Africans in America should be aware that 2013 is a year of great significance. It will mark the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by Abraham Lincoln, the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of Medgar Evers and the 50th Anniversary of the historic March on Washington.
Anyone who follows my writings and work is aware that leading up to the critical 2012 presidential election, I relentlessly urged Africans in America to “march on ballot boxes and mobilize for State of the Black World III” (SOBWCIII) as the “Black imperatives” of the day.
As some of my followers are aware, I am an occasional Guest Radio Talk Show Host, periodically sitting in for Warren Ballentine, Mark Thompson and Rev. Al Sharpton on Radio-One, SIRIUS/XM networks as well as WWRL AM in New York.
The Republican and Democratic Conventions are history, and the campaign for the presidency will shift into high gear. Viewing the two conventions should have given African Americans a glimpse of the difference in composition and direction of the two major parties. As a friend of mine, who is White, remarked, “Ron, the Republican Convention was White, but the Democratic Convention looked like America.”
In the Second Call for State of the Black World Conference III, we issued a challenge to make the event a “Great Gathering of Black People,” a seminal assembly to assess the state of the race and chart directions for the future. Though State of the Black World Conferences are open to any person of African descent, the vision/mission of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW), as the convening organization, is progressive, African-centered and action-oriented in nature.
I recently had the privilege of participating in George Fraser’s Power Networking Conference (PNC) in Dallas. Sponsored by FraserNet, the Conference is one of the most amazing gatherings of Black people that occurs in Black America — annually attracting thousands of Black professionals eager to embrace George’s vision/mission of “creating wealth that can be passed on inter-generationally and making Black people the number one employers of Black people in the 21st Century.” Once again this year I had the honor of conducting the Libation Ceremony along with Kwa David Whitaker, a longtime friend and mentor of George. I was also a Panelist for the Town Hall Meeting.
The Institute of the Black World 21st Century has just completed Town Hall Meetings in Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh and Baltimore to increase public awareness about the devastating impact of the “War on Drugs” on the Black community as a racially biased strategy/policy.
The Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) is in the process of convening Town Hall Meetings in Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh and Baltimore on the devastating effects of the “War on Drugs” on Black America and gearing up for State of the Black World Conference III (SOBWC) at Howard University in D.C. in November after the 2012 presidential election.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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