tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/malcolm-x-29032/articlesMalcolm X – The Conversation2024-03-27T12:38:40Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2145272024-03-27T12:38:40Z2024-03-27T12:38:40ZWhy civil rights icon Fannie Lou Hamer was ‘sick and tired of being sick and tired’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582843/original/file-20240319-28-on9v8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=791%2C43%2C2850%2C2402&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fanny Lou Hamer speaks out against Mississippi's racist voting laws on Aug. 8, 1964.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/atlantic-city-nj-mississippi-freedom-democratic-party-news-photo/515450184?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It wasn’t called voter suppression back then, but civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer knew exactly how <a href="https://apnews.com/article/black-voters-mississippi-suppression-election-2023-90e2b6df8e3f0f2ed4141830fa1ee8f6">white authorities</a>
in Mississippi felt about Black people voting in the 1960s.</p>
<p>At <a href="https://www.harlemworldmagazine.com/fannie-lou-hamer-malcolm-x-speak-harlem-ny-1964-video/">a rally with Malcolm X</a> in Harlem, New York, on Dec. 20, 1964, Hamer described <a href="https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2019/08/09/im-sick-and-tired-of-being-sick-and-tired-dec-20-1964/">the brutal beatings</a> she and other Black people endured in Mississippi in their fight for civil and voting rights. </p>
<p>A year earlier, <a href="https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/jun/9">in June 1963</a>, Hamer and several of her friends attended a voter education training workshop in Charleston, South Carolina. On their way back to Mississippi, the bus driver called the police to remove Hamer and her colleagues from the whites-only section of the bus where they had been sitting. </p>
<p>When they stopped in Winona, Mississippi, local police were waiting and promptly arrested them for disorderly conduct. </p>
<p>While in jail, Hamer told the Harlem rally, “I began to hear the sounds of licks and I began to hear screams. I couldn’t see the people, but I could hear them. … They would call her awful names. And I would hear when she would hit the floor again.”</p>
<p>After a while, Hamer said, she saw a friend pass her cell.</p>
<p>“Her clothes had been ripped off from the shoulder down to the waist,” Hamer said. “Her hair was standing up on her head. Her mouth was swollen and bleeding. And one of her eyes looked like blood. … And then three men came to my cell.”</p>
<p>Hamer was beaten, too, and sustained injuries that left her with lifelong injuries to her eyes, kidneys and legs. The experience also left her with little choice but to fight back. And fight she did, until <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1977/03/17/fannie-hamer-civil-rights-leader-dies/e27c0980-8483-4f0f-91dd-242662b87727/">her death at the age of 59</a> on March 14, 1977.</p>
<h2>Challenging the status quo</h2>
<p>The rally in Harlem was organized to support the political party that Hamer co-founded in 1964 as part of <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/freedom-summer">Freedom Summer</a>, which saw hundreds of college students travel to Mississippi and other Southern states to help register Black people to vote. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A Black woman who is smiling and wearing a dress greets a white man wearing a business suit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551869/original/file-20231003-19-qyxgqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551869/original/file-20231003-19-qyxgqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551869/original/file-20231003-19-qyxgqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551869/original/file-20231003-19-qyxgqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551869/original/file-20231003-19-qyxgqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1319&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551869/original/file-20231003-19-qyxgqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1319&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551869/original/file-20231003-19-qyxgqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1319&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer meets a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/civil-rights-activist-and-organizer-of-the-student-news-photo/513611999?adppopup=true">Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was a racially integrated alternative to the state’s segregationist Democratic Party. Hamer was elected vice-chair of the party and also ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. In addition to Hamer’s congressional campaign, one of her party’s main goals was to block the seating of the state’s five pro-segregation U.S. congressmen. </p>
<p>In 1964, <a href="https://www.usccr.gov/files/pubs/msdelta/ch3.htm">less than 7%</a> of the state’s Black population in Mississippi was registered to vote, despite the fact that nearly 40% of the state’s population was Black.</p>
<h2>LBJ’s Southern problem</h2>
<p>Hamer’s challenge of the segregated delegation couldn’t have come at a worse time for President Lyndon Johnson. </p>
<p>Locked at the time in a reelection campaign against right-wing conservative Barry Goldwater, Johnson <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jan/22/we-may-have-lost-the-south-lbj-democrats-civil-rights-act-1964-bill-moyers">feared losing</a> Southern Democratic politicians and voters in the upcoming presidential election.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A white man is shaking the hands of a Black man as a crowd of other men stand behind them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Lyndon B. Johnson, left, shakes hands with Martin Luther King Jr. after signing the Civil Rights Act on July 3, 1964, at the White House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-lyndon-johnson-shakes-hands-with-the-us-clergyman-news-photo/150253569?adppopup=true">AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The fight in Mississippi erupted on the national stage when television networks broadcast Hamer’s Aug. 22, 1964, testimony before the <a href="https://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/sayitplain/flhamer.html">Democratic Convention Credentials Committee</a>, which determined who was qualified to serve as a state delegate. In her bid to get the committee to recognize her political party, Hamer talked about the second-class, often violent, treatment afforded Black people.</p>
<p>“All of this is on account of we want to register, to become first-class citizens,” <a href="https://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/sayitplain/flhamer.html">she said</a>. </p>
<p>To <a href="https://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/sayitplain/flhamer.html">prevent further testimony</a> from Hamer that would further incense Southern Democrats, Johnson immediately held an impromptu press conference that would divert network television attention away from Hamer. </p>
<p>Despite Johnson’s tactics, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/fannie-lou-hamers-dauntless-fight-for-black-americans-right-vote-180975610/">Hamer’s story</a> still spread throughout the nation in part because of a series of rallies held in Northern cities, including the one in Harlem.</p>
<p>“The truth is the only thing going to free us,” Hamer said during the speech in Harlem. “When I was testifying before the Credentials Committee, I was cut off because they hate to see what they been knowing all the time, and that’s the truth.”</p>
<h2>Sick and tired</h2>
<p>Born on Oct. 6, 1917, in Montgomery County, Mississippi, Hamer was the 20th and last child of sharecroppers Lou Ella and James Townsend. She began picking cotton at the age of 6, and she would be forced to leave school shortly afterward to help her family eke out a living. </p>
<p>“We would work 10 and 11 hours a day for three lousy dollars,” Hamer once said. </p>
<p>In 1961, while undergoing surgery to remove a uterine tumor, Hamer received a hysterectomy by a white doctor without her consent. The forced sterilization was one of the things that prompted Hamer to join the Civil Rights Movement. </p>
<p>In the summer of 1962, Hamer attended her first meeting of the <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2021/02/stunned-by-her-thunder-fannie-lou-hamer/">Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee</a>, a civil rights group of mostly Black college students who organized nonviolent protests against racial segregation and provided voter registration training. On Aug. 31, 1962, Hamer and 17 others decided to put their training to use by trying to register to vote at the Indianola, Mississippi, courthouse. </p>
<p>Of the 18 people, 16 were not allowed to take the test required for voter registration. Only Hamer and one other were allowed to take it – and both failed. These literacy tests consisted of <a href="https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/pdfs-docs/origins/ms-littest55.pdf">reading and interpreting</a> portions of the state constitution, such as the one on habeas corpus, a constitutional right to protect a person against illegal imprisonment. </p>
<p>Dejected, the group was further harassed when local police stopped their bus and fined them $100 for an overblown charge that the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/freedomsummer-hamer/">bus was too yellow</a>.</p>
<p>The insults and constant fear of violence were examples of day-to-day life for Black people in Mississippi, a story Hamer argued was tragic, unconstitutional and sadly all too well-known.</p>
<p>“And you can always hear this long sob story,” <a href="https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2019/08/09/im-sick-and-tired-of-being-sick-and-tired-dec-20-1964/">she said</a>. “For 300 years, we’ve given them time. And I’ve been tired so long, now I am sick and tired of being sick and tired, and we want a change.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214527/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marlee Bunch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fannie Lou Hamer became one of the most respected civil rights leaders during the 1960s in part because of her resistance to racist voting laws in Mississippi.Marlee Bunch, Staff K-12 Initiatives, Office of the Chancellor, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2085712023-06-28T00:18:39Z2023-06-28T00:18:39ZAn unbroken covenant with God: what the Hajj means for Muslims<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534208/original/file-20230627-15-rjhwty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ashraf Amra/ AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Millions of men, women and children have converged on Mecca this week for the Hajj pilgrimage. The Saudi government says it will be the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/25/largest-hajj-pilgrimage-in-history-begins-in-saudi-arabia">largest crowd ever</a> for the pilgrimage.</p>
<p>The Hajj pilgrimage is, at its core, a pilgrimage towards God. This presents a paradox of sorts. If God is beyond time and space, then what is the purpose of travelling to a particular place? Is God not present now, everywhere? </p>
<p>The celebrated author Gai Eaton <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1398960">offers an elegant response</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our sense of the divine Presence is blunted. We need to find it focused on a particular place and, for the Muslim, that place is the Ka'ba at Mecca, which he has faced every time he prayed and to which he now journeys in pilgrimage.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A transformative experience</h2>
<p>Within the Islamic worldview then, the Ka’ba functions as the locus of hearts. I use the plural “hearts” here, for the pilgrimage is not only an individual religious obligation. It is a communal act that strengthens ties of kinship between Muslims in a way that resembles nothing else. </p>
<p>When the pilgrims prepare to don the Hajj attire, they discard more than their clothes. Nationality, race and socio-economic status are tossed to the wayside — prince and pauper unite as pilgrims. All distinctions are left behind. </p>
<p>The experience can be transformative, particularly for those embarking on the pilgrimage for the first time. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Female police officer welcoming Hajj pilgrims with rose petals in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534215/original/file-20230627-26-evdjnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534215/original/file-20230627-26-evdjnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534215/original/file-20230627-26-evdjnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534215/original/file-20230627-26-evdjnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534215/original/file-20230627-26-evdjnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534215/original/file-20230627-26-evdjnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534215/original/file-20230627-26-evdjnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Saudi policewoman throws flowers at Bangladeshi pilgrims as they arrive at the airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for the hajj this week.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amr Nabi/ AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The renowned activist and minister Malcolm X was compelled to re-evaluate his views on race in the wake of his Hajj experience. In his <a href="https://islam.uga.edu/malcomx.html">Letter From Mecca</a>, he wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colours, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Coupled with his societal reflections was an internal revolution, one that stirred his heart. In <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/malcom-x-in-mecca-2353496">his autobiography</a>, he writes: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In my thirty-nine years on this earth, the Holy City of Mecca had been the first time I had ever stood before the Creator of All and felt like a complete human being.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/millions-of-muslims-prepare-to-perform-the-hajj-amid-calls-for-a-boycott-121618">Millions of Muslims prepare to perform the hajj amid calls for a boycott</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Road to Mecca fraught with challenges</h2>
<p>For Muslims then, the return of Hajj pilgrims to pre-pandemic numbers this year (or even surpassing them) represents another opportunity for this reorientation towards God. </p>
<p>Granted, globalisation has drawn the world closer, denting the impact of encountering people from completely different walks of life. Despite this, the Hajj pilgrimage remains unparalleled in its capacity to turn hearts, both individually and collectively.</p>
<p>All this is not to say that the experience is one of ease and comfort. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1673407059747028992"}"></div></p>
<p>If the history of the Hajj pilgrimage has demonstrated anything, it is the road to Mecca is often fraught with challenges. The most recent challenges confronting potential pilgrims have been unforeseen, drastically altering the Hajj experience. </p>
<p>The COVID pandemic saw pilgrimage to the holy sites halted for two years, with only <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2021/7/18/in-pictures-hajj-in-mecca-during-covid-pandemic">a limited number of Saudi residents</a> permitted to perform the pilgrimage. </p>
<p>As the pandemic slowly subsided, many Muslims in other countries who had waited with eager anticipation booked their travel plans. But they were met with a new complication. </p>
<h2>The struggle for getting a spot</h2>
<p>In 2022, the Saudi government announced that all those intending to perform the pilgrimage from several Western countries, including the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union, must <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/07/01/motawif-hajj/">register through the Motawif website</a>. Those who had already made bookings were advised to immediately cancel them and register through Motawif. </p>
<p>This would place the registrant into a lottery-type system, replacing the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/7/7/a-new-hajj-booking-system-leaves-tour-operators-out-in-the-cold?traffic_source=KeepReading">Hajj travel tours</a> that had operated locally in these countries for many years.</p>
<p>The Saudi administration claimed it was trying to remove the middle man and make the Hajj travel package process smoother and more affordable. Many testimonies, however, appear to confirm the contrary. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/technology-remains-at-the-heart-of-the-hajj-206267">Technology remains at the heart of the hajj</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Registrants criticised the persistent technical failures of Motawif, and those who were lucky enough to make it to Mecca bemoaned the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022/6/29/hajj-booking-system-changes-leave-many-muslims-disappointed">disorganised mess</a> that greeted them upon their arrival.</p>
