From The Final Call Newspaper

The Final Call takes a look at mass incarceration in America, where the money is and goes and what the future holds for a country that leads the world in locking people up.

Phone calls, slave labor, vending and profits

How mass incarceration still feeds lucrative prison industrial complex in U.S.

A long battle has been waged by prison advocates, inmates, and their loved ones against what they contend is profiteering on the part of phone companies that contract with private prisons. In some cases, a call out of prison can cost as much as $14 per minute. Photo: Justicewire.org

LOS ANGELES— Prison abolition groups are fighting to cut the tentacles of the prison industrial complex saying that it dehumanizes and exploits inmates largely through private corporations.

Prisoner advocates say the high costs of prisons are fueled by stock trading, prison labor, prison construction, exorbitant phone call fees, and other money made on the backs of the poor.

“The fight to end mass incarceration is immense. This is a country that was founded on a lot of those principles to criminalize and exploit people of color,” said Daniel Carillo, executive director of Enlace.

The alliance of low-wage worker centers, unions, and community organizations in Mexico and in the U.S. organizes for racial and economic justice.

Its National Private Prison Divestment Campaign targets investors in the Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group, the two largest private prison companies in the United States. Their private prisons are slated for cuts with a Justice Department Aug. 18 announcement that the federal government would phase out use of private prisons.

Mr. Carillo said the Justice Department’s efforts are a step forward, but companies are scrambling to determine what their next steps are for expanding mass incarceration—and making money.

Enlace has been meeting with groups to push for the closure of immigrant detention centers, most of which privatize, he said.

Phone calls, commissary and price gouging

“Over the last couple of decades, this industry has really been created from nothing,” said Carrie Wilkinson, Prison Phone Justice Director for the Human Rights Defense Center.

In this Aug. 14, 2015 photo, Larry Stephney holds wooden products he helped make while he was an inmate at a privately run prison in Nashville, Tenn. Stephney says inmates were required to build plaques, birdhouses, dog beds and cornhole games for officials who sold the items through an online business and at a local fl ea market.Photo: AP Wide World Photos

The whole web of prison for profits grew off the prison phone industry, she said.

“Thirty years ago, prisoners picked up the phone and made a collect call to your A long battle has been waged by prison advocates, inmates, and their loved ones against what they contend is profiteering on the part of phone companies that contract with private prisons. In some cases, a call out of prison can cost as much as $14 per minute. Photo: Justicewire.org family or their loved ones for support and now there’s been an entire industry created with the business model of a company going to a correctional facility and being granted a monopoly contract in exchange for a kickback paid to the correctional facility based off of gross telephone revenues,” Ms. Wilkinson told The Final Call.

Over time, she said, the government has seen an opportunity for profits through prison phone calls. Prison phone rates have long been based on the amount of kickback, which works backwards, she said.

Instead of offering the best service for the lowest price, prison phone contracts include kickbacks of up to 93.6 percent of gross revenues going back to the institutions, she said.

For every dollar spent, almost 94 cents goes to the Arizona Department of Corrections which has a contract with Century Link, observed Ms. Wilkinson.

“The prison phone industry is a billion dollar industry. The last number I saw regarding kickbacks paid nationwide I believe was 2013 and the number was $460 million paid to correctional facilities in a year,” Ms. Wilkinson told The Final Call.

Those kickbacks were generated solely from prisoners and their families, some of the poorest people in the country, unti the Federal Communications Commission stepped in.

Through the 2011 Campaign for Prison Phone Justice, co-founded by the Human Rights Defense Center, activists won rate caps for interstate calls, effective February 2014.

Rates for collect calls were capped at 25 cents a minute and for 21 cents a minute for debate or prepaid calls, said Ms. Wilkinson. That led to a significant increase in call volume since people could afford to make calls, though the rates are still too high, she said.

She stated, “In 2010, a 15- minute call from the Washington Department of Corrections cost $18.30 as one of the highest in the country, and now that same call costs $1.65.”

Inmates from Oak Glen Fire Camp in Riverside retreat to higher ground May 14, 2014 as they work to control the fire near Oriole Court in Carlsbad. Photo: MGN Online

But companies just took the opportunity to increase in-state call rates after that, she said. And there was also an acceleration in the use of video monitor visits, instead of in-person visits, and money transfer fees to put money on prisoners’ books so they could purchase items from prison commissaries.

The latter presented a dual edged sword with families paying exorbitant fees to transfer funds and prisoners price gouged to buy what should be reasonably priced items, she explained.

With the use of monitors, loved ones must now pay fees to visit with someone who is behind bars as there is a charge to pick up a phone, talk to and see someone on-screen. “What I personally fi nd particularly egregious about the video presentations is that in a number of facilities, the facilities are eliminating in-person visitations altogether, and in some of the contracts I’ve reviewed, the kickbacks paid to the facility is based on volume,” Ms. Wilkinson said.

“I think that we’re now personally affected by mass incarceration. If we don’t have a personal family member who’s incarcerated, we have a friend who has a family member, or we know someone. It’s much more personal to us and we have an opportunity to hear about these things,” she said.

Tax breaks and prison industry

National activists are pushing Congress to eradicate the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks private prison corporations receive under the guise of real estate investments.

According to Bob Sloan, executive director of the Voters Legislative Transparency Project, the problem stems from a last minute settlement brokered in 2012 when the majority Republican Congress threatened to shut down the government over budget debates.

It included an authorization from Congress for federal prison industries to join a program that exempts certified state and local departments of corrections and other eligible entities from normal restrictions on the sale of goods made by prisoners and distributed between states. Typically prison products had to be sold to government or state agencies and sales were limited to the states in which the products were produced.

The Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program lifts some restrictions and permits certifi ed entities to sell such goods to the federal government for more than the previous $10,000 limit.

The program in part was supposed to put inmates in realistic work environments, pay local prevailing wages for similar work, and help inmates gain marketable skills to increase their rehabilitation and employment when released.

But many inmates receive nowhere near prevailing wages, activists argued.

Daniel Carillo

‘Cash cows’ milked by the system?

“It’s really a modern day slavery that causes a burden on the family from something as simple as products in outdated vending machines marked up extremely high, like the cost of an average frozen burrito which is $5-7,” said Ansar Muhammad, a Nation of Islam Western Region Prison Reform minister and co-founder of the H.E.L.P.E.R. Foundation gang intervention and prevention organization.

“Prisoners are cash cows and have been for many, many years,” he stated. He worked in the prison laundry department when locked down.

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‘The fight to end mass incarceration is immense. This is a country that was founded on a lot of those principles to criminalize and exploit people of color.’

–Daniel Carillo, Executive director of Enlace

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“I made 15 cents an hour and remember at the end of the month, I was able to get me a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream after that. That was the highlight,” Ansar Muhammad said. “Can you imagine all the inmates that don’t have any family or outside support?” They wound up with nothing.

In 1980, the American Legislative Exchange Council began driving laws benefi tting corporations and privatizing everything associated with prisons, such as inmate bank accounts run by a private bank in Florida, Mr. Sloan told The Final Call.

