remember her … sense of style and her willingness to interact with the community,” he told The Final Call.

Mr. Lamar said he will always remember Ms. Tyson’s skills and her ability to transfer her skills from television to film to the stage and that it will be years from now when the world truly understands her impact.

“I think it’ll be years from now that the world really knows just how powerful her presence was and how even at the wise age of 96, that she was still blazing trails. That up until the day that she transitioned, she was basically on a media tour promoting her amazing book, ‘Just As I Am,’ ” he said. Ms. Tyson’s 400-page memoir was released Jan. 26, just two days before her passing. At Final Call presstime and according to several media reports, the book has already topped the bestsellers list and sold out on Amazon shortly after her death was announced.

Mr. Lamar described Ms. Tyson’s legacy as truth and perseverance. “Her legacy is truth through art and being true to who you are and who you say you will be on and more importantly off of the camera, off of the screen, outside of the light. She lived the life that she spoke about and the life that she portrayed, always playing strong women, always telling the truth and giving truth to the stories of women, particularly Black women in these United States,” he said. “And so her legacy will be one of, in my opinion, a gatekeeper, that she held our stories in her heart and that she was willing to ensure that they were told with grace and dignity and they were told in power.”

Cicely Tyson peers through a monocle at the Dorchester
Hotel in London, Feb. 19, 1973. Photo: AP Photo, File

He urged the world to take a moment to recognize that Cicely Tyson reached heights unheard of, past the acclaim Hollywood gave her.

“She will always be remembered not only as an artist but as an advocate for truth and a standard bearer, which is just a blessing,” he said.

A groundbreaking presence and trendsetter

A onetime model, Ms. Tyson began her screen career with small parts but gained fame in the early 1970s when Black women were finally starting to get a few starring roles. Ms. Tyson refused to take parts simply for the paycheck, remaining selective in the roles she played.

“I’m very selective as I’ve been my whole career about what I do. Unfortunately, I’m not the kind of person who works only for money. It has to have some real substance for me to do it,” she told The Associated Press in 2013.

“She took pride in knowing that whenever her face was on camera, she would be playing a character who was a human being—flawed but resilient; perfect not despite but because of their imperfections,” wrote former President Barack Obama, who awarded Ms. Tyson the Medal of Freedom in 2016.

She is widely known for “Roots,” “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” “Fried Green Tomatoes” and “Sounder.” She won three Emmys, and many awards from civil rights and women’s groups. When she was 88, she became the oldest person to win a Tony, for her 2013 Broadway role in a revival of Horton Foote’s “The Trip to Bountiful.”

Her acclaim didn’t end there, at 93, she won an honorary Oscar, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2018 and into the Television Hall of Fame in 2020. She also won a career achievement Peabody Award in 2020.

Cicely Tyson arrives at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 20, 2009, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

“More than anything, she wasn’t just a talented actress, she was a trendsetter,” film and TV producer Aaron Williams of Digital Media House told The Final Call. “She opened up a lot of doors for the African American community as far as the arts. She’s one of the few women that’s lived almost a hundred years. She’s lived through a lot of different decades of life. There’s very few Black women that were considered real celebrities or stars in the industry that have broken the ceiling like she did,” he added.

“She was one of the first, like Sidney Poitier, that opened up doors that were unseen around Hollywood at the time to showcase Blacks in a different light. She showed how women of color could be in power when that was unheard of.”

This brilliant Black woman, so confident and assured of who she was, took center stage only in parts that humanized her characters. While she was offered many roles as the stereotypical Black maid, prostitute, or drug addict, she rejected them all. She also encouraged other Black actors to do the same even if it meant going without work.

That meant White Hollywood had few roles for this Black beauty. She landed major roles in movies with the 1959 Harry Belafonte film “Odds Against Tomorrow,” followed by “The Comedians,” “The Last Angry Man,” “A Man Called Adam” and “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.”

Her early career began as a model and at her apex she was seen in Essence, Ebony, Vogue, and Harper’s Bazaar. Born of parents from the Caribbean Island of Nevis in East Harlem, Ms. Tyson studied at the Actors Studio and began to take small TV roles. Those small roles led to bigger and better roles.

Her next big break came in 1972 with “Sounder”. That movie received several Oscar nominations including one for Ms. Tyson as best actress.

Actress Cicely Tyson arrives at the unveiling of director and producer Tyler Perry’s new motion picture and television studio in Atlanta on Oct. 4, 2008. Tyson, the pioneering Black actress who gained an Oscar nomination for her role as the sharecropper’s wife in “Sounder,” a Tony Award in 2013 at age 88 and touched TV viewers’ hearts in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” has died. She was 96. Tyson’s death was announced by her family, via her manager Larry Thompson, who did not immediately provide additional details. (AP Photo/W.A.Harewood, File)

She won a supporting actress Emmy in 1994 for “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All.” She was nominated for Emmys several other times, including for “Roots,” “King,” “The Marva Collins Story” “Sweet Justice” and “A Lesson Before Dying.”

