Vantage Point
Beyond the Trayvon Martin Mobilization: A Movement to End Mass Incarceration and Rebuild America’s “Dark Ghettos”
April 5, 2012Beyond the Trayvon Martin Mobilization
A Movement to End Mass Incarceration and Rebuild America’s “Dark Ghettos”
[For publication the week of April 2, 2012]
All across America a massive mobilization is in full force demanding justice in the horrific and unjustified death of Trayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman. It was a vigilante style killing aided and abetted by Florida’s wild, wild west “Stand Your Ground” law. The Trayvon Martin case has struck a nerve in Black America, not only because of the tragic and unnecessary death of a promising young African American man, but because this case is symbolic of a broader pattern of assault on young Black males throughout the country. At the recent National Symposium on the historic Gary National Black Political Convention, convened by the Institute of the Black World 21st Century in Washington, D.C., Cynthia Martin, Chief-of-Staff for Congressman John Conyers, welcomed …
It’s Nation Time: The 40th Anniversary of the Gary National Black Political Convention
March 28, 2012It’s Nation Time
The 40th Anniversary of the Gary National Black Political Convention
[For publication the week of March 26, 2012]
March 10-12, 1972, an estimated 10,000 Black people converged on a small steel town in Indiana for one of the greatest gatherings in the history of Africans in America – the Gary National Black Political Convention. As I reflect on more than a half century on the frontlines of the Black Freedom Struggle, anyone who is intimately familiar with my work is aware that the Gary Black Political Convention was one of the defining moments for an emerging social/political activist from Youngstown, Ohio. March 23rd the Institute of the Black World 21st Century convened a National Symposium entitled It’s Nation Time in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. to mark the occasion. The goal of the Gary Convention was to adopt …
Dr. Ron Daniels at 70: A Half Century on the Frontlines of the Black Freedom Struggle
March 7, 2012Dr. Ron Daniels at 70
A Half Century on the Frontlines of the Black Freedom Struggle
An Autobiographical Reflection and Call to Action
On April 27th at the Schomburg Center in New York family, longtime allies/friends and the community will gather to share in the celebration of my 70th Birthday. Personally, I’m not much on birthday celebrations, so the event will be a benefit to support the work of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW), the organization which I have devoted my energies building for the past decade. I view IBW as a signature/legacy initiative – the culmination of nearly a half century of advocacy and organizing on the frontlines of the Black Freedom Struggle.
I was born in the town of Beckley in the coalfields of West Virginia, the son of a coalminer, William “Bill” Daniel and a coalminer’s daughter, Wealtha Marie Williams.
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The Emancipation Proclamation: From 3/5 Human to Second Class Citizenship
January 3, 2012The Emancipation Proclamation
From 3/5 Human to Second Class Citizenship
[For publication the week of January 2, 2012]
When I first became active in the Civil Rights Movement as a teenager in Youngstown, Ohio, January 1st was always a very important day in the Black community — not because it was the first day of a new year, but it was Emancipation Day. Every year the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and the local Chapter of the NAACP would host a major program commemorating the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. This was celebrated as a momentous occasion because with a stroke of a pen, President Lincoln freed enslaved Africans from bondage. Certainly a just cause for celebration! What was never noted in the Emancipation Day Programs was that the Proclamation did not “free” all of the 4 million enslaved Africans.
For Lincoln, the …
The Nguzo Saba and Kwanzaa in a Time of Crisis
December 26, 2011One of the greatest triumphs of the Black Power, Black Nationalist and Black Consciousness movements of the 60’s and 70’s was the widespread embrace of the Nguzo Saba, The Seven Principles of the Black Value System, and Kwanzaa, the African American holiday created by Dr. Maulana Karenga. As an authentic genius and master teacher, a fundamental tenet of Dr. Karenga’s thought is that “the key crisis in Black life is the cultural crisis.” He has consistently argued that an appreciation of one’s own history and culture is vital to developing a healthy self-concept and positive view of the racial/ethnic group to which you belong. Hence, Dr. Karenga “returned to the source,” Africa to construct a value system for the sons and daughters of formerly enslaved Africans in America. He systematically researched/examined the worldview and traditional way of life which has sustained African people for thousands of years. After …
Toward State of the Black World Conference III
December 15, 2011The First Call
State of Emergency in Black America: Time to Heal Our Families and Communities.
