If you missed my reports on the pilgrimage to Grenada to honor the life and legacy of Malcolm X’s mother, Louise Langdon Little, and to make it back in time for the celebration of Malcolm’s centennial birthday at the Shabazz Center, let me say again how thrilled I was to witness these two events.
However, I was disappointed that not much attention was given to African Liberation Day, although several groups gave it some mention and attendance. With the announcement that June 1 will now be the Tulsa Race Massacre Observance Day, we have another moment in preparation for Juneteenth. Folks, we had better celebrate them while we can, because if Trump has his malicious way, they will be but a memory. No doubt, he will give little attention to the two days in August, marked as Barack Obama Day, and it’s a good thing our festive Harlem Week cannot be touched by his sweeping erasures.
Speaking of malicious intent, Mayor Ras Baraka is suing a top Trump lawyer, Alina Habba, and filing a federal lawsuit for his arrest outside an immigrant detention center on May 9. While Habba, appointed the state’s top federal prosecutor, has since dropped the charges, a federal judge has publicly denounced the arrest in the first place. “Your role is not to secure convictions at all costs, nor to satisfy public clamor, nor to advance political agendas,” said Judge Andre M. Espinosa.
It was a scathing rebuke of what Baraka had claimed was an uncalled-for act. “To handcuff me, to drag me away, to take my fingerprints and mugshot for a misdemeanor was egregious and malicious,” Baraka said.
Along with my cheer for Tulsa’s “Road to Repair,” let me give a resounding shout-out to Espinosa, but like Baraka, he’d better watch his back.