June 25, 2015
By Charlene Muhammad
LAWT Contributing Writer
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan met with L.A.’s community leaders during his “Justice or Else!” national tour to promote the 20th Anniversary of the Million Man March, slated for October 10, 2015 in Washington, D.C.
The June 17 meeting, held at Holman United Methodist Church, was hosted as part of a special Urban Issues Breakfast Forum founded by author and professor, Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad.
Nation of islam Western Region Representative Tony Muhammad, Holman’s Senior Pastor Kevin Sauls, California State L.A. Black Studies Professor Dr. Melina Abdullah, Us Organization chair and Professor of Africana Studies at California State University Long Beach Dr. Maulana Karenga, Los Angeles Sentinel publisher Danny J. Bakewell, Sr. fired up the audience before Minister Farrakhan arrived.
A diverse coalition of clergy, grassroots activists, street organization leaders, educators, gang interventionists, homeless activists and entertainers were among the more than 1,500 present.
“This is not a Million Man March. That’s what was! This is a movement of human beings for justice or else,” Minister Farrakhan declared.
He told the gatherers he wasn’t looking for people who are frightened by the “or else” part of his call. “The reason we’re still looking for justice is there never was a threat in your cry for justice,” he said.
The world is in a brand new reality, Minister Farrakhan continued. According to him it’s finished and has come to its natural end.
Bodies rocked from side to side, heads bowed and shook, and arms raised and hands waved in the clergy section, as Minister Farrakhan used scripture after scripture and the teachings of Jesus Christ to lay the base for his address.
He explained why humanity has fallen from where God intended it to be and why it must now be raised back to life. He also explained that people must understand what justice really is.
“We’ve been going to Washington a long time, asking for jobs and justice and haven’t gotten either, but a few of us would get an offer,” he said.
He urged attendees to study the last two years of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life, his evolutionary and revolutionary development, and why he was really assassinated. It wasn’t because he had a dream in 1963, but because he talked about the power of economic withdrawal in Memphis until the garbage men got justice.
“It was garbage men in Memphis, but it’s the Black man and woman in America today. It’s our Indian, Native American family that’s in pain today. It’s our Latino brothers and sisters that are in pain today. It’s women who can’t get equal pay for equal work that are in pain today,” Minister Farrakhan said.
He listed soldiers fighting unjust wars on the basis of a lie, and Palestinians and Muslims that want to practice their religion and live freely as others who are also in pain and seeking justice.
“We can’t just go to Washington talking about the government when killing is going on in our community,” Minister Farrakhan said.
He challenged individuals and collectives, asking how fairly do family members, businesses, children and neighbors deal with each other.
The community leaders present noted that conditions were ripe in L.A. for the Minister’s visit and his call for justice.
“There’s been one theme throughout our conversations in preparation for today. It is the theme of unity,” Pastor Sauls stated. “We believe that no weapon formed against unity shall prosper, he said.
Pastor Sauls told gatherers in these consequential times, he believes God is calling people forward from uncommon and common ground to find a way to unite like never before. “If we want to go far, far to reach the destiny of justice and equality, then we will have to go together,” he continued.
Dr. Abdullah said the gathering at Holman United Methodist Church was so appropriate because as recognized in the Black Lives Matters movement, spirit will get people through and free.
“We have to pray. We have to summon spirit. We have to summons our ancestors to work through us so that we can topple a system that really is that goliath that’s talked about in the Bible,” Dr. Abdullah said.
“In getting free there’s no one person that’s going to do it for us…It takes all of us…All we have to lose are our chains,” she stated.
Dr. Karenga thanked Minister Farrakhan for calling the community together again. “To those who say we are not at war with anyone, we reply as we did in the 60s: You might not be at war, but you’re in a war,” Dr. Karenga said.
Karenga cited the list of Black boys and girls is being attacked, not only in the streets by the police, as proof.
The war, he noted, is waged in the schools, through the denial of housing and healthcare, through using Blacks as guinea pigs and targets of medical experiments, unemployment and massive imprisonment.
“We cannot in good faith or sound mind or moral consciousness pretend neutrality, feign unawareness or collaborate in our own oppression by remaining silent, being inactive, or playing dead or working against the interest of our people …,” he continued.
In a moment of levity, Sentinel publisher Danny J. Bakewell, Sr. told attendees they were in the place to be, and couldn’t get out. But on a serious note, he said he was honored to be representing the Black press for the historic meeting.
“We are going to amplify and echo this demand on 10-10, October 10, this year in Washington, D.C. for justice or else,” Mr. Bakewell said as the audience erupted into applause.
He said leadership knows when to come, what to do and when to leave, and the Black community has been blessed to have practiced that type of leadership in Minister Farrakhan for the last 50 years, Mr. Bakewell continued.
“He loves all people but he loves Black people first … He comes to talk to the brothers who are a part of gang violence, and he comes to talk to them about loving each other, putting down the gun and picking up the mantle to help each other,” he said.
Before Minister Farrakhan was whisked from the church to another engagement, he wished a Blessed Ramadan to the Muslims observing the Muslims’ Holy Month.
“Ramadan won’t be a Ramadan if you only go to the Masjid and pray and study the Quran and put it down without understanding what’s in it,” Minister Farrakhan said.
“This Ramadan we should come away with the spirit of Muhammad, the spirit to challenge tyranny and injustice wherever it is, so let’s get ready. On to Washington. Justice!”
“Or else,” the audience cried out.
