The Peace Palace which houses the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands.(Photo by AP)
South Africa has gathered more evidence to strengthen a detailed dossier for the top UN court to prove that the Israeli regime is committing genocide against the Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip, a source familiar with the matter told media.
The Anadolu news agency reported on Sunday that South Africa was set to provide forensic evidence for the International Court of Justice (ICJ), proving the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
A South African diplomatic source, who requested to remain anonymous as he was not authorized to talk to the media, said the detailed file against the Israeli regime would be handed over to the ICJ on Monday, aiming to substantiate its earlier case that the Zionist regime is committing genocide in Palestine.
A substantive charge of genocide will be lodged against the Israeli regime by Monday, South Africa's Foreign Minister, Ronald Lamola, told the Daily Maverick news website.
The court file contains more positive evidence, in “forensic detail,” to demonstrate to the court that “this is not just a plausible case of genocide, but indeed it is genocide,” he said.
South Africa had initially filed the genocide case against the Israeli regime at the ICJ in late 2023, weeks after the Israeli regime unleashed its brutal killing machine on Gaza in October.
However, the South African official noted that the ruling by the ICJ could take years.
In addition to South Africa, several other countries, including Spain, Mexico, Libya, Turkey, Nicaragua, and Colombia have joined the case, which began public hearings in January.
In May, the top UN court ordered the Tel Aviv regime to halt its invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The 15-judge ICJ panel issued three preliminary orders seeking to rein in the death toll and alleviate humanitarian suffering in the blockaded enclave where more than 42,900 have been killed till now and some 100,833 more have been injured in the year-long, ongoing Israeli invasion.
This image shows an exterior view of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, on March 31, 2021. (Photo by Reuters)
Following the ICJ rulings on the Israeli genocide in Gaza, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in May initiated a long overdue move against the war-mongering Israeli leadership.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan requested arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes.
The accusations facing both Netanyahu and Gallant include “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.”
The ICC operates independently of the top UN court and prosecutes individuals for war crimes, while the ICJ is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations and settles disputes between states under international law or gives advisory opinions.
In simple terms, the case lodged against Tel Aviv at the ICJ pertains to the Israeli entity as a regime, while the ICC is a criminal court, which brings cases against Israeli leadership such as Netanyahu for their role in the war crimes or crimes against humanity committed in the occupied Palestinian lands.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with the heads of BRICS member states' media agencies in Moscow on October 18, 2024, ahead Of Kazan Summit. (Photo by Sputnik via AFP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that most of the world’s economic growth will be accomplished through the framework of the new BRICS group of emerging countries, not the West.
Putin met with the heads of BRICS member states’ media agencies, ahead of the 16th BRICS Summit, which is being held in Kazan under Russia’s chairmanship.
He told journalists that the BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – will generate most of the global economic growth in the coming years thanks to its size and relatively fast growth compared with that of developed Western nations.
He said Moscow hopes to expand BRICS -- which has already added Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates as its new members -- to create a powerful economic association acting as a counterweight to the Western hegemony in its efforts to dominate current world politics and international business.
Putin said 30 countries around the world have expressed interest in cooperation with the BRICS grouping and that next week’s summit will consider possible options for the group’s further enlargement.
He said world trade will be led by BRICS in the near future. “The countries in our association are essentially the drivers of global economic growth,” he said.
“BRICS will generate the main increase in global GDP,” Putin said.
The Russian leader said soon all the mechanisms will be in place to conduct international trade independent from the dollar.
“The economic growth of BRICS members will increasingly depend less on external influence or interference. This is essentially economic sovereignty.”
Putin said BRICS, not the West, will drive global economic growth in the foreseeable future.
BRICS countries are working together in an attempt to overhaul the global financial system and end the dominance of the US dollar used by Washington as a weapon against others.
“The doors are open, we are not barring anyone,” Putin said.
He cited some of the initiatives that Russia has previously outlined ahead of the summit, including a joint cross-border payments system and a reinsurance company.
He said group members are working on a SWIFT-like financial messaging system immune to Western sanctions and the use of national digital currencies in financing investment projects with high growth potential inside and outside BRICS.
Putin said Russia’s financial initiatives for the summit imply the extensive use of national currencies, while the talk of creating a single currency for the BRICS grouping is “premature”.
Putin called for investments in technology and infrastructure across the countries of the Global South by the BRICS’ New Development Bank.
“As a development institution, the bank already serves as an alternative to many Western financial mechanisms, and we will naturally continue to develop it,” Putin said.
Putin also sought to promote Russia’s new transport megaprojects such as the Arctic Sea Route and the North-to-South corridor which links Russia to the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean via Iran.
“It is the key to increasing freight transportation between the Eurasian and African continents,” he said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will attend the summit, Iran’s ambassador to Moscow, Kazem Jalali, confirmed this week.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also attend the BRICS summit in Russia.
The Kazan Summit is scheduled to be held from Tuesday to Thursday.
The BRICS group represents a quarter of the world’s GDP and about two-fifth of the world’s population.
A coalition of high-profile individuals from across the world has launched the South African chapter of the anti-Apartheid movement against Israel.
After its inaugural international conference held in May in Johannesburg, South Africa, the anti-apartheid movement against Israel has now kick-started a new global effort designed to alienate the Zionist entity from the civilized world.
The initiative saw the participation of government representatives, activists, lawyers and civil groups from around the world.
The anti-Apartheid movement against Israel launched a new global effort to alienate the Zionist entity from the civilized world.
Marking the launch, South Africa's Minister of International Relations, Ronald Lamola, noted that Israel must be stopped.
This is not only the murder and the massacre of people, but genocide at a massive scale, of unimaginable proportion, happening in the full view of all of us, hence we are really encouraged by this movement that is starting today, because you are going to shine the spotlight, you will coordinate and help the international community.
Minister of International Relations, Ronald Lamola
The Reverend Frank Chikane, a coordinator of the global anti-apartheid movement, highlighted the fact that Israel upholds two principles that have caused extensive suffering throughout the world; racism and colonial thinking.
He also held Western powers to account for the continued supply of arms to Israel, which enabled its brutal aggression. But countries like South Africa have also not done enough.
Protesters say South Africa
Activists say the government has dragged its feet in prosecuting South Africans who are on active duty in the Israeli occupation’s military machine, despite countless cases being filed with the prosecuting authority.
Whilst we applaud the actions taken by our government In the ICJ case, we must look at the issues right here at home, we must ask the question as to, why are these criminals still walking free on our shores.
Why have they not been arrested?
Why has action not been taken?
Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela, Grandson of Nelson Mandela
South Africa is set to file a detailed dossier with top UN court, providing forensic evidence to prove Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip.
At the international level, Mandela has added his voice to calls for the suspension of the Zionist regime from the United Nations.
The Anti-Apartheid Movement against Israel was inspired by the Al-Aqsa flood operation, which triggered a global awakening about the Palestinian struggle for liberation.
This coordinated campaign will now see the emergence of sister movements in countries around the world, which will pressure governments and international bodies to isolate Israel, just as it did with the South African apartheid regime.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad warned Black people decades ago: If a man won’t treat you right, what would make you think he would teach you right?
Now, after decades of racism, on top of political threats to abolish the teaching of Black and Indigenous history, Black parents across the country are deciding to remove their children from America’s public school system.
Muslims in the Nation of Islam took their children out of the system at a time when it was illegal to do so, becoming early pioneers of independent education.
In the early 1930s, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, was arrested in Detroit for telling the believing community to take their children out of public schools and enroll them in the newly formed Muhammad University of Islam, which is still up and running in cities across the country today.
“In the public schools, the enemy wants to make us better tools of service for him. When we took our children out of the public school, they came to the school and arrested the teachers.
Elijah Muhammad went to the jail and said, I am their teacher so if you’re going to arrest them, arrest me, too,” the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, recalled at the 23rd anniversary of the historic Million Man March and Holy Day of Atonement.
“Today, if you have an independent school, somebody paid a price. If you have Afrocentric education, somebody paid a price. If you know how to stand up for your beautiful Black self, somebody paid a price,” he said.
Dr. Khadijah Ali-Coleman, co-founder of Black Family Homeschool Educators and Scholars, noticed an influx of Black parents joining her Facebook group.
She shared concerns Black parents are having about the direction public school education is heading, talk of a tax credit for homeschooling families and the importance of Black parents paying attention to federal policy and legislation.
“We don’t want the oversight that will restrict and dictate what homeschooling should look like because one of the benefits of homeschooling is that it’s unique to your family,” she said to The Final Call.
She believes Black parents should be the “curator of their child’s learning journey,” regardless of school choice, especially in a time she described as “government oversight that is oftentimes not done for the benefit of children, but for the benefit of private organizations.”
“I really want Black parents to be more involved in the education of their children, regardless of whether or not they’re in school or they’re homeschooling them. Plain and simple. That’s what we should be doing,” she said.
She also spoke on the need for Black parents to cultivate a culture of learning in the home and to continuously engage with their children’s school.
For those looking to homeschool, resources have increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of parents across the board opting into homeschooling rose during the pandemic.
Recent data from the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy’s Homeschool Research Lab shows that in the 2023-2024 school year, most of the states that reported homeschooling participation saw increases. Homeschooling and other school alternatives continue to grow amongst Black families.
“There has been a mass exodus in the last five years of Black families putting their children into these schools. They’re homeschooling their children, or they’re sending their children to faith-based schools that are run by Black people for Black children, because Black children have experienced a lot in this system,” Yolande Beckles, president of the National Association of African American Parents and Youth, said to The Final Call.
“If you were educated in this system and you know what you went through, you’re not going to want to put the love of your life that you brought into this planet through the same thing. So, parents are making really informed decisions about the kind of education they want for their children,” she said.
Longtime educator Talib ul Hikmah Karriem has served as Student Interim Director of Muhammad University of Islam in Chicago for over 12 years. He quoted Point No. 9 from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s
“What The Muslims Want,” part of The Muslim Program published on the inside back page of every Final Call newspaper, saying, “We want all Black children educated, taught and trained by their own teachers.”
“The Muslim teachers shall be left free to teach and train their people in the way of righteousness, decency and self-respect,” he further quoted.
He has noticed the dissatisfaction with both public and private education and called the threats to dismantle the Department of Education simply White people “correcting their own system.”
“The system is not broken. It’s their system, and that’s the part we have not come to terms with. The system was not designed for us, and we are trying to force a round peg into a square peg or vice versa,” he said.
“It’s not being dismantled. They are correcting their own system so it can continue to do what it was designed to do, to perpetuate their world and not ours.”
“We have to have independent education as the Minister has mentioned in previous lectures, everyone working in unity, different families and groups working in unity, opening independent schools that are free from the poison and the control of White supremacy,” he added.
Brother Talib ul Hikmah Karriem echoed the guidance Minister Farrakhan has given the Black community for years, which is that God is in control and is forcing Black people into independence.
“Yes, people are becoming dissatisfied, and according to our Teachings, dissatisfaction brings about a change. So yes, come on out. Set up independent schools. Stop begging them,” Brother ul Hikmah Karriem stated.
He laid out the practical steps of going independent: working together with like-minded and trusted people in the community and Black organizations, setting up small schools for Black children.
“Why is it that we are so dependent upon what other people can provide for us, and we can do it ourselves? We have all of the intellectual minds and the training. Why not unify and do it for ourselves?” he questioned.
“And the best model of that is what the Nation of Islam has done and is doing. But look at the quality of the students that we are producing, not just grade and academic wise, but as human beings with good moral character, good moral conduct.”
Ms. Beckles agreed on the need for Black organizations to step up.
“There are enough of us if we could all come together and we agree that we don’t agree on everything, but there are some very basic things that we do agree on, which is that we love our people, that we know systemic racism is impacting all of us.
That there is an anti-Blackness rhetoric that is heightened across the world and especially in America, and that the only people who can take care of that agenda within its community are us,” she said. “Can’t expect anybody else to do it for us.”
Women in vulnerable situations, such as those who are displaced, affected by conflict or post-conflict environments, or experiencing poverty, face heightened risks. Photo:
In the time it takes you to read several articles in a newspaper or a few pages of a book or magazine, several women or girls have been killed by their intimate partner or a family member.
It happens every 10 minutes, according to a new UN report on femicides. According to a joint study by UN Women and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime titled “Femicides in 2023:
Global Estimates of Intimate Partner/Family Member Femicides,” the most severe manifestation of violence against women and girls—femicide—continues to be widespread across the world.
Globally, 85,000 women and girls were victims of deliberate homicides in 2023. Among these fatalities, 60 percent, or 51,100 deaths, were attributed to relatives or romantic partners. Data indicates that every day, 140 females are killed by someone close to them, which translates to one death occurring every 10 minutes.
“Violence against women and girls is not inevitable—it is preventable. We need robust legislation, improved data collection, greater government accountability, a zero-tolerance culture, and increased funding for women’s rights organizations and institutional bodies,” explained UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous in a media statement.
Women in vulnerable situations, such as those who are displaced, affected by conflict or post-conflict environments, or experiencing poverty, face heightened risks. Public figures like female politicians, judges, human rights advocates, journalists, and others often experience disproportionate targeting through violent acts or threats.
These forms of aggression may include online abuse, harassment, and the spread of false information aimed at suppressing, frightening, or causing harm to these women.
New UN report on femicides: Graphic: UNODC
On the recent 25th anniversary of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, themed “No Excuse,” world leaders and advocates gathered at the UN headquarters to highlight best practices to prevent violence against women, gaps and challenges, and the way forward.
“Horrendous sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war. And women and girls face a torrent of online misogyny. The situation is compounded by a growing backlash against women’s and girls’ rights.
Too often, legal protections are being rolled back, human rights are being trampled, and women’s human rights defenders are being threatened, harassed and killed for speaking out,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres at the event.
Girls are exposed to specific dangers, such as early marriage, sexual exploitation, and mistreatment. Statistics show that nearly 25 percent of teenage girls who have been in romantic relationships have experienced physical, sexual, or psychological abuse from a partner before reaching the age of 19.
According to the United Nations, legislation plays a crucial role in mitigating violence against women and girls. Statistics show that nations with domestic violence laws in place experience lower rates of intimate partner violence (9.5 percent) compared to those lacking such legislation (16.1 percent).
Despite the global community’s insufficient allocation of resources to key actors involved in survivor support, there are encouraging signs at the national level. Countries are increasingly recognizing violence against women and girls as a priority area for investment.
The UN Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls focuses on prioritizing survivor-centered holistic support for survivors, including developing gender-responsive legal and institutional frameworks, strengthening the health sector and providing psycho-social support for survivors’ recovery as well as strengthening laws.
Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed expressed the need to remember that “Each statistic is a person—often hidden by societal stigma, or silenced by fear. It is my personal conviction that the safe house we often take victims to, should actually be her remaining in her home and the perpetrator, the man, taken out.
Millions of women begin their days filled with trepidation—adjusting their daily routes, their clothing, their conduct, their decisions. Not out of choice, but out of necessity—to protect themselves.”
“Living under such constant stress and constraint stifles their freedom, creativity, and opportunities. It limits their access to education and employment and restricts their participation in public life. This does not only harm individuals.
When a significant portion of our population cannot operate freely or live without fear, the social and economic potential of communities, families and nations is diminished.”
Nearly one in three women experience violence in their lifetime. For thousands of women, the cycle of gender-based violence ended with one final and brutal act—their death by their partners and/or family members.
In the United States, Black and Indigenous women and girls are disproportionately impacted by violence and abuse. According to statistics from the Women’s Leadership and Resource Center at the University of Illinois Chicago on Black women’s experiences with domestic violence perpetuated by intimate partners, 54 percent have experienced psychological abuse.
Forty percent have experienced physical abuse, 9.6 percent have been raped and 91 percent of Black women killed, knew their killers. “In fact, murder by intimate partners is among the leading cause of death among young African American women between the ages of 15 and 45,” noted wirc.uic.edu.
Data from a report by the UN Women and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime titled “Femicides in 2023: Global Estimates of Intimate Partner/Family Member Femicides.” Graphic: UNODC
According to the Indian Law Resource Center, “In the United States, violence against Indigenous women has reached unprecedented levels on tribal lands and in Alaska Native villages.
More than 4 in 5 American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence, and more than 1 in 2 have experienced sexual violence.”