Every inmate is charged $4 a month, whether money fl ows through his account or not. If he accrues fees over a year and gets $100 all of a sudden, fees are paid right off the top, he explained.

“In 2013, the last count, there were 309 full-time factories operating coast to coast employing over a million inmates and most of those factories are hooked up with these different private companies,” he stated.

Those include potato cultivation, harvesting and distribution by the Idaho Department of Corrections, as well as private medical care by different health care organizations.

“Both Elijah Muhammad and Minister Farrakhan Muhammad have told the world that the Black man and woman are the chosen people of God,” said Nation of Islam Prison Reform Minister Abdullah Muhammad. “Minister Farrakhan said that this is a spiritual problem calling for a spiritual solution.”

Citing scripture, he said, it is prophesied that the people of God would be snared in holes and hid in prison houses. “They are for a prey. The snare is the crack cocaine pipeline to finance a war. The prey are the people of God entrapped and entangled in the distribution and sale of the cocaine which results in mass incarceration,” Min. Abdullah Muhammad said.

“Once snared, the lobbyists go to work on the politicians to pass laws that allow the corporations that they represent to prey on the ensnared to feed their treasuries by providing business opportunities to phone companies, clothing companies, food service, personal hygiene products and cheap labor, etc.,” he continued.

Under the National Correctional Industries Association, prisoners make almost everything from apparel, hardware, chemicals, decals and tags and license plates, eyeglasses, fabrics, furniture, lighting, electronics and entertainment, software, shoes, sewing machines and food products.

“It’s an evil wheel, and in order to stop it, really put a dent in it, we’ve got to get rid of the fodder that they’re using for labor,” Mr. Sloan said.

Reduce incarceration, reduce overcrowded prisons, and get people back on the streets, to their families, and work to not incarcerate people except when they pose serious threats to other humans, he recommended.

“That used to be what it was, a last straw, but it’s moved away from that. Now it’s mandatory minimum sentencing, prison for 10 years. They know you have a shelf life for 10 years, and they’re going to get to utilize them for 10 years,” Mr. Sloan argued.

However, those same people that worked for prisons while incarcerated making chain-link fences for 10 years are rendered unqualified once released.

In this June 15, 2010 file photo, the Idaho Correctional Center is shown south of Boise, Idaho, operated by Corrections Corporation of America. The Justice Department says it’s phasing out its relationships with private prisons after a recent audit found the private facilities have more safety and security problems than ones run by the government. Photo: AP Wide World Photos

“They will not hire them, because number one they’ve got to check the box (saying you were convicted of a crime), and number two, why should I hire you at $15 or $20 an hour when the guy that’s replacing you in that factory behind the prison fence we only have to pay him 35 cents an hour?” asked Mr. Sloan.

The big news for 2016 has been reform in the states, according to Molly Gill, director of federal legislative affairs for Families Against Mandatory Minimums.

Florida repealed a mandatory minimum 20 year sentence for aggravated assaults. In some cases, she said, people who’d fi red shots in self-defense were getting charged and sentenced 20 years even though no one was injured.

Maryland repealed all of its mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses earlier this year, and Iowa cut its mandatory minimum drug sentences in half and gave people parole eligibility halfway through their minimum term, Ms. Gill said.

“We’ve seen well over 30 states now that have reformed their mandatory sentencing laws in the last 10 years, and crime has continued to go down in these states, so sentencing reform has been a huge success at state level,” Ms. Gill said.

Part of that stems from strong bipartisan support in Congress, she said. She attributed some of the support to age rather than party lines. Some congressional members age 60-65 lean toward those laws and seem reluctant to reevaluate them, while younger ones, under 60, grew up in a very different world, she noted.

“They weren’t part of passing the mandatory minimums in the fi rst place … they’ve seen crime go down, … Also, frankly, probably a lot of them know people who have substance abuse problems and they’ve seen that these long drug sentences probably haven’t done much to stop the use of drugs,” Ms. Gill added.

Dorsey Nunn is with the All of Us or None Prison Advocacy Organization and executive director of the San Franciscobased Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. The objective of prison privatization is to make money, not to provide real security, he argued.

“When I look at private prisons, that’s one of those places where you could say clearly on the stock exchange, they’re selling and trading human bodies!… They’re trading Latinos and Black people on the Stock Exchange,” he said.

From The Final Call Newspaper

Black, blue and the U.S. racial divide

By Starla Muhammad -Managing Editor- | Last updated: Jul 19, 2016 - 12:45:21 PM

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Police killings, race hatred, protests and ever increasing tension, division are ripping the United States apart. The president and leaders want to talk but words are not enough.

A protester shouts at police officers dressed in riot gear as marchers take to the streets to protest against the recent fatal shootings of black men by police, July 8, in Phoenix. Photo: AP/Wide World photos

The opportunity for the country’s first Black president to jumpstart a substantive, no-holds barred dialogue about race,  law enforcement and police interactions with Black and Brown communities has apparently flamed out, leaving little hope for real change as the 2016 presidential election now looms on the horizon.

In the aftermath of the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La. and Philando Castile on the outskirts of St. Paul, Minn., both at the hands of police, the acquittal by a judge of a fourth police officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, the decision not to charge officers in connection with the deaths of Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson, Mo. and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, Black critics of President Barack Obama’s responses to these tragedies say he has failed to use his “bully pulpit” to adequately confront these issues.

Chicago protestors demand justice.

“Obama and his cheerleaders should take responsibility for being so reluctant to engage with these issues. It’s not a question of interest group or constituencies.

Unfortunately for so much of the Obama administration it’s been a question of ‘I’m not the president of black people, I’m the president of everyone.’ But this is a question of justice. It’s about being concerned about racism and police brutality,” wrote Dr. Cornel West, a leading Black intellectual and activist, in the UK-based Guardian newspaper.

But what if anything can or will change under Democratic President Hillary Clinton or Republican President Donald Trump?

“This November, we need change. Yet we are tied in a choice between Trump, who would be a neo-fascist catastrophe, and Clinton, a neo-liberal disaster. … I have deep empathy for brothers and sisters who are shot in the police force. I also have profound empathy for people of color who are shot by the police. I have always believed deliberate killing to be a crime against humanity,” said Dr. West, who teaches at Princeton University. Dr. West and others pointed to the fact that Mr. Obama attended the July 12 memorial services for five Dallas police officers, that officials said were slain by Micah Xavier Johnson versus the telephone calls he placed to family members of Mr. Sterling and Mr. Castile as an example of  inequity in the value and importance of Black lives.
Dr. West blasted Mr. Obama for not going to Baton Rouge or Minneapolis, opting instead to go to Dallas.

“You can’t do that. His fundamental concern was to speak to the police, that was his priority. When he references the Black Lives Matter movement, it’s to speak to the police,” said Dr. West.
 “Obama has power right now to enact the recommendations made after Ferguson. Better training, independent civilian oversight boards, body cameras. But he has not used executive orders to push any of these changes through,” he added.

Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever, author, consultant and commentator, posed a  direct question toward the president. “When are policemen going to go to jail for the murder of Black people? When is that going to become a priority because the bottom line is there is no incentive for change to happen until that starts to occur,” she said.