In recent years, she was part of a panel discussion for “Cherish the Day,” an eight-episode OWN anthology series created and produced by Ava DuVernay. She played the mother of Viola Davis’ character on “How to Get Away with Murder.”

Ms. Tyson’s parents moved from the island of Nevis in the Caribbean to New York, where Cicely (her name was spelled early on as Cecily and Sicely) was born in 1924, the youngest of three children. She is also a cousin of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam. She was previously married to the jazz legend Miles Davis from 1981 to 1989 and had a daughter from a previous marriage.

“Her acting abilities were superb. She was more than phenomenal. She was my phenomenal woman,” Monica R. Butler, television and film producer of the Butler Group told The Final Call. She’s worked with producer/director Tyler Perry and entertainer Je’Caryous Johnson.
“She impacted my career just by being who she was. She always set the standard, she set the bar high with class and grace in everything that she did. She was an excellent role model,” said Ms. Butler.

Ms. Tyson’s role and impact continues to be felt in the industry today when filmmakers are looking for new talent.

“She definitely opened up a lot of doors. When you look at Netflix now you look at a brand new category, strong Black female leads. Now, they want to know are there any female writers on your team, are there any female producers? The industry is actually looking for Black women in the arts,” said Mr. Williams. “She was a trendsetter in her career with her elegance and her poise. Just look at the type of roles she took. On top of that she was humble, and it went a long way to serve the Black community,” he added.

Margaret Mahdi, a playwriter, director, producer and founder of Mahdi Productions based in Chicago told The Final Call that Ms. Tyson was the epitome of grace and dignity.

“Our beloved Ms. Cicely Tyson epitomizes grace, dignity, integrity, civility, and refinement. She has set a standard of respect for not only Black women actresses but all women. Now, we can work in the industry knowing and accepting our worth and not having to settle to the world’s standard of what an actress should be,” said Ms. Mahdi. 

Cicely Tyson poses with her Emmy statuettes at the annual Emmy Awards presentation in Los Angeles, Ca., May 28, 1974. Tyson won for her role in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” for actress of the year, special, and best lead actress in a television drama for a special program. (AP Photo)

“She raised the bar and opened the doors for all to be proud and confident in the talent that God has gifted us with. She was/is a woman of great substance and this is what she portrayed in her characters on and off the world stages and screens,” she added.

“I want to be recalled as one who squared my shoulders in the service of Black women, as one who made us walk taller and envision greater for ourselves,” Ms. Tyson once shared.

An image to behold

Ms. Tyson was heavily involved in the Black is Beautiful movement, gracing the covers of Ebony, Essence and Jet magazines and encouraging Black women to embrace their own standard of beauty.

It was beholding Ms. Tyson’s strikingly image on Essence magazine that captivated Carla Morrison as a young dark-skinned Black girl. “Essence magazine came out the same year that I was born and I don’t know how many times Cicely Tyson was on the cover but I saw that woman many of times before I understood what she was for us,” said the Atlanta-based founder of Sisters of Today and Tomorrow, a mentoring organization for young, Black girls, teens and young women.

“Seeing a lady that looks just like me, not just because she was a woman of color, but she’s a dark-skinned sister and understanding how we as Africans and African Americans do each other, in terms of colorism, meant the world,” Ms. Morrison told The Final Call.

“She was playing these roles, and it was like OK! And they (roles) were so believable. And then you see her playing these roles and it may not have been the most glamorous role but she played that role, and then you got to see her on the red carpet someplace, looking just as elegant and beautiful. And the fact that this lady has been doing this work for 70-something years and she still was slaying on the red carpet at 96 is so amazing!”

When Makeen Zachery first heard about Cicely Tyson’s passing, her heart sank. “It was a day that I prayed would never come, despite of course knowing that isn’t possible. In many ways I and so many other Black folks, specifically Black women, felt an almost familial connection to her spirit, it was displayed that clearly through her roles and professional endeavors that we all trusted her to reflect us in our absolute best light. This loss hurt in a way that felt personal,” she told The Final Call via email.

Ms. Zachery, the founder and editor of www.blkgirlculture.com, said the actress had a way of modeling freedom through the way she spoke and moved.

“She did so in a way that made such freedom contagious. She validated for so many Black women, spanning nearly five generations since the beginning of her acting career, that you can find joy and success without losing control over your own image— for Black women that is the most liberating thing we can do: to choose how we are represented and how we represent ourselves in this world,” she said.

