Friday, May 20, several comrades of Sonny Carson recollected some fond memories of the Brooklyn warrior to commemorate his 87th birthday anniversary. Although it’s been over a decade since he became an ancestor on Dec. 20, 2002, his legacy is firmly cemented in the streets of the concrete jungle he once called home.
“Ain’t nothing changed in this country for the Black man,” contends Carson’s comrade, Brother Ali Lamont Jr., as he compares the rampant police terrorism and miseducation going on today. “What Sonny was saying back in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s is still relevant today. Sonny, Malcolm X, Dr. King, The Father Allah and all of them were very close even though they had different directions in how they would handle situations. The bottom line was, it’s about Black folks and how we advance our cause.”
Many doubt that the current onset of gentrification would still be having the effect it has had on his beloved People’s Republic of Brooklyn if Sonny was still physically alive today, as he always advocated the importance of controlling our own communities.
“On more than one occasion Sonny Abubadika Carson told his audience, ‘I don’t want to talk to you because to do so I would have to use the king’s language, since white supremacist beat out of us our African language,’” reflected Brother Tarik, Black Panther and Carson’s comrade. “Through his attire and his speeches Abubadika worked tirelessly to retrain the negro back into being an African who will fight for freedom. Abubadika we still love and miss you.”
Also known as Mwlina “AB” Abubadika to those in his inner circle, Carson was a stalwart figure in his community whose efforts also had positive psychological effects.
“We recognize Abubadika Sonny Carson because he was a special spirit that moved in this mix of the ’60s, ’70s and the ’80s,” recalled Dr. Leonard Jeffries, who worked along with Carson on many occasions. “His vehicle was CORE—the Congress of Racial Equality. Different folks formed different organizations as vehicles to throw off this yoke of inferiority, to throw off this dehumanizing process that we’ve been subjected to, to throw off the legacy of slavery, shattered consciousness and fractured identity.”
Jeffries added how Abubadika also “helped to lead the way to stop the construction that was going on in destroying all those areas around City Hall and the courts, which were the African Burial Ground and the African community, long ago.”
Ali Lamont echoed similar thoughts. “He pointed the way back to Africa,” Lamont said. “He took his ancestors’ bones back to Ghana and changed the door of no return back to the door of the returned. That’s from the book of Ezekiel, when he asked ‘Can these bones live again?’ So can we live again on this planet as a people and be allowed to worship our God?”
Another one of Carson’s confidant’s, Atiim Ferguson, declared, “The brother is missed! The world is changing, we got crazy politics. We still got a lot of work to do, especially with our youth. Racism is one thing Sonny Carson been fighting against his entire life, and those of us who were with him are still fighting. He still walks with us.”