history is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day it is also compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography history tells of people where they have been what they have been where they are and what they are most important history tells a people for they still must go what they still must be the relationship of history to the people is the same as the relationship of a mother to her child how do you describe a legend an African American hero an historian and activist who for half a century has charted a singular course dedicated to the intellectual and spiritual liberation of the people though his eyes are now darkened by glaucoma he continues to enlighten the lives of thousands of men and women through the pages of his many books and in university classrooms across the country how do you describe a legend you can't really but you can meet the men and women who influenced him you can learn from him the hidden history of the African people learn from him a different way of making sense of this complex and often very confusing world and you can let dr. John Henry Clark tell his own extraordinary story in his own soulful style i was born on sharecropper farm and union springs Alabama New Year's Day 1915 that was a great feast day and our family and because my mother was a favorite in the family and I was late arriving she said that nothing will be killed in this family till my child is born and I didn't arrive until three and everybody was hungry but he's had not started and I wasn't exactly welcome they never quite forgave me for that holding up the feasts my early schooling was in one room schoolhouse that we called Miller's Hill School when we moved slightly out of the city I was chosen to go to city school officially I never finished high school in the formal sense until later years in fact I talked two generations before I took time out to get my BA my masters and my PhD I have it all now but I'm principally self-trained my university was the public library and well chosen secondhand bookstores so while I grew up poor I grew up in a very rich and vile man culturally rich I grew up with a whole lot of love and affection not a lap time a lot of slap time too because I wasn't permitted to get away with too much miss Evelina Taylor my fifth grade teacher and she might be the foundation teacher in my life in addition to teaching the basic good thinking and good conduct she called me into her room going on lunch hour one day and told me to stop playing the fool because I was playing the food just to get accepted and she said it is better to be right in march into hell than to follow a bunch of foods and to help I wanted to do something to impress miss taylor and we had current events on friday we want to say something unusual because i worked for white people before and after school and they had magazines they were receive them one day read them thirdly of throwing with the next days when i got a booker t VES I always had something decidedly different to say about my own people and about other people not wanted to do something real real big so I went to a lawyer that I worked for before and after school I can still remembers name gags tighter and I asked him for book about my people in early world history he says I'm sorry John that you came from a people have no history my mind would not accept that I continued to search now open the book called the new Negro now open to an essay called the Negro digs of his past and for the first time I knew that I came from a very old people that we were older than slavery older than oppression older than Europe now the scramble began for more information during the disaster years of the Great Depression Americans and huge numbers take to the rails they don't take Pullman cars or day cultures they stow away on the freights riding the rails in search of the opportunity to create a better life John Henry Clark broken out of the South first briefly to Chicago and then on to New York City had a dream I thought that because I'd had some success writing local plays writing lyrics for songs for local plays and like and go write professionally it was a dream it's a fantasy I was pursuing this fantasy 18 you can pursue all kind of fantasies in the shadow of Manhattan's towering skyscrapers lies black falling Harlem greatest Negro metropolis in the world not impressions of the Harlem community in the first place was a clean community was an orderly community it was a safe community was a community with his customs that we have forgotten now Street speaking customs strolling customs social customs it was a time when seventh Avenue now adam powell boulevard was the street of choice and you did not walk down seventh Avenue and Saturday or Sunday without a coat and a time there was a custom of getting your lady in your loan good suit in walking down seventh Avenue to show her all you walk 15 blocks sometime when you had a dollar so to spend he would take on the Fifth Avenue open bus all the way down to New York University and all the way back and she was satisfied and the whole evening you hadn't spent a dollar long time didn't have one it shouldn't make ladies like that anymore it was a time there were three functioning vaudeville theaters in Harlem all well patronised the Lafayette Harlem Opera House and the Apollo don't lincoln theater now a church used to be a legitimate theater while the plays downtown be brought up town with them play with the black caste and that was our Broadway I got involved with the Communists and the socialism for the radicals going to read literature on the rush of that day and see movies about Russia I was never a member of the Communists are the Socialist Party I was active briefly in the young Communist League we were looking for way out of the condition which we live they open doors for us and gave us a platform otherwise did not have paul robeson was the one artist who made the great sacrifice based on commitment and that commitment is that an artist supposed to use heels or her art to change the society in which they live WB the boys is our greatest single intellect we produced in the whole of the Western world and he's not just a black American intellect he is an American intellect equal to any web2 boys Paul Robeson the potty came closest to what those men wanted to stand for in the world was a bad deal for the working people of the world we would examine later to our sorrow we were in an argument between not a liberator and an oppressed but to oppresses with different techniques and methodology of oppression and the final analysis Russia did not want us to be free any more than in the United States and England and the imperial powers but they wanted us under their domination I never thought the left movement communist or socialist made in a serious study of history in the background of the African people