<p>The Saudi claim of increased affordability was also contested. Prices for a Hajj package vary, depending on the level of luxury that the pilgrim desires during their stay in the holy cities. When factoring in all costs, however, the total <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-22/hajj-lottery-saudi-arabia-upsets-muslim-australians-pilgrimage/101169798">price for the package hovered</a> in the range of US$7,000 to $13,500 (A$10,000 to $20,000) per person. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Picture of a security officer looking at CCTV monitors in Mecca during Hajj" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534210/original/file-20230627-29-7mwt03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534210/original/file-20230627-29-7mwt03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534210/original/file-20230627-29-7mwt03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534210/original/file-20230627-29-7mwt03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534210/original/file-20230627-29-7mwt03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534210/original/file-20230627-29-7mwt03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534210/original/file-20230627-29-7mwt03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Saudi authorities have put in place a large-scale security plan to ensure the safety of the pilgrims and smooth proceedings of the Hajj.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amr Nabil/ AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For many Muslims in the West, a more affordable Hajj package was viewed as desirable. In reality, though, prices remained high — the only difference being the Saudi government collected the profits.</p>
<p>This year, the Saudi authorities have ditched the short-lived Motawif system. Rather than operating on a lottery basis, it has now been replaced with a new <a href="https://hajj.nusuk.sa/">first-come, first-serve</a> system. Only time will tell whether this new system is feasible, or whether it will go the way of Motawif.</p>
<p>Despite these challenges, Muslims from around the world continue to flock to the Hajj. Through this ritual, they direct their hearts individually and collectively towards the Ka’ba. In doing so, they step out beyond time, linking the past and present in an unbroken covenant with God.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208571/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ali Hammoud does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Millions of men, women and children are converging on Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage, a return to pre-pandemic numbers.Ali Hammoud, PhD candidate, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1409062020-07-07T12:13:37Z2020-07-07T12:13:37ZThere are many leaders of today’s protest movement – just like the civil rights movement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345824/original/file-20200706-21-1uqzj83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C3%2C2447%2C1901&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Demonstrators march in the Black Mamas March to protest police brutality, June 27, 2020 in Washington, D.C. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrators-march-to-support-black-lives-matter-during-news-photo/1223100922?adppopup=true">Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent wave of protests against police brutality and systemic racism has inspired numerous comparisons with the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. </p>
<p>Commentators frequently depict the <a href="https://theconversation.com/where-are-the-african-american-leaders-131282">charismatic leadership</a> of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in sharp contrast with the <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/racial-justice/race-and-criminal-justice/how-black-lives-matter-changed-way-americans-fight">decentralized</a> and seemingly leaderless nature of the current movement. </p>
<p>Despite the efforts of <a href="http://stproject.org/from-the-field/blacklivesmatter-lessons/">activists</a> and <a href="https://www.colorlines.com/articles/ella-taught-me-shattering-myth-leaderless-movement">historians</a> to correct this “leaderless” image, the notion <a href="https://youtu.be/PVW2eaCyC5c?t=1083">persists</a>. Such comparisons reflect the cultural memory – not the actual history – of the struggle for Black equality.</p>
<h2>Heroic struggle led by charismatic men</h2>
<p>Through collective remembering and forgetting, societies build narratives of the past to create a shared identity – what scholars refer to as <a href="http://www.iea.usp.br/en/news/cultural-memory-the-link-between-past-present-and-future">cultural memory</a>. </p>
<p>The civil rights movement is remembered as a heroic struggle against injustice led by charismatic men. That is not the whole story. </p>
<p>King’s soaring <a href="https://www.archives.gov/files/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf">rhetoric</a> and Malcolm’s unflinching social <a href="https://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/blackspeech/mx.html">critiques</a> have supplanted recollection of the significant work performed by legions of local leaders, whose grassroots organizational style more closely resembled the efforts of Black Lives Matter activists and other contemporary social justice groups to build movements <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/reclaiming-our-movement-l_b_6498400">full of leaders</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-2018/civil-rights-events-fd.html">iconic images</a> of 1950s and 1960s Black protesters marching, kneeling and being arrested while dressed in their “Sunday best” illustrated the <a href="https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-rise-of-respectability-politics">respectability politics</a> of the day. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345848/original/file-20200706-25-121vsvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345848/original/file-20200706-25-121vsvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345848/original/file-20200706-25-121vsvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345848/original/file-20200706-25-121vsvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345848/original/file-20200706-25-121vsvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345848/original/file-20200706-25-121vsvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345848/original/file-20200706-25-121vsvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345848/original/file-20200706-25-121vsvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">American Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., flanked by Rev. Ralph Abernathy (center left) and Nobel Prize-winning political scientist and diplomat Ralph Bunche (center right) during the third Selma to Montgomery, Alabama march for voting rights, March 21, 1965.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/high-angle-view-of-american-civil-rights-leader-dr-martin-news-photo/106162063?adppopup=true">PhotoQuest/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>These efforts, designed to cultivate white sympathy for civil rights activists, relied on conformity with <a href="https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1266&context=uclf">patriarchal gender roles</a> that elevated <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1048809">men</a> to positions of visible leadership, confined <a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-rights-history-project/articles-and-essays/women-in-the-civil-rights-movement/">women</a> to the background and banished <a href="https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1061&context=historydiss">LGBTQ individuals</a> to the closet.</p>
<p>Yet the movement could not have happened without the extraordinary leadership of Black women like veteran organizer <a href="https://snccdigital.org/people/ella-baker/">Ella Baker</a>. Baker’s model of grassroots activism and empowerment for young and marginalized people became the driving force of the <a href="https://snccdigital.org/inside-sncc/the-story-of-sncc/">Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee</a>, known as SNCC, and other nonviolent protest organizations, past and present.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345850/original/file-20200706-3967-yvp655.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345850/original/file-20200706-3967-yvp655.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345850/original/file-20200706-3967-yvp655.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345850/original/file-20200706-3967-yvp655.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345850/original/file-20200706-3967-yvp655.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345850/original/file-20200706-3967-yvp655.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=981&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345850/original/file-20200706-3967-yvp655.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=981&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345850/original/file-20200706-3967-yvp655.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=981&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Flyer announcing a Youth Leadership Meeting, that was to be held at Shaw University, Raleigh, North Carolina, on April 15-17, 1960, and bearing the names of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ella J. Baker, the president and executive director, respectively, of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, April 1960.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/flyer-announcing-a-youth-leadership-meeting-to-be-held-at-news-photo/505860232?adppopup=true">New York Public Library/From the New York Public Library/Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images).</a></span>
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<p>The decentralized structure of the current movement builds on this history of grassroots activism while working to <a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/">avoid replicating</a> the entrenched <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/sexism">sexism</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/homophobia">homophobia</a> of an earlier era. </p>
<h2>Amplifying voices</h2>
<p>SNCC transformed lives by recognizing talent and empowering marginalized people. As Joe Martin, one of the organizers of a student walkout in McComb, Mississippi, <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/47qng2nh9780252065071.html">recalled</a>, “If you had a good idea it was accepted regardless of what your social status was.” </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345851/original/file-20200706-21-q4vze8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345851/original/file-20200706-21-q4vze8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345851/original/file-20200706-21-q4vze8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=803&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345851/original/file-20200706-21-q4vze8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=803&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345851/original/file-20200706-21-q4vze8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=803&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345851/original/file-20200706-21-q4vze8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1009&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345851/original/file-20200706-21-q4vze8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1009&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345851/original/file-20200706-21-q4vze8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1009&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ella Baker, NAACP Hatfield representative, Sept. 18, 1941.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/photograph-of-miss-ella-baker-naacp-hatfield-representative-news-photo/557322103?adppopup=true">Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Endesha Ida Mae Holland, a teenage prostitute, found purpose as a SNCC field secretary, organizing and leading marches in Greenwood, Mississippi. Facing down Police Chief Curtis Lary “made me feel so proud,” she <a href="https://clarityfilms.org/freedom.html">recalled</a>, and “people start looking up into my face, into my eyes” with respect. Holland went on to become an award-winning <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-05-08-ci-55362-story.html">playwright</a> and distinguished <a href="https://news.usc.edu/11287/A-Very-Long-Way-From-the-Mississippi-Delta-Endesha-Ida-Mae-Holland-Ph-D-Open/">university professor</a>. </p>
<p>Black Lives Matter co-founders Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors also encourage strategies that place marginalized voices at the center.</p>
<p>Elevating “Black trans people, Black queer people, Black immigrants, Black incarcerated people and formerly incarcerated people, Black millennials, Black women, low income Black people, and Black people with disabilities” to leadership roles, they <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/reclaiming-our-movement-l_b_6498400">wrote</a>, “allows for leadership to emerge from our intersecting identities, rather than to be organized around one notion of Blackness.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.thelily.com/teen-girls-organized-nashvilles-largest-protest-they-joined-a-long-history-of-black-women-activists/">Black women</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2020/06/05/teens-protests-george-floyd-tear-gas/">teens</a> have played a critical role in organizing, leading and maintaining the momentum of recent protests. </p>
<p>Kimberly Jones <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/83572-ya-author-s-video-on-racism-goes-viral.html">captured the nation’s attention</a> with an impassioned <a href="https://youtu.be/sb9_qGOa9Go">takedown</a> of institutional racism and debates over appropriate forms of protest. After repeatedly breaking the social contract to keep wealth and opportunity out of reach for black communities, Jones concludes, white Americans “are lucky that what black people are looking for is equality and not revenge.”</p>
<p>Women have organized family-friendly demonstrations, including the “<a href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article243502031.html">Black Mamas March</a>” in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a “<a href="https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-childrens-black-lives-matter-march-20200619-53pcaad6tncjvp4njhgfyyybxu-story.html">Black Kids Matter</a>” protest in Hartford, Connecticut. </p>
<p>Six young women, aged 14 to 16, organized a peaceful protest attracting more than 10,000 people in <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2020/06/04/teens-lead-nashville-march-protest-george-floyd/3151774001/">Nashville, Tennessee</a>, while 17-year-old Tiana Day led a march on the <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/578133-2/">Golden Gate Bridge</a> in San Francisco. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345854/original/file-20200706-21-7t4hsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345854/original/file-20200706-21-7t4hsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345854/original/file-20200706-21-7t4hsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345854/original/file-20200706-21-7t4hsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345854/original/file-20200706-21-7t4hsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345854/original/file-20200706-21-7t4hsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345854/original/file-20200706-21-7t4hsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345854/original/file-20200706-21-7t4hsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Seventeen-year-old Tiana Day leads a march on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, June 6, 2020, to protest the death of George Floyd.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/America-Protests-San-Francisco/bb4abc9301234a56be4276d30cbd6633/2/0">AP Photo/Jeff Chiu</a></span>
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<h2>Full of leaders</h2>
<p>The adaptive “<a href="https://changeelemental.org/resources/leadership-spectrum-what-it-looks-like/">low ego/high impact</a>” leadership model, in which leaders serve as coaches helping groups build their own solutions, has become popular among current social justice organizations, but it is not new. </p>
<p>Baker <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807856161/ella-baker-and-the-black-freedom-movement/">encouraged</a> civil rights organizations to “develop individuals” and provide “an opportunity for them to grow.” She praised SNCC for “working with indigenous people, not working for them.” </p>
<p>“You don’t have to worry about where your leaders are,” <a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/moses.html">former SNCC organizer</a> Robert Moses <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674447271">reflected</a>. “If you go out and work with your people, then the leadership will emerge.”</p>
<p>Campaigns are <a href="https://www.theroot.com/leaderless-or-leader-ful-1790860733">exhausting</a> and external recognition as a “leader” can take a heavy toll. Spreading leadership around helps to protect any one person from becoming a <a href="https://youtu.be/PVW2eaCyC5c?t=1169">target</a> for retaliation while advancing a stream of talent to rise as individual energy wanes.</p>
<p>Returning from a citizenship training program in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1963, <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/fannie-lou-hamer">Fannie Lou Hamer</a> was <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/freedomsummer-hamer/">arrested and severely beaten</a>, leaving her with permanent injuries. Holland’s mother died when their house in Greenwood, Mississippi, was <a href="https://snccdigital.org/people/ida-mae-holland/">bombed</a> in 1965 in retaliation for her activism. </p>