In what was billed as a “national conversation” on race and policing, an Obama town hall meeting was met with tepid enthusiasm and biting criticism by those who called it a farce in the waning months of his presidency.

Dr. Jones-DeWeever tuned in for the July 14 program that aired on ABC, simulcast on other networks and online and moderated by David Muir of World News Tonight and Jemele Hill of ESPN but came away “exceedingly disappointed.”

“I left that experience believing more than ever that in many respects, to many people in this country the lives of Black people don’t matter at all,” said Dr. Jones-DeWeever, calling it a one hour police public relations and propaganda campaign.

Erica Garner, eldest daughter of Eric Garner who died at the hands of police resulting from an illegal chokehold,  expressed frustration with the town hall. She accused the network of silencing her.
“I need all of you to know that this #ABC town hall that will air at 8p.m. is a sham. They shut out ALL real and hard questions,” Ms. Garner posted on Twitter.

Law enforcement, politicians and family members of those that have died in police custody and family of officers slain in the line of duty participated in the town hall. It followed the fatal shootings and the wounding of police officers in Dallas.

Critics said the continuing focus on how Black people should respond and interact with police instead of police accountability is steering possible solutions in the wrong direction.

The program completely glossed over the responsibility and accountability by police in their duties to protect and serve communities, explained Dr. Jones-DeWeever, who is also the mother of two sons, ages 20 and 13.

“Even if you look at the loss of life in the Dallas situation just generally speaking, to equate the danger that the police face as it relates to that, as well as what we know is going on in this country particularly around Black and Brown communities with the police, it’s a false equivalency,” she continued.

Even with recent police killings in Dallas and Baton Rouge, according to reports, there have been 66 law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty this year, 31 by gunfire compared to 531 people shot and killed by police, 211 of those victims being Black and Latino.

From 2009 to 2015 under President Obama’s administration there were 62 police fatalities, lower than 101 under Ronald Reagan, 90 under George H.W. Bush, 81 under Bill Clinton, and 72 under George H. Bush.

Claude “Paradise” Gray of the legendary hip hop group X-Clan said until honest conversations are had, the problem will continue. “Everyone in the media was focused on ‘stop snitching’ but yet the mother of stop snitching is the ‘blue wall of silence,’ ” he explained, referring to the hesitancy or outright failure of police officers to report one another for wrongdoing and illegal activities.

Damon Jones, New York representative of Blacks in Law Enforcement of America, said Black police organizations like the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) and National Black Police Association have roles in fighting for change on the local, state and federal levels. However Black men and women in blue can’t look at membership in these groups as just an opportunity to get promoted, he said. These groups must be used as catalysts for real change, Mr. Jones said.

Mr. Jones said his group considers itself Black law enforcement activists and includes Black law enforcement professionals like police, sheriffs, marshals, correction and probation officers and includes civilians with a national membership of around 400 people. The group is very outspoken about the role and responsibility of police, especially their functionality in Black communities. Mr. Jones has 27 years’ experience working in the Westchester County Department of Corrections in New York.

Black Lives Matter protest in San Francisco, July 9. Photo: MGN Online

In the last few months of Mr. Obama’s presidency, Mr. Jones said although he loves his “brother” he is not optimistic anything will change. The narrative must change from police brutality to police criminality, explained Mr. Jones.

“When a police officer or law enforcement officer violates their policies and procedures and violates their training, it is a crime and the president and local, state and federal elected officials have not gotten to that point where they recognize that,” he said.

A lot of what needs to change needs to be done at the local level agreed Dr. Jones-DeWeever but one of the things Mr. Obama can enact before he leaves office is an Executive Order that withholds funding if certain directives are not followed. There is nothing in the recommendations in Mr. Obama’s 21st Century Policing Task Force report that talks about police accountability, she said.
Under a Trump presidency, Dr. DeWeever predicts nothing would change and would more than likely get worse saying the Republican leader projects and encourages a culture of violence.

Under a Clinton regime she thinks the presumptive Democratic nominee “would be better” than Mr. Trump but is not sure how aggressive the former first lady would be in addressing and implementing real change—especially given her support of the infamous 1994 Crime Bill signed into law by her husband. The bill ushered in a new era of Black mass incarceration.

During her address to the NAACP National Convention in Cincinnati on July 18, Mrs. Clinton spoke on the need for police and criminal justice reform and acknowledged the fear many Blacks have of police.

“I would like to point out to the president and to everyone else, what did we do to become the bad guy? We weren’t the ones that kidnapped anybody, brought them to a foreign land, forced them to work as slaves for hundreds of years and then came up with Jim Crow and Black Codes and Slave Codes and all kinds of laws to criminalize us after slavery so that we would continue to be in the Prison Industrial Complex because of the 13th Amendment,” said Mr. Gray.

“What did we do to become this bad guy that there’s no fear that we should be shot on sight?”

For additional analysis and commentary shared by Jones Dr. Jones-DeWeever, Mr. Gray and Mr. Jones, on this issue visit simplystarla.blogspot.com.

From The Final Call Newspaper

Raw racial wounds exposed in Dallas shootings and videotaped killings

By Richard B. Muhammad and Jihad Hassan Muhammad | Last updated: Jul 12, 2016 - 11:55:25 AM

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DALLAS—The raw racial wounds that go to America’s core were exposed with the back-to-back shootings of two Black men captured on video and the killings of five police officers in what authorities called a revenge attack for the failure to stop the killings of Black people.


While the family members of alleged cop killer Micah Xavier Johnson apologized for what police officials said he did, which was allegedly kill officers from a sniper position following a Black Lives Matter march, and expressed sorrow over his death, the nation’s racial divide was more than clear.
His mother said her son was a different person, “a hermit,” after serving in the U.S. military.

“Delphine Johnson, the gunman’s mother, said she watched her son transform from a fun-loving extrovert into a ‘hermit’ after his military service, which spanned roughly six years and included a seven-month deployment to Afghanistan. While the parents couldn’t recall their son mentioning any particular incident that may have been traumatic during his time as a U.S. Army reservist, they agreed something had changed,” reported The Blaze, an online publication associated with conservative Glenn Beck.

Protesters in downtown Dallas evacuate during a sniper attack.

Police in downtown Dallas tell civilians to ‘get back’ during a sniper attack on July 7. Photos: MGN Online

Police check a car early, July 8, in Dallas. A sniper opened fire on police officers in Dallas July 7; some of the officers were killed. Photo: AP/Wide World photos

“He loved his country,” his mother said. “He wanted to protect his country.”

“The military was not what Micah thought it would be,” Ms. Johnson said during an excerpt of the interview that was available online. The full interview was scheduled to air at a later date. “He was very disappointed, very disappointed. But it may be that the ideal that he thought of our government, what he thought the military represented, it just didn’t live up to his expectations.”

Alleged Dallas Police shooting suspect, Micah Xavier Johnson

According to the former soldier’s father, his son began to study Black history and learn more about his history. “The family members said Johnson never showed any outward signs of hatred for White people or any other racial groups. Johnson’s stepmother, Donna, is White. What he did hate was ‘injustice,’ Delphine Johnson said,” according to The Blaze.


