Transcripts For CSPAN2 Feminists In The Black Power Movement 20160305

History and conversation with us. And to kind of create a space to put that history of conversation with the president and struggles today. Tonight we are going to be talking about black power and political refreshment. It feels a timely in the moment we are in. I think most of you who have been here before also know that every two months i like to talk about rosa parks. Many of you know i am professor Jeanne Theoharis and i wrote a biography of rosa parks and this would have been her 100 third birthday. In honor of that, colleagues have built a new web site called rosaparksbiography. Org to challenge the ways in much of our public conversation today theres a kind of dangerous distinction being made between what is being treated as the good old Civil Rights Movement and the movements for Racial Justice and black lives matter today and these are dangerous distinctions and i think really looking at the history of rosa parks and particularly looking at criminaljustice. Really challenges these distinctions some commentators are making today. I think a real look at rosa parks reminds us from scottsboro to jeremiah reeves, the campaign, more justice for black women to the criminalization of organizing that we see with highlander and the montgomerie both the bus boycott to all the prisoner Defense Committees she served on from the wilmington 10 to joanne little and the Anti Police Brutality she work sitting on the tribunal after the 1967 detroit uprising and on and on. Seeing that scope gives us a much different movement to sort of draw upon today and really reveals i think and challenges the way the fable of the Civil Rights Movement comes into our present. Tonight we are very lucky to have three scholars who have flown here today to be with us. The cristie kerr we have tonight is kenneth jenken talking about his new, very important book on the wilmington 10. Kenneth jenken has come from unc chapel hill. The second speaker will be Rhonda Williams from cleveland to talk about her new incredible book kind of looking at black power across the 20th century. Erik mcduffie has come from the university of illinois in urbana champagne, he will be signing after the program tonight. His first book sojourning for freedom, he is talking tonight from his new book project in the midwest, specifically he will be talking tonight about his new work on. These little. He is fresh from all sorts of Research Across the world. We are very lucky and please join me in welcoming kenneth jenken, Rhonda Williams and erik mcduffie. [applause] good evening. I have used the Schomburg Center for all of my work at one time or another. I find myself in here and it has always been a dream of mine to come here and talk so i can cross that off my list, thank you for inviting me. I am really thrilled to be here and thanks to all of you for coming out this evening. I will talk about the wilmington 10 tonight. I have generally found the wilmington 10 is something dimly remembered, lot more remembered in my state of North Carolina, but frequently gets confused with the 1898 race riot in wilmington which was a coup against a black elected, legally black elected government in 1898. It is not well remembered but the wilmington 10 in its time and for all time was a monumental case of political repression. Very similar to other examples of the egregious injustices such as the murder of Chicago Black panther leader fred hampton by the Chicago Police with the assistance of the federal bureau of investigation, the Legal Framework of Evangeline Davis and the attica prison rebellion, with a little more thought i think i could talk to several other examples but that would take up more of my time and allowed me to get to the points i want to do. In the case of the wilmington 10, the full force of the legal system hamid nine young black men in their teens or early 20s and a white woman in her 30s for their part in protests in desegregation of Public Schools in wilmington, North Carolina. The actions of elected officials, police, prosecutorss, police, and prosecutors and judges throughout the the wilmington 10s ordeal was callous and corrupt even by todays standards of prosecutorial misconduct. Part of what i would like to do this evening is rehearse the events of the wilmington 10 and their frameup but it is also important to remember and understand that what happened in wilmington also helped to define a new phase in African American politics in which an increasingly varied movement coordinated its efforts to the leadership of a vital radical left and i will spend some time outlining that as well for you. As will become evident in a moment, the name the wilmington 10 is in many ways a misnomer. Not only did these ten persons not conspire to do anything they all said not know one another or hang out together or share common friendships or networked together. They were caught up on not repressive machinery operated by the authorities and expansive social movement, and in particular the place of one person on the sidelines. I will be talking about the wilmington 10 as a corporate entity as it were because that is how the events are remembered in history. It is important we understand they were also ten individuals and i want you to know their names. Bent davis, reginald, jerry jacobs, james mccoy, wayne more, martin patrick, and shepherd, connie kindle, willie earl marine and joy right. Ten individuals whose lives were ruined to forbid the aims of the state. The immediate event that led to the wilmington 10 with a boycott of wilmington and the segregated schools in the first week of february 1971 by black students who object to their mistreatment by school officials, by police who come on 2 campus and white adult frogs and came to the schools to harass black students. They also protested their exclusion from a variety of Extracurricular Activities such as cheating, the sports teams, student council, the Honor Society and so on. The High School Students issued a list of demands and established a boycott at Gregory Congregational Church which is affiliated with the United Church of christ. A local paramilitary White Supremacist Organization called the rights of white people, which had broken away from the klan in New Hanover County because it believed the plan was too moderate heard about the boycott and began to harass the students including driveby shootings at the church. In response students and their supporters appealed for City Protection including a curfew, but neither the mayor nor the police chief was willing to oblige. They said things arent the control in the way they were. Excuse me. When no protection was forthcoming students and their supporters defended themselves, establishing a perimeter around the church and set up an armed sentry. Response to the attack and known supporters of the boycott committed arson and other Property Damage against whiteowned, near the previously all white New Hanover High School jim. Should be noted not all the arson was in retaliation for the attack. At least one business was burnt down by its owner who tried to take advantage of the unrest to profit from his fire insurance. Another fire at a business also had suspicious origin, schwartzs furniture, and several thought it was peculiar that the store burned down and the merchandize burned down, the owner conveniently had taken all his record books home with him the night before the fire and continued to bill all the patrons, all the customers for their installment payments. Among for businesses that burned was mikes groceries, located across from that, it plays an Important Role in the events of the wilmington 10. When mikes was burning saturday night at the end of the first week, february 1971, the police shot and killed an unarmed student protest leader named steve mitchell. He had gone out when he heard the fire alarms going, he had gone out to check and see what was happening and help the fire had spread and he was going to rescue people from the adjacent buildings to move out their furniture and get out of the fire and when he poked his head out the police shot him, picked him up, put him in a police car and what should have been a 15 minute drive to the hospital took two hours and he arrived dead on arrival. The next morning a white supremacist drove through police lines, got out of his vehicle and as he prepared to shoot him at church he was shot and killed by somebody still unknown. It was with this mans death that the mayor and the police chief took action. The curfew was now established and the City Authority at surging, the governor called in the national guard, the state highway patrol, the guard rated the boycott headquarters and with its superior firepower it was imposed on the city. The boycott was suppressed but student demands were not met. One year later, in march of 1972, state and local officials still smarting from the rebellion, determined to make someone pay for it, arrested 17 persons on charges related to the burning of mikes. Ten of the more put on trial in september of 1972 for conspiracy, arson, and shooting at the police who responded to the fire alarm. The prosecutor based his case on further testimony that he himself solicited the ilLegal Process of jury selection in which he excluded practically all blacks in the jury pool based on their race and successfully strived to attack the jury with whites to express racist views or plated they made up their minds and some were guilty. Aarhus said in order to find them not guilty, they would need to hear the testimony of those people rather than assuming they were not guilty, they would assume they were guilty until proven otherwise. In this ilLegal Process the prosecution was ably assisted by at trial judge, robert mark cohen, hamstrung the attorneys, after a week of testimony the jury took only hours to convict and a judge sentenced the wilmington 10 to total of 282 