Melanie Campbell of the Black Women’s Roundtable didn’t have many one-on-one conversations with the incomparable Ms. Tyson, but she had been in the room with her on several occasions. “Cicely Tyson was one of those people that you were just blessed to be in the room, because you knew you would learn something whenever she got up to speak. You learned something from her, especially as a Black woman in this world,” she said. 

This May 1993 photo was from the second African African-American Summit in Gabon, Africa which was attended by a delegation from the Nation of Islam as well as other distinguished participants. The summit was organized by Rev. Leon Sullivan. In the front row from the left: Actress Cecily Tyson, actor Ossie Davis and his wife, actress Ruby Dee. Photo: A. Akbar Muhammad

Ms. Tyson used her platform for good and never stopped sharing, explained Ms. Campbell. She recalled learning about a school in New Jersey that was named after the actress. “You really didn’t hear a lot about that. But she actually had been really involved in supporting young people for years, that she didn’t want a school just named after her. She wanted to pour in. So, she paid it forward, backwards, everything in between, when it came to giving. So that’s what I remember about her most,” said Ms. Campbell.

When she reflects on Cicely Tyson, she sees a person who lived a purposeful life. “I think for young people it’s like, to be able to see that and say, I could be Cicely Tyson. And what’s that? That’s a person with a purpose-driven life. So it’s not to say I’m gonna be an artist or actor, but whatever you’re doing, you can give to your community,” she said.

“She was also very active in social justice and civil rights. She used that platform in the movement for rights and women’s rights, social justice. She spoke up, even during these times that we’re in,” continued Ms. Campbell.

Ms. Tyson’s life included decades of civil rights work and activism. At the height of the Civil Rights movement, Ms. Tyson became a founding board member of the Dance Theater of Harlem, reported Gothamist, a website about New York City news, arts and events. “In 1994, an East Harlem building where she lived as a child was named for her; it and three others were rehabilitated for 58 poor families. In 1995, a magnet school she supported in East Orange, N.J., was renamed the Cicely Tyson School of Performing and Fine Arts,” the Times said, reported Gothamist. She was honored by the Congress of Racial Equality, the NAACP, and the National Council of Negro Women.

“Not only was she an actress, but a leader,” said Chicago-based community activist Carolyn Ruff. “Me fighting for justice, equality for our young people, fairness for our young people—by her fighting for me, for me to go through school, for me to have hope that things are going to get better I truly believe this is our time. I’m talking about the women, this is our time,” she said.

“She really inspired me to keep fighting for what we’re fighting for, and to continue to be a strong, Black woman,” continued Ms. Ruff.

Longtime media personality Bev Smith was blessed to know Ms. Tyson personally. They first met one another in the early 1980s on the set of Ms. Smith’s groundbreaking BET show, “Our Voices.” Ms. Smith said she used to affectionately call the iconic actress, “Miss Cecily.” 

Cicely Tyson and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, who are first cousins, together at Saviours’ Day 2007 in Detroit with Chyron Muhammad. Photo: Yonasda Lonewolf

“I had seen her as most people had in television shows and followed her as the first Black woman to have a show and be a part of a national show on TV. I was so impressed with the way she carried herself. But what impressed me most about her is she did not deny who she was in the color of her skin, in the texture of her hair and in her dedication to making sure that the images of African American women were always positive,” Ms. Smith told The Final Call.

“For me when I met her all I could think of is how strong she was because we have … a lot of sisters who have opportunities and they’ve become very wealthy with those opportunities but sell out. By that I mean they do not remember who they are and it seems to me that as I get thoroughly entrenched in the Bible that I realize that I’m a living witness of God. She knew that. She knew who she was and she was strong. She did not sell out!”

Cecily Tyson was an African woman in America and she was going to represent African women in America, noted Ms. Smith.

“As a darker sister there were not that many examples so when I met her, I don’t get awestruck at a lot of people, but I was a little tongue-tied and she said, ‘Oh please, please, please don’t do that. Please just treat me like the folks that come on the show.’ That was the beginning of a relationship because she would many, many times call and leave a message at BET for ‘Our Voices’ for me,” reflected Ms. Smith.

On those messages Ms. Tyson would say, “Ms. Bev, the show was excellent,” “Ms. Bev don’t do that anymore,” shared Ms. Smith. “So, she was more than just a person on television and the movies. She was an example,” added Ms. Smith.

“Without Ms. Tyson, a legacy of conscious and deliberate representation of Black people would not exist in the way that we know it, we wouldn’t find ourselves as far along in this ongoing quest for representation that we are now,” noted Ms. Zachery. “Cicely was prophetic, she saw a future of freedom for Black people and made sure that her representations of us, whether on screens or on stages, pushed the ball further and further towards that glorious future that she and the revolutionaries before her imagined.” (Associated Press contributed to this report.)

