Video above, posted on YouTube by Ahmad 770, focuses on Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan’s remarks in Detroit Sun. Oct. 14 regarding Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and her testimony against newly confirmed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanagh, condemning both the sexual abuse of women and little boys, including that by Catholic priests. Minister Farrakhan also spoke of his meeting with R. Kelly, calling for forgiveness when it is warranted. He touched on the role African religion played in the establishment of the first Black republic by Toussaint L’Overture.
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Addresses Detroit’s history as the birthplace of the Nation of Islam, home of the great Migration from the South after the Mississippi River Flood of 1927
Predicts that God will come to “raise the nation of Black people and Brown people and Red people whose sojourn in America left us like the dry bones in the valley, divided, hopeless and in despair.”
Recalls luminous and militant history of Detroit’s Goddess of Soul, Aretha Franklin
Student Minister Troy Muhummad, of Mosque #1 in Detroit, chaired the rally Oct. 14. Members of that Mosque prepared the way for the rally. In solidarity with victims of mass incarceration, he recalled that he himself was in prison at the time of the Million Man March.
By Diane Bukowski
October 18, 2018
As editor of the Voice of Detroit, I was honored to be escorted to the press gallery by a young Muslim sister, herself an aspiring journalist, to cover Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan’s appearance at the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre on Detroit’s riverfront Oct. 14, 2018. The event was the commemoration of the 23rd anniversary of the Million Man March on Washington, D.C. Oct. 16, 1995.
That March brought out over tw0 million Black men to assert their presence and power, while corporate America’s assault on Detroit, Flint and other Black-majority cities, and that of mass incarceration and police murders, particularly of people of color, was exploding across the nation.
As Detroit undergoes the ravages of a renewed white supremacist takeover, it was truly uplifting to hear the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s words, and watch as they brought renewed hope to Detroit’s majority population listening in the audience and on livestream nationwide.
DETROIT – Members of the Nation of Islam and hundreds of others, primarily of African descent, filled the seats of the newly-named Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre in Detroit Oct. 14, drinking in the words of Minister Louis Farrakhan as he commemorated the twenty-third anniversary of the Million Man March.
Minister Farrakhan’s talk held out hope for the future of the people of this majority-Black city, suffering from the ravages of white supremacy on the ascent.
“We are honored the speak to the people of Detroit, particularly the Black and the Brown, who have lived under tyranny and oppression ever since we set the soles of our feet in the wilderness of North America, and our people have suffered greatly every day, about 463 years of sojourn in America,” Min. Farrakhan declared.
Detroit children wait in line Sept. 1, 2012 for winter coats provided by the Moorish Science Temple of America #25. During his talk Oct. 14, Min. Farrakhan welcomed the presence of Moors in the audience.
Currently, sixty percent of Detroit’s children live in poverty and the majority of the city’s public schools, which once produced great Black leaders, have been closed. Tens of thousands of the city’s youth are being shunted through the school-to-prison pipeline.
Detroit’s once proud neighborhoods of working-class homes, mostly occupied in recent decades by Black families drawn north to jobs in the auto industry, have been devastated by mortgage and tax foreclosures. They have either been left to rot or auctioned off to a majority of white bidders at government-sponsored auctions, reminiscent of the auctions of kidnapped Africans during another era.
After the largest major city bankruptcy in history, a fraudulent result of the city’s takeover by a state-appointed emergency manager, Detroiters no longer own or control city assets such as the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, which once provided clean water for 40 percent of Michigan residents, or the beautiful Belle Isle Park, which formed a backdrop for the Minister’s talk in the riverfront theater.
Minister Farrakhan’s talk held out hope for the future of the people of this majority-Black city, suffering from the ravages of white supremacy on the ascent.
“We are honored the speak to the people of Detroit, particularly the Black and the Brown, who have lived under tyranny and oppression ever since we set the soles of our feet in the wilderness of North America, and our people have suffered greatly every day, about 463 years of sojourn in America,” Min. Farrakhan declared.
Former Detroit Water and Sewerage Dept. worker Derek Grigsby and family participate in protest against bankruptcy, which left the city 300 percent more in debt.