years in prison and i can talk more about this process in the question and answer, i can talk about this bill Legal Process that the prosecutor used. In october of 1970 to the wilmington ten were sent off to prison to serve out terms of 34 years, but 282 years in total and that made have been an end of the story. Throughout the 60s and 70s there were people who were arrested, framed, convicted, and sent to jail and nobody ever hears from them again. This was true for a group of High School Students in aden, n. C. Aid and was near greenville, and there was also a struggle over School Desegregation and also students who pushed and shoved in the hallways and at one point in time there was a fire set in the boys laboratory in the trash can. Been did a minimal amount of damage, a little smoke, a little fire, it this morphed into a firebomb in a press and in the courts, the authorities arrested the lesson of High School Students and put them on trial, but told them that if they fled guilty, and for rent any appeal and serve their time that they would get sentences of 11 years and not being able to afford attorneys and being young and scared they capitulated, they gave in and did their time. I only found out about them, high only found out about them going through the archives of the shopping center. This might have been the end of the story of the wilmington 10 but immediately upon their conviction, they are still on trial, what occurred was a vigorous multilevel and multi dimensional movement to freedom. It was built statewide, at first principally through a network of the United Church of christ congregations that denominations commission for Racial Justice. Gained strength through the efforts of a huge organization for black unity, a radical black nationalist organization and its newspaper the African World which had a national circulation, a circulation of more than 10,000. Many members of this organization were headed in the direction of marxism and a good part of the leadership of the Youth Organization for black unity would end up in the communist Workers Party five of whose members were murdered in greensboro in november of 1979. Came to National Attention, gained National Attention through the efforts of a National Alliance against racist and political oppression which was aligned with the communist party and had ties with labor unions and forwardlooking Public Officials across the United States. There was the National Wilmington 10 Defense Committee in washington d. C. That was able to draw in a variety of congressional staffers and interested Amnesty International and labeled the wilmington ten prisoners of conscience. What i want to emphasize here, there was a Massive Movement to international in scope. The Youth Organization for black unity the commission for Racial Justice, National Alliance against racist and political oppression, all at welldeveloped critiques and capitalist society and the damage they did to africanamericans, and rick national minorities. They looked at the case of the wilmington ten not as a miscarriage of justice but as a typical, though perhaps extreme way the system worked and was designed to work. They worked hard to link the issue of the wilmington ten with all manner of local issues facing communities in North Carolina and around the nation. Showing the connection between this particular instance of injustice and an educational system that failed africanamericans, Police Forces that regularly traded in brutality, criminaljustice system and on mass incarceration, employer class bent on exploiting workers by denying them protection of labor union, and u. S. Foreign policy that supported apartheid and colonialism in southern africa. And they were effect of drawing in thousands of people to demonstrations, engaging in political education, what used to the conscience of reason. And community centers, work places and houses of worship around the country and bringing into the fold all manner of people including politicians and aspiring politicians and prominent public opinionmakers. They compel the president to become involved and theres pressure eventually forced the Fourth Circuit of the u. S. Court of appeals to overturn their convictions. Not on technicalities as many people claim that the time and continue to claim today but because of substantial prosecutorial and judicial misconduct that resulted in a frame up. This was a moment in history when the left in africanamerican politics was Strong Enough to lead a united front. Insider politicians like joel johnson, state representatives in North Carolina, made lots of movement because they recognized the power and might have been swept aside had a not. This new type of politics was descendant until the year 1980s went for a variety of reasons it would suppress to be replaced by Political Class more in tune with rules and regulations of two party systems, so thank you. [applause] how is everybody . And comfortable up here. Wrong way. I want to talk about black power and expression. In 1969 during a speech in west london, author and novelist James Baldwin talked about freedom. And allegedly waging war in the name of freedom. He says in a slow delivery clip for sure, a war is being waged, but he said no matter what the profession in my part of the country may be, we are not bombing people out of existence in the name of freedom. If it were freedom we were concerned about them long ago we would have done something about johannesburg, south africa. If we were concerned with freedom, as i stand here, would not be perishing in the streets of harlem. We are concerned with power. Nothing more than that. Most unlikely for the western world, it has consolidated power on the backs of people who are now willing to die rather than be used any longer. Fin in the question and answer portion, a question about integration and black power. I will play you a clip. The clip and this because the lady in the audience just said do you drink water after someone named dick, but anyway, you know what is going on. Okay. Something to say. [inaudible conversations] integration or black power. Just explain. I dont see there is necessarily a division between them. Let me take black power first. Black power, i dont know why we would get upset about black power. White power all over the worlds. No one even questions the white power, many women and children, that power is sacred. No one, no one questions it. The term black power strikes terror in many peoples mind because it implies precisely the overflow of the holy ghost, at least they think so it does actually mean that. What it means is black people, this is all it means, black people have in their own time, control of their own destiny. That is all it means. Is selfdetermination of people. That is all it means. As for integration, that is not our goal. Not at all. That is precisely our problem. In 1968 just a year before the problem, baldwin had written i have never known a negro in all my life who was not obsessed with black power. In 1968, the second wife of Marcus Garvey and who was deported from the United States in 1927 published black power in america, united printers ltd. Located on Marcus Garvey drive in jamaica. Marcus garvey, here is an interlude, interlude and expression. Marcus garvey, the cofounder of universal negro association, a black national to believe in race, pride and selfdetermination. The Largest Organization had global reach as far away as australia. Africa for africans, influenced the queen mother and Hubert Harrison who parted ways with Marcus Garvey who believe in black capitalism. And black socialism. The queen mother for shorttime work for the communist party in harlem and Marcus Garvey influenced malcolm little who became malcolm x who would be influenced by mothers in Elijah Muhammed unfounded the nation of islam who was influenced by garvey and black nationalism and malcolm x was influenced by queen mother more to after world war ii, at stanford, which john freeman in cleveland founded the revolutionary Action Movement in the early 1960s, interlude introduced into. They both were influenced by richard whites the colored curtain in the concept of the 1950s by Gloria Richardson of the Cambridge Movement and malcolm x the wilmington 10 63 conference in detroit where malcolm delivered the same message to the grass roots. Mohamad and don had 2014 cofounded the committee for social justice with Norma Freeman to protest the cleveland of atrocity. Two people in a hail of 137 bullets in 2012, max influenced by Robert Williams leader of the naacp in North Carolina, interludes interludes, roots and expressions, this was meant as a leader go belief by the time of the detroit conference in 1963 was an exile, in max stanford. And wanted to meet with activists and test their ideas about a black revolutionary and malcolm x, helping people to organizers in the alleged durrell party. And and and a number of twists. And routes and proliferation of organizations. With carmichael has its share, Smith Robinson as executive director, the executive director, leading average around black liberation, and many other organizations had turned to or from black power. That is one way, one way to connect that. Now the interlude for Marcus Garvey all the way down and connecting the dots, we arrived back in 1968. Sparked this interlude tracing the routes and expressions to hear about her pamphlet published in 1968. The pamphlet featured an essay titled the source of black power in america. What depth of emotion or small word, depths of the motion a small word can invoke. Small word can invoke. Hate and love, the highest rating of all wild birds by themselves are harmless, combined with another, they have explosive the use of the word 4 in african for africans have profound implications, challenged european imperialism, the whole thing to africas sons and daughters all over the world. Similarly black power confronts the United States. 