Police said the former U.S. serviceman wanted to kill White people, especially White police officers, and did. The fatal shootings followed the videotaped deaths of Alton Sterling, shot to death by an officer in Baton Rouge, La., while selling CDs and Philando Castile, shot in the chest during a traffic stop with his girlfriend Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds telling the story of what happened outside Minneapolis, Minn., over Facebook Live. As blood seeped from her boyfriend’s chest, her little girl tried to comfort the distraught mother from the backseat of the car.

It appears that Micah Xavier Johnson’s mind could no longer process the thought of more of his people dying, adding to an already long list of those who have lost their lives at the hands of police officers.

With this in mind authorities believe Micah Johnson targeted White officers from a downtown Dallas parking garage, killing five officers and injuring seven people the evening of July 7. According to the Dallas Police Department, Mr. Johnson was killed by a robot bomb as negotiations with him became unproductive.

Dallas Police Chief David Brown (L) and Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings (R).

“The suspect said he was upset about Black Lives Matter, he said he was upset about the recent police shootings, the suspect said he was upset at White people, the suspect said he wanted to kill White people, especially White officers,” Dallas Police Chief David Brown said of Micah Johnson, as he read slowly and somberly from his prepared statement to the media assembled at Dallas City Hall on the morning of July 8. Chief Brown added that Mr. Johnson said he was not affiliated with any groups and that he acted alone.


One of the persons named early on as a suspect was Niecee Cornute. She was presumed to have been the female suspect that Mayor Mike Rawlings declined to describe to media outlets. She said she was detained and questioned for close to five hours without being allowed to have outside contact. She spoke exclusively to The Final Call.                     

Moments before the gunman (L) guns down a Dallas Police Officer (R).

“I and my comrades went to rally for the brothers who had been killed by the police on Thursday, July 7.  I heard the shooting start and began to take my phone out and record it. At that time police saw me and told me put my hands up and get on the ground, saying I fit a description of a suspect who was a light-skinned Black female with camouflage pants on, and they took me down to headquarters as what they called a witness, illegally detaining me there,” said Ms. Cornute. 

As a community organizer and revolutionary Cornute said while the shootings had nothing to do with her, Black people have a right to exist. It is crazy to think people would not be angry with 260 killings of Black people by the police this year with little to no punishment or indictments, she said.

The supposed last words of Mr. Johnson caused others to try to look deeper into the mind of a man that America’s savage racism and murder of Black people seemingly affected and enraged.
The militarily-trained Johnson was a former U.S. Army reservist honorably discharged in 2015. High school classmates remembered him as a “fun-loving, goofy guy,” according to the Wall St. Journal.
A few people who knew Mr. Johnson and who shared similar views about the need for Black liberation told The Final Call, “he was a regular dude, a good dude, a real dude who would joke with you but was serious about the rise of his people.” They spoke with the newspaper on condition of anonymity. They gave interviews around the same time as public statements were made by the Johnson family.

They attended community events together, discussed the plight of Black people and were concerned about the deaths of Blacks at the hands of police officers—with virtually no one held accountable.
“I think that he believed that this was his Nat Turner moment and that he saw no other way,” concluded one of the men in the interview with The Final Call. Nat Turner was a slave who led a bloody revolt in Southampton, Va., in 1831. It struck terror in the hearts of Whites across the South and a brutal, bloody backlash against slaves.

The man said he never had any discussion with Mr. Johnson about armed struggle or racial retaliation. But the actions attributed to Mr. Johnson by the authorities led the man to believe that Mr. Johnson might have acted against police.

Though they knew nothing prior to the attacks, they were not surprised the Dallas shootings happened. With the number of Black people killed by White officers and the continued deaths of Blacks without any charges, convictions or punishment of officers, it should not be surprising that an armed response came from a Black man, they said.

While Chief Brown touted what he called policing reforms, others said Dallas still has its own problems with policing and racism. “The same city (Dallas) didn’t let Martin Luther King in in ’66; the same city that murdered Tobias Mackey and Xavier Collins in 2010 and had to pay $900,000, these are the conditions that created Micah, we cannot forget such conditions that created him,” said grassroots organizer Yafeuh Balogun of the Huey P. Newton Gun Club.

Dallas remained tense after the shootings, with a lockdown of police headquarters and President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush scheduled to speak in Texas as The Final Call went to press. The president roundly and loudly condemned the killings of the police officers. He also expressed concern about police shootings.

Across the country demonstrators took to streets after the Dallas shootings and just before it: In Minneapolis, St. Paul and Atlanta, hundreds of protesters shut down highways. In London, a large group of protesters brought the streets of the city to a standstill, forcing traffic to other routes for hours. Demonstrators gathered in Los Angeles some 2,000 strong and Chicago protestors July 11 took to downtown streets to disrupt traffic and trade. Days earlier they protested at the popular Taste of Chicago downtown tourist event.

Fruit of Islam Jaami Muhammad with rapper The Game and his call for a unity rally in front of LAPD headquarters July 8. Photo: Charlene Muhammad

In Los Angeles, rappers The Game and Snoop Dogg rallied July 8 with more than 100 men, primarily Black and Latino, including street organization members, outside LAPD headquarters, before meeting with Chief Charlie Beck. Hip hop guru Russell Simmons said in a Facebook video that he wanted to work with Snoop, The Game, Kam and the Nation of Islam to develop the 10,000 Fearless that the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan called for to end violence and make Black communities decent places to live.


The Nation of Islam and Fruit of Islam Capt. Dennis Muhammad in Columbus, Ohio and founder of The Peacekeepers can help with this effort, he said. They can help protect the community from crime and from bad cops, Mr. Simmons added July 9. Mr. Simmons also plans to speak to Black law enforcement executives in working to get police sensitized and under control.

“I think we are going to get between the guns and the gangs, and the guns between the police and the people and we are going to need strong Black men to do that,” said Mr. Simmons.

“I want to thank Minister Louis Farrakhan, for putting the spirit in me to do what I am supposed to be doing,” added Snoop Dogg.

Meanwhile in Dallas, those once called suspects have been let go but found it hard to return to a normal life. Some early media coverage blasted their names and pictures to the general public—with little explanation and no exoneration.

Ms. Cornute said despite her and others being wrongly identified, her work must continue. “I heard one of the other so-called suspects was recently ambushed by a group of White supremacists because, like me, his face has been blasted all over the internet and the media,” she said.

“It has been very reckless the way White America has handled this news story this is why I am talking to The Final Call,” said Ms. Cornute. “I will defend myself as a member of the Black Women’s Defense League.”

It may be popular to distance between activists and “revolutionary violence,” she continued. Yet everything else has been tried and “they continue to perpetrate evil and murder on our community. We will stay on the path of African liberation working against White Supremacy economically, physically, mentally, politically, and spiritually, I believe they are all imperative to gain our liberation,” said Ms. Cornute.