From The Final Call Newspaper

 A Trailblazer and True Gem

By Nisa Islam Muhammad, Staff Writer
- February 2, 2021





The world is remembering a true gem and entertainment trailblazer of film, stage and television in Cicely Tyson. The iconic Ms. Tyson whose brilliant career spanned over 70 years passed away Jan. 28. She was 96.

A captivating presence in the various roles she portrayed, Ms. Tyson is widely known for “Roots,” “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” “Fried Green Tomatoes” and “Sounder.”

She won three Emmys, and many awards from civil rights and women’s groups. When she was 88, she became the oldest person to win a Tony for her 2013 Broadway role in a revival of Horton Foote’s “The Trip to Bountiful.”

She won a supporting actress Emmy in 1994 for “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All.” She was nominated for Emmys several other times, including for “Roots,” “King,” “The Marva Collins Story” “Sweet Justice” and “A Lesson Before Dying.” In recent years, she was part of a panel discussion for “Cherish the Day,” an eight-episode OWN anthology series created and produced by Ava DuVernay. She played the mother of Viola Davis’ character on “How to Get Away with Murder.”

The sorrow of Ms. Tyson’s death reverberated around social media but people she impacted also paid homage to her everlasting legacy.

“I’m devastated. My heart is just broken. I loved you so much!! You were everything to me! You made me feel loved and seen and valued in a world where there is still a cloak of invisibility for us dark chocolate girls,” actress Viola Davis posted on Instagram.

“You gave me permission to dream….because it was only in my dreams that I could see the possibilities in myself. I’m not ready for you to be my angel yet. But…I also understand that it’s only when the last person who has a memory of you dies, that you’ll truly be dead. In that case, you will be immortal,” she added.

Ms. Tyson’s godson rocker Lenny Kravitz posted, “I constantly felt her spirit over me. She always gave me unconditional support,” via social media. “She came to my shows, came over for holidays, met me for dinners, stayed with me in Paris when I first moved there, and never let me too far out of her sight. Our phone calls went on sometimes for hours.” 

William Hart of the famous singing R & B/soul group the Delfonics told The Final Call, “I would have liked for her to have used one of my songs in her movies. Many of the geniuses of the 70s, we’re slowly passing away. Her acting ability was so real. It could make you cry and when actors can make you cry like that then that’s a great actress.”

Ms. Tyson’s parents moved from the island of Nevis in the Caribbean to New York, where Cicely was born in 1924, the youngest of three children. She is also a cousin of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam. Just two days before her passing, Ms. Tyson released her memoir, “Just As I Am.” Stay tuned for a full comprehensive tribute to this legend and pioneering trailblazer in next week’s edition of The Final Call.

—Nisa Islam Muhammad, Staff Writer and Final Call staff

From The Final Call Newspaper

An ‘uncivil war,’and America’s march toward anarchy

By Anisah Muhammad, Contributing Writer
- January 26, 2021

RETRANSMISSION TO CORRECT SPELLING TO LIBERTY BOIS - Armed protesters, who identified themselves as Liberty Bois, pose for fellow demonstrators' pictures outside the Oregon State Capitol on Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021, in Salem, Ore. The group said they want reduced government and do not support President Donald Trump or President-elect Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)


Bobby Henry watched President Joe Biden’s inauguration in an outdoor, drive-in movie setting. A big screen was set up, and cars were parked with people watching from their vehicles. The entire atmosphere was filled with hope, he reflected.

But Inauguration Day occurred two weeks after supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building in an insurrection. On the day before inauguration, media headlines blared, “Trump leaves America at its most divided since the Civil War,” and “We definitely do look like we’re at war.”

“Trumpism has split America in two in a way that hasn’t been imaginable since the Civil War. The president and the Senate are likely to be in gridlock, the judicial system a partisan affair of the first order, the national security state a money-gobbling shadow empire, the citizenry armed to the teeth, racism rising, and life everywhere in an increasing state of chaos,” a writer for The Nation previously observed. “Welcome to the (Dis)United States.”

A group of protesters shield themselves from chemical irritants as they demonstrate Wednesday evening, Jan. 20, 2021, outside the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building in Portland, Ore. (Assfault Pirates via AP)

“It was only a matter of time,” said Mr. Henry, the publisher of Westside Gazette in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., referring to the Jan. 6 insurrection. “As that gentleman who just left the White House, as he continued to stoke the fire of racism, I felt that it would only be a matter of time. I’m just glad that it didn’t boil all the way over and we found ourselves in the middle of a civil war.”

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During his inauguration speech, President Biden himself referenced an “uncivil war” taking place in the country.

“We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal,” he said.

“I thought his call to end the uncivil war is necessary, because so much of the challenge in the U.S. right now is the challenge that confronts White America’s reckoning. It’s White America that’s rebelling, primarily, as a rebellion against democracy and against so many of our principles, because they don’t want to power share and they don’t want to lose White advantage and White domination,” said Barbara Arnwine, a lawyer and founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition based in Washington D.C.

