Thursday, November 17, 2005

LEAVE YOUR FIST AT THE DOOR-Revolutionary assaulted on Morehouse Campus

Mukasa (Willie Ricks) community activist and SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committe) member who coined the phrase “Black Power”, was assaulted on Morehouse College campus last Thursday by campus police.

Mukasa is a living legacy of the Black Power Movement and is often on the Morehouse campus invited by the instructors to lecture about his experience in the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement.

He was meeting with a group of students when he was approached by campus police. He was asked to go with them. The officers involved in the incident are police Chief Worthy and Officer Major C. Cox. The officers escorted Mukasa to their office where a struggle ensued. As a result he suffered injuries to his right bicep muscle. He was formally arrested and charged with criminal trespassing. Mukasa spent 28 hours in jail.

He is presently being treated by a muscle and bone specialist. In receiving medical treatment he has not been able to make public the incident.

Imhotep Gary Byrd is a poet, musician and host of a radio show in New York on WLIB and WBAI. He has invited Mukasa to use his show as a forum for speaking out about the incident. Mukasa has been a former guest on Gary Byrd’s program on WLIB.

Mukasa has asked for support in maintaining his ability to teach young people about the struggle. He advocates that those who know the history, not be hindered in telling the whole story of Black Consciousness.

Dr. Leonard Jeffries was also included in the conversation with Mukasa and Gary Byrd. Dr. Leonard Jeffries is a Professor of Africana studies at City College of New York.

Dr. Jeffries can attest to the fact that although Morehouse is a historically black college, that those with the “fighting spirit” that Mukasa exemplifies are seen as a threat by those who do not respect higher levels of struggle.

He went on to say that Mukasa has not used the struggle to profit. He goes on campus as a living witness to the history of Black Consciousness. Dr Leonard Jeffries has experienced firsthand experience with this type of treatment on the campus

“We have many scholars in Afro-centric thought and study that have been banned from black campuses. A Molefi Ansanti and the like aren't welcome. "They (campus administration) don’t want the whole story of black struggle being told" he said. “Whoever controls the history controls the vision."

I talked with Mukasa by phone today. "I'm well respected by the teachers and students at Morehouse. I've been helpful in the writing of papers because of my knowledge and documentation of the Black Power Movement. Teachers invite me into the classroom and whether it's a formal invitation to speak for 5 minutes or 3 hours I always ablige." He said he often meets with students for lunch. He said they often crowd around him chanting "Black Power" "Revolution" and "Brother Africa". He said he thinks this makes the campus security angry.

Mukasa told me of his history with one of the arresting officers. He has known Officer Worthy since he was with the police force in Atlanta when the Civil Rights Movement and SNNC were becoming established. Mukasa said he that Officer Worthy was against the movement then and saw it as a threat. The police community also saw Mukasa as a threat. He told me the police had a shoot to kill order for him that still exists today. Mukasa said that Officer Worthy has the same attitude today when he sees him on campus as he did back then.

I had an interesting conversation with Dr. Jeffries later this evening about the incident at Morehouse involving Mukasa. "They don't like his free wielding spirit. As a result they have disrespected him as a human being."

He talked candidly about the academic and political stuggles on campus. He said, "Morehouse produces competent gentlemen. Not men one who will shake things up." Dr. Jeffries sited many occasions that suggested when one's social, political and world views are not consistent with the schools, one can be viewed as "rocking the boat."

He sited that, a few years after the death of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, his wife Dr. Rosalind Jeffries a historian, scholar and an aritist was invited to exhibit her collection entitled "The Black Stuggle." The works included portriats of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. Dr. Rosalind was asked to take her work down because the Board of Trustees meeting was going to take place. " Morehouse didn't want to offend the funders," he said.

He has had his own awkward moment in which students raised their fist or Black Power salute during the pledge of allegiance and he himself only raised his fist midway because he didn't want to be at odds with his friend, the President of the college.

He said years ago a student was banned from the campus for organizing the women of Spellmen, the sister shcool to Morehouse. This same student accompanied Dr. Jeffries on a visit to the campus. Dr. Jeffries signed himself and the student in with the campus security. He was surprised to find that although the incident had occuried years before, the students name was still on a list of those banned from the campus.

The identity and words of the Morehouse man continues to be an issue on the campus. Dr. Jeffries also told me that about four years ago a valedictorian was not selected because the last valedictorian provided an African analysis. He said the student was literary rushed off the stage by the choir that was bought on and began to sing. Community protests caused the school to reinstate the valedictorian selection for the graduation. However, speeches are now reviewed before the graduation.

This was the first conversation I have ever had with Professor Jeffries and Mukasa. What I took away from our conversations was that the atmosphere on the campus is one in which the struggle between a maintaining the status quo mentality and a revolutionary one.

I called the President's office for comments about the situation between Mukasa and the campus police. The receptionist Sandra Bradley was very pleasant. I told her I was a freelance writer and a radio host. She took down the call letters of the station and said someone would get back to me. As of this posting no one has gotten back to me. I don't imagine that anyone will be calling.

Mukasa has asked that the public contact the President Walter E. Massey at Morehouse College at 404-215-2645. He is demanding that the two officers be fired.

1 comment:

Freakytype said...

Universities these days expect us only to chew the cod, ruminate on what we have been told and regurgitate. They do not really want people with a mind of their own. It has been my experience that black thought is frowned upon. You get a better response from most professors on issues in the realm of the gay inequality than on issues regarding Black rights, even though Civil liberties created through Black movement has opened the door for so many more than ourselves. I don't see any Latino or Irish or Italian getting assassinated for free speech but everyday my brothers are assassinated for the first amendment. Moral of the story: If you do not consent with the dominant group, you are not properly assimilated, the program is corrupt, you are a virus of society and therefore, you must be eliminated ... by any means necessary.