“Are we processing that none of the people were really engaged in an activity that even justified having a police encounter of the type that would lead to your death?” asked Dr. Ava Muhammad, an attorney and student national spokesperson for the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.

Change will come when people follow the divine guidance and instructions of Minister Farrakhan.
“The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan warned Black people during the Justice or Else! tour that we are under chastisement as a people … because as a people we have rejected God’s plan for our salvation,” she stated. That plan, according to the teachings of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad is divinely-ordered separation, in fulfillment of biblical and Quranic scripture.

“That plan is a complete separation. That plan is for us to go for self, and he did not leave us without very precise, very specific, very clear guidance as to how to execute that plan,” said Atty. Muhammad.

She recalled Min. Farrakhan’s call for 10,000 fearless Black men and women to go to work to make their neighborhoods decent, safe places to live. “That is the beginning of the separation process, of going for self. It begins with coming together in small clusters and enclaves as every other group of people on earth does in what we call neighborhoods,” Dr. Muhammad told The Final Call. Those actions naturally produce stores, schools, places of worship, businesses, she said.
(Charlene Muhammad contributed to this report.)

Nation or Plantation, the Choice is Yours

by William P. Muhammad

Accompanying the 2008 presidential elections, and the campaign which made Barack Obama the first Black President of the United States, the term ‘post-racial society’ soon became an oft repeated mantra from both the liberal left and conservative right. An idea seemingly embraced by both sides of the political aisle, think tanks, policy-makers and corporate controlled media soon declared the end of America’s race based Civil Rights Era and the beginning of a new day under the monikers ‘Hope’ and ‘Change,’ as heralded by the election of a Black man into the Whitehouse. 

Lee Atwater

John Erlichman

These, like the many other socially engineered initiatives before them, sought to graft in a top-down approach to America’s centuries long debate over what was euphemistically known as the Negro problem. Spanning many decades, indeed centuries since the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to the shores of North America, the government and society of the United States, whose laws codified white supremacy from its inception, later evolving into unspoken rules, code phrases and dog whistles, as orchestrated by the likes of the late John Erlichman, President Nixon’s former domestic policy advisor (who admitted the administration’s war on drugs was actually a war on Blacks), and the late Lee Atwater, a Republican proponent of the Southern Strategy and advisor to both Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush (who refined the practice of marginalizing the Black community as the quality of public education declined and jobs left urban communities for foreign labor markets), sought to maintain white supremacy through the guise of law and order.

Making it abundantly clear that America’s national policy intends to maintain the racial hierarchy, with whites at the top and in charge at all costs, politically speaking, Black Americans are given the choice between the lesser of two evils every four years. In a system that permits few in the Black community to advance, in order to sell the “illusion of inclusion,” substantive and collective change will come only when a critical mass begins to think outside the box of seeking legitimacy through white recognition and approval.

However, regardless of party affiliation, whether in the form of Democrat policies which led to the mass incarceration of young Black men, after President Bill Clinton signed the 1994 Crime Bill into law, or from the Republican policies of privatization and deregulation, which placed state functions into the hands of corporations that valued profit margins over people, the Black community’s state of continued dependency continues to hamper our future as a free, justified and equal community when compared to other ethnic groups and nationalities living in the United States.

Appearing no different than the fundamental differences between the early 20^th century aspirations of Booker T. Washington’s advocacy for a Black economic infrastructure, and W.E.B. DuBois’ drive for social and political inclusion, the fantasy of 21^st century post-racialism, in the waning months of the Obama administration, is essentially a repackaged form of non-economic liberalism. To borrow from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan: “they integrate the bedroom, but not the boardroom.”  Therefore, within American society, there is little Black representation wielding real influence over the nodes of power from editorial boards (that move public opinion), to the broadcast and publishing industries (that propagate ideas), to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), the disciplines that build and maintain societies, to domestic or foreign policy making (that governs free trade and wealth creation), or in the many other institutions guiding the onward march of civilization in a technological Information Age.

Control the narrative, control your destiny

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan

While it has almost become common knowledge among Black Americans that as consumers we contribute more than $1.1 trillion dollars to the global economy every year, this fact has been more than abundantly clear, well documented and well understood by merchants, economists and the financial establishment itself as they have all quietly benefited from our culture of consumption and spending. Our collective failure to compete as the producer of our own goods and services has created in its wake a mockery of our non-productivity by those profiting from our ignorance of business and enterprise. In fact, the merchant class and financial elite have understood the domestic and international implications of this reality far better than the Black community has understood it, and as such, they have done everything to control access to the golden goose that lays the golden eggs, for the sake of maintaining their power and control.

An awakened, disciplined, organized and producing Black community could, almost overnight, harness hundreds of billions of dollars for recirculation into itself, which would not only translate into a dignified community of movers and shakers, but also into a community where the substance of economic power would dictate the agendas of local and state government, subsequently changing the balance of power not only nationally, but also internationally as trade and commerce would redefine and realign global relationships.

According to the demographers, within the next 25 to 30 years, today’s elementary school student will be a man or woman of middle age, and as such, he or she will live in an America with a white minority and Black and Brown majority. In light of this fact, and to avoid the post-Apartheid model of South Africa, where an aging white minority continues to control the technology, the military and the economy of the so-called new South Africa, Black Americans must act quickly to avoid this fate and immediately decide to change a culture and tradition rooted in the legacy of slavery, fear and dependency.

www.economicblueprint.com

Our failure to overcome the many distractions, traps and pitfalls of today’s society will deprive our children of a life of security and upward mobility by adulthood. Furthermore, there should be no question that much of dysfunction we see in contemporary American culture is designed to slow or prevent the likelihood of Black and Brown people from inheriting the inevitable reins of power. Therefore, we must recognize the intentional dismantling of public education as an opportunity to design our own curriculum and to open our own schools, even if it is at home or in the basement of a mosque or a church. We must recognize inner city food deserts as opportunities to buy vacant lots and to grow our own fruits and vegetables, and we must recognize the closing of factories as opportunities to pool our resources and to open our own businesses in order to provide goods and services for ourselves, our families and our people. Although the choices are not hard to make, time will eventually force on us a critical decision. It’s either nation or plantation and the choice is yours.

On Leadership, Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction

by William P. Muhammad

williampmhmd@att.net

The article below is taken from page 103 of the book: “The Harvest is Ripe: A Guide to Study Group development," by William P. Muhammad, first published in 1999. Orders may be acquired by contacting the author via e-mail.

            The 66^th Sura of the Holy Qur’an, Al-Tahrim (The Prohibition), unfolds on two levels (in two sections), as most Islamic scholars will agree. While it initially addresses the domestic life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah (PBUH) and a temporary breech of confidence between himself and two of his wives, it also sheds light upon the definition of “duty” between leaders and followers. For example, the dynamics of a Muslim’s marriage and his married life is not unlike the dynamics between responsible leaders and followers.

            It is through the Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad that we can address the “science” of Sura 66, while at the same time observing its relevance in the world, as the Judeo-Christian West antagonizes the world of Islam from behind the façade of peace.