The inauguration of Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris has been called a “peaceful transfer of power” by program speakers and by former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, all of whom attended the inauguration. Yet writers, scholars and activists question the term.

“It might be time to retire the phrase ‘peaceful transfer of power’ considering, well, you know, there wasn’t a peaceful transfer of power,” political analyst Jared Yates Sexton tweeted.

RETRANSMISSION TO CORRECT SPELLING TO LIBERTY BOIS – Armed protesters, who identified themselves as Liberty Bois, pose for fellow demonstrators’ pictures outside the Oregon State Capitol on Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021, in Salem, Ore. The group said they want reduced government and do not support President Donald Trump or President-elect Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Activist Bree Newsome responded to the tweet, saying, “Exactly, and the narrative that we’ve had an uninterrupted peaceful transfer of power until now is also debatable in terms of what that means. Lincoln’s election led to a civil war & then he was assassinated, for instance.”

Jelani Cobb, a writer, author and educator, tweeted, “Not at all surprising to hear two references to the Civil War — the construction of the Capitol Dome and Arlington cemetery but still a reminder of how fraught this particular moment is.”

As analysts and commentators refer back to the Civil War, those who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection compared themselves to American patriots who lived in 1776 during the American Revolutionary War. According to an NPR analysis, nearly 1 in 5 people charged for allegedly participating in the attack on the U.S. Capitol either has served or are currently serving in the U.S. military. Larry Rendall Brock Jr., an Air Force veteran involved in the insurrection, made several Facebook posts leading up to Jan. 6 and several during and afterwards, according to federal court documents.

On Dec. 31, he posted, “We are now under occupation by a hostile governing force,” and he alluded to a “Second Civil War.” On the day before the insurrection, he posted, “I truly believe that if we let them complete the steal we will never have a free election again.” On the day of, he posted, “Patriots on the Capitol,” “Patriots storming” and “Men with guns need to shoot (their) way in.” The day after, he posted, “The charade of an election is over. Our vote was stolen. Time to secede.”

Earl Lewis, manager of Black Lives Matter 757, stands in front of Capitol Square with members of the New Black Panther Party, The Fred Hampton Gun Club, and The Original Black Panthers of Virginia during Lobby Day in Richmond, Va. Monday Jan. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

Twelve National Guard members were removed from Jan. 20 inauguration duty as part of the FBI’s vetting process. Two U.S. officials told The Associated Press that all 12 were found to have ties with right-wing militia groups or posted extremist views online.

“The insurrection will continue, because the insurrection began when White people came to this continent, to this hemisphere. And after the United States was founded, was created as a country, it has been on the verge of tearing itself apart several times, and each of those times was fueled by White nationalism. And so those insurrections will continue,” said Dr. Greg Carr, a professor and chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Howard University. “The difference between now and the 1960s, between now and the 1860s, the difference between now and race insurrections like the one in Wilmington in (1898) or Tulsa in 1921, the difference between now and then is that demographically, this country is on the verge of becoming majority non-White.”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam has talked in depth about the White birth decline. In Part 39 of his 2013 lecture series “The Time and What Must Be Done,” he said birth decline is one of two factors causing White people to be more antagonistic. “2.1 live births down to 1.8 live births means that in 25 years there will be a cultural change—but will you, as a White person, be able to survive? But once your birth rate goes to ‘1.6 and under,’ it is ‘impossible to reverse,’ ” the Minister said.

A National Guard stands on patrol outside the Capitol as security is heightened ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony Monday, Jan. 18, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Last year a report by The Brookings Institution found, through analyzing census data, that between 2016 and 2019, the White population in America declined by over half a million people.

“As the United States begins to look more and more like the rest of the world, Whiteness knows that it is on its deathbed, and so it’s going to fight even harder,” Dr. Carr said.

Upon his last days in office, Mr. Trump and his administration released the “1776 Report,” which many have called a revision of history. The report, released on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, has been called a whitewashing of slavery. It was meant to be used in schools across the country, but on his first day in office, President Biden disbanded the 1776 commission and withdrew the report.

“Nobody, not even the media, has been talking about, how do you do a d*** 1776 commission on Monday when on January 6, the insurrectionists were yelling 1776? How do you do that, other than pandering to White supremacists? Normally people would say that was a patriotic move, but not in light of what had just happened, where that was used as an insurrectionist mantra,” Ms. Arnwine said.

President Biden’s inauguration speech centered around unity, but on his third day in office, #impeachbidennow trended on Twitter. Ms. Arnwine said unity requires a deep, societal commitment.

