Plots in the Dark by Jhantu Randall

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It was another gathering to hear Malcolm X speak to the crowd about liberation and fighting an unjust system. With the momentum and controversy that he carried with him, there was always a hint of danger, but no one ever thought they'd see what was about to unfold in front of them. Crowding into the Audubon Ballroom on West 165th Street in the Washington Heights neighborhood in Manhattan, the date, February 21, 1965 was about to be written into the history books while the actions behind it would be destined to be shrouded in mystery for decades to come.

During the start of the speech, the infamous setup was put into motion. “Hey get your hands off my wallet!” One voice shouts.

“We got a thief,” shouted another. As Malcolm tried to calm the situation, a couple men stepped forward and began firing. His wife Betty Shabazz and their children witnessed the 39 year old leader gunned down before their very eyes and pandemonium ensued. For years people wondered who was behind it it wasn’t until the 1970’s what the public learned about J Edgar Hoover and the Cointel Pro operations that were heavily invested in surveillance of African Americans, Leftists, and other groups of color that were deemed a threat to the US Government. Yes Crack being flooded into Los Angeles in the 1980’s was also a part of this operation.

Although it’s still met by much speculation, a lot of suspicion about who was behind it has been pointed at the FBI and the Nation of Islam which both viewed Malcolm as a threat, especially after he had returned from Mecca and appeared to hold an ideology that wasn’t so separatists. While we may never find the truth behind it, I point towards Malcolm’s bodyguard, Gene Roberts who was later discovered to be apart of the NYPD who was undercover the whole time. Of course ultimately they took down a man named Talmadge X Hayer who went by the name Mujahid Abdul Halim, who was the other voice heard and ironically the man who met with Muhammad Ali the night before the assassination even though he thought Ali was one of the biggest threats to the Nation and the country. Talmadge Hayer has been a free man since 2010. What about Eugene though? It appears him along with four co-conspirators had sought to create a sense of unity from this deliberate disaster which apparently had been in the works since 1963 after the Nation suspended Malcolm for saying President Kennedy’s assassination was simply the chickens coming home to roost. Another rumor for this says that since Gene Roberts had the NYPD arrest others who were proven to not even be there for the crime, he stayed in the shadows. It has been said that he was one of the first that was instrumental in taking down the Black Panther Party a few years later after 17 year old Bobby Hutton was killed. Panther member Fred Hampton’s death followed, surprisingly after he got the Sons of Appalachia to work with the party over workers rights.

I often wonder if this case will ever be solved beyond a reasonable doubt? I have no faith in it though because it would mean the system that killed him would have to expose their own dirty hands in the act. But it’s because of this sense of benign neglect for this particular period in history that leads us to where we are now. Fighting many of the same battles with a rather fractured point of view. I could go on talking about the plight that Black and Brown people face on a daily, but until we come together as one unified voice, we are destined to play into their divide and conquer schemes as they slowly but surely erase our movements from the books of history.

Dr. Umar Johnson on Hip Hop today: "WE in the Community ARE NOT Pushing the Positive, Conscious Artists"

There were a lot of Gems in this video by Dr. Umar Johnson. He made quite a few critical points that I wanted to share with ThaWilsonBlock, specifically about what he has to say about Negative vs. Positive artists in Hip Hop today. If you take anything from this video, please give it a share!

Who Was "Geronimo Pratt"?

Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt (September 13, 1947 – June 2, 2011), also known as Geronimo Ji-Jaga and Geronimo Ji-Jaga Pratt, was a decorated military veteran and a high-ranking member of the Black Panther Party in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Born in Louisiana, he served two tours in Vietnam, receiving several decorations. He moved to Los Angeles, where he studied at UCLA under the GI Bill and joined the Black Panther Party.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation targeted Pratt in a COINTELPRO operation in the early 1970s, intended to "neutralize Pratt as an effective BPP functionary." Pratt was tried and convicted in 1972 for the 1968 murder of Caroline Olsen; he served 27 years in prison, eight of which were in solitary confinement. Pratt was freed in 1997 when his conviction was vacated due to the prosecution's having concealed evidence that could have affected the verdict. This decision was upheld on appeal.

He worked as a human rights activist until the time of his death. Pratt was also the godfather of the late rapper Tupac Shakur. He died of a heart attack in his adopted country, Tanzania, on June 3, 2011.

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Who Was Claudette Colvin?

Claudette Colvin (born September 5, 1939) is a pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in segregated Montgomery, Alabama, nine months prior to Rosa Parks.

Colvin was among the five plaintiffs originally included in the federal court case filed by civil rights attorney Fred Gray on February 1, 1956, as Browder v. Gayle, and she testified before the three-judge panel that heard the case in the United States District Court. On June 13, 1956, the judges determined that the state and local laws requiring bus segregation in Alabama were unconstitutional. The case went to the United States Supreme Court, which upheld their ruling on December 17, 1956. Colvin was the last witness to testify. Three days later, the Supreme Court issued an order to Montgomery and the state of Alabama to end bus segregation, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott was called off.

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Who Was Ernesto "Che" Guevara?

(June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967)

Ernesto "Che" Guevara was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous counter cultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia in popular culture.

As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout South America and was radicalized by the poverty, hunger and disease he witnessed. His burgeoning desire to help overturn what he saw as the capitalist exploitation of Latin America by the United States prompted his involvement in Guatemala's social reforms under President Jacobo Árbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow at the behest of the United Fruit Company solidified Guevara's political ideology. Later in Mexico City, Guevara met Raúl and Fidel Castro, joined their 26th of July Movement and sailed to Cuba aboard the yacht Granma with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to second-in-command and played a pivotal role in the victorious two-year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime.

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Who was Coretta Scott King?

Coretta Scott King (April 27, 1927 – January 30, 2006) was an American author, activist, civil rights

1964

leader, and the wife of Martin Luther King, Jr.from 1953 until his death in 1968. Coretta Scott King helped lead the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. King was an active advocate for African-American equality. King met her husband while in college, and their participation escalated until they became central to the movement. In her early life, Coretta was an accomplished singer, and she often incorporated music into her civil rights work.

King played a prominent role in the years after her husband's 1968 assassination when she took on the leadership of the struggle for racial equality herself and became active in the Women's Movement. King founded the King Center and sought to make his birthday a national holiday. King finally succeeded when Ronald Reagan signed legislation which established Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. She later broadened her scope to include both opposition to apartheid and advocacy for LGBT rights. King became friends with many politicians before and after Martin Luther King's death, most notably John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Robert F. Kennedy. John F. Kennedy's phone call to her during the 1960 election was what she liked to believe was behind his victory.

In August 2005, King suffered a stroke which paralyzed her right side and left her unable to speak; five months later she died of respiratory failure due to complications from ovarian cancer. Her funeral was attended by some 10,000 people, including four of five living US presidents. She was temporarily buried on the grounds of the King Center until being interred next to her husband. She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame and was the first African-American to lie in State in the Georgia State Capitol. King has been referred to as "First Lady of the Civil Rights Movement".

Learn more about Coretta Scott King...