But, standing in front of huge banners portraying the co-founders of the Nation, Minister Elijah Muhummad and Wallace D. Fard, Min. Farrakhan continued, “We are honored to be in this place—we call it hallowed ground, because Detroit was chosen by the son of man, god in person, to start what is now known as the Nation of Islam.”
He continued, “It is written that every day of our presence in America, we would be afflicted by a strange people, but after that time, I (god talking) will come with a specific function, first to judge the nation that had afflicted his people, second to raise the nation of Black people and Brown people and Red people whose sojourn in America left us like the dry bones in the valley, divided, hopeless and in despair. Your suffering was not in vain and the enemy knows our future better than we do. He is frightened not of guns, because he’s got big ones, he is frightened of truth because he has deceived the whole world. So whenever a person has lived by deceit and built their world on falsehood, the one thing they fear is the truth and a man in whose heart is the courage and the strength and the love of his people to speak the truth, even if it costs his life. Jesus said you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”
Min. Farrakhan offered a lengthy and stirring tribute to Detroit’s Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, who passed August 16, 2018, and was honored world-wide. Her funeral at Greater Grace Temple in Detroit, pastored by the Rev. Charles Ellis, brought out the greatest stars of African-American music and many more.
Aretha Franklin was honored on the front page of The Final Call after her death.
Min. Farrakhan recalled that Ms. Franklin was not only a singer, but a political activist who loved her people and never forgot her roots in Detroit, as the daughter of Pastor C.L. Franklin of New Bethel Baptist Church, and part of a musical legacy born here. He also had pithy remarks for certain leaders (including former U.S. President Bill Clinton), who unashamedly ogled young singer Ariana Grande, sitting behind her on the stage. Grande was one of dozens of world-renowned Black singers and musicians who performed at Ms. Franklin’s funeral.
He said Ms. Franklin came to New York City in 1972 to stand with the Nation when its Mosque in New York City was attacked by the police.
The Final Call reported,
“Abdul Akbar Muhammad, international representative of Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam had fond memories of Aretha Franklin, though he only met her up close once. That was after she visited the historic Muhammad Mosque No. 7 on 116th Street and Lennox Avenue, now Malcolm X Boulevard, in April 1972. While under the leadership of Min. Farrakhan, Mosque No. 7 was attacked by police officers responding to a false emergency call. One officer was killed by another officer’s weapon.
“She came to express her solidarity with Minister Farrakhan and anything she could do while we were going through that particular crisis,” said Minister Akbar Muhammad.
“I felt, personally, she appreciated the voice of Minister Farrakhan, his voice into our struggle, and she came by to show her support and her concern over the unfortunate incident of the New York police raiding our mosque.”
Photo published by The FInal Call honors Aretha Franklin’s stand with the NOI when the NYPD attacked Mosque #7 in New York City in 1972.
“I love being here in Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre,” Min. Farrakhan said. “We loved her singing and her soul. . .I met her in 1972 when police attacked our Mosque in New York. I was on television ordering all white people out of Harlem.
“But Aretha with her blessed soul, she saw us on television, and as famous as Aretha was, she left wherever she was and came to Harlem to stand with me and with us. Aretha was not a sister that gave two cents for fame or fortune that would deprive her of standing up for a righteous principle. She was more than the Queen of Soul on that level, she was the Queen of Soul on the highest level of the manifestation of soul.”
Min. Farrakhan continued, “Is there a balm in Gilead? Nobody touched our soul like Aretha. When she sang, you could feel the electric energy in every word. Each word was an atom and the power of her soul cracked the atom and the energy of that word went out and touched wherever that word went. I see Aretha as divine. I looked in her face, I looked at her eyes, and I do not remember studying her face, what she had on—you know how some men are—a great artist and a fine woman comes announced—you want to behold her in every dimension. Like some were looking at my little sister at the funeral—Ariana Grande—some of the great preachers. I’m so glad I wasn’t in that conversation. I called the family, and asked could I come, not to speak, just to be in the place where her family and friends and the mourners were, people who really felt a sense of loss. I was never expecting to be on the stage. . . But Bishop Ellis took me by the hand and brought me to my seat, picked up a paper that had my name on it, and sat me front and center on the stage.”