“You can’t just ‘have unity,’ ” she said. “You have to really be committed to demanding that people live up to certain ethics and the ethic of human dignity, the ethic of racial equality is one that you gotta demand.”

“When we hear him on inauguration day talking about unity and unity and unity and yes he did say White supremacy must be defeated and all these things. He said all of the right things,” Dr. Carr said.

“But then he kept talking about unity. That was the theme of his speech. Of course, many of us, myself included, just said okay, we can dismiss this. Let’s just go on in here now, because some of us may be his opponent, meaning in trying to reach out to these people who will never vote for him, is he going to sacrifice some of our interests?” he questioned.

The biggest challenge of the Biden administration will be to have the courage and the fortitude to use the momentum of the push against White supremacy and engage in systemic overhaul and structural change, said Dr. Carr.

“I can’t honestly look at today through the lens of fantasy. The reality is I look at today not just as the 20th of January 2021. I’m looking at it in the light of October 2016. The only thing that changed between the week before Donald Trump was elected and now is that the Republican Party got four years to fortify their racist agenda,” the professor said. “They lucked out. I mean Trump was elected basically as a response to Obama. In many ways, Biden was elected as a response to Trump. But Trump is a symptom of the larger White nationalist American project.

“And so what they got was four years to stack the federal courts, four years to try to put as many racist policies in place, four years to try to steal as many resources and give it to the rich as they could,” he continued. “And now, where are we now? ‘Look, it’s a new day.’ Yeah, we just went back to where we were in October 2016, except they got four years to shore up their defenses.”

Mr. Trump appointed 234 new judges during his four years in office. Dr. Carr predicted that when President Biden attempts to sign his executive orders, White nationalists will go to court.

“That’s why while he’s talking about unity, I’m looking at Mitch McConnell, that devil, and I’m saying he’s sitting back there smiling because he knows the real game he won by appointing all those judges. They’re on there for life,” the professor said.

In an article previously published in The Final Call, Minister Farrakhan talked about America’s civil unrest.

“Civil unrest in the future will not be able to be handled by the police. The police will be supported by the National Guard and the National Guard will be supported by federal troops. When this day arrives, and it will, the breakdown of law and order will be so great in America that it will be as the prophets foretold, ‘a time of trouble such as never was, since there was a nation even to that same time,’ ” he said. “Blood, as John the Revelator saw, ‘will be running in the streets even up to the horse’s bridle.’ This is a terrible prophecy, and it does not appear that it will be avoided or averted.”

From The Final Call Newspaper

Division, disorder, danger Outrage explodes inside United States loaded with arms, abundant anger

By Anisah Muhammad, Contributing Writer
- January 19, 2021

Members of the National Guard walk past the Dome of the Capitol Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)


Armed National Guard troops patrolled U.S. Capitol grounds and camped out in congressional buildings as America prepared to go to war with herself.

At least 20,000 troops were deployed for the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States but even practices for his swearing-in were postponed because of threats at one point. Troops unloaded boxes of food, gas masks and other supplies as security fencing with razor wire attached at the top was installed near the White House and in downtown Washington, D.C.

Law enforcement in nearby jurisdictions and different agencies inside the nation’s capital were on high alert as were police and other agencies across the country as domestic tension and insecurity were also on the rise.

The fear, angst and anger followed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and an attempt to nullify the 2020 presidential election. And, many acknowledged, the battle wasn’t over.

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“The fact that President Trump and his followers didn’t succeed doesn’t change the core fact: Members of Congress who wanted to set aside the Electoral College slate and agitators who stormed the Capitol were both involved in a failed coup attempt,” said ACLU executive director Anthony D. Romero.

“We shudder to think how police departments would have responded had Black and Brown individuals stormed a government building to protest police brutality. These are not protests—we know protests. These violent acts are meant to overthrow the legitimate outcome of a democratic election.”

Dr. Tyrone Powers, a former special agent with the FBI on counterterrorism and counterintelligence, said America has been fractured for a long time and White supremacy and militia groups are now taking advantage.

“I think what happened is that they’ve been emboldened to come out,” Dr. Powers said. “I don’t want to call it growth, because there’s two things you can do. You can grow, which is positive, or you can swell, which is an infection. This is infection, this swelling of people willing to take it to the next level.”

Prosecutions must be vigorous and the Capitol security breach has to be more than a superficial investigation, he added.

“In other words, we really have to have hearings after the new administration and asking the FBI how this happened, asking the ATF, asking the other federal agencies why were they not communicating?” Dr. Powers added. “After the 9/11 attack, the 9/11 Commission said the reason that that attack was successful was because of a lack of communication and a lack of imagination. So they can write the exact same thing about what happened on Jan. 6, the same kind of questions, the same kind of people brought forward. And then some prosecutions of those people who incited this, who participated in this or who had a fiduciary responsibility to stop this and didn’t do it.”