of the world and they had a preconceived notion of us that have nothing to do with our reality in these African communal societies who each got according to his needs were not copied from Europe because they existed before there was a euro in these societies based on the concept of the family and the community everyone in the society had a responsibility and these societies there was no word for jail because no one had ever gone to one no word for offering is because no one had ever thrown away in the children no word for old he was home because no one ever thrown away Grandma and Grandpa and while I had some admiration for the conclusion of Karl Marx I dared to say he was a political opportunist and a johnny-come-lately because he was rehashing something that was in the world before the first european war shoe lived in the house that had a window during my early years in Harlem and B that is a writing consisted mainly of poetry short stories and blue essays on aspects of history the Harlem Renaissance writers of course influenced me a new clone mackay a new Langston Hughes I knew Richard right before he had published native son I new Wallace Thurman phone LOL awesome Jessup are set upon the pan africanist consciousness in it Langston Hughes and to some degree can a clothe McKay but the rest of them were rather parochial finally I got to meet Arthur schaumburg Arthur schaumburg mentor to two generations of African American scholars the legacy of this Puerto Rican born historian is the world's definitive institution of its kind Harlem's schomburg center for research in black culture I went down the 1 30 50 he was on a third floor and I asked very humbling at the library do you know anybody who would give me a letter to see all the chambray and she said very sharply you know impatient because you showed him help you just have to walk up three flights I walked up three flights and they are the Schomburg was holding down the desk being 18 and rash I wanted to know the history of African people of the world henceforth right now within the hour his lunch I'll all of it he said sit down son what you are calling African history and Negro History are the missing pages a world history then he said son go study the history of your masters go study the history of the people who enslave you and find out why they found it a necessity to remove an entire people from the respectful commentary of the history of the world well my earnest impressions of them was a people in power who intended to stay in power and I began to wonder why they had so much and other people had so little and why everybody I knew worked harder than they who made this arrangement I studied European history and world history now when I went back to schaumburg with some knowledge of background of European history now he began to show me how to study African history Arthur schaumburg taught me the interrelationship of African history two world history Willis in Hogan's of the old Harlem history Club taught me the political meaning of history and from the lectures of William Leo hansberry of how University I learned the philosophical meaning of history the most valuable lesson I would learn is that when you adjust the people by the right name that name must relate to land history and culture all people go back to the geography of their original origin and identified themselves no matter where they live on the face of the earth we have over used the word black because black tells you how you look but they don't tell you who you are you can call an Italian why that don't tell you anything about him we are the only people who seem to have laws that all essential trade of geographical and historical reference around 1933 up until 1934 1935 Harlem was main activity was how to make Harlem a congressional district so that Harlem could elect its own congressman Adam Powell was just began to show his weight we were fighting to get jobs on 124 street fighting to get jobs in our own neighborhood I had my Adam with all of his faults he was the best person that beckham eric has ever sent to Washington he got the job done when he went to washing the first time they told mr. Powell that we don't accept blacks in the Congressional dining room and Adam smile well don't accept them well that's your custom the next day Adam got the tallest and the meanest looking in the blackest of the black he could find and March them into the Congressional dining room as his guest and got away with it but it was a period when we were reassessing our role in the whole Western world we were tuning into Africa as much as we could and have an African forums and making a serious study of African history black men wanted to go to Ethiopia and fight on the side of the Ethiopian but America would not get them passport another single one leave the country for that purpose and yet Italians could get past both to go and fight with Italian forces against Ethiopia now later some of the same black men who could get permission got permission to go fight in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and Spain is there position then why would you want to go when he'd help you well I feel it's my duty to give my profession and if necessary my life in the cause of Ethiopia and I'd asylum be happy to die for the defense of empire Africa including Abyssinia but finds I right here on the dotted line she originally African did not define themselves by continent but more by Regions Africa as a continent began to be defined by foreigners in North Africa the Roman have a province called a freaky the word became Africa the history both known and hidden of the land where time began has been a primary focus of dr. Clark's scholarship throughout his long career the concept of social order the concept of an organized society came out of nah valley civilization before there was any other society that has been known to man functioning any other place in the world the significance of Nevada civilization is that it was that civilization that set a standard of for farmers untouched by the other civilizations of the world and people are reluctant to give an African credit for a creation that happened in Africa they also forget that the Nile Valley stretches 4,000 miles into the physical body of Africa and that it was the world's first cultural highway for centuries Eurocentric scholars had rejected the idea that the mighty Egyptian Empire was in fact created and maintained by black Africans the concept that Western civilization was the product of non-white intelligence imagination technology and spirituality was unacceptable both psychologically and politically a brilliant Senegalese scholar and scientist would shake and many say toppled the very foundation at conventional wisdom his name was Sheikh anta diop his research was brought to the attention of the english-speaking world through the efforts of