            In the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s book: The Fall of America, in chapter 23 titled, “The Dissatisfied,” we come face to face with ideas on leadership, satisfaction, dissatisfaction and change, and how these states-of-being lead to either positive or negative change: belief or disbelief, obedience or betrayal and virtue versus hypocrisy. For instance, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad writes:

No one is satisfied though they may be righteous. They are not satisfied because they are living among unrighteousness. So the whole entire world of the wicked and the righteous is upset due to dissatisfaction. The dissatisfied are gaining everyday more and more among the people whom they hope to bring into the same condition that they are in. And today nothing is made more clear to the chief maker of dissatisfaction, (The Fall of America, page 101).

          This means the disbelievers suffer from the presence of the righteous and the righteous suffer from the presence of the unrighteous, whether it is in our homes, our communities or on our planet in general. Through a war of attrition, the enemies of Islam (disbelievers and hypocrites) expend their energy to exploit weaknesses among the believers in order to foment division (to undermine a united front), to create negative connotations in controversy (to cloud true issues and actual facts), to promote envy and jealousy (which destroys from within) and ultimately, to kill the messengers of truth in the hour of confusion (although Allah promises us they will not be successful). Also, this is why the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said: “The devil never sleeps.

Courtesy The Final Call Newspaper

           Daily, we are bombarded with the filth of Satan’s world (scantily clad men and women parading themselves in public, drunkenness, lewd dancing, gambling, the consumption of swine flesh, filthy jokes, homosexuality, fornication and adultery – there is hardly any end to it) as we are instructed through universities, weak religious leaders and the American popular culture that to obey Allah (God) makes you less acceptable in society, but to submit to the ways of the unbelievers makes you more acceptable.

            It is through a thorough comprehension of these opposing forces that an examination of Sura 66 will make sense.

            Dissatisfaction, so teaches the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, is the agent of change – either a change for the better or a change for the worse. If you are attempting to be “right” (on the salat-ul-mustakeem) in a world that is against righteousness and the doing of righteousness (through shariat), then the full force of the enemy and his system will be brought to bear against you (which is why the servants, prophets, and messengers of Allah have been beaten, killed, slandered and imprisoned all throughout history).

            Furthermore, those who are weak in faith (in both their Iman and their Deen), those who are “faking and fronting” Islam (for ulterior motives) and those who lack knowledge (because of ignorance) will not be able to withstand the audacious, deliberate and scientific opposition that is crafted, formulated and wielded by the enemies of Allah (God). It is through this reality that “dissatisfaction” in a weak believer causes a shift toward disobedience to the Will of Allah (God) and His apostle; therefore, it allows chaos, confusion and hell into the Ummah (or Nation of Islam – which is a world-wide reality).

            Although we will not delve into the details behind the temporary separation between the Prophet (PBUH) and two of his wives, A’isha and Hafsah, the greater principle that we must examine is how the connect (bond) between leaders and followers is interrupted by their individual or collective states of satisfaction and dissatisfaction (which leads either to obedience and submission to Allah or to mischief-making and hypocrisy) and perhaps, ultimately, the possibility of estrangement from the Mercy of Allah, (see Sura 66:3-7).

            Looking at the example of dissatisfaction between the wives (followers) of Noah and Lot versus the wife (subjects) of Pharaoh and the daughter (subjects) of Amran – Mary, the mother of Jesus – we must ask ourselves:

1)      Why did Noah’s wife rebel against her husband when he was instructed by Allah to build the Ark?

2)      Why did Lot’s wife look back on Sodom and Gomorrah?

3)      Why did the wife of Pharaoh reject the ways of her husband when he saw himself as a God besides Allah?

4)      What made Mary’s womb worthy of Allah’s Blessing?

The behaviors of disbelievers and hypocrites are rooted in either their satisfaction in the temporary rewards of this life (dunya) or through the temporary rewards of turning against the truth and turning against those who reject “this world” (see James 4:4) for the promise of the “Hereafter” (here on this earth after the reign of Satan has been destroyed – see Sura 18:31).

The above statement will perplex the disbelievers and the hypocrites because their hearts have been sealed – through the seeking of rewards, validations and honors from Satan’s system (instead of seeking the path of Allah).

            According to the Christians’ Bible, Lot was warned by the angels (people of high intellect and wisdom) that Allah was displeased with the abominable behavior of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah (men going to men with lust in their hearts as they should for women) and that they were commissioned by God to destroy these cities. As the story continues, Lot flees the city with his family under the instructions “don’t look back,” and none looked back at its destruction except for Lot’s wife – and according to the Bible, she turned into a pillar of salt.

            What does this mean? The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad instructs us through the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan “not to get spooky” when we read the scriptures and worship Allah (God). Doing so only mystifies the truth, which reduces your ability to reason and it hinders your ability to understand the true nature of God, which is the true nature of yourself.

            For instance, if we examine the purpose of salt, as a preservative (there were no refrigerators 4,000 years ago), this is how “animal flesh” was kept in its desired state for eventual consumption. A pillar of salt, therefore, could signify the preserving of a hidden lifestyle or mindset (that is opposed to Allah’s Will) and as such, it allowed mischief and deviant behavior to creep into the new society built by those who rejected the ways of the Sodomites. The wife (meaning the followers) of Lot allowed dissatisfaction (with Allah’s way) to wear down, redefine and ultimately change the system of Prophet Lot (PBUH) and his people over time.

            While the Holy Qur’an’s version of Noah and his wife differs somewhat from the Biblical account, the fact remains that the people of Noah were mockers of his “God given mission” (which was ironically for their own benefit). Also, the Holy Qur’an tells us how the ark was made of only crude planks and nails, but it nevertheless saved the lives of those who saw its value and heeded Noah’s “final call.” Again, in these stories, we are looking at the relationship between satisfaction with “this world” and dissatisfaction with Allah’s promise of “the world” of the hereafter.

Now, what about satisfaction with the way of Allah (God) and His straight path?  This is where we must now examine the wife of Pharaoh and the mother of Jesus (Isa).

            Imagine being the citizen of a nation that has no equal or rival on the earth – and all must bow at its feet. Pharaoh’s wife, from her privileged position, as an Egyptian, really had no incentive for rejecting the ways of Egypt, as the privileged wife (follower/subject) of a leader who saw himself as a God beside God (think on that).  Why would she reject a life of ease and comfort? Would it be easy to agree that she was (they were) satisfied with the material wealth and riches of the most powerful nation on earth? Does inordinate materialism and relative ease not distract the people of the Western world today?

            In this case, “dissatisfaction” was positive on her part, and this led her to reject the ways of the arrogant, haughty, proud and boastful Pharaoh (who Allah drowned in the Red Sea) according to both Bible and Qur’an – as he chased down the Nation Of Israel (NOI) for the purpose of preventing it from inheriting the “Promised Land”).

            According to the Qur’an, Pharaoh became a believer as he was drowning and that was enough for Allah to spare his body (but not his life) and for it to serve as a sign and as an example for the generations, leaders and nations that would follow.