<p>Civil rights worker <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/anne-moody-1940-2015/">Anne Moody</a> <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/116457/coming-of-age-in-mississippi-by-anne-moody/">recounted</a> how the physical and psychological toll of constant harassment by white supremacists in 1963 forced her to leave a voter registration drive in Canton, Mississippi, saying “I was on the verge of a breakdown” and “would have died from lack of sleep and nervousness” had she stayed “another week.” </p>
<p>In a 2017 <a href="https://twitter.com/BenjaminPDixon/status/946436687588192257">interview</a>, Erica Garner, who became a tireless campaigner against police brutality after her father, Eric Garner, died from a New York police officer’s chokehold in 2014, echoed Moody’s comments.</p>
<p>“I’m struggling right now with the stress and everything. … The system beats you down to where you can’t win,” she said. Just three weeks after that interview, Erica Garner <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/30/nyregion/erica-garner-dead.html">died</a> of a heart attack at the age of 27. </p>
<p>Comparisons to the romanticized cultural memory of charismatic leadership in the Civil Rights Movement devalues the hard work of today’s activists – as well as those who worked hard outside of the limelight in the earlier movement. Social change – then and now – derives from a critical mass of local work throughout the nation. Those who cannot find leaders in this movement are not looking hard enough.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140906/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Silkey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some lament that today’s anti-racism movement has no charismatic leaders like the civil rights era did. Such comparisons don’t reflect the real history of the struggle for Black equality in the US.Sarah Silkey, Professor of History and Social and Economic Justice, Lycoming CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1413442020-06-30T12:29:30Z2020-06-30T12:29:30ZMuslim Americans assert solidarity with Black Lives Matter, finding unity within a diverse faith group<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344401/original/file-20200628-104489-19o8q8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5455%2C3637&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Muslims demonstrate against police brutality and racial injustice in Brooklyn.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/muslims-demonstrate-against-police-brutality-and-racial-news-photo/1219835765?adppopup=true">John Lamparski/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The killing of George Floyd took place at the doorstep of Muslim America.</p>
<p>He was killed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/us/cup-foods-minneapolis-george-floyd.html">in front of Cup Foods</a>, a store owned by an Arab American Muslim, whose teenage employee – also a Muslim – had earlier reported to police that Floyd tried to use a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes.</p>
<p>Muslim American businesses are common in lower-income areas, such as the part of Minneapolis where Floyd died after a police officer knelt on his neck. And as the writer Moustafa Bayoumi has noted, this <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/17/opinion/george-floyd-arab-muslims-racism.html">puts stores in a precarious position</a> – catering for the community while also duty-bound to report crime to the police, sometimes under the threat of being closed down if they don’t comply.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344593/original/file-20200629-155353-u7ixsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344593/original/file-20200629-155353-u7ixsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344593/original/file-20200629-155353-u7ixsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344593/original/file-20200629-155353-u7ixsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344593/original/file-20200629-155353-u7ixsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344593/original/file-20200629-155353-u7ixsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344593/original/file-20200629-155353-u7ixsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">People kneel and pray outside Cup Foods in Minneapolis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-kneel-and-pray-outside-the-cup-foods-market-in-front-news-photo/1221540533?adppopup=true">Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>As a Muslim <a href="https://faculty.lmu.edu/amirhussain/">scholar of Islam</a> who has <a href="https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481306232/muslims-and-the-making-of-america/">written about the role of Muslims</a> in the making of the United States, I recognize that the circumstances of Floyd’s death hint at the proximity and complex relationship that different sections of America’s Muslim community have with law enforcement and with the Black Lives Matter movement.</p>
<h2>‘Too often silent’</h2>
<p>Since Floyd’s killing, Muslim Americans have mostly shown solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.</p>
<p>Mahmoud Abumayyaleh, the owner of Cup Foods, has said that the store will <a href="https://thegrio.com/2020/06/01/george-floyd-cup-foods-owner/">no longer call the police on customers</a>. Nationally, there have been numerous statements from groups such as the <a href="https://www.mpac.org/blog/statements-press/we-condemn-the-murder-of-george-floyd.php">Muslim Public Affairs Council</a>, the <a href="https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-minnesota-calls-for-arrest-of-all-officers-involved-in-george-floyd-killing-asks-that-no-bail-be-granted/">Council on American Islamic Relations</a> and the <a href="http://web-extract.constantcontact.com/v1/social_annotation_v2?permalink_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fmyemail.constantcontact.com%2FAMI-s-Statement-on-the-Horrific-Death-of-George-Floyd.html%3Fsoid%3D1123950114769%26aid%3DeolfzX4rb3A&image_url=https%3A%2F%2Fimgssl.constantcontact.com%2Fui%2Fsmm%2Fspui%2Fpost-images%2FEmail-3-lrg-fb.jpg&fbclid=IwAR2qVuAcFZfYY_H9Uplp_NTMdHb7okZxyVv_0BXeH1_VVySxSi_GwM0fDs8">American Muslim Institution</a>. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://muslimadvocates.org/joint-statement-against-anti-black-police-violence/">joint announcement</a> by over 35 national Muslim civil rights and faith groups and more than 60 regional groups noted that Black people were “often marginalized” within the broader Muslim community. It continued: “And when they fall victim to police violence, non-Black Muslims are too often silent, which leads to complicity.”</p>
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<p>There have been Muslims in America for almost 500 years. <a href="https://www.pvamu.edu/tiphc/research-projects/the-diaspora-coming-to-texas/esteban/">Estevanico the Moor</a> was brought as a slave to what is now Florida in 1528 and is memorialized on the <a href="https://lrl.texas.gov/whatsNew/client/index.cfm/2017/2/14/New-Texas-African-American-Monument">Texas African American history monument</a> as the first African to enter Texas. At least 10% of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/muslims-arrived-in-america-400-years-ago-as-part-of-the-slave-trade-and-today-are-vastly-diverse-113168">slaves brought from West Africa were Muslim</a>, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture <a href="https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/collection/african-muslims-early-america">tells some of their stories</a> as part of its collection. </p>
<p>But, many African Americans came to Islam later through the Nation of Islam, which wove a Black nationalist element into their faith.</p>
<h2>Speaking up</h2>
<p>Black Muslims played a crucial role in the U.S. civil rights movement. Even today, quotes and images of civil rights activist Malcolm X, who converted to Sunni Islam in 1964 after leaving the Nation of Islam, remain <a href="https://www.minnpost.com/community-sketchbook/2016/05/what-today-s-civil-rights-activists-owe-malcolm-x/">potent in the current protests</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile Muhammad Ali, who at one time was perhaps the most recognizable Muslim in the world, gained fame <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/04/politics/muhammad-ali-political-moments/index.html">as much for his political stances</a> as his boxing prowess. Ali led the way for other Muslim American athletes who have pushed for social change, including NBA great <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/3/why-i-converted-to-islam.html">Kareem Abdul-Jabbar</a>, who was involved in discussions by the Olympic Project for Human Rights for Black athletes to boycott the 1968 games. </p>
<p>And 20 years before Colin Kaepernick, NBA player Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/protest-mahmoud-abdul-rauf-nba-flag_n_5eda77a0c5b619004bd7876d">refused to stand for the national anthem</a> while playing for the Denver Nuggets because of his “Muslim conscience.” Polling shows many of these protests were <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/nbc-wsj-poll-majority-say-kneeling-during-anthem-not-appropriate-n904891">greeted with disdain</a> by the majority of white America.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344595/original/file-20200629-155299-mxfpqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344595/original/file-20200629-155299-mxfpqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344595/original/file-20200629-155299-mxfpqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344595/original/file-20200629-155299-mxfpqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344595/original/file-20200629-155299-mxfpqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344595/original/file-20200629-155299-mxfpqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344595/original/file-20200629-155299-mxfpqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf bows his head in prayer during the singing of the national anthem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/denver-nuggets-guard-mahmoud-abdul-rauf-bows-his-head-in-news-photo/51975529?adppopup=true">Eric Chu/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Today, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/black-muslims-account-for-a-fifth-of-all-u-s-muslims-and-about-half-are-converts-to-islam/">at least 20% of Muslims in the U.S.</a> are Black Americans. But starting from the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, there has been a growth in immigrant Muslims coming to America.</p>
<p>While increasing overall numbers of Muslims in U.S., immigration has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/nyregion/11muslim.html">created a dividing line</a> in the American Muslim community – between Muslims with an American heritage that stretched back generations and newer arrivals. Immigrant Muslims were often assumed by American Muslims to know more about Islam as they came from Muslim majority countries, and so they were given more authority in Muslim organizations and as Islamic leaders. </p>
<p>They also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/nyregion/11muslim.html">built mosques that served their own ethnic communities</a>, with immigrant Muslim communities often worshiping separately from Black American Muslims.</p>
<p>There is also a split in the economic status of American Muslims. According to the <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2017/07/26/demographic-portrait-of-muslim-americans/">Pew Forum</a>, 24% of American Muslims have an annual income above US$100,000, while 40% have an income below $30,000. Many of those who are wealthy – like billionaire Shahid Khan, an immigrant from Pakistan who now owns the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars – are from immigrant Muslim communities. </p>
<h2>Police and protests</h2>
<p>The intersection of race, class and national identity means that views vary on issues such as police, protests and discrimination. A <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/black-muslims-account-for-a-fifth-of-all-u-s-muslims-and-about-half-are-converts-to-islam/">2019 survey found</a> that 92% of Black Muslims believe there is a lot of discrimination against Black people, compared with 66% of non-Black Muslims.</p>
<p>Nonimmigrant Muslims are more likely to have lived out the history of the United States, including the unjust legacy of slavery. As Americans, they were also taught early on and often that the right to protest is protected under the Constitution. </p>
<p>Immigrant Muslims may have a very different experience with protest if they come from a country where dissent can lead <a href="https://theconversation.com/blasphemy-law-is-repealed-in-ireland-enforced-in-pakistan-and-a-problem-in-many-christian-and-muslim-countries-106487">to imprisonment or death</a>. They may also be more wary of being seen as “anti-American.” Immigrant Muslims expressed <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2017/07/26/identity-assimilation-and-community/">more pride in being American</a> than U.S.-born Black Muslims, in a 2017 Pew poll.</p>
<p>Both communities, however, share a complicated history of U.S. law enforcement. For Black Americans, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-racist-roots-of-american-policing-from-slave-patrols-to-traffic-stops-112816">police violence dates back to slavery</a>. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, police in cities like <a href="https://muslimadvocates.org/2018/07/newly-released-documents-reveal-that-lapd-misrepresented-the-origins-intent-and-lifespan-of-muslim-mapping-program/">Los Angeles</a> and New York have tried to infiltrate and <a href="https://www.aclu.org/other/factsheet-nypd-muslim-surveillance-program">surveil American Muslims</a>. </p>
<p>In vowing to stop calling the police on its customers, the Muslim-owned Cup Foods in Minneapolis is standing in solidarity with the largely Black community it serves. In a similar fashion, the soul-searching that has followed Floyd’s killing provides an opportunity for Muslim Americans of all backgrounds to unite and side with the oppressed, many of whom share their faith.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amir Hussain does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Race, class and national identity mean that views within the American Muslim community vary when it comes to such hot-button issues as policing, protests and discrimination.Amir Hussain, Professor of Theological Studies, Loyola Marymount UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1401362020-06-17T12:13:39Z2020-06-17T12:13:39ZBlack religious leaders are up front and central in US protests – as they have been for the last 200 years<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348222/original/file-20200718-17-2nrozu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C16%2C5439%2C3620&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II speaks outside of the St. John's Episcopal Church Lafayette Square on June 14, 2020</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rev-dr-william-j-barber-ii-alongside-with-faith-leaders-news-photo/1220016808?adppopup=true">Oliver Contreras/For The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the Rev. Al Sharpton implored white America to “get your knee off our necks” at the memorial of George Floyd, his words were carried by <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-05/george-floyd-memorial-al-sharpton-speaks-us-continues-protests/12324616">news outlets across the globe</a>. Meanwhile in the U.S., the Rev. William J. Barber II has been an ever-present voice in the protests, prompting some to place him as <a href="https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article243294961.html">the successor to past civil rights greats</a>.</p>
<p>That people of the cloth are at the forefront of the current protests over police brutality should not be a surprise.</p>
<p>From the earliest times of the United States’ history, religious leaders have led the struggle for liberation and racial justice for Black Americans. As an <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/diversity-inclusion/lawrence-burnley.php">ordained minister and a historian</a>, I see it as a common thread running through the history of the United States, from Black resistance in the earliest periods of slavery in the antebellum South, through the civil rights movement of the 1960s and up to the Black Lives Matter movement today. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://patrissecullors.com/about/">Patrisse Cullors</a>, one of the founders of Black Lives Matters, <a href="https://crcc.usc.edu/the-role-of-the-spirit-in-blacklivesmatter-movement/">says</a>: “The fight to save your life is a spiritual fight.”</p>
<h2>Spiritual calling</h2>
<p>For many Black religious leaders in the United States, civil rights and social justice are central to their spiritual calling. Informed by their respective faith traditions, it places religion within the Black American experience while also being informed by African culture and the traumatic experience of the Transatlantic trade of African people. </p>
<p>We see this in Malcolm X’s 1964 exhortation that Black Americans should <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1964/12/13/archives/malcolm-x-exhorts-negroes-to-look-to-african-culture.html">form bonds with African nations</a> and “migrate to Africa culturally, philosophically and spiritually.” Malcolm X’s desire to internationalize the struggle in the U.S. after his 1964 pilgrimage to Mecca also speaks to the role he saw Islam having in the civil rights movement. </p>