his longtime colleague and friend I was wondering why his books had never been published in the United States he said was no publisher's interest in books it took me seven years to interest the publisher and the books of chick at that deal d ops disciples refer to him as the Pharaoh of the Upper Nile you must be strong enough and serene enough the world of history to see the historical fact it is interpreted to interpret them to Center passione we can all be impassioned yes and the father said Monica knew this would only problem complexity Monica but that is now how not how we will resolve the complex super indulge a supermom am the domination that we suffer from that I have suffered from my support for Julian Assange's also a lapras a big our domination of other races preceded it nope nautica excess and imperialism continue pandan camilo for 4,000 years black Africa had and imperialism seen antalya taken keys system señora de minas Renoir all of Western Asia was under the dominant under the domination of blacks phone or a pajama pants a hacer a pro-black a la situación furious at that time no one would ever have dreamt that the situation could be reversed a popsicle introduced to our littlest wha-la serenity Felicia LFA a little activism this is why the study of history gives us the serenity required to appreciate the facts as they are 90 74 he would challenge the major scholars of the world on the concept of Egypt not being anything other than an African state and the conference on the people of Egypt leading scholars of the world met and debated most of them wanted to put Egypt origin outside of Africa she can't a deal and his protégé fearful Oh benga place Asia within the context of Africa's totality she can't a job was more than historians the scientist paleontologist and he had proven that if he could get the pigment from some of the mummies he could prove the African origins all the rest of the conferees came just to disagree and when it was all over they had to admit these two men came prepared to prove that case at that point they began to close the door to the research of chicken thai do from the first dynasty to the invasion on now ballad that was the first Golden Age and from third dynasty came the great multi genius in hotel the real father of Medicine who lived 1800 years before the Greek was called the father of Medicine when we read the biography of the Greek he says I am a child of em hotel and from the 18th dynasty came the world's great social reformer and maybe one of the worse for his deities up nothing he thought so much of life he would not crush a flower she outlawed warfare spirituality was a part of the total life of the people before the coming of the European the African was very religious the Step Pyramid was originally built for the temple at the top or you can grow up and pray this relates not just to the glorification of a pharaoh but the spiritual outpouring of a people this is what made the civilization of the Nile so great at the same time that Egypt was in its 24th dynasty Europe was just emerging from its pre literate past the first show of yoga intelligence of the book called the artists in the Iliad that's about 850 BC whereas Egypt 850 BC Egypt is old and tired and has gone through 24 dynasties it is on the eve of its last great dynasty that will come from the Pharaohs in the south and the European are just read a book of folklore just south of Egypt lies another highly evolved black society the Nubians their civilization thrived for some 3,000 years I call the 25th dynasty the one dynasty from the south that moved up north and to tell their cousins the Egyptians how to rule a nation one more time in the great show of history this was Africa / walk in the Sun it was a great mighty walk that walk at lasted ten thousand years now it's coming to an end Europe is just being born the Burwood Europe not even being used you I was drafted on me in September 1941 I can say with certainty i was probably one of the best clerks one of the worst soldiers the army ever had I couldn't shoot didn't like the hot Sun didn't actually go knows all night ships when I was a wizard administration I made sure my men got what was due to them as soldiers and men not as black men but as soldiers and men without our return from the Army it was not so much as finding myself again as a pan africanist but Rida finding myself as a pan africanist remember we had participated in a wall that we were cynical about in the first place having participated in this Warner Jim Crow basis getting out of the war and there wasn't the employment that we had hoped would be there I began to think more and more about the fact that African people would have to depend on themselves pan-africanism would be perceived as a way to end African dependence on colonial masters a way to create free and independent nations a way to transfer the continents immense riches from the hands of invaders into those of the indigenous people of the land I began to define pan-africanism as the building of an African world community the union of African people and different parts of the world the African population and India and the Pacific Islands the African population in the Caribbean and Brazil and South America and i was looking to the fact that we number billion people on the face of the earth if you put them all together they did one thing in unison even if it was wrong it might alter the world Africa has always been and still is the world's riches continent Africa has always had things other people wanted but they couldn't do without and didn't want to pay for so therefore there's always been an excuse to invade Africa alexander's invasion was the first purely European invasion of Africa everything that had happened in Egypt and in Africa before 332 BC was something that no European had anything to do with now we see the beginning of European occupation and we see it as aggression not bringing civilization but destroying civilizations that it did not understand the uninvited arrival of European armies in the Upper Nile Valley signals the beginning of the end for the highest civilization the world had known the conquerors quite literally changed the complexion of the Concord now you're beginning to get a mulatto sighs population that a whole lot of people keep misinterpreting as white with each one of these invaders came the bastardization of the population based on the fact that for the sake of pleasure the foreign soldier his for the female population at a time the male population has been defeated in war the Greeks wound in last that long before they were challenged an ambitious and well-dressed bunch of thugs across the ocean not very educated but they could fight like hell call Romans begin to hell ambition for the trade in the Mediterranean Carthage a powerful black state in North Africa had imperial ambitions of its