35 years later, ruminating on his own role in raising consciousness about black power, the call the moment when he uttered just two ordinary words, black and power. In june of 1966 in mississippi, who could have done that. And commonly used english words, one an adjective, the other a known. The least obscure or academically pretentious about them. And slightly ambiguous. One of the terms, black power, rooted in the broad surge for black people, and arguably black power represents a historically contextualized set of opposition ideologies by rate consciousness, selfdetermination and sovereignty, black power is politics in which black people pay more attention to the structures of power. And the authority to control decisions as well as resources. Impacting black peoples lives and circumstances. This often meant challenging regimes of oppression, it has not always done that or even for some necessitated transforming oppressive regimes. For generations there have always been black people with hope for liberty and struggle for rights and inclusion in a country but the daily battles intrinsic to living in a white controlled nation fertilized by notions of black inferiority and patriarchy and economic inequality often serve as reminders of a different reality. An era right with nationbuilding, wars and deliberations struggles, this murkier reality produced caution and discuss, the desire, all of which gave rise to concrete demands and in pageant liberation struggles. Nationalist struggles during the first half of the 20th century as well as explicit articulations of negro and black power between world war ii in 1966 and this signals both the emergence and suppression of a robust unapologetic black politics that took center stage and the 1960s and 1970s, or what i call the era of expensive black power politics. During the era of expensive black power politics, iconic and fill your narrative. When stoically carmichael went on stage in front of the crowd in mississippi and after some signing calls black power. As far as mainstream, this thing called black power, the gradual attempt at transforming, what they did know or where ignorant of or simply ignored were previous signs of concern, some of the calls for racial opportunity and black empowerment and black power. However, technology the previous science and previous concerns, still dont capture or convey fully the most faceted story, particularly women beyond what has become too often a mid 1950s malate received mail driven paradigm. So therefore, the need for a framing that recognizes and repositions this 1966 moment is a critical turning point for sure, an expression of the rise of the expansive era of black power politics and a framing that would situate this moment with a more robust and panoramic chronological genealogical and geopolitical framework. Robust panoramic chronological genealogical and geopolitical framework that exposes the roots, and expression of black power. And the expansive era of black power politics. All the way up to carmichael and black power. Usually i close out this example, usually three. I dont have time for three. I have three minutes. Usually in 1917 the unfamiliar, i talk about st. Louis legacy, get to that into question and answer. Or i might do the not as familiar, 1955 black power, and negro power, talking about the legacy of richard wright, orion might do 1963, a parallel frame probably my last point in five minutes. Familiar narrative we know. Starts with the march on washington 1963, Martin Luther king, i have a dream. The interlude, here is one parallel framing that helps understand the expressions of black power alongside the organizations and before the iconic moment of the black power cry in 1966, in anticipation of the centennial of the emancipation proclamation, a former member who cofounded the Reparation Committee based in los angeles, a claim with the United States government for reparation and december 20th, 1962. Gathered 1 million signatures on a petition, from gas station to gas station and farm to farm, was shot at by the klan, three shots, thinking they would kill me after going into the ditch, you need assistance going to work, work for the black people, and a petition to president john f. Kennedy, and did not respond. In 1953, published a pamphlet while reparations, money for negros, the opening paragraph read, quote, after 244 years of free slave labor, the most inhumane, sinister and barbaric atrocities which surpassed in magnitude any severed tree portrayed against human beings in the history of the planet earth and an additional 100 years of freedom accompanied by terror, a committee seeking reparations for the defense of american slaves include payment of reparations is an absolute necessity to the government of the United States, ought to wipe the slate clean. Redeemed herself and pay for the damages she has inflicted upon more than 25 million amc my pleasure to be here, and two fantastic talks, my my my. Tried to incorporate some of the ideas and comments raised a previous presentation, and i have to think on my feet. This was drawn from a new book project in the midwest, and i will be speaking this evening about louise little. Of brilliant grassroots organizer and was so often best known as the mother of malcolm x, understand brilliance in her own life. And a photo of louise little and earl little, two photos that have been combined. The photo was not taken of them together. On july 3rd, 1926, the negro role, the official newspaper of the jamaican nationalist, universal negro improvement association, published 65 word report for the wes little about the groups recent activities in omaha, nebraska. And the officials newspaper features about the movement of black people globally. They claim 6 million members, the u. S. Canada, the caribbean, the group understood it self as a provisional government, committed to building Self Reliance and independent africa and global black empire, protecting rights and dignity of african descended people. And black selfdetermination, last but not least, moodys little, she was born on the caribbean island of grenada, the homeland in 1917, made the way to omaha, a brilliant and resourceful activists intellectual, louise little is best known today as a mother of a preeminent black nationalist, malcolm x. Little noted it is local in omaha. And 25 or 78, and the omaha division, the singing from icy mountains. Or a song that i was saying at the start of this. Louise little closed the report noting that the omaha had launched membership drive, the report neither contained biographical information about little and her husband nor details about the size of local membership. The report stands as the only known document in the Historical Archive of the Garvey Movement written by louise little. Although she disappeared from the official record of the you and i a, little remained involved in the Transnational Organization at the Grassroots Level end White Supremacy for years to come. In 1926 middle with her husband moved from omaha and eventually settled outside lansing, mich. By 1929. She raised and in stilt the principles of garveys is some in her tweet children in oral and midwest. The 1930s marked a challenging time for the weasel, the murder of her husband in 1931 under suspicious circumstances, the burden of raising a large family on her own and her struggle against white state officials, placing her children in front of her kids. Initiated a mental breakdown which eventually resulted in her commitment in 1979 to kalamazoo state hospital, a psychiatric institution. She remained there until 1963. Due to the efforts of her children, she was released for 30 more years, resided with family, live for 30 more years after she was released. She resided with family in michigan. Although she never returned to grenada, intellect remains strong until the age of 97 in 1991. Despite her achievements and long life, can africanism, overlooked and activist intellectual and her importance in nurturing the black radical sensibilities of martin x. Malcolm x. Here are the books that overlook and in some cases actually discuss her important life. Emphasizing the book bottom left, and i quote, the never portrayed his canadian mother as the remarkable woman that she was. Invariably depicted as a distraught tragic figure who after her husbands murder succumbed to madness and was committed to a mental hospital. From then on words, she disappears from the pages of history. Following the autobiography of malcolm x, written by a black journalist most scholars have unfortunately portrayed louise little one dimensionally. The autobiography frames louise little as political figure who focused exclusively on her alleged physical abuse, abusive marriage and struggles with Mental Illness triggered by the gruesome murder of earl little at the hands of aid whinge mob and the hardships of a widowed mother which resulted again in her institutional is asian, minimizes louise littles role in cultivating malcolm xs political punches. Similarly, many black people a round the world were made aware of littles extraordinary life, the she was mother of internationally renowned time is of the essence, a few key points i want to emphasize. In the short time i have i want to emphasize the importance of the extraordinary life of luis little. How her life, the concrete demands of black people demanding urgent needs, demand for selfdetermination and highlights the study of the African National by calling the attention to the importance of the u. S. Midwest and vicki site of the black transnational movement. The weasel provides insight into the key role but ross advancing what was called grassroots garveyism, at the local level to achieve global black freedom. Setting the week laps like providing insights into rethinking the narrative of the black Freedom Movement and in merchant field of malcolm x which continued to shroud the significance of black women especially