MAKE THE MANDELA CONNECTION
As a Sophomore Student at the prestigious Morehouse College of Atlanta, Ga. in 1985-86, I made the MANDELA CONNECTION!
I was committed to the full student activist experience while attending undergraduate school in the Civil Rights history rich Atlanta, Ga. Only God could have granted me the experiences that I had as a student activist, athlete, academician and pastor in training. I thank God for the time that I spent in the King Family Home, countless hours in the S.C.L.C Headquarters basement learning how to make flyers on the old school ink printers, priceless time spent with Dr. Joseph Lowrey and his late lovely wife, the time spent laughing and strategizing with S.C.L.C. staff and other student activists from the A.U.C. I could go on and on as any student of the Atlanta University Center culture and like HBCU cultures could because it was and is a different world for persons of African American descent. It is a good world. It was here that I made the MANDELA CONNECTION!
I was forced to make the MANDELA CONNECTION because I was immersed in a community that was connected to the plight of persons of Negroid African descent everywhere across the globe and across human history. I was made to connect by the History Department in classes by Barksdale and Hornsby. I was mad to connect in Religion Department in classes by Carter, Parker, Roswell Jackson and Guy. I was made to connect in weekly Chapel and Assemblies. Students who are matriculating at HBCU as we speak will remember this day for the rest of their lives as the day when the Great Nelson Mandela died. It will be no less significant than the death of MLK for some and the death of JFK for others. This day will go down for some 20ish year old undergraduate student at an HBCU as a Day of Infamy because they will be forced to recognize in the most authentic ways that they are CONNECTED TO MANDELA and a part of All good people, especially people of African descent, died today.
As the founding Student President of the A.U.C./S.C.L.C. chapter in 1986, I made the MANDELA CONNECTION. We organized bus loads of students to take trips all over the deep South to march against injustice and discrimination. None of us will ever forget marching against the KKK in Ludawici, Ga. as we stared in the face of the American cousins of APARTHEID. We dedicated ourselves to abolishing APARTHEID, while Nelson Mandela was still a prisoner. We patterned ourselves after STEVE BIKO, a student activist who not only was imprisoned but died at the hands of the police while in their custody. We were so connected to the abolition of APARTHEID that we began to target American stores that sold goods from South Africa, store like the Winn Dixie Food Stores. We organized! We made signs! We listened to Dr. Lowrey and the S.C.L.C. staff! We picketed! We wore bottons! We made signs! We had bon fire meetings at night in front of A.U.C Woodruff Library! We were fearless and we felt the urgency of the moment!
One night, we called the Press and told hem to meet us at the Winn Dixie Food Store in College Park, Ga. because we were going to block the doorway. Long Live Steve Biko! Free Mandela! Down with APARTHEID! UP with FREEDOM!... was our cry in the night. The Press came and so did the Police. We decided that myself and our Clark College VP, Ms. Deborah Marshall, would get arrested that night...and we did. We blocked the doorway of the Winn Dixie as we sat down together a midst a mass of cameras, students chanting/singing, Police, onlookers and the like. As they handcuffed us and speed us away the night became a blur. It was blurred because the adrenalin was pumping. In a moment, I had felt connected with MLK, Ghandi, the Apostle Paul, Jesus, Steve Biko, Fred Hampton, Emmit Till, Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays...and yes ... Nelson Mandela. You cannot imagine how proud I was of myself when Dr. Lowrey himself and Rev. Randle came and bailed us out of jail. I had finally made the MANDELA CONNECTION!
I never mentioned a word of this to my mother and I never will, God rest her soul.
My 12 year old son attends a school with a very present Jewish population. When he came home this evening, I said," so Nelson Mandela has died, what does that mean to you?" As I anticipated, he shrugged his shoulders and said, "NOTHING!" I said, "now if Nelson Mandela were Jewish, this entire neighborhood that we live in would be shut down in honor of this great fallen hero. In fact you probably wouldn't have school tomorrow in honor of his passing and the fact that their community would be overwhelmed with grief." What is the Black community going to do in honor of Mandela's passing? He began to pay closer attention. I asked," Do you know who Nelson Mandela is? Do you know why he spent 27 years in prison? Who is going to be the next Nelson Mandela? Where is he going to come from? Who will be the next Barak Obama? Where will he come from? I began to tell him about that night in College Park, Ga. where I made the connection.
He listened attentively as I told of how Mandela was falsely imprisoned. How his youth was stolen. The abuses of prison life. The climate of Apartheid South Africa. I told him of the abundant wealth of white South Africa. I told him about the diamonds and the gold and how black children were used to climb into dark empty places to dig for the diamonds that the parents of his classmates wear so proudly. I told him why my own mother refused to wear diamonds and gold hains for that very reason. I told him about the caste systems and the poverty conditions of the shanty towns like Soweto where blacks were forced to live in abject poverty conditions. I told him how they freed Mandela only for fear that the blacks would over run the country with war while they, the whites, maintained control of the financial infrastructure of the country...and still do. I told him how Mandela brought peace between the roaring white lion and the banished black sheep lamb.
My wonderful son who is named for his God given gift looked at me and said, " Dad! I think YOU should be the next Barak Obama and the next Nelson Mandela!"
Suddenly there was pensive silence......
Isaiah 11:6 NIV
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.
As a Sophomore Student at the prestigious Morehouse College of Atlanta, Ga. in 1985-86, I made the MANDELA CONNECTION!
I was committed to the full student activist experience while attending undergraduate school in the Civil Rights history rich Atlanta, Ga. Only God could have granted me the experiences that I had as a student activist, athlete, academician and pastor in training. I thank God for the time that I spent in the King Family Home, countless hours in the S.C.L.C Headquarters basement learning how to make flyers on the old school ink printers, priceless time spent with Dr. Joseph Lowrey and his late lovely wife, the time spent laughing and strategizing with S.C.L.C. staff and other student activists from the A.U.C. I could go on and on as any student of the Atlanta University Center culture and like HBCU cultures could because it was and is a different world for persons of African American descent. It is a good world. It was here that I made the MANDELA CONNECTION!
I was forced to make the MANDELA CONNECTION because I was immersed in a community that was connected to the plight of persons of Negroid African descent everywhere across the globe and across human history. I was made to connect by the History Department in classes by Barksdale and Hornsby. I was mad to connect in Religion Department in classes by Carter, Parker, Roswell Jackson and Guy. I was made to connect in weekly Chapel and Assemblies. Students who are matriculating at HBCU as we speak will remember this day for the rest of their lives as the day when the Great Nelson Mandela died. It will be no less significant than the death of MLK for some and the death of JFK for others. This day will go down for some 20ish year old undergraduate student at an HBCU as a Day of Infamy because they will be forced to recognize in the most authentic ways that they are CONNECTED TO MANDELA and a part of All good people, especially people of African descent, died today.
As the founding Student President of the A.U.C./S.C.L.C. chapter in 1986, I made the MANDELA CONNECTION. We organized bus loads of students to take trips all over the deep South to march against injustice and discrimination. None of us will ever forget marching against the KKK in Ludawici, Ga. as we stared in the face of the American cousins of APARTHEID. We dedicated ourselves to abolishing APARTHEID, while Nelson Mandela was still a prisoner. We patterned ourselves after STEVE BIKO, a student activist who not only was imprisoned but died at the hands of the police while in their custody. We were so connected to the abolition of APARTHEID that we began to target American stores that sold goods from South Africa, store like the Winn Dixie Food Stores. We organized! We made signs! We listened to Dr. Lowrey and the S.C.L.C. staff! We picketed! We wore bottons! We made signs! We had bon fire meetings at night in front of A.U.C Woodruff Library! We were fearless and we felt the urgency of the moment!
One night, we called the Press and told hem to meet us at the Winn Dixie Food Store in College Park, Ga. because we were going to block the doorway. Long Live Steve Biko! Free Mandela! Down with APARTHEID! UP with FREEDOM!... was our cry in the night. The Press came and so did the Police. We decided that myself and our Clark College VP, Ms. Deborah Marshall, would get arrested that night...and we did. We blocked the doorway of the Winn Dixie as we sat down together a midst a mass of cameras, students chanting/singing, Police, onlookers and the like. As they handcuffed us and speed us away the night became a blur. It was blurred because the adrenalin was pumping. In a moment, I had felt connected with MLK, Ghandi, the Apostle Paul, Jesus, Steve Biko, Fred Hampton, Emmit Till, Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays...and yes ... Nelson Mandela. You cannot imagine how proud I was of myself when Dr. Lowrey himself and Rev. Randle came and bailed us out of jail. I had finally made the MANDELA CONNECTION!
I never mentioned a word of this to my mother and I never will, God rest her soul.
My 12 year old son attends a school with a very present Jewish population. When he came home this evening, I said," so Nelson Mandela has died, what does that mean to you?" As I anticipated, he shrugged his shoulders and said, "NOTHING!" I said, "now if Nelson Mandela were Jewish, this entire neighborhood that we live in would be shut down in honor of this great fallen hero. In fact you probably wouldn't have school tomorrow in honor of his passing and the fact that their community would be overwhelmed with grief." What is the Black community going to do in honor of Mandela's passing? He began to pay closer attention. I asked," Do you know who Nelson Mandela is? Do you know why he spent 27 years in prison? Who is going to be the next Nelson Mandela? Where is he going to come from? Who will be the next Barak Obama? Where will he come from? I began to tell him about that night in College Park, Ga. where I made the connection.
He listened attentively as I told of how Mandela was falsely imprisoned. How his youth was stolen. The abuses of prison life. The climate of Apartheid South Africa. I told him of the abundant wealth of white South Africa. I told him about the diamonds and the gold and how black children were used to climb into dark empty places to dig for the diamonds that the parents of his classmates wear so proudly. I told him why my own mother refused to wear diamonds and gold hains for that very reason. I told him about the caste systems and the poverty conditions of the shanty towns like Soweto where blacks were forced to live in abject poverty conditions. I told him how they freed Mandela only for fear that the blacks would over run the country with war while they, the whites, maintained control of the financial infrastructure of the country...and still do. I told him how Mandela brought peace between the roaring white lion and the banished black sheep lamb.
My wonderful son who is named for his God given gift looked at me and said, " Dad! I think YOU should be the next Barak Obama and the next Nelson Mandela!"
Suddenly there was pensive silence......
Isaiah 11:6 NIV
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.