            How many civilizations, peoples and powers followed in Pharaoh’s footsteps? How many follow “the modern Pharaoh” in today’s most powerful nation? How many will fail to learn this valuable lesson and subsequently subject themselves to the hellfire of bloodshed, war, death and destruction, if not the chastisement of Allah?

            Finally, Sura 66:12 tells us how Mary guarded her chastity, which is the primary duty of a believer. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us through the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan that the female has two wombs and that the male has only one. The mind is the womb from which new possibilities come forth, and the state of a woman’s mental a spiritual womb determines the state and product of her physical womb.

            If we are quick to criticize the behavior of promiscuous women, because of the social and spiritual ramifications of fornication and adultery, then what does this say of men who offer their minds and attention to impure thoughts, ideas and activities?

            What unbalanced and confused offspring will his MIND create? When he lies down (mentally) and offers his mind to that which Allah (God) is displeased with, then what is the difference between these women and men? What type of world will such men produce? Will they establish heaven on earth (as the Khalifa) or will they establish more hell on the earth (as rebellious devils)? Will they make straight in the desert a highway for their Lord, or will they continue the crooked and serpent-like path of the mischief-makers and deceivers?

           Islam cannot progress among the believers until and unless we guard our prayers and become the quintessential example of civilized men and women: “enjoining that which is good and forbidding that which is evil.” It is only then that Allah (the Most High) will reward us with success and grant us the final victory that he promises to the faithful.

Surely We have revealed the Book to thee with truth that thou mayest judge between people by means of what Allah has taught thee. And be not one pleading the cause of the dishonest, and ask the forgiveness of Allah. Surely Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful. And contend not on behalf of those who act unfaithfully to their souls. Surely Allah loves not him who is treacherous, sinful.

They seek to hide from men and they cannot hide from Allah, and He is with them when they counsel by night on matters which please him not. And Allah ever encompasses what they do.

Behold! You are they who may contend on their behalf in this world’s life, but who will contend with Allah on their behalf on the Resurrection day, or who will have charge over their affairs? And whoever does evil or wrongs his soul, then asks forgiveness of Allah, will find Allah forgiving, Merciful. And whoever commits a sin, commits it only against himself. And Allah is ever Knowing, Wise.

And whoever commits a fault or a sin, then accuses of it one of the innocent, he indeed takes upon himself the burden of a great calumny and a manifest sin. 
Holy Qur’an 4: 105-112).

From The Final Call Newspaper

Rebuilding The 'HoodBy Richard B. Muhammad, Eric Ture Muhammad and Kenetta Muhammad -The Final Call- | Last updated: Apr 12, 2016 - 11:30:33 AM

What's your opinion on this article?

(L-R) A child wears 10,000 Fearless onesie. | Volunteer puts paint brush to work. | Photo: Rashaad Muhammad | Clearing brush and landscaping is part of beautification efforts. Photo: Erick Muhammad Abdul Sharrieff Muhammad and Rev. Timothy McDonald are making a difference in The Bluff. Photo via Facebook

ATLANTA—“God is in The Bluff,” a long ignored part of a city once called the New Mecca for Blacks, but it’s no spook or spirit, it’s live men, women and even children on a mission to resurrect this neighborhood known for drugs, violence and poverty.


The phrase was coined by Abdul Sharrieff Muhammad, head of the local Nation of Islam mosque and its Southeast Region, who works in tandem with Reverend Timothy McDonald. A fruitful Muslim-Christian relationship is making the community a decent place to live—following a directive from Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan from the movement’s headquarters in Chicago and in major addresses in Detroit and Chicago earlier this year.

Speaking at a special meeting webcast from Mosque Maryam in Chicago, Student Minister Sharrieff Muhammad passionately shared the work of the 10,000 Fearless Men & Women in his city, which is credited with bringing more change in months than in 50 years.

“The thing we have to do is obey the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan,” said the former Nation of Islam Supreme Captain pushing the rebirth of The Bluff. The Minister called for 10,000 Fearless to restore Black communities last year during and in the run-up to the successful Justice Or Else! 20th anniversary gathering of the Million Man March in Washington, D.C., last October.

Blacks are suffering regardless of their religious affiliation, observed Rev. McDonald, who spoke April 5 at the same special meeting in Chicago.

Patrol vehicles and transportation vans used by the 10,000 Fearless working to make a Black community a decent place to live. Photo via Facebook

Min. Farrakhan shared his joy at the work underway in Atlanta and called for it to spread across the country. Brother Sharrieff Muhammad was given a command and found a way to produce the desired results, said Min. Farrakhan.
                    

“I would like to see the example of Brother Sharrieff and Rev. McDonald duplicated, triplicated, quadruplicated, quintuplicated all over this nation,” said Min. Farrakhan during April 5 Mosque Maryam meeting. Photo: Haroon Rajaee

The details about the assignment were not given but the commitment to do the work was there, he continued. You are more equipped to do things than you think, the Minister told Muslim members watching via the internet. Faith is required to do great work and Jesus admonished his disciples to have greater faith, Min. Farrakhan added.


When you are doing something others will come to help—even Caucasians eager to avoid God’s chastisement will assist, but you have to do something, he said.

Don’t be afraid to stand up in my name, Min. Farrakhan continued. Brother Sharrieff Muhammad was not afraid and is having success and God did not come for us to be unsuccessful, he said.

In March over 160 volunteers from 30 organizations worked beautifying The Bluff using paint and other supplies and equipment donated by Home Depot of Southwest Atlanta. The work is based out of the 10,000 Fearless Headquarters of the South, a home purchased in The Bluff. The English Avenue Community, commonly known as “The Bluff,” has the highest crime rate in Georgia.                     

Abdul Sharrieff Muhammad, Ishmael Muhammad and Rev. Timothy McDonald at special meeting in Chicago. Photo: Rashaad Muhammad

In 2005, Student Minister Abdul Sharrieff Muhammad established People United For Change Inc., which partners with 10,000 Fearless Men & Women to bring free resources to the community at the headquarters housed at 801 Joseph E. Boone Blvd., in Atlanta.

People United For Change Inc., Home Depot, 10,000 Fearless, Muhammad Mosque No. 15, the Atlanta LOC for Justice or Else! and Sankofa United Church of Christ, under the leadership of Reverend Derrick Rice, united to create “Making Our Community a Decent Place to Live”  Day March 18 in The Bluff.

But the movement started by simply following the instructions of Minister Farrakhan: People United for Change and the 10,000 Fearless Men & Women of the South moved into the community together and started to help fix up houses. They started beautifying the neighborhood by painting houses, improving landscaping and even fixing siding on homes. Karriemah Muhammad went to hardware and paint stores asking for donations. A visit to Home Depot in Southwest Atlanta led to store manager Jeff Stallings joining the effort.

Student Minister Sharrieff shared how he told those offering to help that there would be no strings attached to any donation or assistance. They are not used to Black men standing up like men, he said.
As the environment improved, there was a decision to hide dilapidated homes behind a wall with a mural, he recalled. City officials fought the wall but eventually tore down the blighted structures. When city employees asked who gave permission for the wall and the mural, Student Minister said he responded: “God did!” Then he asked city officials: Who gave permission for neighborhood neglect to run rampant?