poor and workingclass women to the building leading and sustaining opposition movements across the African World. Finally, indeed littles life brought inside to appreciating the concourse of contemporary black freedom name leave some movement that rallied around black lives matter. Like so many black activists hypervigilant hypersinvisible in this moment, same thing we can see with lilies little, central to the making of malcolm x but at the same time remained invisible so that said, time is of the essence. In terms of talking about lis little everything starts with her in grenada. She was an organic intellectual drawn from the concept. In grenada she grew up in a small village and it was here that she was raised in a family committed to education, black pride, which you should know as well. The certificate claims she was born in 1894. Oftentimes her birth date is listed as 1897. A bit unclear but her certificate suggests she was born in 1894. What is important to keep in mind is louise little was born in a society deeply entrenched in racism and White Supremacy. Her mother edith was raised at the age of 11 by elderly white man. Yes. Yes. You folks may know the week little was very fair. She always identified as a person of african descent. In no small part due to her family. Jupiter langton was born in nigeria. They liberated african who made his way to grenada. That is his burial site. As we will discuss, from malcolm x, the littles owned their own land. The idea of selfdetermination, selfreliance, all those skills. And how to sew, she spoke french, she spoke english, and creole. And on the eastern side of grenada, african sensibility, this is the church in wishy were shipped. And that is the Church Membership to. And by so many young people, especially women was educated, she had no real opportunity on the island, she went to canada, and for her uncle, and langston, who heard garvey speak, and in this correspondence, she left the island in 1917, and in the correspondence of her uncle back home, where is it . Louise sends her regards to you, to say she is well. Thousands of miles, who she was and where she came. And a little in montreal. And they were assigned in 1925 to go to omaha to build their. And black folks fought back, the littles were intrigued to, to the midwest. Heres the marker. Here is what i want to emphasize, the grassroots garveyism and community feminism, a term coined by the historian who describes the way in which the melding of black nationalism or black feminism, and leaders of the race, this passage, the opening passage and what is particular, the story is told, mediated through the words of alex haleys through malcolm, provides an important insight into louise little, where she was confronted by klan members searching for earl little. Was pregnant. She could have decided to hide but what did she did . She intentionally exposed her body to for pregnant body, to folks to see she was expecting in order to do two things, one, to on one level sure that she was the defense but importantly was trying to claim the need for the defense and protection of black women, the need and protection of the next generation of black people. She stood her ground. Again, what is important, doesnt talk about how we little she was the secretary of the omaha, yes, yes. Keep going. Her children, grandchildren emphasize the importance of how chic in stilt ideas of selfdetermination, independence within them, she recited french to them, had children read, the public, colonial activist from grenada. In any kind taking and. And came from deep within the family. Time is of the essence and i will start to wrap up here. Because of her selfreliance, because of her refusal to step down, her husband would die under mysterious circumstances in 1931, she held it down for seven more years, took care of eight children but eventually the state against state violence targeted we is little because of her independence. This is a probate 50 from the probate office, the county in which lansing is located, and it says it is very painful here, she was insane, but if you look downward its since she claims she is of will blood. As well as top left corner, louise littles youngest daughter second daughter, rather, yvonne jones, purchased land in the Central Michigan black resort town of Woodland Park where she built homes, she opened a grocery store. Again, selfdetermination, entrepreneurialism, selfhelp. And, again, built an they tried to build a strong but independent black community. Bottom here, local family, grandchild who have continued grandchildren who have continued to share the story of importance who, as they call brand ma, many nurturing the black radical politics of malcolm x. Not just of malcolm x, but of her entire family. So to conclude, rather, tracing louise littles story extends the study of the black world by uncovering the history of a transnational midwest as a distinct and important set of black protests. It illustrates the significance of women in advancing panafricanism. For scholars of americans, littles life [inaudible] who left few, if any, written records and whose legacies scholars have largely overlooked and denigrated still. There are many questions that remain unanswered about her life. Finally, littles life serves as a powerful model for those of us today committed to creating a more just and democratic world. She understood the importance of grassroots organizing for black liberation as well as the need to cultivate the next generation, cultivating the next generation of black Freedom Fighters. She also believes in the dignity of black womanhood. Given that african devenn p cant people remain second class citizens globally and that the lives of black people seemingly dont matter in the eyes of the state and everyday white people, louise little offers a model for championing black liberation for us all. Thank you. [applause] were going to start the question and answer portion of our thing. Now, do each of you need maybe two or three minutes to raise a point that you didnt get to . [inaudible conversations] you had mentioned i, can i have a moment . [laughter] i want to show that last slide real quick. [laughter] you know that slide i left it up there for you all to thats the wrong way. Go backwards. So i ended right before i was going to close, because i knew we had to share the stage, right . The Unfinished Business which i think really ties nicely to where eric left us and where kenneth actually left us too. And that is, you know, this picture is 137. This is tamir rice, right . And one of the things that i wanted to close by saying is actually quoting someone that people probably wouldnt even think kind of connected to black power, right . I mean, and thats all the things that im talking about are both the familiar or the not familiar, right . And the ways in which if we insert people not just insert them to include them, but insert them, they really transform the narrative. Shirley chism also said people are going to have to get used to black and power coming together. But shirley chism, one of her campaign persons was octavia butler, Science Fiction writer, and she campaigned for chism in 1972. And in the 2004 documentary chism 72, unbought and unbossed. Octavia butler says power really is just a tool, and its what you do with it that matters. And then, you know, where i wanted to end was, end end is that it seems then that the need for struggle toss achieve struggles to achieve black empowerment for people is beyond the worthy black middle class that sometimes we get caught on in terms of the individuals and me and also, like, what it means to, you know, succeed in a kind of respectable mode, right in and that we have to move beyond kind of what i imagine and fear, the recuperated dependency on real and famed white goodwill. Right . And these struggles remain ever necessary and that it requires discussions of class and gender, politics. It requires discussions of state violence and Police Brutality. And it requires discussions of not just individual interpersonal inequality, but systemic and structural inequality in the social justice framework, and we must talk about the liberation of poor people. And so for me, this slide is emblematic, symptomatic, telling us and giving us marching orders of the ways in which we need to struggle and the ways in which this movement each didnt come out of nowhere even didnt come out of nowhere, right but it also repositions the kind of gender and sexuality politics that often got hidden and often resulted in domestic and incident and state violence against black women. Yes. All right. [applause] thank you. Another minute . No, im good. Although just briefly im just thinking in terms of the crowd and given that we have cleveland connection, right . Im not sure if necessarily everyone and i could be wrong, i dont want to assume anything if everyone is completely familiar with the cleveland atrocity, you know what im saying . In terms of the yes. The absolutely, again, atrocity is an understatement in terms of what happened. So maybe if you want to share that. Right, right. Well, the reason i lift up the word or the phrase cleveland atrocity, you all remember me mentioning 2014, don freeman and his soul mate norma formed the committee for social justice. Don freeman is the one who copied the term cleveland atrocity. What people were calling it was a police chase that ended in the death of two people. By saying it was an atrocity, you know, he lifted up the idea, he and many other grassroots people on the ground in cleveland, many hues talking about the 137. 