<p>“America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem,” he wrote in a letter <a href="https://www.sewanhakaschools.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=26282&dataid=18294&FileName=Malcolm%20X%20Letter%20From%20Mecca.pdf">during his visit to Saudi Arabia</a>. The struggle of Black Americans informed Malcolm X’s reading of the Quran.</p>
<p>Similarly, the interaction between religious text and real-world struggle informed earlier Black civil rights and anti-slavery leaders. Slave revolt leader Nat Turner, for example, saw rebellion as the work of God, and drew upon biblical texts to inspire his actions. </p>
<p>As the historian and Turner biographer <a href="https://history.providence.edu/faculty-members/patrick-h-breen/">Patrick Breen</a> noted in an <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/understanding-gospel-nat-turner-180960714/">article for Smithsonian Magazine</a>, “Turner readily placed his revolt in a biblical context, comparing himself at some times to the Old Testament prophets, at another point to Jesus Christ.” In his “Confessions,” dictated to a white lawyer after his 1831 arrest, Turner quoted the Gospel of Luke and alluded to numerous other passages from the Bible.</p>
<p>Turner had visions he interpreted as signs from God encouraging him to revolt. </p>
<h2>Visions</h2>
<p>Such prophetic visions were not uncommon to early anti-slavery leaders – <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/activists/sojourner-truth.html">Sojourner Truth</a> and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=PaZqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA209&lpg=PA209&dq=Go+preach+the+Gospel!+Preach+the+Gospel;+I+will+put+words+in+your+mouth&source=bl&ots=xceaNFfnGx&sig=ACfU3U2qjpxy0y-d9_7DVetdeJRGJPrNSQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjt66Pt7oPqAhWktTEKHVKoDGEQ6AEwCnoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=Go%20preach%20the%20Gospel!%20Preach%20the%20Gospel%3B%20I%20will%20put%20words%20in%20your%20mouth&f=false">Jarena Lee</a> were both spurred to action after God revealed himself to them. Lee’s anti-slavery preaching is also an early example of the important role that black religious female leaders would have in the civil rights struggle. </p>
<p>In arguing for her right to spread God’s message, Lee asked: “If the man may preach, because the Saviour died for him, why not the woman? Seeing he died for her also. Is he not a whole Saviour, instead of a half one?”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342167/original/file-20200616-23255-1ut63ax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342167/original/file-20200616-23255-1ut63ax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342167/original/file-20200616-23255-1ut63ax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342167/original/file-20200616-23255-1ut63ax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342167/original/file-20200616-23255-1ut63ax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342167/original/file-20200616-23255-1ut63ax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1198&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342167/original/file-20200616-23255-1ut63ax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1198&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342167/original/file-20200616-23255-1ut63ax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1198&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Sojourner Truth was driven to anti-slavery activism by spiritual visions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sojourner-truth-1797-1883-abolitionist-and-womens-rights-news-photo/1164926972?adppopup=true">GHI Vintage/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>These early anti-slavery activists rejected the “otherworld” theology taught to enslaved Africans by their white captors, which sought to deflect attention away from their condition in “this world” with promises of a better afterlife.</p>
<p>Instead, they affirmed God’s intention for freedom and liberation in both this world and the next, identifying strongly with biblical stories of freedom, such as the exodus of the Hebrew community from Egyptian enslavement and Jesus’ proclamation to “set the oppressed free.”</p>
<p>Incorporating religion into the Black anti-slavery movement sowed the seeds for faith being central to the struggle for racial justice to come. As the church historian <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/08/us/james-washington-49-expert-on-black-religious-history.html#:%7E:text=Washington%20was%20professor%20of%20church,in%20religious%20studies%20from%20Yale.">James Washington</a> <a href="https://www.mupress.org/Frustrated-Fellowship-The-Black-Baptist-Quest-for-Social-Power-P183.aspx">observed</a>, the “very disorientation of their slavery and the persistent impact of systemic racism and other forms of oppression provided the opportunity – indeed the necessity – of a new religious synthesis.”</p>
<h2>At heart, a preacher</h2>
<p>The synthesis continued into the 20th century, with religious civil rights leaders who clearly felt compelled to make the struggle for justice central part of the role of a spiritual leader. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342241/original/file-20200616-23243-z6z979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342241/original/file-20200616-23243-z6z979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342241/original/file-20200616-23243-z6z979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342241/original/file-20200616-23243-z6z979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342241/original/file-20200616-23243-z6z979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1203&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342241/original/file-20200616-23243-z6z979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1203&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342241/original/file-20200616-23243-z6z979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1203&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preaching in Chicago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-civil-rights-leader-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-news-photo/93115317?adppopup=true">Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>“In the quiet recesses of my heart, I am fundamentally a clergyman, a Baptist preacher,” the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in a 1965 <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=xFt5f9MsuMoC&pg=PP14&dq=martin+luther+king+sermon&client=firefox-a#PPA3,M1">article for Ebony Magazine</a>. </p>
<p>Racial justice remains integral to Black Christian leadership in the 21st century. In an <a href="https://time.com/5784068/william-barber-ii-faith-injustice/">interview earlier this year</a>, Rev. Barber said: “There is not some separation between Jesus and justice; to be Christian is to be concerned with what’s going on in the world.”</p>
<p>Recognizing the rich legacy of Black religious leadership in the struggle of racial justice in the United States in no way diminishes the role of historic and contemporary secular leadership. From W.E.B. DuBois to <a href="https://religionnews.com/2012/02/22/blacks-say-atheists-were-unseen-civil-rights-heroes/">A. Philip Randolph</a>, who helped organize 1963’s March on Washington, and up to the current day the civil rights movement has also benefited from those who would classify themselves as freethinkers or atheists.</p>
<p>But given the history of religion in the Black protest movement, it should be no surprise that the killing of George Floyd has unleashed an <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-usa-religion/after-george-floyds-death-a-groundswell-of-religious-activism-idUSKBN23G1FS">outpouring of activism from Black religious leaders</a> – backed by supporters from different faith traditions. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140136/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lawrence Burnley works for the University of Dayton. He is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, and the Association of African American Life and History. </span></em></p>From the earliest days of the anti-slavery movement, Black religious leaders have infused the fight for civil rights with spirituality.Lawrence Burnley, Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1312822020-06-04T12:27:55Z2020-06-04T12:27:55ZWhere are the African American leaders?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339598/original/file-20200603-130929-1ln3pry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C8%2C5439%2C3628&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A protester raises a fist in New York's Washington Square Park during a June 2, 2020 demonstration.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protester-holds-up-a-raised-fist-with-a-shirt-that-has-news-photo/1242649150">Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As protests rock the country in the wake of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-cellphone-videos-of-black-peoples-deaths-should-be-considered-sacred-like-lynching-photographs-139252">killing of George Floyd</a> by a Minneapolis police officer, there is a notable absence in the national public discourse: African American community leaders.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339599/original/file-20200603-130955-z8zra5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339599/original/file-20200603-130955-z8zra5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339599/original/file-20200603-130955-z8zra5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339599/original/file-20200603-130955-z8zra5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339599/original/file-20200603-130955-z8zra5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339599/original/file-20200603-130955-z8zra5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339599/original/file-20200603-130955-z8zra5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339599/original/file-20200603-130955-z8zra5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Fannie Lou Hamer, a delegate to the 1964 Democratic National Convention, delivered a powerful speech to the attendees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-civil-rights-activist-fannie-lou-hamer-from-the-news-photo/642536406">Warren K Leffler/PhotoQuest/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/african-americans-economic-setbacks-from-the-great-recession-are-ongoing-and-could-be-repeated-109612">My scholarship</a> in the discipline of black politics can explain why there aren’t any national African American leaders at this moment, filling roles like Martin Luther King Jr., <a href="https://www.biography.com/activist/fannie-lou-hamer">Fannie Lou Hamer</a> and others once did.</p>
<p>In past eras, leaders of the African American community were instrumental in creating huge social and legal changes, including the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act">Civil Rights Act of 1964</a>, the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/voting-rights-act">Voting Rights Act of 1965</a>, and the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/crt/fair-housing-act-1">Fair Housing Act of 1968</a>. Sweeping changes were possible because black leaders were willing to call out problems before they became crises, and risk their lives and livelihoods to elevate the social, educational and economic standing of African Americans.</p>
<h2>The risk of direct challenge</h2>
<p>When Malcolm X gave his “<a href="http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/speeches/malcolm_x_ballot.html">The Ballot or the Bullet</a>” speech in Cleveland in 1964, he challenged the social order of America, in which African Americans were not treated equally. He specifically stated, “Any time you know you’re within the law, within your legal rights, within your moral rights, in accord with justice, then die for what you believe in. But don’t die alone. Let your dying be reciprocal. This is what is meant by equality.”</p>
<p>In <a href="http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/sayitplain/flhamer.html">testimony</a> at the Democratic National Convention in 1964, Fannie Lou Hamer explained the risk to her life that she took by attempting to register to vote.</p>
<p>Martin Luther King Jr. took a similar risk when he challenged what he saw as Lyndon Johnson’s imperialism and tyranny both in America and abroad in his “<a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/beyond-vietnam">Beyond Vietnam</a>” speech at the Riverside Church in New York City in 1967, declaring, “The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom, and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism.”</p>
<p>So did Assata Shakur when she directly challenged the criminal justice system in her “<a href="http://www.thetalkingdrum.com/tmp.html">To My People</a>” address from a New Jersey jail in 1973, saying, “They call us kidnappers, [but] we did not kidnap the thousands of Brothers and Sisters held captive in amerika’s concentration camps. Ninety percent of the prison population in this country are black and Third World people who can afford neither bail nor lawyers.”</p>
<p>These leaders were not speaking the way politicians often do, with platitudes and cliches. They were not afraid of making white people upset – and knew that doing so was risking their own lives.</p>
<p>And they were not speaking as members of a political party, but rather organizations that had clear and undiluted messages. For instance, King’s objection to Johnson’s actions in Vietnam came after Johnson had signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act into law – crucial successes for the movement King helped lead. Despite being allies on those issues, King was independent enough to criticize other Johnson policies when he saw fit.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339601/original/file-20200603-130923-1axf1cs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339601/original/file-20200603-130923-1axf1cs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339601/original/file-20200603-130923-1axf1cs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339601/original/file-20200603-130923-1axf1cs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339601/original/file-20200603-130923-1axf1cs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339601/original/file-20200603-130923-1axf1cs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339601/original/file-20200603-130923-1axf1cs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339601/original/file-20200603-130923-1axf1cs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Malcolm X spoke passionately, and without reserve, about his views on race and equality in the U.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/former-nation-of-islam-leader-and-civil-rights-activist-el-news-photo/73995480">Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>More reserved comments</h2>
<p>In more recent years, black leaders such as Rep. <a href="https://www.biography.com/political-figure/john-lewis">John Lewis</a> and Sen. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kamala-Harris">Kamala Harris</a> have been politicians tied to the Democratic Party, not activists speaking outside the country’s two-party political system. </p>
<p>Each time tragedy strikes, with the deaths of unarmed black people such as George Floyd, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/breonna-taylor-kentucky-emt-allegedly-killed-police-executing/story?id=70657850">Breonna Taylor</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/11/us/ahmaud-arbery-mcmichael-what-we-know/index.html">Ahmaud Arbery</a> and countless others, I hear this black political class repeat the same empty rhetoric. Their statements usually are in the form of a social media post or letter to a publication pleading for black people to not riot, urging them to vote blue and advocating a methodical process through the political system.</p>
<p>For instance, former President Barack Obama told people protesting Floyd’s death to “<a href="https://medium.com/@BarackObama/how-to-make-this-moment-the-turning-point-for-real-change-9fa209806067">mobilize to raise awareness</a>, and we have to organize and cast our ballots to make sure that we elect candidates who will act on reform.”</p>
<p>At a forum about racial injustice, Sen. Kamala Harris, a California Democrat, said, “It is time that the leaders in this United States Senate, in this United States, Congress, take action to reform a criminal justice system that for far too long has been <a href="https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/cory-booker-kamala-harris-speech-transcript-on-george-floyd-racial-injustice">informed by systemic racism and by racial bias</a>.” But she didn’t mention the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/35/related-bills">anti-lynching bill</a> languishing in the Senate that could potentially make a difference.</p>
<p>Similarly, New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker has <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/05/31/sotu-booker-police.cnn">mentioned that he will be drafting legislation to track police conduct</a>. </p>
<p>In everything that these politicians say, they take no risks, as King, Shakur and the others had. They do not step forward to address the deeper, more basic causes of problem of unarmed black people getting killed. These officials avoid being held accountable by setting no moral standard for the public to hold them to.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339602/original/file-20200603-130929-1lvcau1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339602/original/file-20200603-130929-1lvcau1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339602/original/file-20200603-130929-1lvcau1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339602/original/file-20200603-130929-1lvcau1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339602/original/file-20200603-130929-1lvcau1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339602/original/file-20200603-130929-1lvcau1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339602/original/file-20200603-130929-1lvcau1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339602/original/file-20200603-130929-1lvcau1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former President Barack Obama has been less strident than many past black leaders.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-screengrab-former-president-barack-obama-speaks-news-photo/1225292515?adppopup=true">Getty Images/Getty Images for EIF & XQ</a></span>