There have been reports that FBI workers captured info about the insurgent plans, shared it with higher ups and nothing happened.

In a sign of how divided the U.S. is, many saw those who raided and ransacked government buildings as fed up Americans, not terrorists.

Tension was thick in D.C. as officials also spoke of moving forward without agreement on what moving forward meant.

Some House Democrats accused members of the GOP of leading insurrectionists through the Capitol on a tour just a day before the Capitol invasion. They want an FBI investigation.

Rep. Kim Schrier, D-Wash., told one reporter that the FBI is already “looking at who inside was helping.”

On his Fox News show “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Tucker Carlson said while the acts were wrong, it was not an “insurrection.”

“It was not an act of racism. It was not an insurrection. It wasn’t an armed invasion by a brigade of White supremacists. It wasn’t. Those are lies,” he said.

He simply called it a mob whose emotions boiled over, as mobs tend to do.

On his program the day after the insurrection, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh compared the event to colonists Sam Adams, Thomas Paine and others who played roles in the American Revolution.

U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Illinois, who was in D.C. at the time of the insurrection, told The Final Call he was bewildered and angry but not surprised. President Trump has been appealing to elements in society that think like he does, said the Black congressman from Chicago.

“And that’s most unfortunate, because over the period of time from 1776, we’ve made a lot of progress in this country. But the president and his supporters, many of them have been trying to take the country backwards,” said the Chicago Democrat.

“Back to the era of Jim Crow, back to slavery, back to a period reminiscent of what was going on during, before and after slavery, until there was sort of a culmination of individuals who think that way, coming to Washington and attacking the government,” he continued. “Hard to believe, but it’s true. It’s real. It reinforces the idea and the concept that you have to fight for freedom and protect it as long as you live, because there are those who would attempt to take it away and deny it.”

The House of Representatives voted to impeach President Trump on Jan. 13, charging him with “incitement of insurrection.” This was Rep. Davis’ third time voting to impeach him. The first time was in 2017 with Rep. Al Green’s resolution, which failed. The second time was in 2019 when President Trump was impeached for the first time. Impeach simply means the House of Representatives charged the president with a crime. A trial for the alleged crime would have to take place in the Senate.

“After impeaching the president, I mean that’s just one part of it. We have to keep reinforcing the notion that freedom is not free. We have to continue the struggle for equal rights, equal opportunity, equal protection under the law, equal treatment by law enforcement,” Rep. Davis said.

Though he said it would be a political miracle for the Senate to convict President Trump, he explained the reason for a second impeachment.

“We can prevent him from being able to run for national office again. And if we can do that, then that would be a big tribute to the American people, because that would exercise the will of the people who don’t want to be saddled with Donald Trump on television every day for the next four years or listening to his rhetoric or being disturbed by his antics,” he said.

Ten House Republicans split from their party and voted to impeach President Trump.

Threats to national security

In an internal report issued a day before the insurrection, the FBI was warned that “extremists were preparing to travel to Washington to commit violence and war.” Dr. Powers said there was no way the FBI did not know what would happen. There were numerous threats made via social media and other platforms in the weeks leading up to the insurrection, he noted.

He also explained that the FBI has a legal and ethical responsibility as the lead agent on domestic terrorism.

“They have a responsibility to know about this. This was a national security threat, and the FBI, in one of their reports, they indicated that they reached out to the Capitol Police and the Capitol Police said they didn’t need any assistance,” Dr. Powers said. “But that doesn’t make any sense because the FBI would never back down or back away because the Capitol Police told them they didn’t need any assistance, especially as it was a national security threat and a national security event.”

The former head of the Capitol Police said he reached out to numerous federal sources for help in advance of the Capitol invasion and no help was given.

Dr. Powers said other agencies who were at fault were the Department of Homeland Security and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“You have people in these agencies, whether they be police officers or others, who are friendly towards the Trump administration. So when you look and see, on occasion the barriers were moved back from where they had been during the Black Lives Matter movement event. When you see that there was not the same kind of deterrence or presence with National Guard or police officers in uniform on the steps of the Capitol, when you see all of that, that’s not only incompetence. Someone made a conscious decision to stand down and to stand back and to allow that group, whoever they may be, to have that kind of access to the Capitol building,” Dr. Powers said.

“It may not have been the officers at the lowest level who were out there trying to do the best they could under the circumstances. Some of them were. Others were obviously taking selfies and all, but someone at the top of that agency should have drawn a bright yellow line. The FBI should have had a bright yellow line. The ATF, the other agencies, when people were talking about bringing weapons and arms to Washington, D.C., that’s an alcohol, tobacco and firearms issue, that’s an FBI issue, that’s a military intelligence issue. All of them should have done more,” he continued.