“Some of you, wondered, especially white folks, ‘How did that man get up there?’ You ought to shut your mouth. Your day of directing our affairs is all over. . .You know when you have all those stars in one place—you talking about soul, that day, soul was everywhere you could look in that church—the people of soul, the people that God has sent to this earth to be a balm for us because God knew we had 400 years of hard tyranny. So these artists and I’m talking now to the whole artistic community, you have helped us to make it one more day under the tyranny of white supremacy.”
Min. Farrakhan continued, “Like most of our Black artists, particularly females, you don’t have good men. I’m sorry, brothers, we don’t know how to handle women that are intelligent, that are go-getters, that are young, gifted and black. So most of our female artists have never had men in their lives that they could look up to with honor, deep and abiding respect, and profound love. . . My dear sisters, when you fall in love and you think that the handsome man who’s muscular and strong-looking, but weak-minded. I had never seen Fantasia up close, so this was my opportunity at Aretha’s homegoing. I happened to go in the back and there she was with her husband. She said, minister, I’m so nervous, cause I’ve got to sing one of Aretha’s songs. I told her, don’t be nervous, just get inside the word and everything will be all right.
“I said to brother, Fantasia needs an angel in her life. He said, yes, she’s been an angel for me. I said, what we need is for you to be an angel in her life. And Detroit, the meaning of atonement has everything to do with us repairing the damage we have done to each other in our ignorance, our women, our children, ourselves.”
Min. Farrakhan segued from those observations to a truly stunning statement of solidarity with Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford, citing her courage in standing up to expose the wrongdoing of now U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. In doing so, he expressed support for all women of every color who have been abused by men in the white supremacist patriarchy that is the United States.
Women all over the world who were appalled and galvanized by Dr. Blasey-Ford’s testimony should now know that they have common ground with the men and women of the Nation of Islam. Hopefully they will take the hand that Min. Farrakhan extended to them in order to create a strong movement against the continued rise of white supremacy in the U.S. At its core it is based on the white man’s belief that he owns everyone and everything, from 2.2 million people, mostly Black, incarcerated in the largest penal system in the world, to women and children of all races and nationalities.
Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee about Brett Kavanaugh’s sexual assault on her. She said her family has had to go into hiding because of repeated death threats.
“I want to go right to Ms. Blasey Ford, and Judge Kavanaugh, now Justice Kavanaugh. In this world, and in human life, people outgrow bad habits, bad deeds, and change their lives. . . .So if Judge Kavanaugh bothered Ms. Ford when she was 15 and he was 17.
Now that lady was a victim of something. I’ve been listening to liars for a long time. My business is trying to get a crooked tongue to speak straight words, When I saw that woman give her testimony, tears came in my eyes, because no man should take from a woman what a woman does not want to give, and when that woman stood up and went through the horror of what Mr. Kavanaugh is alleged to have done to her, she had to relive it, because that kind of thing when you experience it, you don’t forget that. It’s seared into your memory—when you least expect it, that thing will come out and make a problem for you. One of the worst things a man could do is take advantage of a woman. . .”
Min. Farrakhan did express his long-held belief against the practice of abortion, but for the Black community, this is a complex issue. Tens of thousands of women of color across the world have been victims of forced sterilization at the hands of the white oppressor, who seeks to stem the influx of more people of color into the world. In addition to forced sterilization, the history of European conquests of other nations is replete with horrific accounts of mass genocide against the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere, as well as the African Holocaust.
According to the African Holocaust website at http://www.africanholocaust.net/,
“It is estimated that 40 -100 million people were directly affected by slavery via the Atlantic, Arabian and Trans-Saharan routes. Some historians conclude that the total loss in persons removed, those who died on the arduous march to coastal slave marts and those killed in slave raids, exceeded the 65–75 million inhabitants remaining in Africa at the trade’s end. But no one knows the exact number. Many died in transport, others died from diseases or indirectly from the social trauma left behind in Africa. Not only was Transatlantic Slavery of demographic significance, in the aggregate population losses but also in the profound changes to settlement patterns, epidemiological exposure and reproductive and social development potential.”
In current times, however, a startling reversal is taking place, says a report on uk.sci.med.nursing, a Google discussion forum.
“As a percentage of world inhabitants, the white population will plummet to a single digit (9.76%) by 2060 from a high-water mark of 27.98% in 1950. Using 2010 as the base reference, the big gainer in the population derby will be Blacks or sub-Sahara Africans. This group will expand almost 133% to 2.7 billion by 2060. By the middle of this century
blacks will represent 25.38% of world population, which is up dramatically from the 8.97% they recorded in 1950. . . . A side bar will be the single digit minority role that whites will assume. Of the seven population groups studied, only whites are projected to sustain an absolute decline in numbers.”
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By Charlene Muhammad -National Correspondent- | Last updated: Oct 17, 2018 – 9:24:21 AM
(excerpted by Voice of Detroit)
Gathering at the renowned Bert’s Warehouse in Eastern Market Oct. 13, 2018:
L-R Back row: Jay Dearing, Migel X Rayford, Moorish Science Temple #25 Minister Fuqua Bey, Askia Muhammad, Amin Ali Muhammad, Cornelius Muhammad, Arthello Muhammad, Sr., Bert Dearing. L-R Front row: Medina Mohammed, Katrina Muhammad, Alverda Muhammad, Claudette Marie Muhammad/Photo by Charlene Muhammad
MEMORIES, CONTINUED MOTIVATION TO KEEP SPIRIT, WORK OF MILLION MAN MARCH ALIVE
Lifelong union and community activist Eula Powell at 80th birthday party, 2017.
VOD editor Diane Bukowski: I met my long-time friend Eula Powell (l) a community activist and union leader from the historic UAW Local 3 (Dodge Main) when we were working with a coalition of my union Local AFSCME 457 and hers to save Detroit General Hospital and Dodge Main from 1977 to 1980. We were elated to find ourselves at this gathering Sat. Oct. 13, 2018, on the eve of Min. Louis Farrakhan’s appearance in Detroit described above.
We went to Bert’s to get dinner, but ended up meeting the illustrious Askia Muhammad, Sr. Editor of the Final Call, and his wife Alverda Muhammad, as well as the Final Call’s National Correspondent Charlene Muhammad. Bert Dearing himself welcomed us to the private gathering. Voice of Detroit earlier covered his battle to maintain ownership of that property in the face of Caucasian gentrification of Eastern Market, downtown Detroit, and the Cass Corridor (now called “Mid-City”). It has now extended to homes of Black families in the North End, stolen from them and handed over to white occupants at government-sponsored tax and mortgage auctions, and to the eastern Riverfront to landmark apartment buildings like the Jeffersonian, where African-American seniors and others who have lived there for decades are being displaced by its new owners, Joe Barbat of Barbat Holdings, and Arie Liebowicz.
By Charlene Muhammad, Final Call National Correspondent
DETROIT—Alverda Muhammad, a Nation of Islam pioneer from Muhammad Mosque No. 4 in Washington, D.C., facilitated a riveting dialogue with men and women who journeyed to the historic 1995 Million Man March called by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.
They detailed how the march and subsequent commemorations, including the Million Family March and the Millions More Movement, have touched their lives.
Bert Dearing speaks at downtown Detroit rally to save Black businesses July 21, 2015.
Bert Dearing, owner of Bert’s Entertainment Complex, hosted the Muslims and their guests in his bistro on October 13. His grandfather and Minister Farrakhan were very good friends, he told the rapt audience. “The Million Man March to me was very, very important because I was able to take my father, my two sons,” Mr. Dearing stated. In fact, they took a whole busload of men to the march, he said.
“Just the bonding with my father and my two sons was more important than anything else, and then getting to Washington, D.C., on the bus, just talking or whatever, the energy, the power that you get being with Black folks, is something that you can never describe, but it’s once in a lifetime,” he said.
