When Bush 43 contemplated invading Iraq, his initial advice was not from generals but from Pentagon lawyers. They had to ascertain the rules of engagement. Obviously, he ignored the advice on torture, the rights of enemy combatants and absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. In addition, the United States would boycott Iraq. Before Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. boycotted stores in Harlem, he consulted attorney Belford V. Lawson, who, afterwards, persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court in 1938 in New Negro Advance v. Sanitary Grocery to allow Blacks to exercise rights under the First Amendment to boycott racist, commercial enterprises.
The same is also true of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Lawson and attorney Charles Hamilton Houston laid the groundwork for boycotts. Rosa Parks had attended the Highlander Folk School and was the sacrificial lamb. E.D. Nixon was inspired by Marcus Garvey. Jo Ann Robinson was its architect. Attorney Fred D. Gray represented the boycott.
For the record, Blacks had already challenged Jim Crow on 125th Street in Harlem before the Supreme Court decision. Sufi Abdul Hamid organized a successful boycott against those white merchants in 1934. This boycott was aborted when an intervening court order prohibited Blacks from employing picketing as a weapon against Jim Crow.
Howard University became the epicenter of the Black struggle. The first course on civil rights was framed at its law school. Houston and Lawson also attended the third annual meeting of the National Lawyer’s Guild, which called for the unification of all racially oppressed groups.
History has proven that it is impossible for Blacks to effectively protest Jim Crow while they continue to finance their own oppression. New York City is a hotbed of white racism. The New York Post is simply fanning the flames. Any effective boycott has to be aimed at New York City’s entire economic and political structure, including its municipal government.
If you follow the money trail of Black leaders, you would know that the current protest against the New York Post for sponsoring a cartoon showing two white policemen shooting a chimpanzee (Obama) amounts to planned failure. The cartoon inferentially connects the chimpanzee to President Barack Hussein Obama’s stimulus package. This is not only defamation but also group defamation, and it is in violation of the 13th Amendment. A bad reputation equals bad credit. There is a connection between finance and law. Credit is the lifeline of capitalism.
Although Mr. Obama was the victim in the New York Post’s cartoon, all Blacks were the targets. Blacks have been caricatured and stereotyped since the advent of our enslavement in the United States. Every white institution has devalued Black life. Devaluation of Black life is required under Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution and customary law.
If Black leaders were pursuing a solution to race-based defamation, they would have not only called for a citywide boycott but also a civil rights class-action lawsuit in Manhattan Federal Court against the New York Post for promoting a badge of slavery in violation of the 13th Amendment. Newspapers are constitutionally unregulated. This would be a test case, and it is ripe for judicial review. The Federal Communications Commission has limited jurisdiction over communications and zero jurisdiction over the New York Post. Nothing would have happened in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955 if Blacks had submitted petitions to the Interstate Commerce Commission instead of waging an effective boycott against Jim Crow. New York City must be brought down to its financial knees.
The late Dr. William A. Jones would often say, “If you eat the king’s meat, you must do the king’s bidding.” This means that any Black leader who is calling the shots for Blacks while collecting funds from whites is a Judas goat. A Judas goat always acts in the best interest of white supremacists. The current theatrics against the New York Post looks like a rerun of Don Imus, the Jena Six, Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo. Blacks have constantly knocked on the wrong door, talked to the wrong people and asked the wrong questions. In each instance, Blacks flunked physical education. On the other hand, there were no mental exercises.
A boycott of white businesses, including the New York Post, in New York City is off the table. Judas goats arrived at the crime scene first and started directing traffic. This is the modus operandi and it is all cameras. “The early bird gets the worm.” Newspapers have advertisers. These advertisers also donate to the coffers of Black organizations and to the wallets of Black leaders. Advertising is essential for store and newspaper sales. Monies that Black leaders receive from white advertisers are not gifts. There is a quid pro quo.
There is also a conflict of interest. It is unethical and criminal for Black leaders to represent Blacks while taking money from white businesses. Because it is in the interest of whites to finance Black leaders, there is no criminal nor ethical violations for this kind of blatant double-dealing. Thus, it is permissible for Black preachers to enjoy public funds despite the constitutional wall between church and state. The purpose of the faith-based initiative (FBI) is to discourage ministers from allowing churches to be used as places of public assemblies for civil rights activities.
Once upon a time, dynamite served this purpose. See, for example, the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., on Sept.15,1963.A spate of church bombings was reignited in the 1990s. Law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system are continuing to terrorize Blacks. If we had respect for our revered ancestors, “our” leaders today would be modeled after them. Those leaders included Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Gabrielle Prosser, Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner and David Walker. This was before the Emancipation Proclamation.
Our revered ancestors would frighten us today. Few streets are named after them. Whites refused to fund their liberation activities. They would make mincemeat out of current leadership. There is a historical disconnect. This spells doom and gloom for the Black masses. The defamatory cartoon that appeared in the New York Post on February 17 constitutes a “fire drill.” White racists employ these Pavlovian experiments to ascertain if our leaders can keep us in check. New York City is a social laboratory. We have allowed whites to reduce us to laboratory dogs, monkeys and rats. Social control is the object and a policy of containment is in effect.
Otherwise, Blacks are a threat to national security. A citywide boycott and a “badge of slavery” lawsuit are vital tools to combat our containment. There are also no licensed lawyers involved in planning and directing the protest against the New York Post. Compare, for example, Michael Stewart, Howard Beach, Yusuf Hawkins and Tawana Brawley, among others, before 1991. This was an era that produced results. There was a blueprint. Blacks were not simply pacified.
Attorney Robert Morris Sr. initiated the Civil Rights Movement in Roberts v.City of Boston. Attorney Charles Hamilton Houston institutionalized it and attorney Frederick L. McGhee was the architect of the Niagara Movement, the forerunner of the NAACP, which was formed in 1909. Public schools must teach Black history.
I need your support and letters for 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. Send letters and support to Alton Maddox, 16 Court Street, Ste. 1901. Brooklyn, N.Y. 11241. March 4: UAM Weekly Forum at the 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. April 25-26: UAM’s “Egypt on the Potomac” field trip and tour in Washington and Baltimore. May 22-25: UAM sponsors bus trip to the Gullah Festival in Beaufort, S.C. Call UAM at (718) 834-9034 for furher information. See: www.reinstatealtonmaddox.net for “Putting New York on its Financial Knees,” “Solving the Riddle of Freedom and Emancipation,” and “Requiem for Black Activism.”