137 shots of two unarmed people by 13 Police Officers that ended after a police chase in a middle School Parking lot. And no convictions. None. Its done right now. Right now at least, i mean, theres some misdemeanor charges, but there have been no convictions. We just had word that there was administrative measures that were taken, it was an add manufacturive review. Six of the thirteen officers were fired, six of them received some disciplinary action. One of them retired before he, they made the decision and was fired. And the union is fighting all of it. Yep. The police union is fighting all of it. And so, yeah, atrocity might be even in that case a poor word of the spire dynamic the entire dynamic, but it definitely lifts it up from where it used to be. And again, that link between police violence, state violence, racism, economic, one of the things that the union head said was, you know, if they hadnt been high on cocaine and marijuana, i mean thats what they said. Maybe, you know, they wouldnt be dead. I mean, you know, these are the kind of, some of the bombastic kind of statements that dont even give us the kind of full contextual picture of these two people, and the demonization of them for their own death and victimhood whether they were high or not, and the question is were they high or not anyway, you know, is extremely problematic. But it ties all of this together. [inaudible] hmm . Theyre executing people for being high. All them campuses better watch out for that. [laughter] you know, whats that mean . Its a discourse, a discourse the discourse around black lives yep. Right . And the ways in which that narrative can perpetuate a state violence and Police Brutality and repression and how thats tied to prison industrial complex, mass incarceration, who gets incars rated in 282 incarcerated in 282 years for sentences. Actually, stop me, okay . One of the things i was listening to when ken was take talking, and was talking, i made a note, stealing groceries, killing students, mitchell, 15 minute ride to the hospital that took two with hours, and i just went way home to baltimore. And to freddie gray. Yep, yep. I mean, so yep. Well, following the method that malcolm x talk about, here we brought you three doctors to diagnose the history of these ills you were suffering here, right . And hopefully, you can help us work on a prescription to soft these problems. Solve these problems. Do we have any questions or comments from the audience . I hope you can understand what im saying. But [inaudible] mississippi is no longer mississippi, but now its just [inaudible] he talks about a [inaudible] that says and everybody say its black power. But bishop says in order to have black power, you need black powder. My question to the panel is how is black power to be attained . Yeah, its a great question. Thats the question. You want to start . Thats a good question. Were all just kind of saying, thats a good question. [laughter] and i can speak from, you know, from, you know, from the perspective of building that movement in the 970s 1970s, in the 1960s and 1970s. I thought what was remarkable was the ability of a left to simultaneously offer a, you know, the thoroughgoing critique of american society, american capitalism and americas role in World Affairs and be, you know, and offer that critique in a way that was to my mind at any rate was nondogmatic, was posed in such a way that you didnt have to agree with the underlying principles before you could answer what they were saying. And combine that with a remarkable ability to listen to people and figure out what their demands were, what their yeah, what their demands were and join those two. That was remarkable to me. And doing it in such a way, doing it in such a way that the people who were there well, so, for example, theres this commission for Racial Justice, theres justice, theres Youth Organization for black unity, and these are people who, you know, theyre the first in their families to go to college, they are, they certainly are upwardly mobile, but they have no desire at this point to become incorporated into the system. They critique the system. And there are people who are very similar to them, are similar backgrounds very similar backgrounds but who have a much different trajectory. They have built up some credibility as movement organizers. Somebody like mickey mashaun. No knock against him, but he was trained at, like, a black prep academy and went on to college and met and organized with Martin Luther king. But he had determined that he could be most effective as a democratic politician and worked his way, worked his way that way. And there are any number of other people who were beneficiaries of the struggle for Voting Rights who took that route. Theres a fellow whose name escapes me who was, i guess he would have called himself a Community Organizer in the 1960s, and he worked his way up to the chairman of the board of governors of the university of North Carolina system. You know . There were a lot of people like that. In the conditions of the 1960s and 1970, the success of that left in framing the issues of inequality of the connections between race and class and their skillfulness in bringing people into mobilizing people. So, for example, the commission for Racial Justice was able to mobilize black churches in virginia, in tidewater virginia and eastern North Carolina. These were congregations of people who had been oppressed for generations but had no experience in organizing themselves politically. The commission for Racial Justice was able to bring them in and give them the tools to do that. In these conditions it was the center, these people who desired incorporation, who were following the lead of the left. They didnt run away. In fact, i think they understood that in order to maintain any sense of relevance, you know, that they would have to, they would have to unite with the left. So to me, what i took away from this whole episode was the importance of having a strong left. Not necessarily the importance of if you have a strong left that can animate people, then the other people who you want as allies will come along. But if you pander to that center and water yourself down and try and be as acceptable as you can to everybody, you lose. Thats, that was one thing that i took away from that. We get another doctors opinion from that . If i can chime in, and thank you to the gentleman who asked the question, and to build off of this. Again, how is black power to be ataped, and im going attained, and im going to use a specific local example from today, and if you have a phone or a tablet, feel free to google dtown pardon mes. Thats the example farms. Thats the example to which i will refer. Detroit, as we all know, has been devastated by deep industrialization, racist stays takeovers of the Public Schools and not too far, of course, flint and the water crisis. What are folks, some folks in detroit trying to do . Detroit leads the country with urban farming. And they certainly understand how farming alone will not solve all the problems. But what they emphasize, right . They talk about growing food, growing people. The detroit black Food Security network. Again, urban farming providing nutritious food for black people, the city of detroit thats approximately 80 black. And the point that im trying to get to tie into my own paper and, again, building these kind of genealogies, the cofounder of the dtown farms was a mentee of malcolm x, right . All these folks regard themselves as [inaudible] so theyre thinking about, again, selfreliance, selfdetermination, understanding these intersections of race and class and to varying degrees gender. How these forces operate in the global context and, again, trying to do something about it, right . So, again, louise little planting her own food, owning her own land, sharing those lessons with her children. Growing food, growing people. We get a third doctors opinion . [inaudible] exactly. Yeah. Hes a cool brother. Malik actually came and spoke, has spoken at case a couple of times where i founded the social Justice Institute for race, food and justice conference. You can also google that. You can actually hear him talk about the issue around selfdetermination, his own, his own struggles and his own kind of coming into transformation around issues around gender. Right. He openly talks about notions of patriarchy and White Supremacy and how thats all connected to the question of what it means to supply your people thats right. With sustenance. One of which is food and nutrition, right . Thats right. My question back would be and then, because i see so many people at the mic, my question back would be because this is what the book is about for me, concrete demands, what do you mean by black power, right . Because theres so many iterations and forms of black power, right . Some of it actually, like i said, would attack the kind of oppressive regimes many place. Some of it actually can work inside the oppressive regimes. Some of it actually works toward the black radical left and a kind of black feminist radical politics, and some of it stomachs patriarchy and oppression within the race as well as tries to meet the goals of the majority of society but create a selfdetermined community. So i think we have to talk about what black power means in order to understand what it is were searching for and trying to achieve. And hopefully, it would be in the most radical and oppressive sense for the equality of all people. Whos the next on the mic . Sorry. I guess my question is mainly for dr. Williams but, obviously, i would love input from any of you. What, i guess i wanted to see if you could touch on if there was any and if so, what was the significance of the 68 huff riots in cleeland on the black cleveland on the black power, capital b, capital p black power going on at the time. So were talking about glenville 68. A friend, ahmad evans, who is engaged with Armed Struggle, shall we say . I guess, yeah, there were some guns with the police. And, you know, this to 68 is a moment where we kind of see the crystallization of some of the language around black power in relationship to other places. But as early as 61 with the Freedom Fighters in cleveland, theyre talking about black power, right . You have don, you have don freeman and mohamed, you know, 63 talking about black power, black political power, black economic power, were going up and talking to [inaudible] theyre going south of 64. So the glenville uprising, rebellion, is a place where you see the kind of manifestation and explosion of these kinds of issues through Armed Struggle and the claiming of Armed Struggle and armed selfdefense and protection. Its also a moment where you see the interaction and very kind of egregious and clarified ways between the police and the black community. That also happened in 66 in huff as well. So it is that kind of moment of intersection where you see all of this going on and people saying, you know, weve had enough. But they, you know, i even hesitate when they say we had enough. They did say that, but theyve been saying that already. But it is this moment where its connected in that stream of urban rebellion, 64, 66, 68 and the mlk moment, postmlk moment. Does that help . Hi. Im the type of person that thinks of everything extremely deeply, so i look at symbolism. I dont really know how i can make this a question, but how the system is so embedded with racism, sometimes i feel like when we speak out, were somehow asking for permission to do things even when they had that they dont shoot campaign, there were a lot of black students at black colleges with their hands up, and they were, you know, there were photos taken, a lot of powerful photos were put out on social media of a lot of black people with their hands up. And so because i look at things so deeply, sometimes i feel like were asking for permission a lot. I think, i dont know who it was, but they were talking, there was a black author who was talking about the white gaze, and she was questioned about, like, some of her work. She was interviewed about it. And, you know, she was called a racist by a lot of, a lot of different people because she kind of focused all her books where, you know, just about blackness, about black culture. But it didnt have that white gaze. So do you, do you all think its necessary for us to do things like this, like this picture, this Unfinished Business picture . I feel like us as black people in this community, we have a lot of money, we have, we have the ability to just kind of put things together and start building, you know . A lot of times i think were still asking for permission even in hidden colors there was a piece, it was like a cartoon that was drawn, and it was a cartoon talking about how back in the day black people kept asking for permission to do this and that. And with the system being so deeply racist, i dont understand why were asking for permission. So i do think that because we all live in this world that it is necessary that we all learn whether were whatever color we are, black, white or in between. So i do think its important for everybody to see the damage that has been caused by ignorance. So i do think its somewhat necessary, but i think we do so much of this and less of we want to get a few more questions in. Yes, okay. All right. You want to respond to this one . I think, i think, i think i, im maneuvering through what youre saying. So for me, absolutely im going to say, absolutely, we need to do this. In fact, we need to be in the streets more. Now, how we get in the streets, what we say when were in the streets, what we demand and what we also do for self at the same time, right, because these are not either or moments. Theres no either you do this, or you create your own business. Or either you do this, or you challenge capitalism, or either you do i mean, all this needs to be emotion at the same time. And i think concrete demands that interlude not only charting the genealogy in the roots, but it showed all the stuff that was happening at the same time. Now, some of its in conflict. Thats why im saying what kind of power agenda you need or you want. But i think need to be in the streets. I think we need to, you know, lift up, unfortunately, the name of a tamir rice yes. Unfortunately the names of crawford, unfortunately, the names of eric garner. Now, what we going to do . First we gotta lift it up, and we gotta make some noise about it, and what are we going to do after that. And the key is to not just see these as individual cases. Thats right. They are individual cases because they are human beings whose lives have been snuffed out, right . But the fact of the matter is the system is going to keep rolling, and were going to have more individuals, unfortunately, unless we can begin to figure out and or stomach the fact that this is something thats going to have to be a long struggle. Figure out what we need to do and stomach the fact that this is going to to be a long struggle and we cant just think about simply, maybe to part of your point, just showing up at a rally and thinking we done something, and were done. It is a long struggle. We need to show up and we need to do this, but the its a long struggle. And if any of what we talked about tonight means anything, we know that. Or this whole series thats been done for now four years, right . The black freedom struggle, the liberation struggle, the struggle for social justice is an ongoing one, and we have to figure out the different platforms, the different tactics. Weve got to learn from the past but also understand were not in the past when were trying to plot the pathway forward. Thats right. So i think that gets at it a little bit, but you right, you put a lot in there, my sister. [laughter] you started with the ida b. Wells thing. Lets remember what the ida b. Wells moment begins with, its a successful business, right . Sometimes the way were taught history is like all these things are separate. It was a successful business. The reason they got it was a successful business. So most of the time, you know, part of selfdefense, were protecting our property, right . So if you have a successful business and the police think they can kill your children, the minimum youre going to have is a conversation about it. You gotta talk to white people about it. You got to talk power. Truth to power, you got to recognize the power that power has, and then we gotta figure out what were going to do about that. And the great kenyan novelist says theres a lot of languages we have to talk. We have to keep our own vernacular, but we have to know the language of power in the country were in. Thats right. Thats right. Right . So those are not mutually exclusive. And were very tired of juggling these things, right . Whos the next question here . Hi. Can you tell us a little bit more about the role of black muslims in that black radical tradition and how, the way they made sense of their faith, their religion [inaudible] and im thinking of malcolm x but also of [inaudible] from the black panthers and imam jamil also known as [inaudible] yeah, i mean, i can start. As i often say and certainly not the first one to say this, but the history of africanamericans and islam go back to the very start of the makings of our people. And certainly if were talking about the 20th century and, again, many some ways tying into garveyism or the offshoots or the roots or the routes of garveyism that, again, the nation of islam was a neo [inaudible] formation. He very much admired garvey. So in terms of the 20s and the 30s, we can see again the importance of peoples of african descent embracing islam. And as, of course, the great work of michael gomez, as you pointed out in black crescent which islam, again, has always been, is indeed a kind of organic component of the african diasporic experience and not something new that occurred during the 50s and 60s as a result of black power. What i would argue is, again, in terms of politically and culturally, we cannot talk about africanamericans without talking about a very long history of islam. Yeah. And just the fight for freedom of religion, right . Thats what malcolm x was fighting when hes in prison, the freedom to develop your own faith. And thats been a consistent aspect. A lot of people miss that when we talk about the nation of islam and the work theyre doing for religious freedom and really compartmentalize it. You had something you were going to say. No . [inaudible conversations] whos the next . Hi. This question is a twopart question, and its open for the panel but in particularly for, excuse me, kenneth janken. You mentioned how the success of the williamton ten and having their wrongful convictions overturned was in part because of the help of the far left. And by the far left, im assuming you mean white peoples participation in that. And my question is, how do you feel about the far left participation in the current climate of statesanctioned violence, and do you feel like they can do more . Thats interesting to me because i didnt have in mind when i was talking about the far left as it being, you know, a white left. I mean, there were white people involved in it, but, you know, the left that was involved in developing that campaign to free the will manipulationton wilmington ten was largely black. The it was a religious organization, but it was clearly on the left, and they were involved in all sorts of struggles around Police Brutality and prisoners rights and reforming the criminal justice system. The Youth Organization for black unity was a black organization. The National Alliance against racist and political repression was affiliated with the communist party of the United States which was largely left, but it was, the National Alliance was blackled and was the vehicle i guess you could say that the communists attempted to create alliances with the black liberation movement. So i dont know that i, i dont think i fully accept the framing of it. As to the, you know, the other question, what is, what do i think about the far left in fighting statesanctioned violence today, im in fave of it. I mean, im in favor of the left getting