Homeland Security chief Chad Wolf, who resigned from his post in the days following the insurrection, said in a statement that he instructed the U.S. Secret Service to begin security planning for the Inauguration in advance, on Jan. 13 instead of Jan. 19.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, questioned the timing of Mr. Wolf’s resignation.

“For months we have known Chad Wolf has been serving illegally in his position, so the timing of his resignation from the Department today is questionable,” he said to the Associated Press. “He has chosen to resign during a time of national crisis and when domestic terrorists may be planning additional attacks on our government.”

Meanwhile major monuments in Washington, D.C., were closed and the mayor of D.C. asked people to stay home and obey an evening curfew.

Five people, including two U.S. Capitol police officers, were reported dead after the Capitol invasion. More were arrested and charged as federal law enforcement sought out the American insurgents, who were among 8,000 people who descended on the U.S. Capitol urged on by Mr. Trump and his minions. Some carried weapons and zip ties, broke into the U.S. Capitol and momentarily halted official recognition of 2020 presidential election results and Mr. Biden’s victory.

Street violence, weapons and Molotov cocktails found, battles with police, disrespect of authority and plans to capture and kill lawmakers, according to media outlets and federal officials, showed a deep and dangerous divide.

Congressional Black Caucus chair Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) condemned “the riotous breach of the Capitol incited by Donald Trump.”

The failure of Capitol Police to stop the assault and their tenderhanded treatment of the invaders who wanted to stop Congress from ratifying the results of the presidential elections drew condemnation and firings.

The mob smashed windows, scaled walls, trashed offices, shut down congressional deliberations and even walked away with mail and other souvenirs between fights with police that left one woman described as an ardent Trump supporter dead from a gunshot allegedly from a federal officer. Three others died after “medical emergencies” related to the Capitol Hill assault. One Capitol Hill officer died as a result of invasion injuries. Another committed suicide.

St. Louis NAACP Chapter President Adolphus M. Pruitt said, “The most troubling aspects of the events that occurred at our nation’s capital center is the fact that in spite of all the chatter from groups that our intelligence operations have labeled as extremist and terrorist, law enforcement handled them with kid gloves. And even more frightening, what would the response be if these so-called patriots turned their anger and violence towards the Black community? As a race of people, we need to keep our eyes and ears open.”

“We are facing a foe far bigger than this moment. This assault was not an isolated incident but rather an insurrection centuries in the making. From the forcible removal of Native Americans from their own land to the enslavement and torture of Black bodies, America has sanctioned White supremacy since its inception,” said K. Sabeel Rahman of the Demos Foundation in D.C.

Joe Biden and the first Black and woman to be elected as vice president Kamala Harris were in the wings as America and the world witnessed an open display of the country’s racial divide and toxic politics.

The FBI and other agencies added insurrectionists to no fly lists. Airbnb reviewed reservations and banned guests associated with a hate group.

Before Inauguration Day, the FBI stated that armed protests were being planned at all 50 state capitols and in Washington, D.C., from Jan. 17 to at least Jan. 20.

“The FBI received information about an identified armed group intending to travel to Washington, DC on 16 January,” the bulletin read. “They have warned that if Congress attempts to remove POTUS via the 25th Amendment, a huge uprising will occur.”

One man, Lonnie Coffman, who was arrested and indicted in federal court, allegedly had a truck full of explosives and firearms along with a note categorizing members of Congress as either “good” or bad.” Rep. André Carson, a Black man and a Muslim, was on the list.

“It is extremely disturbing to learn from press reports that I was one of several individuals identified in a list of ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ targeted for attacks,” Rep. Carson, an Indiana Democrat, said in a statement released Jan. 12. “The indicted terrorist had the means and opportunity to carry out his plans to violently attack, injure and destroy government officials and related offices in our Nation’s Capitol. These were not idle threats. These were planned and organized measures to take my life, my colleagues’ lives and try to destroy our government.”

These threats are not new. In May 2020, a Detroit man was charged for threatening to kill Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

Dr. Tyrone Powers, said during the Million Man March in 1995, led by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, snipers were on top of buildings, and the military was on high alert.

“During the Million Man March there was no threat of violence. With a group threatening violence, this was allowed to happen. Those police officers, firefighters and other people who came from around the country, they need to be severely punished because even in the midst of this event, not only should they not have been participating in charging the Capitol building, they failed their responsibility. They should have been helping to de-escalate or put down the insurrection,” he said.

“Even if they went there, they can say, to exercise their first amendment right as police officers, as firefighters, as other public officials, legislators, at that point when this thing became violent, where they were rushing the Capitol building, where they were threatening to drag out the vice president of the United States and the speaker of the House and other politicians, they should have changed roles, at that point, and being the ones by fiduciary responsibility trying to de-escalate the situation,” he explained.

(Final Call staff contributed to this report.)