Maryland Shaw

Thankfully, the “Ella Baker” tradition lives on in Baltimore through young women like Maryland Shaw.

It was in the Baltimore Algebra Project (BAP) that now 22-year-old, Maryland Shaw, got her start in local activism. While a sophomore in high school, she was drawn to BAP after being frustrated by dated and tattered textbooks in high school that she was not allowed to take home to study from. Initially believing that she could do nothing about her problem; she learned of a student-led advocacy group that rejected the notion that youth were powerless to positively impact their own conditions. She joined BAP and not soon after she was helping to organize a three-day strike against educational inequality in the state.

Since that time, Maryland has deepened and broadened her participation in educational activism. In addition to fighting for equal resources for city schools; she is among the leaders of the campaign to halt the construction of a multi-million dollar youth jail in East Baltimore. She has done it all – from organizing community meetings with Baltimore residents about the youth jail to directly confronting Governor O’Malley as he campainged for re-election in 2010.

Today, Shaw is a student at Morgan State University with plans to study Early Childhood Education. She serves as a mentor and volunteer at the Urban Youth Initiative Project (UYIP) – a program of the Pan-Afrikan Liberation Movement. She is committed to nurturing the next generation of youth activists. When asked about the state of youth activism in the city, Maryland observed, “the more I hear about how we need to look to the youth [for leadership] the less I see it.”

Maryland Shaw is a descendant of Ella Baker in more ways than one and in an activist arena that remains dominated by high-powered and often prideful male egos; Shaw is leaving her own mark on Baltimore City and beyond.

More than symbolic gestures (which certainly has its place); I am more excited to see the development of this kind of direct organizing and activism in Baltimore. There is real potential here to raise the profile of the predatory practices of banks in Baltimore and its impact upon the city’s Black community and the poor especially. It also creates opportunity for people in desperate need of housing to literally come in from the cold this winter.

It is shameful and sinful, in my opinion, to be in a city that on any given night has 3400 homeless people on the streets and at the same time have nearly 40,000 city-owned vacant properties.

The local Occupy Our Homes group draws inspiration from the Take Back The Land Movement founded by Max Rameau. I believe that the conditions are ripe for a new kind of activism in Baltimore and I believe that People of Faith need to be partner with the effort. In this clip, Max Rameau explains Take Back the Land and below you’ll find a flyer inviting you to join your power with Lila’s power to prevent her eviction from her home.

I hope you’ll be moved to support this effort. (Click the flyer for larger view)

Habari Gani? Kujichagulia! which means Self Determination – To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.

Self-Determination is such a beautiful principle which speaks to the freedom that all individuals and people-groups should be able to rightly exercise. Though not always using the term, I have been writing about “kujichagulia” on this site for a long time.

In early 2008, I was blessed to be a part of the Park Heights Community “Dry Out” campaign that sought to expel liquor stores and predatory businesses from the 5100 block of Park Heights Avenue in Baltimore. It’s beyond shameful that there are 4 liquor stores in that one block! It’s also telling that in this overwhelmingly Black community; all of those liquor stores are owned by non-Black people. Under the leadership of Derrick Compton and with the support of others like now-councilman Brandon Scott, Al Watson, and Pastor Kevin Brooks; we put weekly pressure on these establishments to let them know they were being monitored for infractions and targeted for eventual expulsion.

In November 2009, I critiqued the Emerging Christian Movement in the spirit of self-determination, for its exclusion of non-white voices as it presented theological dynamics and features as if they created them while all the while People of Color of other Faith traditions and denominations have been practicing different “emerging” principles for generations.

I wrote about “kujichagulia” back in August 2010 when I proclaimed that “Black People Should Control The Baltimore City Public School System” on the grounds that Afrikan youth make up about 98% of the student population and the city is somewhere around 65% Afrikan. This notwithstanding, Black folks are regularly begging and pleading to have substantive say in the education of their own youth.