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<h2>Lack of accountability</h2>
<p>A good leader also holds other officials accountable when those officials are in the wrong. For instance, Rep. Jim Clyburn, an African American Democrat from South Carolina, has <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/02/29/joe-biden-james-clyburn-south-carolina-icon-comeback/4912936002/">endorsed presidential candidate Joe Biden</a>,</p>
<p>But when Biden controversially declared that blacks should automatically support him, and said “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/05/22/861202511/biden-says-african-american-voters-who-are-not-sure-whom-to-vote-for-aint-black">you ain’t black</a>” to those who question him, Clyburn didn’t join the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/05/25/joe-biden-you-aint-black-racism-trump-column/5254434002/">public outcry</a>.</p>
<p>In fact, few prominent members of the black political class condemned Biden for his attempt to define blackness from his position of privilege as a prominent white man. It was up to less powerful members of the public to note Biden’s support for “<a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/20/18677998/joe-biden-1994-crime-bill-law-mass-incarceration">tough-on-crime</a>” laws that <a href="https://www.npr.org/2014/09/12/347736999/20-years-later-major-crime-bill-viewed-as-terrible-mistake">disproportionately affected African Americans</a>.</p>
<p>This absence of leadership leaves constituents unsatisfied. A May 28, 2020, town hall event in Dane County, Wisconsin, gathered local black leaders, including religious leaders and law enforcement officials. One citizen, Jacquelyn Hunt, eloquently objected to the routine way the panelists responded to public concerns: “<a href="https://madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/sickening-and-hurtful-town-hall-on-george-floyd-death-brings-together-black-leaders-police-chiefs/article_f6aace3e-2c36-5161-b86c-fdaaaab90b98.html">Listening to the panel</a>, I’m not sure they have the ability to hear through my ears as a black mother … They can’t hear the words that they say, and that to a black mother, they sound like more of the same.”</p>
<p>There are no easy cures for the problem of unarmed black people getting killed. But without strong black leadership, the solutions will likely continue to prove elusive.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vincent Adejumo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sweeping changes were possible in the past because black leaders were willing to risk their lives and call out problems before they became crises.Vincent Adejumo, Senior Lecturer of African American Studies, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/896952018-01-30T11:33:12Z2018-01-30T11:33:12ZThe hidden history of Black nationalist women’s political activism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203889/original/file-20180129-89553-1js6o4w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Amy Jacques Garvey with her husband, Marcus</span> </figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.aaihs.org/history-as-a-communal-act-the-history-of-black-history-month/">Black History Month</a> is an opportunity to reflect on the historical contributions of Black people in the United States. Too often, however, this history focuses on Black men, sidelining Black women and diminishing their contributions. </p>
<p>This is true in mainstream narratives of Black nationalist movements in the United States. These narratives almost always highlight the experiences of a handful of Black nationalist men, including Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan. </p>
<p>Contrary to popular conceptions, women were also instrumental to the spread and articulation of <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-6443.00081/abstract">Black nationalism</a> – the political view that people of African descent constitute a separate group on the basis of their distinct culture, shared history and experiences. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203890/original/file-20180129-89553-ivr6i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203890/original/file-20180129-89553-ivr6i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203890/original/file-20180129-89553-ivr6i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203890/original/file-20180129-89553-ivr6i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203890/original/file-20180129-89553-ivr6i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203890/original/file-20180129-89553-ivr6i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203890/original/file-20180129-89553-ivr6i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203890/original/file-20180129-89553-ivr6i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Ella Baker speaks her truth in 1968.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jack Harris</span></span>
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<p>As I wrote in my 2018 book, <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15805.html">“Set the World on Fire,”</a> Black nationalist movements would have all but disappeared were it not for women. What’s more, these women laid the groundwork for the generation of Black activists who came of age during the civil rights-Black power era. In the 1960s, many Black activists – including Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Robert F. Williams, Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael – drew on these women’s ideas and political strategies. </p>
<p>So, let’s use this Black History Month to begin to set the record straight.</p>
<h2>The Universal Negro Improvement Association</h2>
<p>In 1914, when the Jamaican Black nationalist Marcus Garvey launched the <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/race-first-the-ideological-and-organizational-struggles-of-marcus-garvey-and-the-universal-negro-improvement-association/oclc/226661424&referer=brief_results">Universal Negro Improvement Association</a>, Amy Ashwood – who later became his first wife – was the organization’s <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/biography-of-amy-ashwood-garvey-1897-1969-co-founder-of-the-universal-negro-improvement-association/oclc/1970973">first secretary and co-founder</a>.</p>
<p>Her efforts were invaluable to the success of the association, which became the most influential Black nationalist organization of the 20th century. The organzation’s earliest meetings were held at the home of Ashwood’s parents. When the organization’s headquarters relocated from Jamaica to Harlem, Ashwood was actively engaged in its affairs.</p>
<p>In addition to serving as general secretary in the New York office, Ashwood helped to popularize the Negro World, the organization’s official newspaper. She also contributed to the financial growth of the organization, relying on her parents’ money to meet some of the growing expenses. </p>
<p>In 1922, months after Garvey’s divorce from Amy Ashwood, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/veiled-garvey-the-life-times-of-amy-jacques-garvey/oclc/876412495&referer=brief_results">Amy Jacques</a> became Garvey’s new wife – a position she used to leverage her involvement and leadership in the organization. During these years, she helped to popularize and preserve her husband’s ideas. When her husband was imprisoned in 1925 and later deported – on trumped-up charges of mail fraud orchestrated by the FBI – Amy Jacques Garvey oversaw the organization’s day-to-day activities. </p>
<p>In the aftermath of Garvey’s 1927 deportation, women helped to popularize Black nationalist politics. With limited financial resources and resistance from the FBI, these women asserted their political power in various cities across the United States.</p>
<h2>The Peace Movement of Ethiopia</h2>
<p>During the Great Depression, Chicago was one of the key cities where Black nationalist women organized. In 1932, <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/636809">Mittie Maude Lena Gordon</a>, a former member of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, established an organization called the Peace Movement of Ethiopia which became the largest Black nationalist organization established by a woman in the United States. At its peak, the organization attracted <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/636809">an estimated 300,000 supporters</a> in Chicago and across the country. </p>
<p>In 1933, Gordon initiated a nationwide emigration campaign, utilizing her widespread political networks in Chicago and across the Midwest. With the assistance of other black nationalist activists, she collected signatures for a pro-emigration petition. In August of that year, she mailed the petition to President Franklin D. Roosevelt with <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2211284">approximately 400,000 signatures of Black Americans willing to leave the country</a>. Drawing inspiration from FDR’s New Deal programs, Gordon requested federal support for those who desired to relocate to West Africa in hopes of securing a better life. </p>
<p>Gordon’s attempt to secure federal support failed. Yet she drew an even larger following of supporters who were inspired by her bold move. Many of these new members were women. Black women found in her organization a space of empowerment and opportunity. They occupied a number of visible leadership roles, working alongside the organization’s female founder.</p>
<p>Celia Jane Allen, a Black woman from Mississippi who had relocated to Chicago, was one of these women. In the mid-1930s, she became an active member of the Peace Movement of Ethiopia. Embracing Gordon’s vision for unifying Black people in the U.S. and abroad, Allen took on a leadership role in the organization. In 1937, she became <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15805.html">one of the national organizers</a>. From the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, Allen traveled extensively throughout the South, visiting local homes and churches to recruit new members and advocate the relocation to West Africa. By the end of World War II, she was successful in getting thousands of Black southerners to join the movement and embrace Black nationalist ideas.</p>
<p>Today, these women’s stories are largely absent in popular accounts of Black nationalism. More often than not, the assumption is that men exclusively established and led Black nationalist organizations. This could not be farther from the truth. As these few examples reveal, women were key players in Black nationalist movements, and their efforts helped to keep Black nationalist ideas alive in U.S. politics. No history of Black nationalism is complete without acknowledging women’s significant contributions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89695/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keisha N. Blain received funding from the American Association of University Women (AAUW). </span></em></p>Before the civil rights era, a group of powerful and resourceful black women laid the groundwork for a generation of black activists.Keisha N. Blain, Associate Professor of History, University of PittsburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/887312017-12-18T14:05:22Z2017-12-18T14:05:22ZThe 1960s jazz tribute to Malcolm X that profoundly expressed the black condition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199404/original/file-20171215-17857-zyuxt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Leon Thomas - from his debut album 'Spirits Known and Unknown'.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Discogs</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>By the late 1950s foremost musicians like <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/charlie-parker-mn0000211758">Charlie Parker</a>, <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/charles-mingus-mn0000009680">Charles Mingus</a> and <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-coltrane-mn0000175553">John Coltrane</a> explicitly introduced politics in their jazz, as the civil rights movement started gaining momentum in the US. Musician and author Gilad Atzmon explained it in <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2004/11/20/politics-and-jazz/">a 2005 essay</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Black Americans were calling for freedom, and jazz expressed it better than mere words.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This trend continued and intensified over the following decades, especially in <a href="http://www.jazzinamerica.org/LessonPlan/5/7/234">free</a> and <a href="https://pitchfork.com/features/pitchfork-essentials/9724-astral-traveling-the-ecstasy-of-spiritual-jazz/">spiritual</a> jazz. These sub-genres represented an angrier battle for <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1354532?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">political freedom</a>.</p>
<h2>Profoundly beautiful</h2>
<p>In 1969 avant garde jazz vocalist <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/leon-thomas-mn0000201515">Leon Thomas</a>, with spiritual jazz giant <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/pharoah-sanders-mn0000330601">Pharoah Sanders</a>, composed “Malcolm’s gone”. It’s a profoundly beautiful tribute to American civil rights activist and revolutionary, <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/malcolm-x-9396195">Malcolm X</a>, who was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/21/malcolm-x-assassination-records-nypd-investigation">assassinated</a> in 1965.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Leon Thomas’s ‘Malcolm’s gone’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The song appears on Thomas’s debut solo album, <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/album/spirits-known-and-unknown-mw0000464624">“Spirits Known and Unknown”</a>.
It features Sanders (on tenor sax) and other free jazz luminaries like <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/cecil-mcbee-mn0000739015">Cecil McBee</a> (bass), <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/lonnie-liston-smith-mn0000228058">Lonnie Liston Smith</a> (keyboards) and <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/roy-haynes-mn0000290464">Roy Haynes</a> (drums).</p>
<p>Thomas is often a forgotten figure in popular music. He’s best known for his <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-leon-thomas-1097568.html">unique jazz vocal style</a> that is characterised by the experimental use of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B00nfVc4FPI">yodelling</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0175vPMU7o">scatting</a>, along with his own beautiful natural voice. </p>
<p>The singer, who died in 1999, is mostly remembered for his contributions to the recordings of jazz and rock heavyweights such as <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/randy-weston-mn0000396908">Randy Weston</a>, <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/rahsaan-roland-kirk-mn0000864257">Rahsaan Roland Kirk</a>, <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/oliver-nelson-mn0000398615">Oliver Nelson</a> and <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/carlos-santana-mn0000175196">Carlos Santana</a>. That is despite the gravity of Thomas’s own solo work and his contribution to jazz, especially in the area of vocalisation.</p>
<h2>Seconds of silence</h2>
<p>Thomas’s opening line, to the mostly instrumental “Malcolm’s gone”, is simply the utterance “Malik El-Shabazz”, X’s assumed <a href="http://islam.uga.edu/malcomx.html">Muslim name</a> at the time of his death. It’s then followed by a few seconds of silence before the band starts playing a deeply melancholic melody. The melody is the sonic equivalent of the emotions that one feels upon hearing of the passing of a loved one. </p>
<p>Thomas rejoins the melody about two minutes later with the line:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I know he’s gone… but he’s not forgotten. </p>
<p>I know he died just to set me free… yes Malcolm’s gone, but he’s not forgotten, he died just to save me, give me back dignity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Thomas then explodes into a yodel. His gloomy wail is set to a striking cacophony of beautifully layered rhythms and melodies. The song then transcends into what resembles a spiritual jazz version of a Pentecostal funeral service. It ends with the ululating congregation honouring the late Malcolm X by clapping in unison.</p>
<p>The song invokes the imagery of masses of mourning people at a funeral. At the same time it creates an atmosphere of jubilation reminiscent of a congregation experiencing glossolalia and spirit possession collectively.</p>
<p>Sonically it draws on various black spiritual traditions to express, in sound, the emotion of losing a well loved and respected member of the Ummah, or the Muslim community. The lyrics clearly draw parallels between X and Jesus Christ, which some may regard as the ultimate tribute, or perhaps a very strong political statement given the sociopolitical climate of the USA during that period.</p>