The law center also noted that, “Alaska Native women continue to suffer the highest rate of forcible sexual assault and have reported rates of domestic violence up to 10 times higher than in the rest of the United States.”
In the Nation of Islam, the role, value, and importance of women and girls is an integral part of what men, boys, women and girls are taught. Females in the Nation of Islam are encouraged to use their God-given talents, gifts and skills to the best of their abilities. The protection and safeguarding of women and girls is also taught.
In a message delivered on Mother’s Day, May 10, 2009, titled “The Immeasurable, Limitless Value and Beauty of a Woman,” the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan stated, “Women are devalued in this society.
It is heartbreaking to drive down certain streets in major cities and see beautiful women of every color, of every race, half nude and selling themselves to anyone who would purchase pleasure from them.”
The Minister continued, “Women have fallen so low, and it doesn’t seem that we, as men, care, because some will put our women up to this kind of behavior for the sake of money.”
“Once men are taught the knowledge of God, and the value of a woman, then men will kill to keep her safe! But because you don’t know her value, or yours, you play with her, devalue her, and laugh at her.”
“We believe in a more righteous value, evaluation of women,” Student Minister Jamil Muhammad, of Washington, D.C. told The Final Call.
“That thinking comes to us from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. If you understand the sacredness of the female and her value to the struggle of our people and the fact that no nation is judged by the men.
Nations are judged by the condition, the quality, and the women of that nation. Our girls should be educated and trained. They should be educated, of course, in their divine and spiritual education.
But they should also have a workable education to build nations, science, mathematics, engineering, the professions, and the humanities. When these things happen, then we can say we properly value our women,” said Student Min. Jamil Muhammad.
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote about the protection, elevation and value of Black women in his book, “Message to the Blackman in America,” in the chapter titled, “The Black Woman.”
“Until we learn to love and protect our woman, we will never be a fit and recognized people on the earth. The White people here among you will never recognize you until you protect your woman.”
“The Brown man will never recognize you until you protect your woman. The Yellow man will never recognize you until you protect your woman. The White man will never recognize you until you protect your woman.
You and I may go to Harvard, we may go to York of England, or go to Al Ahzar in Cairo and get degrees from all of these great seats of learning. But we will never be recognized until we recognize our women,” wrote The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
Mother Khadijah Farrakhan Photo: Abdul K. Nabil Muhammed
We honor and celebrate the birth anniversary of Mother Khadijah Farrakhan, wife of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Mother Khadijah’s 89th birthday was November 26. The Farrakhan family gathered to pay respect and honor to Mother Khadijah, the First Lady of the Nation of Islam. Her unwavering faith as a Muslim follower of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and dedication to her husband, family and the Nation of Islam is a supreme example to us all.
Mother Khadijah, we love you and thank you for your example and sacrifice. May Allah continue to Bless you.
Mother Khadijah Farrakhan and the Honorable Minister Louis FarrakanMother Khadijah and her daughter, Sister Donna FarrakhanThe Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and Mother Khadijah hold hands.Generations of the Farrakhan family and extended family gathered to celebrate the 89th birth anniversary of Mother Khadijah on Nov. 26. Photos: Haroon RajaeeMinister Farrakhan greets a new generation of his family held by his daughter, Sister Khallada Farrakhan.
A bold and beautiful celebration of Black unity in honor of Dr. Carlos Russell, the founder of Black Solidarity Day, brought together a diverse panel of leaders in politics, clergy, and students on Nov. 2 at Friendship Baptist Church in Brooklyn. Dr. Russell was a historian, scholar, revolutionary freedom fighter and Pan-Africanist who called for the first Black Solidarity Day 55 years ago on November 3, 1969. His call for unity on a day of absence from work, school and shopping was to show the world how much power Black people had if they united on a day of protest before Election Day.
On the heels of the end of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Russell called on other activists, politicians, teachers, students, unions, churches, and organizations to ban together collectively and to boycott to demonstrate against the discrimination, social injustice, job and housing inequities and other repressions that affected Black and Original peoples’ lives.
On Nov. 2, panelists were welcomed to Friendship Baptist Church by Pastor Rev. Craig Gaddy. They discussed the importance of Black Solidarity Day and why it’s important to unify today like Dr. Russell intended.
