The loss of power and direction

Hartford Web Publishing is not the author of the documents in World History Archives and does not presume to validate their accuracy or authenticity nor to release their copyright.

State of the Black/New Afrikan Nation: Why we need a Malcolm X grassroots movement
African American News Service, 22 October 1995. The social and physical health of the Afrikan descended population is not simply worse than the national average, but comparable to that of the Third World. In the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, we believe the descendants of enslaved Afrikans are a New Afrikan Nation, distinct and separate from the nation which held our ancestors in chains.
What would Dr. King say now?
Editorial, Workers World, 22 January 1998. Police continue to shoot down young African Americans on city streets; the prison population swells to 1.6 million; welfare has been replaced by workfare. But, on a postive note, the AFL-CIO had decided to organize and fight for the lowest-paid workers, those with the fewest rights and benefits, those working only part-time and those people of color or women, immigrants or gays.
New Garvey Movement Holds Fast in Support of Mumia's Hunger Strike
Pan-African News Wire, 11 March 1998. Minister Malik Shabazz, the founder of the New Marcus Garvey Movement (NMGM) in Detroit, announced a fast in support of the hunger strike by 111 death row inmates, including Mumia Abu-Jamal, at the SCI Greene Correctional Facility in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.
What happened to Black Power?
By Lee Hubbard, 23 November 1998. Traces the rise and fall of the Black Power movement. Because the focus of struggle became the color of political candidates, the movement was easily coopted and ended aiming at the election of reformist mayers regardless of their race rather than struggle against the causes of oppression. Case study of Jerry Brown in Oakland.
No Rights Whites Must Respect
By Manning Marable, 25 Feburary 2000. The Oneonta case (New York, 1992), in which the entire local Black population was held suspect because of skin color. Last year the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the racial dragnet used to identify, stop and interrogate only black men did not violate their Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure, nor their Fourteenth Amendment Rights to equal protection regardless of race.
Black Belt Justice
By Kim Diehl ColorLines Magazine, Winter 2000–2001. Where black history and immigrant labor meet in the South, Kim Diehl examines the radical work of Black Workers for Justice and the new African American/Latino Alliance.
Ronald Erwin McNair
Obituary, 23 February 2003. This document is significant in that, other than his being honored by by the National Society of Black Professional Engineers (1979), there is no hint here that McNair was in fact Black. Contrast this with the New Afrikan Nation document above.
Remembering Shirley Chisholm
By Gloria Verdieu, Workers World, 20 January 2005. In 1968 Shirley Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress. She was the only Black woman to seek a major party's presidential nomination, winning 152 delegates in 1972. She died on Jan. 1 at age 80 in Ormond Beach, Fla.
The Assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X
By Roland Sheppard, 16 January 2005. Since the assassinations, in the 1970's, the Cointelpro disruption operations of the government against the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, and radicals and socialists during that period. A second assassination of these two leaders has been the attempt to distort what they really stood for in their last years of life.
Ossie Davis: Remembering a great actor & activist
By Monica Moorehead, Workers World, 13 February 2005. Ossie Davis, who passed away on Feb. 4 at the age of 87, was one of the greatest performing artists of the 20th century. His marginalization rooted in the racism of Hollywood and the entire U.S. entertainment industry. He was an unwavering social activist. He and Ruby Dee risked losing their careers early on when they came under an anti-communist attack.
Richard Pryor, Iconoclastic Comedian, Dies at 65
By Mel Watkins, The New York Times, 11 December 2005. Richard Pryor, the iconoclastic standup comedian who transcended barriers of race and brought a biting, irreverent humor into America's living rooms, movie houses, clubs and concert halls, died Saturday. He was 65.