own by the third century BC its forces had crossed the Mediterranean and established a large profits in Spain the military commander of Carthage had apprehensions about his Roman neighbours and warned his son to keep a watchful eye Hannibal's father he would point across the ocean and said that some evil people over there we better bring the wall to them before they bring it to us Hannibal never forget Hannibal is only 26 when he takes charge of the army he launches an audacious military adventure leading his men and their elephants over the Pyrenees Mountains into France then pointing them across the Alps boldly toward Rome itself heavy casualties overextended supply lines and defection of a lion's drive Hannibal off the soil of southern Europe he retreats back home to Carthage the Romans have made a mission almost a cow out of the destruction of Carthage they would meet each other in the morning good morning Roman citizen Carthage must be destroyed yes of course Roman citizen Carthage must be destroyed Rome's legions clash would Hannibal niama his troops are defeated animal is sent into exile his once mighty nation becomes another colony of Rome and an administrative center for their empire now the Roman Empire internally was not very rich africa became the bread basket for the roman empire in except for africa the Roman Empire would not have been able to sustain itself now the Roman presence in North Africa is going to force into being one of the great events and human history Roman taxation Roman oppression would cause people to turn to New Gods and question old gods to turn to a story about a God who comes forth to rescue them now they would draw from African folk law the story of the child in the manger and what am I saying later in retrospect he was referred to as Jesus Christ now you can argue about the coloration of Christ if you want to but I can sell that very quick and we going to the next subject was Thea Roman dances no was he agree to answers still no do the only European types in that part of the world at the time if he was neither Roman I agree it was one of those other people and all of those other people were not on European and non-white and he came from the other people during that time of Roman dominance Africans hold high military and administrative post in the Empire the Romans and the Greeks had no color prejudice comparable to the kind of prejudice we will know later on otherwise why would three Africans become Emperor's of Rome why would that be three African Pope's finally Constantine decided to make Christianity the religion of the whole of the Roman Empire now we're coming to the critical period when the Roman domination of the church so corrupted the church the Africans began some disenchantment with the Roman interpretation of Christianity Constantine calls a council Oh bishops and priests at a place called nice not seein cumference it is at this conference that the European created a European concept of Christianity it was at this conference that they began to take the African Saints ow of the literature of Christianity now the corruption had started the physical concept of Jesus Christ did not exist now how did it come into existence because the Pope commissioned it to come into existence Michelangelo painted the picture using one of his relatives is model in that picture one of the finest pieces of propaganda ever projected in history has changed the minds of millions of people at who supposed to represent God whoever he or she is and I have no problem with the sheet spirituality is a way of accepting the fact that there is a spiritual force in the universe larger than all of mankind but someone had to come along and invent a word called God that someone had to save another God minded better than yours and someone had to create faith some super I have the true faith religion is the other nuys a shin of spirituality into something that became the handmaiden of conquerors nearly all religions were brought to people and imposed on people bye larose and used as the framework to control their mind my main point here is that if you are the child of God and God is a part of you then in your imagination God supposed to look like you and when you accept a picture of the deity assigned to you by another people you become the spiritual prisoners of that other people many Africans became Roman citizen just like many black Americans today I have nothing to do with I've ragama the American I was citizen I'm America like they were African we're back there with that same kind of split personality silliness not knowing where the ethnic identity belonged Rome's hold over his far-flung provinces weekends in North Africa it faces a new and fierce challenge Islam the Arabs noticing the weakness of the Romans in North Africa began to quote the favor of the Africans Arabs convinced a local black population is to join in the struggle against a common oppressor they also convince many of them to abandon their traditional beliefs and pledge their allegiance to Allah the Africans assume that by supporting the Arabs the Arabs would get the Romans literally off their back they were right the Arabs did get the Romans off their back but the Arabs replace the Romans on their back in like most conquerors they declared war on African culture in African ways of life the Arab has always been a propagator any defender of slavery they've always rationalized slavery based on Islam i do not think any religion sanctions slavery and any time you use a religion to sanction slavery you're misusing that religion and misusing the word of god well the Christians did it and they have done it and the Hebrews have done it is that right in any case Islamic armies their ranks dominated by African converts defeat the Romans and push on to the continent of Europe in the process they capture Spain there the Africans and Arabs create a rich cultured and powerful empire so powerful it endures for 500 years the achievement of the elves at this time is they have given the European out of the Mediterranean the European now must go back into Europe they have no empires no great connections outside of Europe and because of this the ultimate would go into a period called the dog aid jizz people are confused because when the European mission the dark ages the dark age for him were not the dark ages for other people concurrent with his Dark Ages the African had his third gold and aid as Europe suffers three great kingdoms are emerging in West Africa melee or Molly Ghana and sang guy these were lands of enormous wealth generated by their control of the trade routes across the Sahara and the abundance of their gold mines the kingdoms were known for their benevolent governments and their great respect for learning for while in history they were only two great universities the University of San quarry at timbuk2 and the University