“Justice!” Minister Farrakhan again called, with his hand behind his ear.
The people roared, “Or Else!”
June 18, 2015
City News Service
The Los Angeles City Council next week will consider offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the person who gunned down a 19-year-old man at a South Los Angeles car wash. Councilman Bernard Parks introduced a motion to offer the reward after Tavin Price's mother and a local pastor made public pleas for a monetary incentive to generate leads in the case. Price was approached by a person at 11 a.m. May 29 as he went into a smoke shop near the Five Minute Car Wash, 3312 W. Florence Ave., where he had gone with his mother and a family friend.
The individual made references to Price’s red shoes and gang affiliation. Price ignored him and went back to his car, police said. Five minutes later, another individual approached Price from behind and shot him several times. Price died at a hospital. The council is expected to vote on the $50,000 reward at its June 24 meeting.
Anyone with information about the case was urged to contact detectives Eric Crosson or Fernando Cuevas of the LAPD Criminal Gang Homicide Division at (323) 786-5100 or (323) 786-5113.
June 18, 2015
By KILEY ARMSTRONG
Associated Press
The NAACP chapter president who resigned after her parents said she is white said this week that she started identifying as black around age 5, when she drew self-portraits with a brown crayon, and she "takes exception" to the contention she tried to deceive people.
Rachel Dolezal said on NBC's "Today" show that some of the discussion about her has been "viciously inhumane."
Asked by Matt Lauer if she is an "an African-American woman," Dolezal said: "I identify as black."
Dolezal's career as a civil rights activist in the Pacific Northwest crumbled in the past few days.
She resigned on June 15 as president of the Spokane, Washington, branch of the NAACP, lost her position as a part-time African studies instructor at a local university, was fired as a freelance newspaper columnist and is being investigated by the city Ethics Commission over whether she lied about her race on her application when she landed an appointment to Spokane's police oversight board.
The furor has touched off national debate over racial identity and divided the NAACP itself. The civil rights organization has said leadership jobs don't require a person to be black.
Kitara Johnson, an NAACP member who had organized a petition asking Dolezal to resign from the group, said she felt that Dolezal failed to answer many of the direct questions in the interview.
"They were deflections," Johnson said. "'I think the entire interview gave some insight that there are truly some psychological issues at play."
Former Spokane NAACP James Wilburn agreed.
"It's a poke in the eye of other leaders who had been working in the trenches and doing things," he said.
Dolezal, a 37-year-old woman with a light brown complexion and dark curly hair, graduated from historically black Howard University and was married to a black man. For years, she publicly described herself as black or partly black.
The uproar that led to her resignation began after Dolezal's parents said their daughter is white with a trace of Native American heritage. They produced photos of her as a girl with fair skin and straight blond hair.
"I really don't see why they're in such a rush to whitewash some of the work I have done, who I am, how I have identified," she said.
Asked when she started "deceiving people," she replied, "I do take exception to that."
Shown a photo of herself with a much lighter complexion in her youth, she said: "I certainly don't stay out of the sun." But she added, "I also don't ... put on blackface as a performance."
"I have a huge issue with blackface," she said. "This is not some freak 'Birth of a Nation' mockery blackface performance. This is a very real, connected level. ... I've had to actually go there with the experience, not just the visible representation, but with the experience."
Johnson said Dolezal's comments about blackface were "a horrible cop-out. ... I found that ridiculous.'
Dolezal said published accounts described her first as "transracial," then "biracial," then as "a black woman."
"I never corrected that," she conceded, adding that "it's more complex than being true or false in that particular instance."
"Whenever she was posed with a question where she was supposed to tell the truth, she responded with 'It's much more complex than that,'" Johnson said. "No, it's not. It's very simple. The truth or a lie."
Dolezal said she told people that a black friend was her father because that's how she thinks of him.
Her sons are supportive, she said. One told her he views her as culturally black and racially "human."
Dolezal's parents denied that their daughter identified as black from a young age.
"No, that is a fabrication," Ruthanne Dolezal said in an interview with her husband.
Asked about Dolezal's claim that she thought of a black family friend as her father, Larry Dolezal said: "That hurts deeply because for over 20 years Rachel fondly referred to me as 'Papa.'"
The Dolezals said they have not spoken to their daughter for more than two years.
"We are very alarmed at the level of dishonesty that Rachel is exhibiting," Ruthanne Dolezal said.
Associated Press writer Nicholas K. Geranios in Spokane, Washington, and Karen Matthews in New York City contributed to this report.
June 11, 2015
City News Service
A gang member convicted in the June 2012 shooting death of a Compton youth minister in Venice was sentenced last Friday to 58 years to life in prison. Kevin Dwayne Green, 31, was convicted Feb. 20 along with Hopeton Parsley, 25, of first-degree murder for the June 4, 2012, killing of Oscar Duncan. Jurors also found true gang and gun allegations against both men, but were not asked to determine which of the two was the gunman.
Duncan was returning from dinner with his fiance when someone in a car cat-called the woman, according to Deputy District Attorney Eugene Hanrahan. Duncan was shot once in the face after approaching the car, from which someone shouted the name of a gang, Hanrahan said. The youth minister was not a gang member and had been actively involved in gang-intervention efforts, authorities said.
Parsley was sentenced last month to 90 years to life in prison. A third defendant, Nichole Sheran, 20, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and is expected to be sentenced June 24 to 11 years in state prison, according to the District Attorney's Office.