To the Beasley Family and Friends:
I wish to take this occasion of great grief and sadness to express my sincere condolences on the passing of my longtime ally, supporter and friend Ambassador Joe Beasley. But I also pen a tribute of joy and celebration for the life he lived and the service he rendered. He rose from being a sharecropper to become one of the most fierce advocates for civil rights, human rights and advancement of people of African decent in Atlanta, the United States and the Black World of our time.
Joe was a stanch supporter of Rev. Jesse L. Jackson and played leadership roles in Operation Breadbasket, PUSH, Rainbow/PUSH and the Wall Street Project. Rev. Jackson held Joe in highest esteem. Indeed, it was through his association and friendship with Rev. Jackson that I first met Joe in 1987, when I was dispatched by Rev. Jackson to Atlanta as Southern Regional Coordinator and Deputy Campaign Manager, to set- up an office to serve as the headquarters for voter education, mobilizing and turn-out for Super Tuesday for his historical 1988 presidential campaign.
Jack O’Dell, Lewis Carter, Jesse Jackson Jr. and I were dispatched to Atlanta with nothing but an instruction to “go see Joe Beasley.” And that was all we needed because we soon found out, this remarkable man was known to and respected by everyone. He immediately embraced us and used his good will to identify office space to set up shop and a comfortable apartment where we could live. Jesse, Jr. still proudly boasts about the fact that we sent him out on his first political speaking engagement from the office that Joe Beasely identified. With Joe’s support, we won Super Tuesdays, a stunning victory for one of the most electrifying and significant campaigns in the history of this nation.
As everyone associated with Joe Beasley knows, he was a kick down the door, take no excuses advocate for eradicating racism, white supremacy and the exploitation and oppression of his people, people of African descent, Black people from all over the world from nations in Africa to Brazil and Colombia in South America and Central America and Haiti in the Caribbean.
Though he had personal friends in the hierarchy of Coca Cola he campaigned tirelessly for the company to adopt policies to advance social and economic development for the nations and peoples of Africa. He also challenged Delta Airlines to hire more Black people in key positions and to invest in the Black community in Atlanta and across the country. No trans-national corporation headquartered in Atlanta was safe from Joe’s relentless determination to advance the interest and aspirations of Black people in the U.S. and globally. Hence, I called him Ambassador, our Ambassador to the Black World and gave him that title. In fact, Joe served as Chairman of the first State of the Black World Conference which was convened in Atlanta in 2001; a powerful gathering which give birth to the Institute of the Black World 21st Century of which I serve as Founder and President.
Ambassador Beasley’s monumental achievements are too numerous to catalogue in this Note of Condolence and Tribute; however, I cannot leave out his role as an influential and effective friend and supporter of Haiti, the world’s First Black Republic. Joe traveled with me on a delegation of twenty-two African Americans to Haiti in June of 1995 at the invitation of Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, the leader of the Peasant Movement of Papay, the largest peasant organization in Haiti. The goal of this delegation was to express solidarity for the people of Haiti in their struggle for democracy and development under the leadership of President Jean Bertand Aristide. It was an inspirational, life altering experience which motivated me to return home to create the Haiti Support Project with a mission to “Build a Constituency for Haiti in the U.S.” Ambassador Beasley was a founding member and dedicated contributor.
Joe not only returned to Haiti with HSP on numerous occasions, but he also resolved to make Atlanta a vital hub for humanitarian and developmental assistance to Haiti. Joe introduced Haiti to scores of influential leaders and advocates in Atlanta and raised hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars for medical supplies, food, clothing, school supplies and an ambulance. With the support of Antioch Baptist Church North and the Georgia Baptist Convention, under the leadership of the visionary Rev. Cameron Alexander, Joe Beasely raised the resources to completely transform an entire mountaintop village outside of the Capital of Port Au Prince in Haiti, assisting the people to build a school, medical clinic and church.
Having observed how much land and property the Catholic Church owned and controlled in Haiti, Ambassador Beasley was the first leader I ever heard who proclaimed that the Vatican should turn over the majority of its land and property in Haiti to the Haitian people as reparations for its role in sanctioning the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade; a challenge and charge I am happy to report has been taken up by the Global Circle for Reparations and Healing under the leadership of Kamm Howard.
This was/is Joe Beasley who transformed his Loft into a warm, Haitian, Caribbean and African adorned, welcoming movement space to host leaders great and small from all over the Black World. He never forgot or betrayed his roots as a tenacious, dedicated, devout, humble, kind, giving, sharing, caring African human being who rose up from the cotton fields of Georgia to become Ambassador to the Black World. Joe Beasley is alive in our cherished memories of his lifelong legacy of contributions to Black people and humankind. May we continue to invite him to be with us when we shout out his name during the pouring of Libations. May Ambassador Dr. Joe H. Beasley Rest in Peace and Power as our newest Ancestor! A Luta Continua, the Struggle Continues!!
Dr. Ron Daniels, President,
Institute of the Black World 21st Century,
Founder, Haiti Support Project,
Convener, National African American Reparations Commission
