Min. Louis Farrakhan seated next to Dr. Conrad Worrill. (Photo: Kenneth Muhammad)
Posted on 07/14/2007 12:12:45 PM PDT by Altura Ct.
In speeches demanding government reparations for 400 years of American slavery to ruminations on the revolutionary nature of a rose in a woman's hand, black activists Friday took up the the thorny topic of how best to "resurrect" the African-American family.
Chicago activist Conrad Worrill urged those gathered at the Shape Community Center for the 28th convention of the National Black United Front to continue to push for government compensation for centuries of slavery.
"It's clear they owe us for 400 years of free labor," he said. "They owe us."
Worrill, United Front national chairman, was the opening speaker for the organization's three-day conference. Founded in Brooklyn, N.Y., the group was active in opposing the white-led government of South Africa, supporting Harold Washington's election as Chicago's first black mayor and participating in the Nation of Islam's 1995 Million Man March in Washington, D.C. In the 1990s, the group lodged allegations of U.S. genocide with the United Nations.
Houston Nation of Islam Minister Robert Muhammad, also on Friday's program, called the United Front the "hardest of hard-core" activists. "We say, 'No justice, no peace,' and mean it," he said.
Today, delegates will tour the Fourth Ward — Houston's "Freedman's Town" — then discuss strategies and experiments in African-centered education.
In an earlier interview, Worrill attributed many of the problems facing contemporary black families to the legacy of slavery, which he said "disrupted, decimated and shut down" black family life for centuries.
Blacks bear the responsibility of "repairing the family internally," he said, but must not stop demanding that government address social ills.
'Apologies aren't enough' Citing ex-slave Callie House's decades-long, early 20th-century crusade to glean government pensions for former bondsmen as a model, Worrill said blacks must push for reparations with the tenacity they exhibited in seeking the end of legally sanctioned segregation. "What we're seeing unfold is that many states have now offered apologies," he said. "Apologies aren't enough.
"Why are blacks any different than the Japanese?" he said, alluding to reparations paid Japanese-Americans held in World War II internment camps.
Ajamu Webster, of the United Front's Kansas City chapter, told delegates about the Fathers for Life program, which provided peer counseling sessions for adult men. The program also endeavored to "lift up brothers," publicizing examples of highly successful fathers.
An effort to "take back Father's Day" resulted in large numbers of men spending the day in the park with their children. In a related campaign, children were encouraged to write essays about their fathers, which they then read over the radio.
Muhammad told delegates that activists in their zeal sometimes "have not taken care of business at home." Citing the teachings of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, Muhammad said family is "second only to God."
The power of love He admonished the men in the audience to "feel your woman's pain," and to exhibit patience and loyalty. "What's wrong with flowers?" Muhammad said. "Nothing is as revolutionary as a rose in a woman's hand. Nothing is as revolutionary as taking her out to dinner and a movie. Nothing is more revolutionary than going to the park. ... Nothing more revolutionary than a rowboat ride.
"Black power is love power. Black power is family power."
Drives the reparationists crazy when you can quote it.
I didn’t read the entire article, but if their criticisms included the condescending and liberal “War on Poverty”, please let me know.
Where in the world do they get the calculation of the 400 years number?????
Of course, there are quite a few also who are of the mindset that they are due, and deserve more (money, authority, etc.) without having earned it.
Amazing post. Lots of things I did not know. Thanks.
It’s not the stuff you’ll learn from folks who are on the gov’t dole.
Amen to that. Another reason why we must get control of the public schools. Homeschooling is a great alternative but unfortunately the majority of voters are not home schooled.
Re: Black activists focus on family, reparations
Dear Mr. Turner;
First you may be interested in how others feel about your column at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1865999/posts.
Forgetting about how they would calculate who is to get the money, considering that many black now in America have no connection to slavery; and; who would be responsible for paying it, considering many American families also have no roots to slavery; I really have to ask you why you wrote this article?
If reparations were paid, how would this help any Black family; how would this help America; and how would it fix the real problems of Blacks – broken families with no fathers and Girls as young as 13 getting pregnant?
If your interest is really to change the world and help Black families and America, why are you wasting column space pandering to race hucksters, con artists, and out right lying revisionist? Why are you not writing about the social ills brought about by RECENT liberal policies? Prior to Lyndon Johnsons’ great society of the 1960’s black had an illegitimacy rate of about 9%, now it has reversed to almost 90%. Teenage pregnancies were almost unheard of, now they are common place. All aforementioned is a result of failed liberal policies and unintended consequences. These facts alone points out the propaganda put out by Conrad Worrill.
Why don’t writers like yourself every report on the consequences of the policies that are supported by groups like United Front? Haven’t you read about what has happened to South Africa, that is now the baby rape capital of the world (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1703595.stm) and car jacking have increased so much that people have put flame throwers under their cars to discourage car jackings (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/232777.stm)?
Why are you writing about slavery in America that has not been practiced here in about 150 years, and ignore the slavery in Africa today (http://www.infoplease.com/spot/slavery1.html)?
Where is your attack on the logic of Worrill when he attributes many of the problems facing contemporary black families to the legacy of slavery, which he said “disrupted, decimated and shut down” black family life for centuries. Give me a brake. At what point are we going to stop making Blacks victims, and start making themselves take the responsibility for themselves of what is happening to them?
Hucksters like Worrill hold Blacks down by allowing them to put all their problems on something or someone else, when he should be encouraging them to take responsibly and to give up on government programs.
Until writers like you start attacking these con artists and pointing out the flaws in there statements, black will be nothing put useful pawns of the Socialist, you will be nothing but a Leninist useful idiot who spreads the propaganda.
Exton
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
True story: I am descended from both slaves AND slave-owners. I’ve been paying myself reparations for the past 10 years through a 401(k) account.
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