Portland Advocate_1981-11

.,, .... , ' , ... ( ~ page2 A Visit with the Members THE BLACK MOVEMENT PART II transcribed byJoyce Harris Advocate's Note:The speech of Rev. Herbert Daughtry, delivered in May, 1981 while visiting with BUF members, will be printed in its entirety. His message con– tained substance, and it is our belief that its content should be read by the entire Black community of Portland. We ask that you, the reader, be patient with our continuing parts o f the BUF National Chair– man's speech. In fact, it was in 1966 -in the Ebony magazine that (quote) Carl Rowan tried to say that no– body knew what Black power was all about. He said it was con– fusing everybody and chasing white folks away -which was his major concern, by the way. He let the cat out of the bag.It was glorious days .•. the force and whirlwind that Black power carried everything with it and pushed to the side. Significant– ly, the slogan we remember in certain parts of the country, "Move over, or we'll move on over you." It was euphoria, a great feeling ••. handshakes, dashikis, special signs ..• telling every– body except (again) toms, red– necks, some liberals and other folks. But still it •.• it was there, and people had to take note of it, and equal by the way of coming out .•• that Black assertiveness. Was a full-page ad that Black folks took in the New York Times to tell everybody that they were for Black power, and I don't know if you remember that one ••. I clipped that one. And across the country, cities began to experience the assert- . iveness. There were Black poli– ticians and Black businessmen and Black professionals -everybody Black, and everybody was proud -at least that's what everybody said. And then to add to the be– nefits and content · of Black Power was the annual uprising which be– came known as the 'soul rituals' -Burn Baby Burn. Riots came out of the · flames of Watts and equal a~sertiveness out of the cities at the campuses when students did their thing .•. students holding Presidents with rifles to their heads, taking campuses and turn– ing down schools. It was indeed some exciting days .••. it reached the paak •.• oddly enough, in 1968 when Martin, the Apostle of Peace wa~ gunned down on the balcony of a hotel named Lorraine. But by then, you know, white folks was saying, "What's wrong with them folks? Give'em anything to quiet them or settle them down. Stop ,, 3 40,000 folks, · you can rest as– ~ , sured that we had 80,000 - that's how you calculate the news media quotes. They get their totals from the police department, you know. Also, during that year, the Gary Conference was called after a series of conferences; thus, the Black Political Assembly was born. To the casual observer of 1972, it would appear that Black people were unified as never be– fore, and was on their way to the Promised Land. What with all these conferences and Black orga– nizations~ and Black symbolism and Black progress, and anti– poverty programs, and even a few elected officials here and there to show that Black people were on their way. But, the Black Power days carried with them from the beginning ••• destructive anti- 1----~--~--~-~~--- .. bodies. But before that, ah, Photo by: D. Henderson even before that, in fact ••• in fact, at the Gary Convention, • •R•e•v_.-•H•e•r•b•e•r_t_D•a•u•g•h•t•r•y _____. "Negro" po1 it ici ans were making deals with their Democratic mast- them. Do something!" At least that's what they appeared to say. And you remember the anti– poverty programs were initiated. it wasn's merely a war on any poverty. The nation wasn't serious about addressing any fundamental causes. It didn't even do for its own people what it had done for the western, ah, the cities of Western Eu– rope which they had bombed ... and they turned around and gave 12 billion dollars to build them back up. No, no, it was simply another game that was being played, and interest– ingly enough, I just got fin– ished reading parts of the de– velopment of that theory that the Job Corps program which was suppose to help poor Black youth ended up helping, as al– ways, corporate America. They benefited from the anti-pover– ty programs, the types and the kinds of programs which are really designed to bolster, again, a small segment of our people, and give them a little benefit along the way. And then came the COINTELPRO Program which J. Edgar Hoover sought to destroy - and did in fact very effectively discre– dit, or at least destroy the little man. In 1969 Imamu Baraka founded ~he congress of Afrikan People, and the summer uprising in Newark, and Baraka conspired to get a Black mayor elected ... named Ken Gibson. In 1972, 40,000 people came . to Washington to show their sup– port for Afrikan liberation. The Afrikan Liberation Support Committee had reached an un– precedented plateau. Think about it, 40,000 folks. If the news media said we had ers. And Shirley Chisholm, you remember, went off on a romantic trip to become President of the United States; and then Black Power was like an intoxicant. The exhilaration of assertiveness viewed in the eyes of whites, re– velations, that is, from Blacks of the Afrikan past ••. the glory of the history of the Afrikan an– cestor. They had been told all their lives that their history started with Europeans. Sudden– ly they learned the other way a– round .•. that Europe had gone to Afrika for cultural enrichment, and all that Greek Philosophy and stuff, by which Aristotelian Philo– sophy, had been stolen out of · Egypt. And everything else prac– tically European had been stolen out of Afrika. They began to learn that, ah, it was like a drug •.• it was like an intoxicant. Some Black folk got drunk on Black power, and ~hey swaggered, and they became loud, and sub– stanceless. "Look out, Whitey, Black power gonna get your mama," was a title of one book. Would you believe, was a title by one "Negro" who did a complete turna– round and sold everybody out ••• revealing how shallow, revealing how shallow the whole thing was to some Black~, and that one must, at some point, come down from a high. Blacks had to sober up; whitey wasn't giving up any– thing! Words, slogans, and the power, name-changing, hand shakes, burn it down, burn it up, burn it in •.• might have been all beautiful, but it don't lead to the impower– ment of a people enabling them to build their institutions, to build their own independence; it doesn't lead to the overturning of wicked institutions and wicked systems ••• it doesn't mean a .thing. (Continued on Page 3)