| From the Villa ge of Brook ly n |
OUR TIME PRESS THE L OCAL PAPER WITH THE G LOBAL VIEW
| VOL. 22 NO. 27
July 5 – 11, 2018 |
Since 1996
Young Black Activists: Speaking Truth to Power Since 1852
T
he concept of the American system being one of checks and balances is enshrined in all high school curricula. That seems to no longer apply. With an autocratic president, a cowed Congress and now with another conservative justice destined to go onto the Supreme Court, topping control of the federal judiciary, all the levers of national power will be in the hands of white supremacists and radical conservatives. We have been here before. As we move further into these perilous times, it is instructive to remember young activists such as Frederick Douglass who fought the same adversaries and see how much can be accomplished, even when your life begins in the worst of circumstances. Born a slave in 1818, he escaped at age 20, and at age 34, had become a powerful abolitionist, able to move the nation and speak with furious clarity on the hypocrisy it honors. In his speech in Rochester, NY on July 5th, 1852, Douglass reveals the antecedents of our current political situation and where those who are tightening their grip on power want to take it. We saw an inkling in Charlottesville, and Douglass reminds us of what God-fearing, saltof-the-earth people were capable of. And as can be seen by the evangelical embrace of Donald Trump and the “zero tolerance” program separating children from their families, still are.
They are in the minority, and that is why they will continue working diligently to suppress votes and gerrymander districts to maintain power, no matter how Brown and progressive the nation becomes. They will use the money of the 1% through political action committees and independent players, to mold public opinion with algorithms and microtargeted ads sowing discord and confusion. They will be aided by the Russian state, which has shown no love for Black, Brown or progressive people. In his 1996 interview in Our Time Press, legendary historian and Pan-Africanist John Henrik Clarke told us, “I say if Black people don’t unite and begin to support themselves, their communities and their families, they might as well begin to go out of business as a people. Nobody’s going to have any mercy. And nobody’s going to have any compunction about making slaves out of them.” You don’t need physical chains to control people anymore. And it’s not just the Black and Brown people they’re coming for. Also are the poor, Black or White, the LGBTQ community, the control of women’s bodies and the majority of Americans, who like those before them, fought and won the fight against slavery and who don’t want to go back to that time. David Mark Greaves See Frederick Douglass, Page 12
Tribute to the Ancestors of the Middle Passage
Photo Credit: Samuel J. Miller, Frederick Douglass, 1852, Daguerreotype. Art Institute of Chicago. This year is the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), the first American of African descent born in slavery, whose truth to power speeches travelled nationally. This photo is of Douglass at the approximate age of 34, the year he penned his declaration about American’s celebrations of Independence. Page 12
Booming Borough, Booming Rats Photo: Ellis Jordan Lewis
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Maxine Waters Receiving Glad to be Back in Brooklyn Death Threats
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Photo: Winston Wharton
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