Self-determination pushed me back in April 2011 when I talked about the general “whiteness” of the Urban Farming/Healthy Food Movement and the need for people of color to be at the lead of the food revolution just as we are in most cases the ones suffering under the brunt of America’s food deserts.

And of course, my involvement in the struggle against Governor O’Malley’s plan to build a new youth jail in East Baltimore has been fueled by my firm belief that the Black Community should decide what institutions we want or don’t want in our community just like White people and Jewish people decide what will or won’t come in their communities. If White people don’t want a business or even a church to come into their community; chances are it won’t come. If Jewish people don’t want a business to come in their community; chances are it doesn’t come. Why should it be any different for Afrikan people? We don’t want O’Malley’s multi-million dollar youth jail and many of us have committed ourselves to organize, agitate, and protest – even if it means physically impeding the path of construction trucks – until O’Malley bends to our wishes.

This, my friends, is self-determination and in different ways it’s happening all over the world.

I pray that the flames of “Kujichagulia” burn even brighter in the new year for the Global Afrikan Family. As Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. reminded us – “No one can ride your back unless its bent.” No more hunched-backness in the Black community! May we stand up straight like righteous women and men and commit to “define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves” without timidity or apology.

Ashe.

Rev. Heber Brown, III with Former Black Panther, Kathleen Cleaver

The first time I met Kathleen Cleaver was a November 2007 Black Panther Rank & File Symposium that the Maryland Institute College of Art put on. As my blog article from that day reveals; I was touched by the continuing flame of Cleaver’s passion for the same issues she put her body on the line for back in the Panther’s heyday.

Which is why I’m excited that she’s on her way to Baltimore once more. This time to talk about Cointelpro – the U.S. Government’s covert and illegal assault upon those individuals and groups that it deemed were a threat to national security. (sound familiar?)

There will also be a viewing and discussion of COINTELPRO 101 – an educational film about the FBI program.

This is a timely event and viewing given that Clint Eastwood is preparing to release a film about J. Edgar Hoover – the man who directed COINTELPRO and has federal buildings named after him today -authorized the harassment and in some cases outright assassination of Black people in this country.

If you’re in the Baltimore area, you don’t want to miss this event:

And probably most of all, we owe a collective debt of gratitude to Ms. Ella Baker. She was the engine behind so many of the fascinating groups who organized and put their necks on the line fighting U.S. apartheid. Barbara Ransby in her book, Ella Baker & the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision, paints the picture of a woman who was small in stature, but a giant among women and men.

Ransby, in tremendous detail, introduces the world to Ella Baker in ways that mainstream education wholly ignores. From her well-guarded personal life to her very public organizing, we meet a woman who gave her everything to an awe-inspiring vision of a more just and democratic society. Baker was propelled by what she saw we could be while at the same time giving equal energy to the path that would help us get there. For her the means was just as important as the end and you couldn’t fight for equality in the public sphere and sanction discrimination and ill-treatment behind closed doors. Her willingness to speak up and challenge the “men of the movement” didn’t make her a favorite in certain circles. She had her run-ins with the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and other groups because she did not go along with the prescribed gender role for women during that day and would not just “stay in her place”.

She created her own place – not in the narrow confines of a “civil rights” activist, but Ransby’s brilliant book reveals Baker as an irreplaceable figure in the larger Black Freedom Movement. While the NAACP and SCLC placed the legislature and judiciary as the preferred target for social change, Baker’s life was dedicated to organizing and empowering “everyday people” to be the change. Ms. Baker believed that the principal issue was bigger than new and different laws in the existing governing structure. She fought for self-determination for the poor and people of color. She didn’t chase after the politicians. She sat on country porches and rode down dusty roads with the people – listening to them articulate, define, and direct where the movement could or should go.