involved, you know, getting involved in it and getting involved in it in a way that, in a way that respects, in a way that respects the existing struggle. So i think, you know, i guess im more familiar with the way this has developed in North Carolina. And there is, you know, a rather broadbased movement, the Forward Together movement, the moral mondays. I dont know if thats familiar to people here. But it is, it is multiracial, it is blackled, i think, but it is multiracial. There are white leftists in there, theres latino organizations, and they are trying theyre working on multiple levels, and theyre and i think theyre having, i think among the most valuable things theyre having is theyre having a very open discussion about the nature of, the nature of the problem. And theyre not short circuiting things by saying we need to be quiet because what were talking about is utopian or its not going to, its not going to fly. Its a very open, wideranging discussion about power. So i, you know, to me thats all for the good. And, ken, if i can jump in thanks for the question. I think whats interesting, especially if there are graduate students, assume there are graduate students here and if you are looking for a topic, in terms of the new communist movement of the 60s and from the mid 50s through the 70s into the 80s, there really isnt a whole lot of rich, fulllength scholarship about, say, the communist Workers Party which, as you point out, was basically a black party, right in so black marxists, a kind of holder third worldism. And i think about cleveland or the midwest, detroit, the league of revolutionary black workers out of detroit, i mean, its wide open in terms of the work that needs to be done to at one level complicate the ways we think about the left, but to understand and trace genealogies of understanding that at one level these responses that were seeing on the street that black lives matter is not new. Although certainly happening in different historical conditions. But many of the [inaudible] we see today have happened before and folks havent, indeed, asked for permission. They, indeed, demanded these things in the 20s, in the 30s, in the 40s. And when they did ors they found did, they found themselves a target of state violence. Ditto. [laughter] now, were getting short on time, so what i wanted to do is we have four people left, am i right . So if you could all four ask your question, then we can try to answer all four of those. Okay. Good evening. Thank you all for coming and your work and your presentations. I know we all appreciate that. Thank you. This, my question is really geared toward dr. Eric mcduffie, but its open to the panel, the entire panel. I am, you know, my passion is my people, of course, and the struggle in all of that. It is my passion. My profession is a speech language pathologist. The clinical mind in me is saying about louise little its asking what was the assessment . Was she really mentally insane . And then we could get into and im not even going to go there in terms of how women are seen with the emotion and this and that. And so were so marginalized and minimized in history anyway. So i just thought id just throw that out there. Thats the clinical mind in there. Was she truly clinically insane . Thank you. Great question. [laughter] okay. My name is tori, and what i wanted to get your thoughts on is just im putting tonight in perspective of the week here and an encounter that i had with a mixed group. Were in Interesting Times because as malcolm would say, the chickens have come home to the roost. And White America is now feeling that they have an erosion of a power base. So i would like to hear something about what can we do in light of this election where everythings up for review . How do we advance the cause of black power in a time where, again, everything is up for review . White people are wondering, are they valued in the mix, and now they sort of feel like, well, shall we join the black lives Matter Movement . You know, im just curious to know what your thoughts on as what we can take today moving forward in light of the election, be it president ial, local, whatever, to advance that. Thats great. First, i want to thank you for the gift that you gave us today, the gifts that you gave us today. And i have really three points. One is garveyism, the theory of garveyism, and i think that that is key to our survival because we have to become more reliant on our own communities and stop going outside of our commitments. Im not communities. Im not saying cut ourselves off from the world and solely be in our communities, but the key is to be able to sustain our own communities so that our money can circulate in our communities. Thats one point. The other one was in doing so, need to start looking at the montgomery bus boycott and how that boycott crippled the bus company so that they had to start looking at things differently. The other one is i would like to ask our White Brothers and sisters who acknowledging and see that acknowledge and see that White Privilege is a problem, i would like for you guys to now speak up more in regard to making that wrong right. Thank you. All right. Hi. For the three of you, do you all think the system can be successfully infiltrated, tactically changing things over time, or do you feel that the system needs to be overthrown . The sister who stood up, she says that racism is deeply embedded in the system, and for me its not doesnt seem so much that the racism is simply embedded in the system as racism is synonymous with the system. You cant get out as americas literally a country built on the disenfranchisement of a people. Do you think you need to overthrow the system and start anew . Thank you. Last question. [laughter] these are softballs, you know . [laughter] and im wondering if you can offer some brief historical insights as to where and how black power has been retaped and strengthened among retained and strengthened amongst the black middle class. That with so many other ethnic groups as theyve moved up and gained a foothold, their purpose was to consolidate and strengthen their ethnic power. But for us, obviously in a very different situation than most other ethnic groups, we feel this need to water it down, to assimilate even more and to recoil from that claim of black power. So have you seen any historical insights where that has been retained and or can you refer us to some scholarship . Because im really curious about that. Thank you. All right. Well, guys, im glad we brought you doctors here to give us a diagnosis. [laughter] i just start out, im the least well, i want to start with the first question about was louise little insane sure. And the, my answer is i suspect not, but, i mean, i didnt see her diagnosis. Whats interesting to me about that question, though, is the way that i hear today questions of oppression being talked about. For example, at my university now as at other universities black students have voiced their displeasure about, you know, underrepresentation in the student body or that their numbers in the student body are, you know, their numbers are so high in the student body primarily because forprofit athletes make up, you know, a large percentage of the black population. And so other types of black students are not being included, and theres incidences of, you know, being stopped in stores or i dont need to go through the whole list. But what is interesting to me is the response of the authorities was were going to make more Mental Health, were going to make more Mental Health Resources Available to black students. So if you feel oppressed, the problem is you must be crazy. Right. Or you must be mentally disturbed. And im sure there is, you know, mental anxiety that goes along with it, but it seems to me the solution is isno not a Mental Hygiene solution. Its a political solution and a social solution. And so its interesting to me how ideas and discussions about Mental Illness invade these other questions and turn it into Something Else. And, coincidentally, its also at a time when Mental Health resources are being ruthlessly cut. Thats just kind of a connection that i made there. And the answer, the answer to the third question, the third question was, no, i dont think that things can be infiltrated and that there can be some type of incorporation that will lead to, that will lead to anything resembling genuine equality. And i think we ought to think about the president ial election not in terms of backing a candidate, but in terms of the space that it creates to have discussions about the types of change that people want to have and the ways that people can go about mobilizing for it as opposed to bernie, hillary, donald or whatever. Absolutely. Maybe ill jump in and well give dr. Williams the last word here. What i would say, i mean, my first book was on black women in the communist party. I dont want to say anyones politics is selfevident by what they wrote on, but i very much believe that this Current System does not work and has to be toppled. Next, i think [laughter] can you work, can we both infiltrate, i think again im thinking of lenin and revolutions of both reform and revolution, how those forces operate dialectically. And in terms of the question on louise little, and thank you for the question. Angela davis autobiography, she talked about how socalled Mental Illness really has social roots, right . Ask that its very much and that its very much a reflection of racism, poverty, what have you. Cally gross, in her work on black women and criminalization by the state, the way in which the white state criminalizes and pathologizes black women and, therefore, because black women get deemed as being a criminal, therefore, that opens the door for their suppression. And i would say that was very much true with louise little. To be clear, again, her husband died violently in 1933, violently, right 1931. This is during the heart of