Malik Rahim took time off as an educator to attend the Million Man March. He drove with five others. People needed to hear Minister Farrakhan at that time, because the world and Blacks in particular were in a whirlwind, he said.
“We lost the structure of our families, but the speech that he gave … helping your community, just seeing all our people there, the brothers, some of the sisters, it was like a big family, like being at home,” said Mr. Rahim.
They returned home from the Million Man March with plans to develop a mentorship program for youth. “At that time our young people were into drugs, killing each other, getting expelled from school for 180 days, not going anywhere. They were just sitting at home,” said Mr. Rahim.
Mother Khadijah Farrakhan
Cora Masters Barry, widow of Mayor Marion Barry
The march participants worked and were effective in getting students facing drug charges authorization to still attend their special school, according to Mr. Rahim. “We taught them there, and they were able to pick up their grades. Those were the D and the E students, and they wound up being the B and the C students. Some were As,” he stated.
That expanded to developing family services, coaching and academic programs, such as hosting Black engineers to speak to youth.
Claudette Marie Muhammad, former national protocol director for Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, drew three rounds of rousing applause when she expressed many wonderful things resulting from the march that lifted women.
First of all, there was the Nation of Islam’s First Lady Mother Khadijah Farrakhan and her daughters, Maria, Betsy Jean, Donna, Fatima and Khallada, and the First Lady of Washington, D.C., Cora Masters Barry, who coordinated the registration committee for the march.
Dr. Maya Angelou
Dr. Betty Shabazz
“We had Dr. Dorothy Irene Height, who was the mother of the Million Man March, and she did so much in bringing women all over the country,” Claudette Marie Muhammad stated. “Now, we didn’t come to the march per se, but the women did so much. Dr. Betty Shabazz, Dr. Maya Angelou and I’m so very proud to announce that Dr. Angelou did a poem with words added by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan,” she continued. Applause rang out again when she shared how her then 10-year-old granddaughter Tiffany recited the poem at the march.
“The most thing I remember is I was like 45 and there were two buses, and they kind of separated the young guys on one bus and the elders on another bus, because they were playing music and games and all kinds of stuff the whole way up there,” he recalled, smiling broadly the whole time.
Dick Gregory
Clarence Driver
He wanted to ride on Mr. Gregory’s bus and made his way during a bathroom break in the ride, he said. He was cleared to switch and that had a lasting impact on his life, he said.
“I learned a lot about 40 Acres and A Mule, because I didn’t really know too much about it and everything, and how they were going there, and spoke to Congress; the meeting they were having with the president, the meeting they were having with Louis Farrakhan. I was able, since I switched buses, to slide in there and get to go to some of those little meetings and things, so it was a great experience for me,” Mr. Driver told The Final Call.
“It shows that there is a lot of unity if you want it to be, if you want to stick together. Being a child born in the ’60s and coming up, it meant a lot. Because today’s age, you don’t have a lot of being raised by the village as we were,” he said. “Everyone is more singled out than it was as a village, so being in an environment where everyone was one was great!”
He said Minister Farrakhan’s returning to Detroit was great, as it always has been. “It’s just a course. It’s what he does,” Mr. Driver said. “Just being a part of it. I was at the original, the 10 year anniversary. I’ve been at this one, so it’s just been a path since the first day.”
Related stories:
Askia Muhammad in James Brady White House briefing room.
Diane Bukowski: I was most honored to receive a signed copy of world-renowned photojournalist, writer and Final Call Sr. Editor Askia Muhammad’s most recent publication, “The Autobiography of Charles 67X,” which is the story of his own life in his original poetry, essays and photographs.
He and his wife Alverda Muhammad graciously presented it to me at the conclusion of the event above. (I was not present for the actual speeches during this event, so I have excerpted Sister Charlene Muhammad’s article.) I went home that night and read the book from cover to cover.
An excellent review of this extraordinary publication is at http://stylemagazine.com/news/2018/jan/11/autobiography-charles-67x-poetry-and-photographs-a/.
It and other books by Askia Muhammad can be purchased through the following link:
https://www.amazon.com/Books-Askia-Muhammad/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3AAskia%20Muhammad
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