The assassination of Dr. Martin L. King Jr. on April 4,1968,in Memphis will always be seared in my mind and the collective minds of the Black community. From the assassinations of Malcolm X and Dr. King, I have learned that no one goes past his or her 39th birthday without suffering an irreversible hardship, if not an assassination, for simply trying to enforce civil and human rights.
The Atlanta Daily World featured a front-page article recently describing our new Black leaders as including President Barack Hussein Obama, Gov. Duval Patrick, Cong. Auturo Davis and Mayor Corey Booker. They have been sheltered from the horrific experiences of Black oppression. This lack of experience to naked racism explains their moderate views. These new Black leaders share another experience. They have all enjoyed an Ivy League education. President Obama, for example, was awarded an undergraduate degree from Columbia University and a law degree from Harvard University.
I am reminded of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who said, “It took me over 30 years to get over my Harvard education.” Afterwards, he would pen “Miseducation of the Negro.” Malcolm X attended the “School of Hard Knocks” and Dr. King graduated from Morehouse College.
President Obama’s Ivy League education showed during his March 24 primetime news conference. Ed Chappell of Ebony magazine asked him about homeless children in America. Homeless and hungry children fall outside the purview of No Child Left Behind. While he promised “to make sure their parents have a job,” he emphasized that his job plan was mainly focused on preventing “layoffs for teachers and police officers.” There is a disconnect between jobs and homeless children.
Clearly, President Obama was employing a red herring and a non sequitur to mask his lack of an agenda for the poor. What does the possibility of laid-off teachers and police officers have to do with the actual homelessness of Black children in America?
This is a public relations gimmick.
Ann Compton of ABC News upped the ante when she asked him about any discussion he has entertained of race during his ephemeral tenure in the White House. He answered, “I think that the last 64 days has been dominated by me trying to figure out how we’re going to fix the economy, and that’s–affects Black, brown and white.” Will it bail out poor Blacks? Suggesting that Blacks are a part of the U.S. economy is like suggesting that we were a part of the Big House. The Kerner Commission report, released in 1967, said, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one Black, one white–separate and unequal.”
Browns and whites were never enslaved in this country. Until Justice Joseph Bradley of the U.S. Supreme Court decided the Civil Rights Cases, Blacks were supposed to be made the “special favorite of the laws.” He wrote in his opinion that he intended to end the status of Blacks as the “special favorite of the laws” after he had cast the deciding vote for the Tilden-Hayes Compromise.
Before President Obama again lumps Blacks with browns and whites, I would suggest that he read a recent Federal Reserve report, “Currents and Undercurrents: Changes in the Distribution of Wealth, 1989-2004.”It would help if he also read the National Urban League’s “State of Black America 2009.” The National Urban League report concludes, “Blacks remain twice as likely to be unemployed, three times more likely to live in poverty and more than six times as likely to be imprisoned compared with whites.” Mixing Blacks with whites, economically, is like mixing foxes with chickens.
President Obama needs to restart the effort to make Blacks the “special favorite of the laws.” This was the original intent of the Reconstruction Amendments. He should familiarize himself with the teachings of our revered ancestors, including Drs. John Henrik Clarke and John Hope Franklin.
These conclusions are not news to anyone who has suffered the Black experience. After pursuing social rights and, afterwards, voting rights, Dr. King set his sight on economic justice. He saw a nexus between the military-industrial complex and poverty. The Vietnam War not only ran counter to his views on violence but it was also robbing from the poor to reward the rich. If Dr. King were alive today, he would be speaking out against and protesting this country’s illegal occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is akin to Nazi Germany illegally occupying France and, after World War II, the Soviet Union illegally occupying Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Eastern Europe. All of these illegal occupations demonstrate a lack of respect for international law.
Dr. King was able to secure the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Open Housing Law of 1968.These rights, involving equal employment opportunities and the right to live in any neighborhood, are now being taken away by a “Great Depression” in the Black community, in addition to predatory lending and fraudulent mortgages perpetrated by Wall Street.
After the Emancipation Proclamation, Blacks were unable to enjoy access to credit and enjoy the benefits of the Homestead Act of 1862, which opened up the West for white settlers after the Buffalo Soldiers secured the land for them. Whites were receiving a gift while Blacks were unable to collect on a debt. To be sure, President Obama has gained style points for Blacks. Substance is another question. White racists are using his presidency, however, to undo rights gained by Dr. King. Justice Clarence Thomas’ clerk has initiated a federal lawsuit to undo the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
This lawyer will argue that President Obama’s presidency means that Blacks have already arrived, and, therefore, the present federal statute on voting rights has achieved its goal. At least four justices of the Supreme Court appear ready to undo the law. Oral arguments will take place on April 29. Many of the key officials in the Obama administration are members of the Bilderberg Group, which was founded by Prince Bernhard, a member of the Nazi Party and Hitler’s SS. Other officials are members of the Trilateral Commission and the Council of Foreign Relations. The Bush family consorted with Nazi Germany. This presidential relay team consists of Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43 and Obama. Both Bushes are members of Skull and Bones. Clinton is a Rhodes Scholar.
There will be no “change” under President Obama. Is he pursuing a hidden agenda? In making reference to the 1963 March on Washington, President Obama would only refer to Dr. King as the “preacher from Georgia.”
Hardly anyone in 2009 is afraid to call Dr. King by name except President Obama. Is this really fear or hatred? Moreover, President Obama last year voted for Bush 43’s domestic spying program, despite his claim of loving Black people. A similar domestic spying program in 1968 led to Dr. King’s assassination. Lt. Col. Ralph Van Deman established a military spy program against Blacks in 1917. It would ensnare Malcolm X and Dr. King.
I need your support and letters in filing a petition for writ of certiorari in Maddox v. Prudenti et al in the U.S. Supreme Court on the questions of two-tone justice in the United States and denial of free speech for Blacks. Also, the invocation of the no-citation rule is threatening the doctrine of stare decisis. Send letters and support to Alton Maddox, 16 Court Street, Ste.1901, Brooklyn, NY 11241. April 4: The Nubian Society’s 28th anniversary and second annual Theo Heuston Scholarship Awards Dinner Dance at 8 p.m. at Antun’s 96-43 Springfield Boulevard, Queens Village, N.Y. For further information, call Anthony Staley at (347) 693-0100. Alton Maddox, et al will be honored. April 8:UAM Weekly Forum at Elks Plaza, 1068 Harriet Tubman (Fulton Street) near Classon Avenue in Brooklyn at 7:30 p.m. Take the “C” train to Franklin Avenue. Three blocks to Elks Plaza. Admission is free. The focus will be on the April 20 rally on the steps of City Hall acknowledging the 20th anniversary of the “Central Park Six.” No justice! No peace! April 25-26: UAM’s “Egypt on the Potomac” field trip in Washington, D.C., and Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore, Md., with a major rally in D.C. on Saturday night with Alton Maddox and Drs. Leonard and Roslyn Jeffries as keynote speakers.
May 22-25: UAM’s bus trip to the Gullah Festival in historic, Beaufort, S.C. July 5-August 1: Freedom Retreat for Boys and Girls for children ages 7-15 in the Catskill Mountains. Call UAM at (718) 834-9034 for further information. See: www.reinstatealtonmaddox.net for “Plea to Help the Central Park Six,” “Busy Wednesday Nights at Elks Plaza” and “Obama Administration and Secret Societies.”