Toward State of the Black World Conference III.
Dedicated to the Memory of Dr. Ronald Walters
“Our cities are crime haunted dying grounds. Huge sectors of our youth – and countless others – face permanent unemployment. Those of us who work find our paychecks able to purchase less and less. Neither the courts nor the prisons contribute to anything resembling justice or reformation. The schools are unable – or unwilling – to educate our children for the real world of our struggles. Meanwhile, the officially approved epidemic of drugs threatens to wipe out the minds and strength of our best young warriors. Economic, cultural, and spiritual depression stalk Black America, and the price for our survival often appears more than we are able to pay.” This chilling assessment was penned as part of the …
Implanting a “Black Footprint” on an Economic Renaissance for Haiti
December 7, 2011August is a momentous month in the history of the African world. August 17th marks the birthday of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, arguably the greatest mass organizer in the history of the Pan African movement. August 14th is the anniversary of Bwa Kayiman, the gathering in northern Haiti convened by the spiritual leader Boukman in 1791 which sparked the revolution that led to the creation of the first Black Republic in the world. More than any other Pan Africanist leader, it was Marcus Garvey who relentlessly preached the value of African self-determination and self-reliance through the control and development of the vast human and material resources in Africa and the African world. And, more than any other event, it was the Haitian Revolution that gave people of African descent everywhere their dignity back under the crushing weight of the holocaust of enslavement, colonial exploitation and the propagation of the …
Occupy Wall Street: Black Voices for Economic Justice Must Be Heard
October 13, 2011Struggling to come up for air from a brutal schedule, for several weeks I had been planning to write an article about the necessity of those affected by the Great Recession to take to the streets to express their outrage. Before I could put pen to paper it happened. A disparate band of mostly young protesters from around the country, disgusted with the rapacious behavior of 21st century “Robber Barons,” marched on Wall Street and set up a camp called “Occupy Wall Street.” As an organizer one never knows what event, what incident or action will be the spark that galvanizes a movement for change. In the face of a Great Recession, precipitated by the greed-driven and reckless behavior of the bandits on Wall Street, there has been growing discontent among the American people, but with rare exception (mass actions by labor and allies in Wisconsin and Ohio) there …
Pass the Bill Now
September 19, 2011“Pass the Bill Now”
Obama Finally Takes a Stand … Again
For months supporters of President Obama have been grumbling that the Tea Party and Grand Obstructionist Party (GOP) have been slapping him around like a rag doll. After buckling to the obstructionists on everything from Health Care Reform, extending the Bush era tax breaks for the wealthy, raising the debt ceiling and awkwardly capitulating to Boehner on the date/day of his speech to a joint session of Congress, the question on everyone´s lips was when will Obama stand and fight. To be fair, the President took a stand during his previous speech to a joint session of Congress last spring when he vowed to protect Medicare and Social Security in any negotiations on the 2012 budget or the deficit and debt. Of course he promptly volunteered to put Medicare and Social Security on the table during his highly touted
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African Leaders and Nations Must Be Accountable
Prescribing Progressive Principles of Pan African Governance
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- Beyond the Trayvon Martin Mobilization: A Movement to End Mass Incarceration and Rebuild America’s “Dark Ghettos”
April 5, 2012 - It’s Nation Time: The 40th Anniversary of the Gary National Black Political Convention
March 28, 2012 - Dr. Ron Daniels at 70: A Half Century on the Frontlines of the Black Freedom Struggle
March 7, 2012 - The Emancipation Proclamation: From 3/5 Human to Second Class Citizenship
January 3, 2012 - The Nguzo Saba and Kwanzaa in a Time of Crisis
December 26, 2011 - Toward State of the Black World Conference III
December 15, 2011 - Implanting a “Black Footprint” on an Economic Renaissance for Haiti
December 7, 2011 - Occupy Wall Street: Black Voices for Economic Justice Must Be Heard
October 13, 2011 - Pass the Bill Now
September 19, 2011 - African Leaders and Nations Must Be Accountable
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