While providing free food and clothing, it became clear some in need or even homeless were military veterans, said Student Minister Sharrieff Muhammad. The group’s Ambassador for Veterans Affairs, Michael Duncan, did intake and discovered vets were having problems getting services, he said. Refusing to take no for an answer, or be given the runaround, led to a meeting with Veterans Administration officials and connections to ease the suffering of those who served this country, said the Nation of Islam student minister. He was joined in the meeting by Mr. Duncan.

The headquarters for the 10000 Fearless of the South and the base for revitalizing a suffering Atlanta neighborhood. Photo: Erick Muhammad

In that meeting, Min. Sharrieff Muhammad added, Veterans Administration officials were told flat out that “Farrakhan’s man in Atlanta” was who they were dealing with. It resulted in promises to streamline veterans and promises for a follow-up meeting if the sit down didn’t yield results.


“I worked in this community 32 years ago,” said Mr. Duncan. He often felt alone, opposed by housing officials and felt indirect threats from police. He is a disabled vet, but after Barry Muhammad invited him to join the 10,000 Fearless, he found allies. “Now, it feels good to be in an environment where you are not the only one trying to do the work. I know this is God’s work. I believe that when you allow your hands, your mouth and your strength to be a tool for his purpose, he will lead you, he’ll take over,” he said.                     

A youngster gets coaching as he helps out. Photo: Erick Muhammad

His evaluation of veterans logs their vital needs, branches of the service and their benefits denials. Many were in the VA database but were mistreated, ignored or turned away before Mr. Duncan started literally walking individual veterans through the bureacracy. It was traumatizing for these men and women being rejected after serving their country, he explained.

“At the time that I served it was during the U.S. invasion of Grenada. And if they were sending you there, you could not say you weren’t going. They’d put you in jail. Under their rules during a time of war, they could hang you for treason,” Mr. Duncan shared. “You have men who were subjected to that kind of treatment, who have rights who are entitled. So we are walking people back through this system and we are demanding access on their behalf to get them what they deserve.”

The Bluff restoration effort has included fixing roofs, putting up new fences, picking up trash, landscaping and creating a peace garden. Health screenings, food giveaways, conflict resolution and training to join the 10,000 Fearless are held at the 24-hour center. The headquarters also provides counseling, youth programs, culinary arts and other training. An “Occupy the Corner” initiative involving several groups trains to patrol The Bluff. The training suite is named after a longtime Nation of Islam pioneer, Minister Abdul Rahman Muhammad.

An April health fair, led by the Mosque No. 15 Ministry of Health and Human Services and Alternative Health Practitioners, was held at the 10,000 Fearless headquarters. The focus was health education and alternatives to traditional medicine. Passersby and residents waded through sidewalk tables and displays, had their blood pressure taken and were engaged in conversations about health. Louis Muhammad, Saabirah Muhammad and others are responsible for community outreach.                     

Muslim woman lends hand to inspiring effort. Photo via Facebook

Lavania Morris, 63, was born and raised in the Bluff. For 15 years, she has needed dentures. “The impact of 10,000 Fearless on me and in the community is a godsend. Let the church say amen,” she exclaimed.  “It’s a nice program they have done wonderful work and a miracle for me,” as she proudly, showed off a toothless smile. “Sometimes, I help here with the food and clothing and whatever, and it feels good to work on our community first and make it proud and beautiful. Brother Sharrieff is so loving and kind. Brother Farrakhan taught him well,” she said.

“He (Brother Sharrieff) sent a man to make a mold for my mouth and he made me teeth and they are being given to me at no cost,” she added. “The sisters, Kenetta and Alicia Muhammad, have fitted me with outfits. I have always been dreaming on showing my culture. But the impact the brothers and sisters have had on me and this neighborhood has been so loving, so strong and I thank God.”

Chicago native Haroun Shahid Wakil lives in Atlanta and works with 10,000 Fearless through The Street Groomers, a collective of former so-called gang members working on freedom for U.S. political prisoners and those forced to live in exile. Mr. Wakeel frequents The Bluff headquarters. He assists with community patrols and educates residents about political prisoners. “It’s a bunch of guys that come from the streets—the GDs, the Stones, the Vice Lords—that decided to come together over common issues. Right now we are trying to get Imam Malik and Larry Hoover out, they both are political prisoners. But the work of the 10,000 Fearless, the fixing up and cleaning up is very positive,” he said.

Gerald Rose of the Atlanta-based New Order National Human Rights Organization stopped by for an impromptu meeting with Student Minister Sharrieff Muhammad and to lend support for the rebuilding work. “This is my first time over here, but I heard of the efforts toward saving this community. So I physically wanted to come over here and thank Minister Sharrieff and offer my support. I have known him for quite a while,” he recalled. “I come to congratulate him and to meet with him over how we can continue our work together.”

Reginald Ward, a 58-year-old Bluff resident, took a break from distributing food and clothes in front of the 10,000 Fearless headquarters. He lives on the streets and sleeps in nearby woods. When it rains, he rests on the front steps of a nearby church. He sat along a sidewalk, eating a bell pepper and watching people pick through donated clothes. He had just laid out the clothes for display.

“I have stroke on the brain, an enlarged heart, and emphysema. Smoking has destroyed both of my lungs. I have an enlarged prostate and vein damage in my legs. They are in constant pain. The doctors have to perform ultrasound just to get a pulse from my feet,” he told The Final Call.

“But God is my deliverer,” he said. “This has been a destroyed community. I see them working for us and I do what I can to help. I read the Holy Qur’an and the Bible and I find them both saying the same things. Our people need each other. It’s about choice. These people have done a lot” in a few months, he said.

“They are teaching us that God is real and without him, we don’t have anything. And we haven’t had anything for a long time, until the 10,000 has come. So, I spend a lot of time on the corners where the brothers be and I tried to teach them and show them what I know and tell them to help ourselves here. I thank God. He is real,” Mr. Ward said.

Joy Muhammad, 11, is youth ambassador for the Atlanta Local Organizing Committee and goes after young people in The Bluff. “The Joshua Generation is the forefront of the Nation and we are going into the community and will hear and obey the instructions of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. The goal is to go into the community with our modest clothing, and we will talk to the young girls and do community events together,” she said.

The success in The Bluff is an example of what can happen when egos are checked at the door, said Rev. McDonald, pastor of First Iconium Baptist Church and chair of the Atlanta Local Organizing Committee of the Justice Or Else! movement. In 1995, Rev. McDonald served as Atlanta LOC head for the Million Man March.

Future plans call for technology centers and bringing in Black businesses to keep money circulating in the community, he said.

 “Islam is a religion of peace and it has been demonized by the likes of Donald Trump and others who play on the xenophobic paranoia of our White brothers and sisters,” said Rev. Anthony Motley, pastor of Lindsey Street Baptist Church for 35 years. “We welcome the Nation of Islam into the English Avenue community. The Nation of Islam has an excellent track record for taking Black males and ministering to them and giving them a sense of hope and discipline and dignity and introducing them to God through the Muslim faith, and we applaud that.”