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Dr. Ronald Daniels, president of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century and convenor of the National African-American Reparations Commission, called Dr. Russell a “fearless, compassionate, a professor and a pan-Africanist who came from the Caribbean, to reinvigorate our unity irrespective to wherever we came from.”
“Now it looks like the conditions are now producing new levels of conversations to bringing back the solidarity he hoped for to cultivate our culture across the diaspora,” he added.
Dr. Daniels pointed out that the way we build the base of the fractured Black community is to start where we are, on the blocks and precincts that we live on, fashioned in the same way the Nation of Islam did and pointed out that method is still successful because, “the Nation didn’t wait for people to come to them, they went to where the people were to offer them tangible solutions to improve their lives.”
Sister Colette Pean from the December 12th Movement stated, “We must engage different groups in our community to share this work and to keep rallying people to the streets by staying connected.” In line with connecting issues in housing, jobs and hunger, Ivy Gamble Cobb explained that, “we must put our egos aside and focus on our own issues to empower Black people.”
Student Minister Arthur Muhammad speaks at Black Solidarity Day program on Nov. 3 in New York.
Regarding the role of education and teaching Black children, Student Minister Henry Muhammad, of Mosque No. 7C in Brooklyn, pointed out that, “knowledge is power and with knowledge we must build our businesses, our institutions and our own schools.” He added, “The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad was the first to establish an independent school system that prepares our children to become leaders and to develop their full potential in the Muhammad University of Islam schools around the country. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan following the example of his teacher, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, is developing the minds of our children to empower them and to empower our people with that knowledge.”
Dr. David Allen of African Methodist Episcopal Church explained the importance of Black people relearning Black history. He stated that “it’s critical that we stop working in silos and be willing to change our standards.”
The panelists agreed to partner with each other, students, and other youth to build common ground solidarity for the benefit of Black and Original people. Dr. Ron Daniels touched on the passion of Dr. Russell as he remembered him and added, “we must be advocates for our own race no matter where we are. Like Marcus Garvey said, we must be race men and race women in a common cause.”
On Nov. 3, the pre-Black Solidarity weekend continued, and a host of speakers took to the historic rostrum at Bethany Baptist Church in Bedford Stuyvesant to remember Dr. Russell and what his agenda could have been if he were alive today to witness the conditions of Black people.
Dr. Ron Daniels, president of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century, in center, with participants at Black Solidarity Day program.
Student Minister Arthur Muhammad, of Mosque No. 7 said he was inspired by the “awesome display of Black Solidarity in Brooklyn” at the Nov. 3 program. “I recently learned about the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s involvement in helping to mobilize the masses and to get the day off the ground in 1969. In an interview that I watched of an unsung hero and revolutionary leader, Dr. Carlos Russell, the founder of Black Solidarity Day, (he) stated that when Minister Louis Farrakhan decided to support the day, it took off exponentially in the Black community. We must get back to fighting together against the forces that oppress us rather than fighting each other over little to nothing,” said Student Min. Arthur Muhammad.
Longtime community servants Charles and Inez Barron stressed the need for building core values based on African culture and not Westernized culture and stressed the need for peace and unity necessary in building power. “Power is the great equalizer, when you have power, racism becomes irrelevant,” Mr. Barron strongly asserted.
Dr. Segun Shabaka stressed the need for Black institutions, schools, businesses, and organizations to unify without uniformity. Raymond Dugue of the U.N.I.A. emphatically stated, “We must agitate, educate, and organize! That is our task here at this Black Solidarity Day meeting, to build Black power by creating an alliance of grassroots organizations,” he said, adding, “we must set an agenda to unite on a mass basis to address our issues.”
Intermission included the Victory Music and Dance Youth Ensemble from the Brownsville section of Brooklyn led by Nicole Williams, its founder and CEO. The ensemble dedicated their dance routine to the late Alvin Ailey.
A moment of silence was momentarily observed as right-handed fists were raised in remembrance of the late and beloved mother of the modern-day revolutionary movement, Sister Queen Mother Viola Plummer, a founder of the December 12th Movement, a longtime activist, a comrade and friend of Dr. Carlos Russell and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Ms. Plummer passed away earlier this year.