While she could have rightly demanded the spotlight and allowed her oratorical skills to shine, she seemed to prefer the less visible, but immensely critical roles behind the curtain. She helped empower others, drew connections to parallel movements, and practiced the art of asking the right questions. In addition, she mentored and nurtured many who grew to become defining figures in the Human Rights Struggle. As you turn each page, you’ll likely bump into a name you know or a name you need to know and read how Ella Baker touched their lives.

All 374 pages of Ransby’s book are packed with the finer, lesser-known stories and details of this pivotal figure and the movement she helped create. The many awards conferred upon this book is clear evidence of the literary skill of the author and her meticulous research in providing this important biography. Those who read this book – no doubt are better human beings by the time they turn the last page.

Crime Scene in North Baltimore

I wasn’t in my door 1 hour before gunshots rang out in my neighborhood.

Fresh back in town from a short family vacation to celebrate my milestone birthday, I was hoping to ease back into city life. At least looking forward to a lazy, uneventful Saturday afternoon/evening before the bells of Sunday morning started ringing calling all clergy to their collars.

Not so.

Not two hours after my plane touched down at BWI, while standing on my porch catching up with my neighbor and checking on my plants; gunshots boomed through the air. Eight loud shots.

I began shaking my head as three children riding their bicycles began hightailing it toward home. Seniors came out on their porch and everyone began looking down the street. Everyone in the neighborhood knows from which direction trouble tends to come in this community.

The sirens began blaring and before unzipping my suitcase, I grabbed my camera bag and made my way to the epicenter of the latest episode of street violence in North Baltimore.

While walking to the scene of the crime, I walked past one home where the news must have just been shared. A woman came running out of her screen door frantically inquiring of the young men who were walking in the opposite direction:

“Who got shot? Who got shot?!”

“Pootie got shot,” one of the young men said. Another motioned with his hands indicating that the victim was shot in his torso area.

“Sh*t!” she screamed while racing in the direction of the ambulance and telling those she left on the porch to call someone else with the news.

I arrived at the scene – a place that I often ride by on my bicycle or walk by with my son during our morning exercise walks – and saw a picture that has become far too familiar. A crowd of youth. Elders on their porch or just inside their gates and a swarm of police officers, medics, and a fire truck blocking the street. As evidence to the normalcy of these types of events, less than 50 feet from the yellow tape, a carpenter was working on the porch of the adjacent house. Fresh, untreated wood made up new steps and handrail. He was sanding it down to give it a smooth finish seemingly unfazed by the commotion around him.

The EMT’s emerged from the high grass of a vacant lot – the place of the shooting – escorting a young man strapped to a stretcher inside the back of their ambulance.

“I love you!” a teenage girl screamed out as the back doors were closed.

I took out my camera and began taking photographs of the scene. After about 5 or 6 shots, I saw two officers pointing over in my direction. Here we go. Officer Wilder began marching over to me.

“No need putting that camera away,” he said. Stooping down I raised 1 finger motioning to him that he needed to give me a moment. I put my camera away.

He walked up on me and barked, “YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS A CRIME SCENE AND YOU CAN’T TAKE PICTURES OF A CRIME SCENE. YOU ARE BREAKING THE LAW. THOSE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MINE!”

“First, you need to bring your tone down,” I calmly replied.

“DON’T TELL ME HOW TO DO MY JOB!”

“I’m not telling you how to do your job, but I’m here because this is my community and perhaps a part of the problem is that when you all arrive on scenes like this you treat everyone as if they’re suspects – even those who are trying to do what they can to make things safer.”

He continued barking and again reminded me that those pictures were “his.”

I wasn’t up on my rights as a “street journalist” at that minute so I took out the camera and deleted a couple of pictures for his satisfaction. (Obviously, the picture above lets you know that I didn’t delete them all.)

Then I zoned in on his name badge. “My name’s Wilder!” he growled, “and you have a problem you can go take it up with my Sergeant.”

“Which one is your Sergeant?” I asked.