of Salamanca in Spain and the African was soul in charge of the one at San kohli and part in charge of the one at Salamanca the Arabs had to some degree institutionalize the practice of African slavery the Europeans internationalized it in Europe the wealth amassed from the slave trade makes the Industrial Revolution possible while laying the foundations of modern capitalism in the Americas the traffic in human souls creates a vast African Diaspora millions upon millions of people ripped from their homelands transported in Chains to a distant hostile world the European came into Africa as a guest and would treat it as a guess the Africans unsuspected political naive some of them still are because he had nothing against the Europeans and he had never enslaved into Europeans he just assume automatically no European would enslave him he had never dealt with anyone who would and slave the host and the wife who cooked a meal and lie about it around 1442 the first slaves would be taken out of West Africa Spain and Portugal goes to the Pope the leading arbitrator of that day the one person in Europe with the greatest authority the Pope would say to Spain and Portugal you take the east and you take the west and you too good calcination stop fighting among yourselves and then the profound statement before departure you are both authorized to reduced to servitude all and Fidel people the slave trade now had been sanctioned Europeans have been told they need not feel guilty of it because you're doing this to an infidel who is outside of God's grave England went into the slave trade with a vengeance led by captain Hawkins and the good ship Jesus the ship was called the good ship Jesus the coat of arms on the ship with to Africans bound back to back the arms tied so they saw no contradiction in being in a slave trade in being Christians at the same time you can't deal with this enough because we're still suffering from this inside of the mind of a lot of people in this world and to the millions we are outside of humanity outside of the grace of God that's a terrible feeling as you walk there because what has been taken away is your sense of humanity your human being Ness when they take away your human being nests they take away your nation nests early in the 19th century the concept of slavery began to yield to the concept of colonialism a more sophisticated form of slavery slavery as a system became unwieldly and beside the point boy it was saturated everybody who wanted a slave had one who could afford one the European nations of size that did not have any potion of Africa began to grumble at the burden conference 18 84 and 85 the European powers of substance who did not have any part of Africa now what given some pause Africans did not fall at the feet of the European invaders they fought fiercely bravely and continually anti-colonial walls started up done because the West Africa and parts of inner African in the Congo those are resistant the Zulu walls lasted from the 1650s when the Boers arrived to the last Zulu War was 1906 in Ghana dig a shanty walls lasted from Berlin 18th century to the last Santa wall led by warmly yay a Santa walk in 1904 while it looked as though the Europeans will not be able to hold on to the continent more manpower and more ruthless treatment wrote it mainly under their control by 1884 H needed five and afterwards there's no there was no dispute about who was in charge of Africa just who was in charge of what part of it we have been hung up with a myth the myth of the conqueror and the invader as the bringer of civilization no people ever brought civilization to another people at no time no place in history one of the most protracted lies we ever listened to civilization is the art of being symbol the word Silvo means being peaceful and there is nothing peaceful about aggression only the slave can abolish slavery if someone is on your back you have to bend a little to balance them on your back now the best move if you want to get them off of your back to stand straight up there's something about an island by the water increase a special kind of dream because they did not know where they came from an African they dreamed of the whole of it bring it all together in one piece the seeds of pan-africanism planted in the united states during slavery years later flourish in the fertile soil of the British West Indies Trinidad produced the three greatest pan-africanist eight Sylvester Williams CLR James and George Padmore and Trinidad they found found the pan-african ly eight Sylvester Williams would eventually call it pan-african he would call a conference in London in 1900 a few scattered Africans a few people from the Caribbean WT boys from the United States they did not ask for the independence of African states then they asked for preparation give us the kind of education that will prepare us for eventual independence they were reasonable but they won't listen to and yet the conference made some kind of impression after the first Congress dubois would be the leading light from the second through fourth but the most meaningful one that Dubois called in Ferris as a result of this Congress Dubois came to center stage at the leader in theoretician of pan-africanism pan-africanism one exact on you because black Americans were practicing it long before someone gave it a name the African settlement movement the movement that settle Liberia was in pharma pan-african movement the so-called Negro convention movement with most a discussion of how you bring the hour [ __ ] world together that whole 19th century was pan-african toe prints hauled his development of the black Masonic Order did he called the African lodge the search for a place in Africa for settlement Vermont Delaney and Robert Campbell 1829 David Walker's appeal to the colored people of the world was basically a pan-african appeal all of this before we come down to the end of the 19th century the ultimate pan-africanist of course for the Jamaican Marcus garlic citizens of a preserve I twist live enable the universal Negro Improvement Association and African communicate League of the world you may ask what organization is that here is for the Reform Jews particular personalities were proven a Soviet German he's a lover than they care about goodnight you two one for his body the 400 million because of the world it was soon out the end of World War one the Secretary of War had told the black American soldier that their lot would not be appreciably changed by virtue of the fact that they vote in the wall had been an investigation it was discovered that many of the nurses wouldn't treat black soldiers in the hospital would even touch them some of them died as a result so you have these grievances pent up in the veteran coming home all of this came to a head 1919 when the riots all over the united states that color red summer Marcus goggle could point out look they don't want you here let's go back home let's go down go back after that's not only go back to Africa let's go back and I've only ships now whole lot of people who otherwise would not listen now willing to listen try of God for fiscal austerity for the governor of our less for the average of the past for the company we over universities will forward the seleucid are raising the price of a breakup of the Africa throws at walls as those abroad you began to dream the great dream rescue the mind of millions of black America from depression and self doubt by 1923 he was in some difficulty but the boats and some of the people he had had to run the boats total mismanagement betrayal he collected millions of dollars from black Americans to buy these boats and these boats were old and not as see would as he thought they were Garvin moved over large territory maybe too fast and yet he built the largest movement and back America before our sense that need to be a reassessment of Marcus Garvey in his long reaching effects he called attention to what slavery and colonialism had taken away they took away a concept essential to all the people in the world they took away the concept of state management and state maintenance once you are taken from the geography of your origin and forced to live in a state designed by others you still the slave to the man who's a student up to control a container call the state the canons of World War two were barely cold when Africans met in Manchester England they were prepared to claim that container called the state for themselves the pan-african Congress ooh 1945 now you have the one thing you did not have in the rest of them you have Caribbean scholars african american scholar not a whole lot in Africans themselves are now participating we're not talking about Africa out of the presence of Africa now you're talking about Africa with the Africans on the scene one African be in the co-convenor of the conference bonham come out of that fifth pan-african Congress came the mentality the basic planning to rule and to take over nation the others were saying give us the education at the fifth pan-african Congress they said we got the education we got the manpower we want to rule now the people of Ghana resisted British rules from the very beginning in march of 1957 they become the first African to win their freedom Kwame Nkrumah was ready to rule when I knew in cooma in the Harlem history Club days my impression of him but not as the future head of state but as an African who's gonna go back and make a major contribution to his nation he was a committed African I went out for the 1958 because I've been promising myself I was going to get you out for the next year with that that promise of myself went on for about five years were actually got there when I got there all the has returned ticket I told and I forgot it would read one of my stories in an African magazine and wrote and gotten my address I said I was coming to Ghana get me on placing a hotel for a few days and he didn't even go to hotel him try he took me to the slums of a craw I lived right there with him finally a check that was due me from amaryl but did not arrive when it did arrive at bounce it's a there was in one day crew had gone someplace that is coming home from visit of state a whole lot of ulong the highway hailing his return and so I was along with the rest of my was just just like another Africa melted into the crowd and he spotted me and they stopped the rolls-royce ND motorcycle driver pulled that guns talk to someone but to hurt the president you know it is his motorcade stop it he came out what hey are you doing my country it has just left you see a long way from Allah he looked right so what do you live I said in in Jamestown James hundreds the slums of Accra still it he shook his head you sure must love Africa body headed back to his card and it turned back to me if you know what I will do for you I told my didn't having a job in my check it bounces that even I go get home it's it I won't put your Harlem behind to work and he gave me a job working on his newspaper the evening use the significance of Ghana independence at that time is that it gave spirit to the whole of the African world who's a major impact on black America because it came at the time the the civil rights movement was reaching a crescendo a great height his first vision of pan-africanism with physical unification of Africa and he said that gun and freedom won't mean anything until the rest of africa is free so the spirit of Ghanaian independence would create a light of hope in the rest of our this is where upon men kouman was trying to build this is what the intelligence services of the United States England and France had to destroy to keep the example of Ghana from emerging what wrong was our missing understanding of what a state consists of in the responsibility that goes into holding one together and our dependence on our colonial masters more than we anticipated we who had long so much for power we wanted power power from what God close enough to touch it we realized we hadn't even decided what we gonna do with it once we get it I want to take this opportunity to welcome again to the United States which he knows so well the first citizen of Ghana president and fruma I was in the anti-poverty program in Harlem New rumor came and spoke at the United Nations I got the picture and showed it to them and I got speech the first thing I showed them I said look there's a black man head of a nation speaking to the world he got cause nappy hair he didn't apologize for it so here I am half of them in black and bold and powerful and head of a nation I got something to say to you and visit what I got to say the passive resistance of gandhian we should understand this was a strategy I guard myself as a soldier who in fujairah p i received the inspiration to carry on in the nonviolent tradition from Jesus of Nazareth and the operational technique from Mahatma Gandhi the passive resistance of the civil rights movement was sold as a way of life a strategy is never a way of life his strategy is something you you the same as you use an orange when the juice is gone you throw it in the garbage can the Mahatma Gandhi was an East Indian nationalist but a very skillful politician and he always had a violent alternative waiting in the wing just in case his non-violence didn't work today marks the beginning of a the time organized mobilized campaign to get the right to vote all over this state I think dr. Martin Luther King was the spiritual leader of the black movement of the civil rights movement and probably one of the finest theologian that we produced in recent years he was a dreamer and yet he was a committed man to struggle and made great sacrifice within that struggle I had some strong disagreements with him I