<h2>A volatile period</h2>
<p>The late 1960s, the period when Thomas released the song, was a very volatile period for African Americans. It marked the <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-zinn-education-project/what-happened-to-the-civi_b_10457322.html">end</a> of the relatively nonviolent American <a href="http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1917beyond/essays/crm.htm">civil rights era</a>, and the beginnings of the militant <a href="https://socialistworker.org/2011/10/25/black-power-era">Black Power</a> movement. </p>
<p>Many black people at the time felt that the passive resistance of the civil rights era was no longer a viable option in their quest for equality. Cue an ideological shift toward the black nationalist, Pan-Africanist and socialist ideologies offered by the Black Power movements, hellbent on protecting themselves by all means necessary against an oppressive state.</p>
<p>It was also when many influential and leading figures were either silenced, imprisoned or assassinated. The situation was further exacerbated by the <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/54316">Vietnam War</a> and the <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/668387">Nixon-era conservative politics</a>.</p>
<p>“Malcolm’s gone” is not only a song that pays tribute to one of the most influential black freedom fighters to walk this planet (which in itself is a revolutionary act). It’s a song that dares to liken him to the very same deity that racist nationalist white America prayed to at night, Jesus Christ. This was a very provocative act given America’s Christian foundations, and the fact that Malcolm X, a black Muslim, was perceived to be an enemy of the state.</p>
<p>With minimal lyrics and a robust otherworldly feel the song is able to capture the pain and optimism of black America in a time of great adversity. At the same time it consolidates ideas of civil rights pacifism (through the imagery of Christ) and Black power militancy (in the form of crashing instruments and wailing). It is a profound expression of the black condition of the time, and a deeply dignified tribute to a fallen soldier.</p>
<p><em>Protest music has made a serious comeback over the past five years. This article is the second in a series featuring Songs of Protest from across the world, genres and generations.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88731/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Shakib Bhatch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The protest song “Malcolm’s gone” not only pays tribute to one of the most influential black leaders, but provocatively likens him, as a Muslim and so-called enemy of the state, to Jesus Christ.Michael Shakib Bhatch, Lecturer of English. PhD Candidate in Afrofuturism and African Studies, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/725182017-03-05T10:36:37Z2017-03-05T10:36:37ZAfrofuturistic, cosmic jazz comes to the Motherland<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159131/original/image-20170302-14714-18pc15p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Saxophonist Kamasi Washington will be performing at the 2017 Cape Town International Jazz Festival.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>The golden era days of <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/style/jazz-rap-ma0000012180">jazz-rap</a> occurred during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Hip-hop artists of the time sampled jazz and funk records to create their sound. </p>
<p>Unlike then, we are now entering an age where jazz and funk artists are redefining the boundaries and the sound of hip-hop. The <a href="http://www.capetownjazzfest.com/">Cape Town International jazz festival</a> has tapped into this new age. A number of these musical trailblazers are coming to the African motherland soon, where their musical prowess will be showcased at the annual festival.</p>
<p>Some context on these musicians: They do this delineation by fusing genres like <a href="http://pitchfork.com/features/pitchfork-essentials/9724-astral-traveling-the-ecstasy-of-spiritual-jazz/">spiritual/cosmic jazz</a>, <a href="http://www.stereogum.com/1822964/p-funk-albums-from-worst-to-best/franchises/counting-down/">Pfunk</a> and <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/west-coast-rap-ma0000002932">West Coast hip-hop</a> with ideologies of <a href="http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6001/Black-Consciousness.html">black consciousness</a>, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.za/entry/your-far-out-guide-to-afrofuturism-and-black-magic_us_5711403fe4b0060ccda34a37">Afrofuturism</a> and <a href="http://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=blackstudfacproc">syncretic black spirituality</a>.</p>
<p>We also see more of an emphasis on collaboration between hip-hop artists and contemporary jazz musos. Not only well versed in the golden era hip-hop, these jazz musicians also know their way around the jazz of yesteryear. This interaction sees more interplay between traditional hip-hop sampling methods and a jazz-based composition, improvisation and performance aesthetic in hip-hop. A prime example of this development can be found in songs like Kendrick Lamar’s “For Free? (Interlude)”, “<a href="https://worldgalaxyrecords.bandcamp.com/track/astral-progressions-feat-kurupt">Astral Progressions</a>” by contemporary jazz trumpeter <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/josef-leimberg-mn0001717508/biography">Josef Leimberg</a> featuring rapper Kurupt and the works of artists like the Canadian jazz band, <a href="http://badbadnotgood.com/">Badbadnotgood</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘For Free?’ by Kendrick Lamar from his album, To Pimp a Butterfly.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unlike in the golden jazz-rap era, jazz is no longer a mere sonic muse or pallet for beat makers. It’s now at the forefront of hip-hop production and is directly influencing the trajectory of the genre. For jazz this period marks a new era of fusion that’s heavily influenced by the open minded innovators of the fusion movement of the 1970s such as <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/herbie-hancock-mn0000957296">Herbie Hancock</a>, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/miles-davis-mn0000423829">Miles Davis</a>, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/weather-report-mn0000243527">Weather Report</a> and <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/tony-williams-mn0000791318">Tony Williams</a>. These musical revolutionaries were able to change the shape of jazz and other genres simultaneously through the redefinition and fusion of styles.</p>
<p>Something really magical is taking place at the moment. The last few years have seen a gradual increase of black artists who are really – as opposed to just aesthetically – tuned into the circuit-jamming frequencies and epoch-making ideas of <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/george-clinton-mn0000533117/biography">George Clinton</a>), <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/sun-ra-mn0000924232/biography">Sun Ra</a>, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/2pac-mn0000921895/biography">Tupac Shakur</a>, <a href="http://malcolmx.com/biography/">Malcolm X</a> and everything in between and beyond.</p>
<p>As a scholar of Afrofuturism, a DJ and record collector I am extremely grateful that the Cape Town International Jazz Festival has booked some of these gifted young artists that have built this movement over the last few years.</p>
<p>I’m particularly excited to witness, in my own city, the stellar art of <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/laura-mvula-mn0003052732/biography">Laura Mvula</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/taylor-mcferrin-mn0001881073/biography">Taylor McFerrin</a> and <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/marcus-gilmore-mn0000935640/credits">Marcus Gilmore</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/kamasi-washington-mn0000772447">Kamasi Washington</a> and <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/digable-planets-mn0000826762">Digable Planets</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Laura Mvula</strong></p>
<p>I can best describe Birmingham native Mvula’s music as ethereal, spaced out vocal jazz with gospel and African choral roots. She sounds unique, exploring themes of blackness, spirituality and space in an elegant manner. </p>
<p>Her style is minimal, clean and elegant with a particular knack for making full use of emptiness and space. Listening to her music makes me feel like I’ve been teleported to church in outer space. Worth noting is that her African surname is of no significance to her music – it’s simply her Zambian husband’s surname.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Laura Mvula’s musical feel is well illustrated in this song ‘That’s alright’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Digable Planets</strong></p>
<p>The title of <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/digable-planets-mn0000826762">Digable Planets</a>’ 1993 jazz-heavy debut release “<a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/reachin-a-new-refutation-of-time-and-space-mw0000616174">Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space)</a>” is an apt and clear indicator of the musical direction they were taking during that period. This particular album served as my first introduction to jazzy hip-hop and the idea of “space, jazz and blackness”. Their second release “<a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/blowout-comb-mw0000119422">Blowout Comb</a>”, which is super Afrocentric and created around themes of Black Nationalism, black urban culture, jazz and entomology, took me further down the rabbit hole of Afrofuturism .</p>
<p>For me the group exemplifies my comparison between the golden era of hip-hop, the advent of late 90s <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/neo-soul-ma0000004426">neo-soul</a> and the here-and-now, as they were one of the first groups to explore Afrofuturism, space, time travel, blackness and urban culture through the idioms of jazz and hip-hop. They definitely set the tone for this kind of expression and continued to do so even after their protracted hiatus which occurred between 1995 and their reunion tour of 2016.</p>
<p>During that period group member Ishmael Butler went on to establish another highly influential Afrofuturistic outfit, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/shabazz-palaces-mw0002138257">Shabazz Palaces</a>, and Cee Knowledge created and recorded with the spaced out hip-hop/jazz band <a href="http://cosmicfunkorchestra.com/">Cee Knowledge and the Cosmic Funk Orchestra</a> while Lady Mecca went on to record her solo hip-hop offering, “<a href="http://prince.org/msg/8/431132">Trip The Light Fantastic</a>”. One simply cannot discuss Afrofuturism and jazz within the bounds of hip-hop without mentioning Digable Planets and their unique legacy.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Digable Planets with their hit ‘Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Taylor McFerrin and Marcus Gilmore</strong></p>
<p>The idea that DJ, producer and multi-instrumentalist <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/taylor-mcferrin-mn0001881073/biography">Taylor McFerrin</a> is teaming up with jazz drummer <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/marcus-gilmore-mn0000935640/credits">Marcus Gilmore</a> is most thrilling because they have never recorded a collaborative album that showcases their collective sound. This collaboration is an argument in favour of the assumption that musicality is innate by way of one’s genes. Both these artists are direct descendants of two of the most prolific artists of our time.</p>
<p>Gilmore, who is the grandson of legendary jazz drummer <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/roy-haynes-mn0000290464">Roy Haynes</a>, recently recorded an album with the jazz fusion giant Chick Corea. Gilmore has also collaborated with foremost Afrofuturist <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/flying-lotus-mn0000717419">Flying Lotus</a> and <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/ravi-coltrane-mn0000401568">Ravi Coltrane</a>. Both are from impeccable jazz stock – the latter the son of jazz gods, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-coltrane-mn0000175553">John</a> and <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/alice-coltrane-mn0000006143/biography">Alice</a>, and the former their grand nephew.</p>
<p>McFerrin, the son of <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/bobby-mcferrin-mn0000768367">Bobby</a>, is known for his left-field, futuristic fusion of electronica, jazz, soul and hip hop. He is affiliated to the aforementioned Flying Lotus’s experimental LA-based <a href="http://www.thefader.com/2015/08/26/brainfeeder-flying-lotus-label-interview">Brainfeeder</a> record label, a purveyor of some of the finest Afrofuturistic art of the last decade.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Gilmore and McFerrin in concert.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Kamasi Washington</strong></p>
<p>Saxophonist <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/kamasi-washington-mn0000772447">Washington</a>’s multiple 2015 award winning debut studio album “The Epic” (also released via Brainfeeder) is one of the most important jazz albums of the last five years. It simultaneously garnered the <a href="http://www.metacritic.com/music/the-epic/kamasi-washington">respect of critics</a> and jazz purists, as well as audiences who wouldn’t otherwise listen to anything as musically complex.</p>
<p>Released as a triple disk on vinyl, “The Epic” is a worthy investment for any vinyl enthusiast and music lover.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Kamasi Washington and his band with ‘Clair de Lune’ from ‘The Epic’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This phenomenal album, along with Washington’s work as a notable collaborator on a significant number of the most prominent Afrofuturistic, jazz, hip-hop and funk albums of the last five years, makes him an artist of great stature. One finds his name <a href="https://www.discogs.com/artist/324293-Kamasi-Washington?filter_anv=0&subtype=Writing-Arrangement&type=Credits">printed in the liner notes</a> of recent, groundbreaking albums by Kendrick Lamar, Josef Leimberg, Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Miles Mosely and Run the Jewels.</p>
<p>Washington definitely is an important part of the machinery that’s shaping the future sound of jazz, hip-hop and funk, in their individual forms and as a futuristic, experimental fusion projects.</p>
<p>The festival is an exceptional opportunity to engage with artists, who are relevant and progressive, especially in the Motherland. I sincerely hope that South Africa inspires their art and that we can absorb something from whatever they project.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72518/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Shakib Bhatch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Something really magical is happening at the intersection between jazz and hip-hop at the moment. Many of the artists involved will be playing at Africa’s foremost jazz festival.Michael Shakib Bhatch, Lecturer of English. PhD Candidate in Afrofuturism and African Studies, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/635282016-08-09T07:13:57Z2016-08-09T07:13:57ZOf political hair, Jewish noses and South Africa’s failure to become a nation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133343/original/image-20160808-18043-u9lw9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Author Christine Qunta says forgiveness trumps justice in South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elelwani Netshifhire</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Book Review: <a href="https://seritisasechaba.co.za/">Why we are not a nation</a>, by Christine Qunta.</em> </p>
<hr>
<p>This readable book by Christine Qunta, free of any jargon, divides into three extended essays. The first, mostly historic and political, is titled Why we are not a nation? The second essay, sociological and psychological, is called Is hair political? – and should be a hot sell among African-Americans. The third is a 50-page part-autobiography called Law, national duty, and other hazards.</p>
<p>It is sad that half a century after <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Basil-Davidson/e/B001IXMLRI">Basil Davidson</a> and <a href="https://www.google.co.za/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Joseph+Needham%E2%80%99s+books">Joseph Needham’s</a> books popularised respectively African history and Chinese mechanical inventions, Qunta still finds it necessary to devote pages to an Afrocentric summary of history.</p>
<p>It is sad that half a century after the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/422977?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Oxford History of South Africa</a> and a steady stream of archaeological publications, Qunta still finds it necessary to debunk the colonial and apartheid the-whites-settled-in-empty-land dogma.</p>