“The one in the white shirt with the three stripes. You don’t know a sergeant when you see one?” he quipped while walking away.

I felt sorry for him as he walked away. For one – he obviously was infected with megalomania – an obsession with power that intoxicates many “enforcers of the law” (by the way I received a phone call shortly after I left the scene that verified my suspicion that Officer Wilder had made up the “law” against taking pictures of crime scenes.)

Secondly, I felt sorry for Officer Wilder of the Northern Police District because he probably didn’t believe me when I told him that he would see me again. (Yea, I’m one of those letter-writing, pop up at the police station house, meet with your superiors, change police policy type of citizens that thinks I own my neighborhood.)

But much bigger than anything that happened between Officer Wilder and I – I felt most sorry for the mother who received a nightmarish phone call about her son being shot on the windy Saturday afternoon the day before Mother’s Day 2010. I felt sorry for the mother and family who received a call that their son had been arrested for the attempted murder of another young man on the day before Mother’s Day.

I feel sorry for this community that is slowly waking up to the reality that we have a problem on our hands that will not go away with wishful thinking or even one-time passionate rallies. Groups like my community association – the Winston Govans Community Association and York Road Alternatives for Youth are among the many organizations trying to make things better and safer here. Hopefully, the 18 churches and 1 mosque that adorn York Road (between 43rd Street and Northern Parkway) will find the motivation to come together, stay together, work together and proactively engage disconnected youth and adults in North Baltimore as well.

Only time will tell, but in the meantime, I pledge to continue pouring myself out to make Baltimore (especially my piece of Baltimore) a better place to live, grow, learn, and serve. As I type this, my sleeping 19 month old is resting in my arms and I know that he and the many children that God has blessed our city with demand and deserve nothing less.

Vacation is over. I’m back and with another year under my belt, I’m ready to re-engage the beautiful struggle.

SOURCE: NPR

Legendary civil rights leader Dr. Dorothy Height, who spent most of her life battling for the empowerment of women and African Americans, died Tuesday. She was 98.

A winner of the Congressional Gold Medal, Height had the ear of U.S. presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama.

In 1963, she was the only woman on the speaker’s platform when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have A Dream” speech. But Height she wasn’t on the program for that March on Washington – even though she was the nucleus of the meetings held by the mostly male civil rights leaders who planned it. Height told NPR in 2003 the experience was uplifting – even though a gospel singer was the only female heard from the podium that day.

READ MORE

Despite this, the Mayor still seems marginally popular in the city. The pockets of Baltimoreans who have decried her political activity over the years were no match for the O’Malley political machine which made sure that Dixon won the mayoral election of 2007.

The representative from her camp asked pastors of the IMA to attend the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast which is slated for Thursday, April 30, 2009 8:00 – 11:00AM at the Forum Caterers in Baltimore.

Soon after the IMA meeting, I received a call from the organizers of this event. I was requested to offer an opening prayer at the Prayer Breakfast. I found this quite odd for any number of reasons. First, though the IMA endorsed Sheila Dixon for Mayor in 2007, I could not in good conscience lend my name to that endorsement. After examining her lengthy record in Baltimore politics, I did not think it was in the best interest of Baltimoreans (especially the majority of the city’s residents, i.e. Black folks) to have Ms. Dixon as our Mayor. I respected the decision of elders within the IMA, but chose to stay away that day. Second, I have regularly been highly critical of Ms. Dixon via this blog and other media outlets. I have challenged her policies, decried her staunch loyalty to the O’Mally political machine, and had op-eds printed in the local Afro American Newspaper openly critiquing her record. Just last week, I was interviewed by a freelancer for a national magazine covering Mayor Dixon. Why me? They were looking for a critical voice to add to their piece!

So for them to call me to give the opening prayer at this Prayer Breakfast was highly puzzling. Either they don’t know me or they are attempting something more sinister like eliminating my voice (and the voices of her other critics) by pulling me into the camp.