never thought that we should be locked into the concept of non-violence as a way of life I was perfectly willing to use it as a strategy I think we should be slow in criticizing Martin Luther King was brave enough to put his life on line for what he believed we are still here talking that's proof enough of his brave over hours I think the march on Washington was just that it wasn't a March phone Washington it was a march in washington i don't know of any sweeping achievements that came out of it it was a great ceremony I'd be hard-pressed to identify the substance I happen to think we've gotten enough knowledge out of marching it was a great ceremony it was a great rehearsal for a show we did not put on the road for time we had the attention of the world between the civil rights movement the Caribbean Federation movement in the african independence movement we had the attention of the world and there were people though they hated our guts they're willing to make concessions to us based on the fact that we were ready to help our we made too many speeches and didn't do the necessary work the unglamorous of camera work that would have made it possible that was our great mistake ceremony did like substance and that was a boys loud and clear an analytical we were fighting to keep from hearing that boys it was the boy so big bad mouth [ __ ] else who had both the national and the international message one of the reasons that it is bad for us to continue to just refer to ourselves as so-called Negro that's negative when we say so-called Negro that's pointing out what we aren't but it isn't telling us what we are we are African and we happen to be in America we're not American we are people who formerly were applicants who were kidnapped and brought to America I met him pushing 1958 I know him from that period until his death and sometimes saw him on a daily basis I was punished information on history and background information I never told Malcolm X what to do and I don't remember anybody else who told what to do either they have studied the tactics and the strategy and the methods of all of the African nations who have emerged and won their independence and they've seen that the Africans didn't get it by sitting in they didn't get it by wading in they didn't get it by singing we shall overcome they got it to nationalism I first met Malcolm at the world's trade show building looked me up and down I bet you a swine either I'll admit that I had paid some joyful visits to poke chops in other parts of the pig and I said that you know Malcolm if it wasn't for the pig you and I wouldn't be here arguing about the big because some of us would be gone we would have stopped the death many times when Malcolm X professing his speeches with Woods the Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us Malcolm X with teaching Malcolm X lessons over and beyond anything gonna be Elijah Muhammad ever thrown about you say we are on the road to a better world because the right Thomas integration this is a discredit mr. Mohammed's analysis is that until the image of the black men in the mind of the black man has been changed you will always have delinquency parental as well as juvenile so his entire approach is not so much to change the attitude of the white men toward the black man but to change the attitude of the black men about himself the Arabs in Sidon powerful groups within Islam really wanted Malcolm on their side there was a serious attempt to persuade Malcolm to turn on he lies you Muhammad and establish a second islamic group based on what they consider to be Arthur dogs Islam they offered him three and a half million he turned it down and been walking down the street told his card this man had turned down three and a half million dollars quack me on the shoulders Swan either to me buy you a cup of coffee he was more loyal to you Liza Muhammad analyzed my helmet eventually was to him Elijah Muhammad was getting old and feeble and there was suspicion that Malcolm X would be the logical successor no those within the nation who didn't want Malcolm X as the logical successor because Malcolm X could have done some serious housecleaning he was an honest man there were some fees in the house I think his development as a pen Africanist came a little later in his life and the final analysis he was as good a pan-african is any of the rest we have to have the type of understanding of Africa and the type of understanding of our people here in order to build a bridge or contacts a line of communication between the two and once the lines of communication have been established and our African brothers can can can stretch forth their hands and reach out and we can stretch forth our hands and reach them why there's nothing that this blue-eyed man in this country will be able to do to you and me successfully from that day onward Malcolm X had laid down a threat to the colonial powers of the world it is nationalism that's bringing freedom to oppressed people all over the world it was nationalism that brought freedom to the Algerians it was nationalism that brought freedom to the Nigerians and to the Ghanaians I do not think Malcolm X's murder was a local American thing I think it was a larger thing than that i do not think this perricone had anything directly to do with the murder but i do think farah khan is guilty of creating the attitude and the atmosphere that led to the murder without Farrakhan Malcolm X i think still will have been assassinated we will friends the day we met until his death when I got the word of his death I was in kinetica and growing up to make speech in Connecticut and I was at the Jewish home but someone annother he died and been someone added just missing the whole thing but after all he was anti-semitic I know the man well enough to know that you really didn't hate anybody hated certain things people did he wasn't a hater at all and they spoke as though they had the right to tell us who should it should not be uh be our hero I went into that bathroom and was after dinner and just cry like a child or 15 minutes in I came out partly composed and made the speech that night I was asked to make and came on home again try to deal with the reality of the situation because to me Malcolm X was not gone and he's still not going in my imagination the whole year after his death I almost got the feeling that we were having our usual conversation I was always ended what can I do and finally I got the feeling that he had said do your best work I was a good teacher before that I was a better teacher and a better human being after that because I knew that being a good classroom teacher was my best work and unity amongst each other from what's the home where we won't ever be a power bring them to the individuals do not create rebellion condition to do until they began to invest themselves to those conditions rebellions will continue and they will escalate to hype our liberation by only moves necessary it was the beginning of the Black Power movement was also the black and beautiful movement moving into second gear I would like to think that when the effort when the African clothes was a move toward Africa to some extent it was a form of African consciousness is African awakening as a results of it African people were stimulated throughout the world with what one of the stimulation what institutions came out of it what of lasting value came out of it I do not think the African the Caribbeans of the black Americans have steadied any degree of depth and seriousness the rise of modern Japan they went into a wall they lost they sustained two atomic bomb they had that country occupied now the people that defeated them are now begging them for commercial space what did they do that we have forgotten how to do they did some serious ass to planning not loud mouth in not boasting they did not get on the radio or any platform and call anybody in a name but they did what they had to do if we are carrying out a well-designed program for liberation if it's written how any literate person can contribute and she'll leave a ship so if the leader dies while you own page their team move to page 14 and continue the struggle bear the man continued the plan I think every person that calls themselves a leader of preacher a policy maker of any kind to ask and answer the question in his own lifetime how am I people stay on this earlier how will they be educated how will they be school how will they be housed and how will they be defended the answer to these questions will create the concept of enduring nationhood because it creates the concept of enduring responsibility good morning assalamualaikum my dear brothers black pit strong black men oh right black [ __ ] solo black fit together black pig Timothy Blackman freedom Blackman justice Blackmun welcome to the Million Man March 1 million black men make their way to the nation's capital they are answering Minister Louis Farrakhan's call for unity Redemption and atonement it's the largest demonstration in American history marching is a strategy and I think we have gotten enough out of the strategy I think the march of the waste of shoe leather gas and energy I have some serious problem with any kind of mod for our liberation that leaves out one half of the mentality of our people the women I don't buy the rationale that the women need to stay home and take care of the children you know I'm on it if they have no horrible place in your liberation your liberation is not with the fight because you can't build no family stubble you can have no continuum you can't even continue your name without that connection long live the spirit of the Million Man March mom never spirit of the Million Man March I'm saying there's more to revolution than throwing your fists in the air there's more to progress than marches I want to say my brothers this is a very pregnant moment pregnant with the possibility of tremendous change in our status in America and in the world we're doing showbiz liberation and that's not the race whether you like it or not God brought the idea through me and he didn't bring it through me because my heart was dark with hatred and anti-semitism Floyd he didn't bring it through me because my heart was dark and I'm filled with hatred for white people and for the human family of the planet would if my heart were that dark how is the message so bright the method so clear the response so magnificent this must will do more to wash Farrakhan ego but to project him into the forefront of leadership than anything else and once he's in the forefront of leadership where will he lead up straight Islam yet he will not make a principal state man on the enslavement of Africans in Mauritania and in the Sudan there's all kinds of documentation all kinds of proof if I have to be a dissenting voice in this then I'm ver please I've got enough integrity to be a dissenting voice and not to care what the chips fall many perceived the african-american family as an endangered species to dr. Clark the family is the soul the spirit and the cornerstone of the nation if the family dies so does the nation making a whole new way of life out of the artificiality of imitating our oppressor was also in trouble with the family and we grew up in communities well every child was a child of the whole community and could be disciplined and rewarded by anyone in the community now we've bought into someone else's sociologists don't touch that child don't you dare smack my child conformally you want to let you alone sit if they misbehave using this back them we don't have that kind of relationship one to the other anymore after emancipation we made a monumental effort to find broken bits and pieces of our family my own grandmother spent three years wandering around for ginger trying to find her first husband we've been sold to a slave breeding farm in Virginia but the major thing was we would try and put families together and to have family connections our new mission liberation is to put strong families together again because the family is not only embryo at the beginning of all that we can call civilization but in the beginning of all anyone can call the civilization but this is the essential network that leads to nation there's some common-sense things we can still be doing our communities are miniature nations we have to control them control the real estate in those communities control the education in those communities you cannot write the history of this nation as though it is only a white nation it's a multicultural nation I'm saying whatever the solution is either we are in charge of our own destiny are we are not in charge on that point we got to be clear you either free or your slave I want people to remember me as a creative classroom teacher I'm self-educated now read more books that most men see in a lifetime fortune I still remember the better potions are most of them but I haven't seen the last of my life over the last of my energy so I decided if you lose you're outside increase your insight use what you got and keep on doing the things that give your life meaning and give your life definition I like for them to remember that I have been consistent I took said principled stands my late teenage now at the age of 80 I have not discarded these principled stands migrated overpowering love affair has been the liberation and the maintenance of African people and to restore them to a status that they lost in the world I think faith has not spared African people for an ideal purpose and we will put on this earth we have indoor a hollow cost ten times worse than the one in Europe been faith has a mission for us we gave the world its place you manatee maybe we have the capacity to give the world its next humanity you