<p>But just read the letters to the editors, and the websites, blogs, Facebook and Twitter of 2016, where the <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/its-just-the-facts-penny-sparrow-breaks-her-silence-20160104">racist memes of apartheid</a> persist and reproduce themselves, and we immediately understand why. Qunta writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>White supremacy constituted part of the ideological arsenal developed and deployed by colonialism and imperialism, developing an autonomous existence that has survived long after its economic rationale ceased to exist.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The core argument of the book is that South Africa has:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…. a type of post-traumatic stress disorder of a nation, one that cannot be treated because it has not yet been diagnosed. (We are a country) where forgiveness is overrated and justice is underrated.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133111/original/image-20160804-466-1y5wurx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133111/original/image-20160804-466-1y5wurx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133111/original/image-20160804-466-1y5wurx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133111/original/image-20160804-466-1y5wurx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133111/original/image-20160804-466-1y5wurx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133111/original/image-20160804-466-1y5wurx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133111/original/image-20160804-466-1y5wurx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
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<p>Qunta advocates a reparations fund; to accelerate corrective policies; that white businesses should learn to think strategically; that schools should be freed from colonial indoctrination; and that African culture should be mainstreamed, especially African languages.</p>
<p>The author’s heroes include <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/marcus-garvey">Marcus Garvey</a>, <a href="http://www.ibtauris.com/Books/Humanities/Philosophy/Social%20%20political%20philosophy/Frantz%20Fanon%20The%20Militant%20Philosopher%20of%20Third%20World%20Liberation.aspx?menuitem=%7B65A3FB7C-5D2E-4158-BBA9-D7824186AD5B%7D">Franz Fanon</a>, <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/malcolm-x">Malcolm X</a> and <a href="http://azapo.org.za/azapohistory/bantu-stephen-biko/">Steve Biko</a>. She advocates that colonial symbols, including statues, should be removed from public places and sent to museums; the same with colonial names.</p>
<h2>Of black hair and Jewish noses</h2>
<p>The essay Is Hair political? starts by quoting <a href="http://www.ngugiwathiongo.com/bio/bio-home.htm">Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o</a> that a:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… multibillion industry in the world is built around the erasure of blackness – and its biggest clients are the affluent black middle classes in Africa and the world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Qunta recalls her screaming in pain as a child when her granny tried to comb her hair straight and her mother burnt it straight, leaving her with marks on her forehead. She then summarises the fashion and beauty industries’ war against African hair. In a profoundly feminist statement, she writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If the fashion and beauty industries were states, they would undoubtedly be fascist.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The phenomenal proportion of black women still using hair-straightening and skin-lightening products decades after white racist laws have been revoked can be explained by a sociological comparison.</p>
<p>From at least the 1930s until the 1960s, many wealthy Jewish women went for “nose jobs” – for plastic surgeons to make their noses look “less Jewish” and more Aryan. During the 1950s and 1960s many Japanese women had surgeons reshape their eyes from almond to round. Even today, many Brazilian and Egyptian women feel pressured to get a gynaecologist to reconstruct their hymens before marriage.</p>
<p>Not those women, but respectively anti-Jewish racism, US hegemony and military occupation of Japan, and contemporary misogyny and double standards, should be blamed for pressuring persons until they felt the need for self-mutilation.</p>
<p>The third essay, Law, national duty, and other hazards, needs to be compulsory reading for all black women to motivate them to succeed in business. Her pages on the South African <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/truth-and-reconciliation-commission-trc">Truth and Reconciliation Commission</a>, after the end of apartheid, vividly remind us of the routine torture, perversion of justice, and perjuring of affidavits under the apartheid machine. She sketches how the apartheid security apparatus tried to turn <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/political-activist-and-advocate-dumisa-ntsebeza-born">Advocate Dumisa Ntsebenza</a>, one of the commissioners, into a second <a href="https://global.britannica.com/event/Dreyfus-affair">Dreyfus affair</a>.</p>
<h2>Egyptian civilisation</h2>
<p>This reviewer has quibbles with one or two claims in the text, but none of these affect the main points which the author makes. </p>
<p>Ancient Egyptian civilisation is probably best dated (page 3) as emerging not in 4000BC, but between 3400 and 3100 BC.</p>
<p>The claims about Dogon knowledge of astronomy lack independent substantiation. But this does not affect African contributions to historic astronomy, from the calendar to what is possibly the world’s oldest Stonehenge at <a href="http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/egyptnabta.htm">Nabta Playa</a>, dating before 4000 BC.</p>
<p>Shamil Jeppie and Souleymane Diagne’s magisterial <a href="http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/product.php?productid=2216">The Meanings of Timbuktu</a> points out that there was no institute such as a University of Sankoré. This was a metaphor that African authors used to interpret for western readers that Timbuktu was a centre of higher education, where students studied under individual leading scholars.</p>
<p>In the Cape, slaves were not randomly given the names of months (page 67); they were named after the month in which the slaver ship unloaded them in Cape Town.</p>
<p>Everyone should buy this book – it can be read over a weekend.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="http://wits.worldcat.org/title/why-we-are-not-a-nation/oclc/951524791">Why we are not a nation</a> is published by <a href="https://seritisasechaba.co.za/">Seriti sa Sechaba</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63528/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Gottschalk is affiliated with the ANC. He writes this review in his individual capacity.</span></em></p>Qunta advocates a reparations fund to accelerate corrective policies, that schools be freed from colonial indoctrination and that African culture should be mainstreamed, especially African languages.Keith Gottschalk, Political Scientist, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/623322016-07-12T01:58:51Z2016-07-12T01:58:51ZWhat Black Lives Matter means beyond policing reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130099/original/image-20160711-9281-3ss1m2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Riots in Harlem, 1964</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harlem_riots_-_1964.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After the killing of five police officers in Dallas last week by a lone gunman, where does the Black Lives Matter movement go?</p>
<p>Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/after-dallas-the-future-of-black-lives-matters">answered this question</a>, saying she anticipated that the Dallas shooting would “create the conditions for increased security, surveillance and monitoring of protesters … an expansion of the police state, rather than reduction of one.” </p>
<p>As Garza points out, the failure of the dash cam and body cameras to <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/alton-sterling-baton-rouge-police-shooting-aclu-questions-lack-of-body-cameras/">document</a> what happened in the killing of Alton Sterling in Louisiana highlights the limitations of technology as the centerpiece of reform. It had even been the <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/al-sharpton-calls-national-law-requiring-police-body-cameras-after-walter-scott-1874422">focal point</a> of Al Sharpton’s 2014 National March Against Police Violence.</p>
<p>As Garza argued, “There has to be something bigger than that.” </p>
<p>As a scholar of 20th-century African-American history and social movements, I have focused my research on community activism in the 1950s and 1960s against police brutality in major cities such as Los Angeles and New York. Police violence often opened a space for organizing people of color from across the religious and political spectrum around core issues facing their communities. But these coalitions were often tenuous. And the idea of police reform being the most important issue within the larger black freedom struggle has always been contentious.</p>
<p>The challenge facing us now is twofold. First, how can we think about addressing the problem of racialized police violence beyond professional and mechanical reforms? </p>
<p>And second, how can the national spotlight on police brutality be used as an opportunity to make broader changes that answer the fundamental question posed by Black Lives Matter: What does it look like to value black life?</p>
<h2>The challenge of black unity</h2>
<p>This tension was at play more than a half-century ago in a brief coalition formed in Harlem called the Emergency Committee for Unity on Economic and Social Problems. The organization was founded in the summer of 1961 by civil rights and labor organizer A. Philip Randolph.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130129/original/image-20160712-9302-1k7a40n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130129/original/image-20160712-9302-1k7a40n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=710&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130129/original/image-20160712-9302-1k7a40n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=710&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130129/original/image-20160712-9302-1k7a40n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=710&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130129/original/image-20160712-9302-1k7a40n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=892&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130129/original/image-20160712-9302-1k7a40n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=892&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130129/original/image-20160712-9302-1k7a40n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=892&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A. Philip Randolph.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/owi2001014265/PP/">Library of Congress/Gordon Parks</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The group was <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zA5XrgEACAAJ&q=emergency+committee+for+unity+on+social+and+economic+problems#v=snippet&q=emergency%20committee%20for%20unity%20on%20social%20and%20economic%20problems&f=false">originally formed</a> to protest housing discrimination and the rise of unpoliced drug use in Harlem. The committee represented a wide swath of the Harlem activist community, including national civil rights figures like <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo3644370.html">Bayard Rustin</a> and black nationalists such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_H._Michaux">Lewis Michaux</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/15/obituaries/street-corner-orator-s-death-marks-end-of-era-in-harlem.html">“Pork Chop” Davis </a>and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X">Malcolm X</a>.</p>
<p>The Emergency Committee for Unity on Economic and Social Problems was built on the premise of black unity around three action programs: unemployment, housing, and law and order enforcement. The Pittsburgh Courier immediately hailed it as a “beacon of light for other communities.”</p>
<p>But just months after its founding in August 1961, the subcommittee on law enforcement resolved to disband if the Emergency Committee for Unity on Economic and Social Problems would not focus on the issue of police brutality. Among the subcommittee’s recommendations were a civilian review board that would include representation from the community, a greater representation of African-Americans and Puerto Ricans within the police department and intensive human relations training on race within the police department.</p>
<p>By the following year, these and other political divisions led to a fracturing of the committee. Randolph turned his focus to organizing the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom at which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0yP4aLyq1g">“I Have a Dream” speech</a>. However, the march only loosely touched upon calls for police reform and marginalized both women and black nationalists from its program. Instead, it focused on ending school segregation and job discrimination, establishing a nationwide minimum wage and public job training, and enforcing the 14th Amendment to protect the voting rights of southern blacks. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Malcolm X had moved to Los Angeles following <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2717628?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">a case of police violence</a> which left one Muslim man dead and another paralyzed after an attack on the Nation of Islam’s mosque. No officers were indicted, and 14 men were charged with assault and resisting arrest, nine of whom were eventually convicted. </p>
<h2>Police reform</h2>
<p>Los Angeles was rife with discrimination and accounts of police brutality in communities of color. In 1962, the NAACP published a 12-page report documenting 10 major cases of brutality in the city. Roy Wilkins had even compared the police in Los Angeles “next to those in Birmingham, Alabama.”</p>
<p>Yet, the Los Angeles Police Department maintained a national <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=vs9wCQAAQBAJ&pg=PT1476&lpg=PT1476&dq=jeffrey+kraus+%22william+parker%22&source=bl&ots=61ELRcCOub&sig=kaU3QsFn0jjfz4_QBo7Jgsxf0u4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjS0rPPnOzNAhVaVWMKHRpPAcwQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=jeffrey%20kraus%20%22william%20parker%22&f=false">reputation</a> as one of the modern exemplars of policing during the 1950s. Meanwhile, the ACLU and NAACP had been fighting for police reform in Los Angeles for over a decade, including repeated calls for a civilian review board.</p>
<p>In part, Police Chief William Parker’s vision for a modernized police department appeared to reflect those called for by community activists, then and now. This included human relations training and a more diverse police force serving in these communities.</p>
<p>But Parker’s understanding of “diversity” was that everyone could be a “minority group member… any of which can be, and often has been discriminated against.” Training bulletins even illustrated this concept to police officers by showing them how it would feel to be called by derogatory phrases such as “fuzz” and “cop.” </p>
<p>Professionalization meant training police officers to eradicate racist ideas through practice. As Parker proudly told a police chief conference in 1955:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Intolerance has become a victim of enforced order – habit has won out over belief.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Modernization meant using empirical data to justify racist outcomes. The heavy use of police in communities of color, he explained, was simply “statistical – it is a fact that certain racial groups, at the present time, commit a disproportionate share of the total crime.” </p>
<h2>Beyond police reform</h2>
<p>Policing in Los Angeles became even more emblematic of the modern police state after the violent arrest of a young black man led to the <a href="http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_watts_rebellion_los_angeles_1965/">Watts uprising</a> in 1965. The sheriff’s department demonstrated the use of helicopters during the rebellion, and in turn earned the largest Office of Law Enforcement Assistance grant ever (US$200,000) for an air surveillance program. As historian Elizabeth Hinton <a href="http://jah.oxfordjournals.org/content/102/1/100.extract">writes</a>, “A new era in American law enforcement had begun.”</p>
<p>Today, the left-leaning Bernie Sanders has called for police to “demilitarize” from this buildup of tanks, riot gear and advanced weaponry which began after Watts. Yet, his <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/01/17/bernie_sanders_we_have_to_demilitarize_our_police_so_they_dont_look_authoritarian.html">suggestion</a> to make police departments look like the communities they serve also mirrors Parker’s language of professionalization and modernization from 50 years ago. Calls for citizen review boards, still seen as radical by many police departments, are simply attempts at accountability and lawfulness for those charged with enforcing the law.</p>
<p>The relationship between police reform and other broader black freedom struggles that were so pronounced in the Emergency Committee for Unity on Economic and Social Problems and the March on Washington continue today. The March on Washington’s call for a national minimum wage in 1963 is still a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/11/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-democratic-platform-negotiations">central point of contention</a> for the Democratic Party in our current presidential primary. The Voting Rights Act, which was one of the chief victories of the civil rights movement, has been significantly <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/29/magazine/voting-rights-act-dream-undone.html">rolled back</a>. </p>
<p>So how can Black Lives Matter take us beyond basic questions of police reform? </p>
<p>Attorney Johnnie Cochran, famous for his role as defense attorney for O.J. Simpson, worked as an assistant on the 1963 trial in Los Angeles involving the Nation of Islam. He later recalled that although such cases were difficult to win, “the issue of police abuse really galvanized the minority community. It taught me that these cases could really get attention.”</p>
<p>The issue at stake, then, is how to take this opening and not only begin to secure justice for the lives lost to police violence, but also to expand on questions about what it means to value black life. This can be done, I believe, by continuing to center trans and queer people of color, by remaining unapologetically black and by joining in solidarity with labor struggles. </p>
<p>In the aftermath of Dallas, when the media will recycle old tropes to make “Black Power” synonymous with violence, Black Lives Matter must continue to think bigger and broader. As Michelle Alexander <a href="https://medium.com/embrace-race/something-more-is-required-of-us-now-what-58e8ec2885b8#.a76z5tqat">pointed out</a> several days ago, this is not about fixing police, this is about fixing our democracy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62332/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Garrett Felber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A historian examines what it means to value black life, then and now.Garrett Felber, Ph.D. Candidate in American Culture, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/613472016-07-06T01:05:34Z2016-07-06T01:05:34ZEid al-Fitr 2016: Understanding the differences among America’s Muslims<p>Ramadan, a month of intense prayer and fasting, has been especially trying for American Muslims this summer: Other than the heat, the small community has been <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/muslim-americans-face-backlash-after-orlando-mass-shooting/">grappling with the aftermath</a> of the massacre in Orlando and the presumptive Republican Party candidate Donald Trump’s <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/07/politics/donald-trump-muslim-ban-immigration/">call to ban</a> all Muslims from entering the United States, not to mention multiple Islamic State attacks on the eve of Eid al-Fitr, the otherwise joyous celebration of the end of the month. </p>
<p>In the cacophony American Muslims have tried desperately to have their voice heard, even as they scrambled to find it themselves. But is there only one American Muslim voice? </p>
<p>For a group that makes up perhaps <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/01/06/a-new-estimate-of-the-u-s-muslim-population/">only one percent</a> of the country’s population and hails from every corner of the Earth, American Muslims are equally burdened and blessed in their complexity.</p>
<p>As a professor of Islamic studies, I have had the privilege to explore the diverse histories of both America’s Muslim children, born raised and converted here, and those who have arrived in waves over many generations. Outside of Mecca itself, there exists no other Muslim population that displays the theological, ideological, class and ethnic diversity as that which resides here.</p>
<p>However, often outside observers, much to their loss, are left to see only two shades of this otherwise fascinating spectrum: either the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIUy4ioOH9Y">terror-hating Muslims</a> struggling to just be seen as humans and as neighbors or their <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/islamophobia-mainstream-media-paris-terrorist-attacks_us_564cb277e4b08c74b7339984">brutally caricatured representation</a> as monsters on television, bus ads and almost everywhere else. </p>
<p>To be able to see more than this false binary, a few years ago I charted <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1478-1913.2010.01394.x/abstract">something of a roadmap</a> to American Muslim communities – a guide to the ideas, practices and institutions that almost any community insider knows reflexively, but may remain cloudy to those peering in. </p>
<p>So, what are the religious and political leanings of America’s different Muslim communities?</p>
<h2>A discursive tradition</h2>
<p>First and foremost, like any religious community, Muslims in America anchor themselves in tradition. By this I don’t mean “old ways” or “culture,” but rather the habits and patterns of their piety and devotion.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129443/original/image-20160705-814-8u1dd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129443/original/image-20160705-814-8u1dd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129443/original/image-20160705-814-8u1dd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129443/original/image-20160705-814-8u1dd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129443/original/image-20160705-814-8u1dd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129443/original/image-20160705-814-8u1dd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129443/original/image-20160705-814-8u1dd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Praying during the month of Ramadan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rezapci/19636055329/in/photolist-vVaV96-wc12Tf-wccxYU-wazXJ1-vn39b7-cPjvMS-uLX5tw-uLXgH5-v4PErg-v4PJtz-u7GeNz-v4QcXT-uLXieS-uLXnib-uLXhaf-u7wFM9-v4Q1SX-v43D3L-v43McG-v2dBhh-u7GiEx-v4PTZZ-uM6bG6-uLXoyE-u7wwCs-uLXnkC-v4PT6V-v2e5Qy-u7x6tN-uLWYFQ-uLXAAL-v2eaQ3-u7xdzw-v4xLPc-u7x2ZU-v43w9q-u7wBj1-uM62D6-v4Qmik-v4xoQn-u7wXNN-v4Q5cH-v43vds-vfNpZP-vfQVLu-vg2Mft-vfDAn1-vVmMrR-vVasDc-vfZtvK">Lion Multimedia Production U.S.A.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nearly 30 years ago, the <a href="http://www.gc.cuny.edu/Page-Elements/Academics-Research-Centers-Initiatives/Doctoral-Programs/Anthropology/Faculty-Listing/Talal-Asad">astute anthropologist Talal Asad</a> called Islam a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20685738?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">discursive tradition</a>: a set of practices, discussions and teachings that instruct Muslims to be Islamic. </p>
<p>Such traditions, he said, could be taught both by an “untutored parent” or by a religiously trained Islamic teacher (shaykh or imam). </p>
<p>What this means is that beyond the veneer of sectarian affiliation, race, age or even class, Muslims can be found with different theological stripes – sometimes coherently bound by scripture, but more often not – just like their fellow worshipers in churches and synagogues across the country.</p>
<h2>Many ways of being Muslim</h2>
<p>So how can outsiders better navigate the American Muslim community?</p>
<p>The first and most likely form to be encountered is what I call the “Abrahamic American Islamic tradition.” At the heart of this interpretation of Islam rests the belief that the very goals of the Islamic way of life coincide seamlessly with the lofty ambitions of American democracy. That is, from freedom of religion and human rights to democratic participation and social welfare programs, American and Islamic ideals are born of a common spirit.</p>
<p>Take, for example, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/24/nyregion/24mosque.html?ref=topics&_r=0">Imam Feisal Abdur Rauf</a>, who fielded controversy for his plans to build Park 51, an Islamic community center, two blocks from Ground Zero, to promote interfaith dialogue and provide Manhattan area worshipers with a comfortable place of prayer. Imam Rauf has championed this line of thought for decades, following in the footsteps of his father, who pioneered interfaith dialogue in New York City over 50 years ago.</p>
<p>This theological interpretation also has deep inroads in the African-American Muslim community. Consider the case of the late <a href="http://thenationsmosque.org/about/the-late-imam-wd-mohammed/">Warith Deen Muhammad</a>, who transformed the Nation of Islam from a black separatist organization into a globally networked community of civil society leaders and social entrepreneurs from 1975 to the time of his passing in 2008.</p>
<p>At a time when most American Muslim organizations in the United States were wary of participating in American civil life, Imam Muhammad ordered the American flag to be placed on the front of his community’s newspaper and even supported the American liberation of Kuwait.</p>
<p>Leading Muslim organizations such as the <a href="http://www.isna.net/">Islamic Society of North America</a>, the <a href="http://www.ispu.org/default.aspx">Institute of Social Policy and Understanding</a> and the <a href="http://www.cair.com/">Council on American Islamic Relations</a> uphold similar values. </p>
<h2>Another way of being</h2>
<p>There are others, however, who believe American ideals of social justice and equality have rarely if ever materialized and that its citizens and institutions would be bettered by Islam. </p>
<p>In this line of thinking, theologies of practical liberation and political reformation are developed to advance both the spiritual and material life of practitioners. Captured by the Nation of Islam’s mantra “do for self,” Muslims of this brand hope to rectify the “moral” and “social” failings of the American project by introducing Islamic forms of social organization. They aspire for individual transformation and extend it to the family and community. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129028/original/image-20160701-18331-1k7ql1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129028/original/image-20160701-18331-1k7ql1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129028/original/image-20160701-18331-1k7ql1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129028/original/image-20160701-18331-1k7ql1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129028/original/image-20160701-18331-1k7ql1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129028/original/image-20160701-18331-1k7ql1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129028/original/image-20160701-18331-1k7ql1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Malcolm X.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/generationrose/457260253/in/photolist-Gpzxt-rKxTck-8uvyyr-9J8BSG-acLNQq-aLsjiV-fhNrKm-b7iySH-bVvBWK-o5nKwF-9myvsk-5nQ45e-bq86iu-roJ6Pz-qrJATL-9ZK3e6-9ZMUhQ-9ZMUw7-9ZMUDb-9ZK2WT-9ZMUSj-9ZMUK1-s8AWYW-cqfUnL-5nQ49B-7yvjYn-JMWG-pNn5oZ-71TXdB-roB5PZ-qrWQpZ-roCUFQ-rmrdWs-9ZK3sT-71kUHx-71pVSb-71kW3K-71pVmw-71kWqK-aYmH8V-8Rdq9P-tm8UvB-xnPW8A-qiydDb-sddRLV-Ksorv-c2Q1x3-o5Xd9T-nPkCcG-71pULU">generationrose.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finding kinship with anti-colonial liberation movements around the world, this group is best exemplified by the towering icon, El Hajj Malik Shabbaz, better known as <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/malcolm-x-9396195">Malcolm X</a>. </p>
<p>More recent examples include that of Imam Zaid Shakir. Raised in housing projects between Atlanta and Connecticut, he can now be found on panel discussions with American academic and social activist Cornel West as well as at Occupy Wall Street rallies demanding that American structural and historical inequalities be rectified. His interview with broadcast journalist Bill Moyers <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waBA9vrz9lw">offers a robust glimpse</a> into this rich American Muslim tradition. </p>
<p>In addition, I must add the name of <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/legal-work/abdur-rashid-v-new-york-city-police-department">Imam Talib Abdur Rashid</a>, currently the helmsman of the mosque founded by Malcolm X. He champions the icon’s fearless quest to join hands with other oppressed groups, so as to fight institutional discrimination and structural inequality. </p>
<p>It is Imam Rashid, for example, who is at the center of challenging the New York Police Department’s <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/legal-work/abdur-rashid-v-new-york-city-police-department">unlawful surveillance</a> of American Muslim communities. </p>
<h2>Different schools of thought</h2>
<p>There are, of course, the more insular Muslim communities that rarely rise to the surface of national attention but likely constitute the overwhelming bulk of American Muslim practices and institutions. </p>
<p>These subcultures are rooted in global religious traditions. Theirs are small mosques that more often resemble community centers and their languages are Bosnian, Turkish, Bangladeshi and so on. </p>
<p>Then there are other, more established communities that draw a wide and diverse base of congregants, both immigrant and African-American. These follow the rich transnational theological traditions of the Islamic world, such as the Deobandi school of South Asia and its cousin, the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/analyses/wahhabism.html">Wahhabi</a> /Salafi reformism, born in Saudi Arabia and spread quickly across the globe in a short century or two. </p>
<p>Pious, conservative and devout, these groups place their relationship with God prior to the pragmatic demands of American civic engagement. </p>
<p>Likewise, one will find similarities with other orthodox legal and spiritual traditions: mindful mystics reminiscent of Roman Catholic monks, or discerning textual jurists who in another dimension might have found themselves in a Jewish Yeshiva in rabbinical training. </p>
<p>The differences in these communities would be similar to those between Catholics and Orthodox churches – recognizable only to insiders and ultimately inconsequential, I believe in the grand scheme of things.</p>
<h2>‘Map is not territory’</h2>
<p>On the bright fringes of the map above one is likely to encounter the <a href="http://www.humanityinaction.org/knowledgebase/131-beyond-infidels-and-fundamentalists-the-progressive-muslim-movement-in-the-united-states">“reformist reconstructionists.”</a> They seek to secure <a href="http://www.libertiesalliance.org/2012/01/27/liberal-islamic-reform-and-the-prospect-for-an-islamic-reformation/">a firm break with the Islamic traditions</a> of centuries past and lands afar. </p>
<p>These are progressives, radicals, who hope to take sovereign ownership of the theological direction of the American Muslim community.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129027/original/image-20160701-18325-1ra4utf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129027/original/image-20160701-18325-1ra4utf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129027/original/image-20160701-18325-1ra4utf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129027/original/image-20160701-18325-1ra4utf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129027/original/image-20160701-18325-1ra4utf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129027/original/image-20160701-18325-1ra4utf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129027/original/image-20160701-18325-1ra4utf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">American Muslims protesting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/joegaza/15912721483/in/photolist-qUoNAY-8H7vwk-rbS9Xw-r9EgVQ-r9EbeE-rbNDeD-rbNBfi-qUuQha-qUuHVH-qUnz8f-qUnxVf-dqLbhE-8ezcVK-rbNHCi-qUnAzU-rbXBiF-dqKFmV-qUnvkq-rbXDuz-4yUsfs-dqL1ZB-qUwGv2-dqKFfT-qeWEtE-rbNCuT-gqVXA-rbXwzn-qUoJtE-r9EbH5-rbS7uW-rbXF3e-qUuK3c-qUnCHm-rbNHMg-gUHk9y-qeWEad-rbXwZv-qUuSN2-qf9RGX-qf9WdF-ak1izK-dqKVPJ-rbXFba-qUnvbh-qeWDG9-dqKR1h-qUnvhj-r9EhCb-qf9Uii-qUoJg5">Joe Catron</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They are developing interpretations of Islamic law, for example, that not only tolerate but lovingly accept queer and gay Muslims or allow for unconventional practices of women’s religious leadership.</p>
<p>Likewise, the so-called <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/unmosqued-muslim-millenials_n_4394588.html">“unmosqued” millennials</a> – a younger generation of Muslims who prefer nonprofits and social startups to mosques and minarets. You will find them in Silicon Valley, Syrian refugee camps and at the same time on Snapchat. </p>
<p>Just as the great scholar of religion <a href="https://divinity.uchicago.edu/jonathan-z-smith">J.Z. Smith of Chicago</a> taught a generation of students that <a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3640955.html">“map is not territory,”</a> so too should we be sure that this outline of America’s varied Muslim communities can be checked only against lived experience. In other words, the groups and streams I’ve charted out are not meant to be mutually exclusive or even comprehensive; they simply serve as a rudimentary guide.</p>
<p>American Muslims are a fluid, dynamic and ever-changing body of believers. Like <a href="http://nyupress.org/books/9780814775820/">Jewish communities in mid 20th-century</a> America, they are undergoing a process of institutional and theological transformation and settlement. Those bent on stifling this dynamism by taking only black and white Polaroid snapshots rob their audiences and themselves of a much more colorful mosaic.</p>
<p>To be sure it will take some time – unfortunately much longer than the presidential elections this fall – but, I believe, the complexity of American Muslim experiences will eventually blend seamlessly into that unique fabric that constitutes America’s chaotic, but somehow calming, civic life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61347/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abbas Barzegar receives funding from the European Union, NEH, British Council. He is affiliated with Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. </span></em></p>The American Muslim population is one of the most diverse. So, what are the religious and political leanings of America’s different Muslim communities?Abbas Barzegar, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.