MOUND BAYOU, Mississippi, August 21, 2017, The decision to launch the National Afrikan Amerikan Family Reunion Association’s “Youth Liberation Walk”, August 19, 2017, was carried out with overwhelming success even though, in a Townsite with some 25 churches and a population of less than 3,000 people, there was no church available to receive our youth or liberation walkers and families. Fortunately, a female staff member remembered that as a young child she and her classmates were present for a school event in the backyard of my residence. Thus, NAAFRA’s 1-million youth liberation walk movement, honoring the birthdate of Marcus Mojiah Garvey, August 17, 1887 one month after the official birth of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, July 12, 1887; had the love impact of our beloved brother Smokey Robinson’s “Quiet Storm.”
The slave descendants of the unpaid labor force, builders of the strongest foundation of any nation on planet earth, are living witnesses that a turning point away from the perilous pits of poverty is necessary for the survival of the Black Family. At an event in Greenville, Mississippi, attended by me at the invitation of the Local Organizing Committee of the Nation of Islam, I was made aware that this Mississippi delta is second only to the Egyptian delta found at the outlet of the Nile River into the Meditteranean Sea. We were made aware of this by one of the scholars of the NOI who spoke on that occasion; he provided information I deeply appreciate and find invaluable for our Alkebulan Youth Movement. This drives the turning point of an empowerment philosophy of Alkebulan youth, to a willingness to accept challenges that goes far and above what in the past was unheard of for our youth.
We find it necessary to call upon two of our beloved scholars from the text, The Black Family, 4th Edition by Harriette Pipes McAdoo, where scholars Maulana Karenga and Tiamoyo Karenga teach from the words of their essay, The Nguzo Saba and the Black Family
“. . .we continue to argue, that the key crisis and challenge in Black Life is a cultural one, and thus it is imperative that we recover, reconstruct, and bring forth the best of our culture and use it to free ourselves from internal and external constraints and oppression and to enrich and expand our lives in the most meaningful and effective of ways. We define culture here as the totality of thought and practice by which a people creates itself, celebrates, sustains, and develops itself, and introduces itself to history and humanity. In pursuit of this project of cultural recovery, reconstruction, and liberation, we put forth the ‘Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles,’ as a central value foundation and framework to undergird and inform our personal and collective practice as a people. . . .”
Our condition is serious, our need for knowledge is critical at the family level on a wide scale. Thus, my inviting our youth to “home school their parents” is not written as a joke. To win the war against the forces of evil that continue to oppress our families, we must do as another of our scholars teach; that is, we must do our “Homework” found in the text SBA: The Reawakening Of The African Mind, by Asa G. Hilliard III. My purpose in using deep thinking quotes, from several of our beloved scholars in this press release, is to drive home the importance of our children knowing our scholars. My responsibility is to take advantage of every opportunity to see that this happens so by announcing our “Youth Liberation Church Walk Campaign”, beginning August 26, 2017 in honor of Marcus Moziah Garvey’s birth August 17, 1887 (one month after the Official Authorization of Mound Bayou, Mississippi) and calling for 1-million youth families to walk two city blocks into a church for a meeting, we will affirm our liberation for the purpose of making it clear that the Black Family will no longer tolerate not being first class citizens.
My deepest respect, love, and desire goes out to the Gregory Family for one of our greatest warriors transitioning home for his eternal rest in the bosom of the ancestors. It was my good fortune to soldier along side of my beloved brother on two occasions — the James Bird Beaumont Texas tragedy and the Tyisha Miller cop killing in Riverside, California. I will be truly honored in my life’s body of work if it is half as worthy as that of my beloved brother Dick Gregory. ASA! ASA! ASA!
SOURCE: The National Afrikan Amerikan Ameikan Family Reunion Association (NAAFRA), “A Turning Point In the Delta, Mound Bayou, Mississippi”, August 21, 2017 [PRESS RELEASE]
Contact: Dr. Donald R. Evans, Sr.
Phone: 213-247-4189
Email: dr.drevans@aol.com
Websites: www.WeAreUnitySunday.org & NAAFRA.org