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Noel Didla
The first issue of Prabuddha: Journal of Social Equality carries research articles and an interview by Dalit Bahujan Women scholars. SAVARI is happy to share excerpts of their articles here.
Noel Didla’s interview of Akil Bakari of Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Mississippi, is the first of the series of conversations between activist-scholars from Bahujan movements and Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and other emancipatory movements. This excerpt is from the journal section of Interviews meant to bring out ‘The perspectives of scholars and writers from marginalized communities on age-old and universal values of Equality, Liberty, Dignity, and Justice.’ Please read Prabuddha’s About page and Instructions for Authors if you would like to submit articles.
Excerpt from ‘Malcolm X Grassroots Movement Aligns with Just and Right Struggles Everywhere in the World‘
Noel Didla: Alright Akil, what are some of the most provocative memories you have of being a member of NAPO and MXGM?
Akil Bakari: The first memory that really stands out and comes to mind is the work around the anti-clan march and rally, and, it was much more than a march and rally. It was actually a defense. The sentiment was that white supremacist groups are not going to be allowed to parade down the streets of Jackson, a majority black city. And as such, leaders of the New African People’s Organization – at that time, the late Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, Safiya Omari, others, Jackson Human Rights Coalition, Nation of Islam, all strategized to organize resistance. I was truly privileged and blessed to be a part of that endeavor and it was magnificent in that over 3000 people participated in that resistance and as we formed up on the corner of Farish and Griffin street, and how the organization of that, because we had older people, we had children from all walks and backgrounds of life, but also, the organization of making sure that they were safe. And our security was put in place. Security that you can see and the security that you didn’t see. And how disciplined everyone was in that over-3000 grouping of people. And as we made our way to the spot that we were going to confront the Klan, which was a gateway into downtown through West Street that flows into downtown. To the left of us was the Confederate cemetery where the white supremacist group was going to pay homage to their white supremacist Confederate dead, and that’s where we met them. And America being true to itself, manifest itself right here in Jackson, Mississippi, every law enforcement agency within the state of Mississippi was present.
There were Mississippi Highway Patrol members in riot gear in M16s that formed a skirmish line in front of us with M16s pointed at us. We had the Hinds County Sheriff’s department to the right of us. The Jackson Police Department to the left of us. There were snipers on the roof behind us. And there were helicopters buzzing above us. And all the guns were pointed at us. But the reserve and determination of the group as women and children and those who, particularly women who did not want to be in there because again, women stood side-by-side and shoulder-to-shoulder with us in this defense but those who did not want to engage – women, children, and older people – moved to the back of the column that we had formed. And it was our determination that day that we were not moving, and the Klan was not going to march a step further than beyond where we were. Whatever was going to occur that day was going to occur. After about – it seemed forever – but it was about forty-five minutes of a standoff, the Klan turned around and dispersed. And we marched then from there to downtown Jackson city hall and talked about the organization and self-determined nation of a group of Black people who said we were not going to allow this to occur in the city of Jackson. And it did not occur. That’s one of my most poignant moments.
There were others where we did work around, um, there was a series of a lynching of black people in jails all across Mississippi, including here in Hinds County. And as we raised our voices as the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and New African People’s Organization against that form of genocide, we also understood that beyond just rhetoric, we had to actually do something. So, we organized an investigative team to do parallel and post investigation behind the police around a lot of these issues. We expanded that to a situation that had occurred in Meridian where a strapping young Black man, 6’4”, 250 lb. somehow hung himself on a twig of a very small, very small tree in Meridian, in Kemper County, in the Kemper County area, near Meridian. And we investigated that unfortunate situation. That’s MXGM. We also formed an investigative team around that particular death and murder of that young man, and other incidents that occurred fast forward the work that we did around Katrina. We put together an assembly type gathering that we call the Survivor’s Council where over 1,100 people from all across the country and outside the country as well as those who had sought refuge from Mississippi Gulf Coast in Louisiana here in Jackson, Mississippi, to strategize and plan on how we can resist the ethnic cleansing that was occurring and the roadblocks that were being raised to prevent people from returning to New Orleans – those were couple of things that stand out in my mind, of some of the work that we have done here.
And one other piece would also be, as we entered into the electoral arena and we as MXGM and NAPO, and how the established political order – both black and white – literally laughed at us. Because, in their minds, who were we to seek political office here. We’re just these radical people who had these crazy ideas that Black people had a right to govern themselves. And how we have been able to organize ourselves and put plans together to take electoral power from the council seat with the late Mayor Lumumba to the Mayoral seat with the late Mayor Lumumba to the current Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba. Those are some of the things that stick out in my mind.
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Reference: Bakari, A. (2018). ‘Malcolm X Grassroots Movement Aligns with Just and Right Struggles Everywhere in the World’.Prabuddha: Journal Of Social Equality, 1(1), 3-12. Retrieved from http://prabuddha.us/index.php/pjse/article/view/11
The audio recording containing this excerpt can be heard here.
