The untold story of the Civil Rights Movement – Part I

To make the point that Blacks must keep the pressure on the federal government, Min. Louis Farrakhan recited the story of a colloquy between A. Phillip Randolph and Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who told Randolph that he only responded to pressure. FDR was not only telling the truth but he was also conning Randolph, who readily ate the cheese.
Randolph formed the March on Washington Committee. Its slogan: "We loyal Negro Americans demand the right to work and fight for our country." Blacks made up less than two percent of the U.S. Army in 1940 and defense jobs were going to whites. The March on Washington was scheduled for July 1, 1941. Roosevelt knew that Japan would be attacking the United States afterwards. To give the appearance of staving off the march, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802.
The involvement of the federal government in civil rights dates back to at least 1909, when whites established the NAACP. The token Black was Dr. W.E.B. DuBois. Joel E. Spingarn, NAACP board chairman, was a major in military intelligence. While with the NAACP, DuBois had unsuccessfully sought a military commission as captain. Spingarn was the federal government's eyes and ears in the Black world.
Governance is the operative word. The demise of colonialism was inevitable. Change is the only thing that is permanent. A one-world government is still the ultimate objective. The League of Nations was on the horizon and the United Nations was in the world's headlights. Neo-colonialism would emerge as an intermediate step in the New World Order.
The Allies were aware of the world view. This group of European nations had been applying its resources to futuristic thinking. During this period, Blacks, too, were busy, searching for their grits and dodging nooses. This is a recipe for being a pawn and not a player. To achieve liberation, Blacks must fashion an approach to Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
More than a century ago, the Europeans knew that the United States had to get its act together. This is why the French gave the United States the Statue of Liberty, as an inducement, after the Civil War. Black soldiers had to fight under the French flag during World War I. The United States needed a civil rights movement. The NAACP had to pre-empt the Niagara Movement.
Just as everything was looking rosy, Marcus Garvey stepped in. He had to be penalized for interference with domestic tranquility. The white man created Negroes during slavery to be sheep and to be led by Negro preachers and Judas goats. Nat Turner and his progeny escaped the orientation. Garvey sought to deprogram Blacks.
Without even considering the Willie Lynch letter, an extensive body of literature exists showing the creation of the Negro and the Negro preacher who was taught in the cemetery to communicate with the walking dead. The Negro has no passion for freedom. This slave literature is comparable to computer periodicals today.
The Civil Rights Movement would become a quasi-governmental and military operation. Lawyers are in the vanguard of any military operation. The Ku Klux Klan, for example, was formed in a law office in Pulaski, Tennessee, to institutionalize the terrorization of Blacks. Before the invasion of Iraq, Pentagon lawyers laid the groundwork. Generals followed with strategy and tactics. At a war's end, lawyers step back in to prosecute the enemy.
Howard University Law School would become the boot camp for the legal phase of the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Carter G. Woodson, in addition to the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, conducted studies on the need for Black lawyers. Charles Hamilton Houston would become the base commander. He steered the effort for the law school to receive accreditation and he established the first "Civil Rights" course in the nation.
After the law school was on its feet and supplying legal troops for the "War on Jim Crow," Houston would become the first, Black legal director of the NAACP. He would make his former law student, Thurgood Marshall, his chief lieutenant. The war was on. The Civil Rights Movement was designed to save the face of the United States internationally. As Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., stated, "Segregation is the Negro's burden and America's shame."
If the United Nations were to host the world, as a superpower, Blacks would have to become nominal citizens. All of the signs and symbols of Jim Crow would have to reside in attics and museums. Foreign diplomats from Africa, Asia and the Americas would be coming to the United States. They were not to be served Jim Crow.
A host of Black lawyers, with combat pay from white philanthropy, were dispatched throughout the South to clean up Uncle Sam's image. In return, Uncle Sam rewarded many of them with federal judgeships and appointments. The Congressional Black Caucus should introduce legislation for all civil rights workers or their families to receive retroactive compensation and federal pensions.
I was surprised that Min. Farrakhan, at the Millions More March, called on lawyers to initiate a federal class action lawsuit in New Orleans. In suing Uncle Sam, his pawns or state entities, lawyers are kept on a short leash. The limited jurisdiction of federal courts and the threat of disciplinary actions keep lawyers in check.
Unlike Black preachers, who are talking loud and saying nothing, Pat Robertson is at war. He has called for the head of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who offered substantial aid for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Bush 43 instructed all Black leaders to keep quiet while he gave Black victims chump change to stay alive.
To prove that he is at war, Robertson is founder and president of the American Center for Law and Social Justice, a public interest law firm which provides legal troops for the religious right. Since Black leaders are not filing any petitions for writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court, the make-up of the Supreme Court should be of no interest to them. It's like being interested in Powerball without a wager.
Min. Farrakhan, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton are without a paid lawyer between them to secure justice for the victims in New Orleans. Anything beyond civil rights litigation is taboo on American soil and civil rights is shrinking. In short, Blacks enjoy limited legal and political representation.
This means that cases involving the man-made disaster in New Orleans, the death of Gavin Cato in Crown Heights, the Central Park jogger case, reparations, the Lemrick Nelson case, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin and Mumia Abu-Jamal are outside the loop. In fact, the Millions More Movement refused to air Mumia's message.
Disregarding the plight of militant lawyers, the Millions More Movement only gave suspended attorney Chokwe Lumumba 60 seconds in the morning to speak at the rally. Neither Farrakhan, Jackson nor Sharpton mentioned his plight. Thou shall not offend whites. Predictably, Jackson has called for a march in Baton Rouge on Oct. 29 to boost ratings for the white media. Otherwise, he and Sharpton are pushing voter registration and voter turnout.
Brown v. Board of Education spawned the ground troops for the movement. Rosa Parks, who made her transition on Oct. 24, 2005, is heralded as "the Harriet Tubman of the Twentieth Century." The assault on Jim Crow, albeit non-violent, incorporated military planning. The first phase of a military operation involves lawyers followed by an army. See, for example, Howard Beach.
Unless Blacks understand the import of lawyers on the liberation struggle, we may as well head back to the plantation. No intelligent group, for example, would have permitted the current outcome in Tawana Brawley. Min. Farrakhan, Rev. Sharpton and our ancestor, Sonny Carson, among others, promised to defend Tawana with their lives until justice was secured and solicited me to represent her. The chorus of militant rhetoric ended with a soliloquy.
I hope that all freedom-loving people and the children of Harriet Tubman will join me at the Brooklyn Housing Court, 141 Livingston St., Part 52, Room 506, in Brooklyn on Wednesday, Nov. 3, at 11 a.m. to protect community operations at 16 Court St. in Brooklyn and to allow me to continue, without compromise, to contribute to Africans' One Aim! One God! One Destiny! Next week's column: "The Untold Story Behind the Civil Rights Movement – Part II."
See: Spitzer's Motion to Dismiss @ www.reinstatealtonmaddox.com