the depression. Here is a caribbeanborn woman in the middle of Central Michigan which was a center of massive klan activity. She had seven children, then she had an eighth child with a man with whom she very much loved and it seemed like she was going to get married, but the man got cold feet because he was concerned about rearing and feeding eight children. He left her. He jilted her. She had his child. She probably suffered in part from postpartum but, again, this is the depression. Shes a black woman tried to hold it down with poverty, the state is coming after her, targeting her, right . And, indeed, theres a report that says, you know what . Shes probably okay. If she just had some rest, shed be okay. But again, because she was defiant. Because she stood up and was openly con front not confrontational, she was defending herself and her children from white state officials who were trying to take her kids and property from her. And thats what they did. So the pact that she had a breakdown, yeah, i mean, i think we all would probably have a breakdown if we were in that kind of situation. But, again, its about again, this is a form of state violence, right . The ways in which prisons or mental hospitals are, again, used to suppress and hold people. Sadly, thats what happened to her. But the key thing i tried to emphasize, again, the narrative frames her as this crazy woman. But she lived 30 more years after her family got her out. Her daughters, actually, played a key role in that. And, yes, she wasnt quite the same perp, but she was still same person, but she was still resilient. She had a spirit. Her family loved her. Even spending 25 years in, basically, a jail, she still remained confident and proud of who she was. And thats the story im trying to tell. Thank you. Yeah. I mean, the other thing i think we let off the hook sometime is the new deal. Yes. For black people the new deal was really a raw deal. And when you deal with the welfare state, you know, michael katz talks about it in shadow of the poorhouse. These socalled hospitals are actually detention centers. Exactly. And they didnt know how to cure the stuff anyway. Look what they did to kennedys sister, right . So youre dealing with a primitive system there. In fact now, shes got all this education, no ones asked the question how come she didnt get a job as a schoolteacher, right . Shes constantly losing jobs when they find out shes black. That might drive you crazy, right . [laughter] and lets to do a little selfcriticism too. Her Church Community shamed her for being pregnant, right . Lets think about that, right . So at the time when you need your community to be backing you going to through this trial, your own Spiritual Community i think thats why malcolm x criticized Elijah Mohamed publicly, because he was thinking about what had happened to his mother and his siblings when your own Spiritual Community youve to been building doesnt give you the solidarity you need as a single mother. But, you know, their going to theyre going to jump on you too. Thats right. Thats why i think why did malcolm x do it when he did it, when he bailed. Matter of fact, he says i was thinking about my mother. Matter of fact, malcolm x says near the end of his life almost everything he did, he was thinking about his mother. Yes. So when the schoolteacher tells him he cant become an attorney because hes a nigger right. Malcolm said he wants to become an attorney so he could get his mother out of the insane asylum. So when the teacher told him that, it wasnt just that he lost his career aspirations, but he knew he couldnt help his mother. Thats right. And matter of fact, when he come to that, so hes in denial about that. He wants to think about everything else, but then hes forced to think about his mother at the end. He says so jan carew, you know, im just beginning to study this, the resistance of black women. Yep. He said, but its changing my whole world view. Thats right. He said im just beginning. And i think if you look at every speech he makes near the end of 64, the beginning of 65, you find of hear a different voice of malcolm. Hes telling you ive changed my world view. And be he doesnt say a lot of other things. He said hes thinking about this resistance of black women he said starting with my mother. Right . So the mother is a key thing. So we let the new deal, the raw deal state off the hook in terms of what theyre doing to women and what theyre calling well e fare. And he was right, it was the destruction of black families. He called it straight out. The National Welfare rights but during this period of time they dont have too many allies to defend their rights. And, you know, i hate to hear people be so defensive about welfare. If you look at the interviews, its like every mother is ashamed. I tried to do everything i could, you know . Stuff like that. So its really to see the triumph of one meaning of black power was articulated by the National Welfare rights organization. Right . The women in baltimore who were doing the struggle there. In newark, my hometown, the women who did the rent strike, one of the longest rent strikes in American History was in Public Housing project in newark. Those same women have established the most successful nonprofit Housing Development thing in the country. They produce more Affordable Housing units than anybody else, right . And in las vegas, storming caesars palace. Those women are developing alternative things. So i think black power meant Different Things to different classes. Most definitely. Yeah. And the struggle came about when the classes at the top thought the struggle was over because they got in political office. Most definitely. And they left anybody else who had struggled for that way behind. Yeah. Right . Uhhuh. Black power meant Different Things to different social sectors, and so the timing some people think the struggle is over once i got to be the mayor. Right. Well, i mean once i got to be the professor. Well, that goes to one of the questions, right . I even hesitate to jump in, im also on ditto moment and say thank you to the crowd. But, i mean, it goes to one of the questions that was asked about the brief historical insights and strengthening of the black middle class. You know, the question is, you know, if we even do some diagnosis of the places that were in now when i say the places were in, im talking about social, political, economic and geographic call and who is running some of those places, right . I mean, the whole idea about upending, continuing to upend the notion that we can just expect because we actually have established some folks in the black middle class who actually have positions of professors and mayors and chiefs and police and, you know, bureaucrats, that somehow thats going to translate into the betterment of the black community, you know, is extremely troubled and problematic at this point. Does that mean im not going to fight for black folks to get into those spaces . No, im going to fight for black folks to get into those spaces. But i think our reliance on that, kind of a e romantic reliance on that, doesnt work for us solely by itself. So i think that then ties to the whole moment of the election and the whole focus on whats on the agenda. Its back to whats on the agenda. What kind of black power do we want. Depending on what kind of black power we want, then were also in the moment of when and where i enter which is the upending of oppressive hierarchical status for the majority of folks and how can we begin to do that Coalition Building. Go bigs building is very, very Coalition Building is very, very hard. Komozi said it earlier, just because you say you want, you know, black brown unity or you want working class unity among, you know, white black brown and whoever else people, right . Native american, indigenous, youve got to talk about colonialism. Are you having that conversation that allows people into the space. I think around the election its also about thinking about the issues and who is moving forward the most progressive issue. Part of that also means weve got to vote. As much as people think about voting is just, like, the least that you could do, right now folks need to vote, right . Folks need to rebelling thester, and register to vote, and folks need to vote, and they need to understand that the vote in and of itself is not going to achieve. And then i say the other thing that we have to do i mean, theres a lot of things we have to do, everybody knows, but its like, you know, 804. [laughter] you know, one of the other things we have to do is, like, we have to get underneath of the narrative. Because fact of the matter is the narrative that we create and the language that we use can and the discourse that we use and the rhetoric that we use actually translates into concrete policies and programs that circle back around to create and fortify the system that we are trying to topple as we try to reform. See, thats not an either or either. If youre just waiting for the topple, were going to be catching hellwe try to do Something Else with the system. So those narratives, thats why we can get rid of we, not me. Welfare. Whatever welfare means. I mean, we didnt get rid of corporate welfare, wall street welfare, we didnt get rid of suburban welfare, but we got rid of what we call welfare which is ax fdc, right . And afdc. And demonizing people and doing that work on the backs of people. So i think we have to ask the hard questions, weve got to vote, weve got to mobilize people, and weve got to use the space that is happening right now to do the vote, to mobilize people and to build sustainable struggles. And thats hard work too. And thats hard work too. I mean, thats what i got, yall. Thats what i got at the end. Thank yall so much for having us. The office will be signing the books in the lobby. [inaudible conversations] tom lewis is next on book tv. His book, washington, calls the making of