“I’m not doing it,” I told my wife.

“How are you not going to pray for somebody? Aren’t pastors supposed to pray for everbody?” she quipped.

That sent me for a mental loop. Yea, that’s right. I am a pastor now. I’m supposed to pray for everybody right? But what if my prayer upsets everything they’re trying to do at this Prayer Breakfast? I gotta be me. My prayer would come from my heart. If I am to be me – and I tend to be authentic no matter the setting – my communication with God on the Mayor’s behalf would be unhindered, uncensored, and probably would have a “oh no he didn’t” edge to it – not outright rude, but truthful. As forthright and outspoken as I can be; I don’t enjoy being unruly just for the sake of it. Why mess up their event?

They don’t want any trouble, but you can’t ignore the cool relationship that the Mayor has with the clergy in my circle right now. Even at the IMA meeting, an awkward silence followed the presentation by the Mayor’s representative. Eventually it came out at the meeting. Mayor Dixon has not been responsive to the segment of the Faith community in which I am a part since she was elected. The IMA endorsed her for mayor and she has given the IMA the cold shoulder as a result. Now she’s in trouble and needs our help?

And even as I type that, I hear a good sister-friend of mine whispering in my ear: “Heber, it’s the people who most don’t deserve our love and support that need it the most.”

I have been wrestling with what Jesus would do in all of this. In his context, would he have attended the birthday party for Herod Antipas and offered an opening prayer knowing full well that John the Baptizer (whom Marcus Borg identifies as Jesus’ teacher) was locked up and facing a dubious future because of Herod’s own decree? I just can’t see it.

But what I do believe is that Jesus would have found an opportunity if some invitation was ever extended to bring forth some creative, nonviolent act of resistance and/or coded critique that would have empowered the oppressed while at the same time disarm the oppressor thus liberating both.

I’m far from Jesus. I’m reaching. I’m journeying toward The Way, but I have a LONG way to go. I’m leaning toward declining being on the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast Program (word is she might not even be there!), but prayer was requested so let me fulfill my ministerial duties via an open prayer here:

Most Holy God: I bow today first thanking you for who you are in our lives. You are the unwavering strength and support that provides sustenance in every facet of our earthly experience. No matter the circumstances, you never change. For that we say, “Thank you.” And today at this Prayer Breakfast Lord, we gather to humbly request your guidance on behalf of your daughter, Sheila Dixon. Dear God, during these trying and tense times, give her the internal fortitude to unflinchingly face the persecution that has come her way. Surround her with those who will tell her the truth in love and stand with her in this time of challenge. Bless her with moments of reflection and if necesseary rededication to how You would want her to honor You in her role as mayor. As You bless her with grace might You remind her of the families in East Baltimore who are threatened in the shadow of Johns Hopkins’ gentrification plans. Your grace extends to them as well. As You bless her with support might You remind her of the youth in Baltimore who grow without safe places to play and learn. Your support extends to them as well. As You bless her with love remind her of the families in South Baltimore who will be presented with occassions to stumble by way of slot machines. Your love extends to them as well. Finally, Lord as You bless her with mercy remind her of those whom she has shown mercy to as well. Thank you for making room for redemption. Might we all take full advantage of every opportunity presented us on our own damascus road. Amen.

Tonight, I’m looking forward to hanging out with the men and young men of the congregation that I serve. We’re going to The Charles Theater to view a special documentary presented by my brothers LaMarr Darnell Shields (Urban Leadership Institute) and local documentarian, Janks Morton (What Black Men Think).

The film is entitled “Men II Boys” and it provides insight, guidance, and challenges to Black boys AND the Black men who love them.

I realize that some of you will read this after today (April 14, 2009), but I would still strongly encourage you to visit their site and consider showing the film at your school, church, or community organization. There is also an accompanying book as well that unveils 101 things that every young boy of color needs to know.

Here’s a preview from the film: