Former leader of the Black Panther Party Elaine Brown spoke about the legacy of Malcolm X and the continued oppression of black people in America during a keynote address at this weekend's Emerging Black Leaders 10th Anniversary Celebration and Symposium.
Senior MakebaRutahindurwa introduced Brown, who has authored numerous books and recorded two albums.
"Throughout the last four decades she has been committed to and organized significant efforts towards affecting progressive change in the United States, not only through her leadership position in the party, [but also by] running for office in Oakland, and editing the party's new organ," she said. "Much of her recent work has been focused on radical reform of the criminal justice system."
Brown commenced her address by explaining that she would leave complex analysis of Malcolm X's legacy to academic researchers and instead focus on who he was and what his contributions to the black community were.
"I am not here to dissect, deconstruct or reconsider Malcolm X," she said. "We need to actually consider what is significant about Malcolm X's last speech, and just [that] Malcolm X in general [is] relevant to all of us who are considering ourselves concerned with the tradition of black people and other people in the United States who we would call oppressed ... Malcolm X issued a very important call to action for black people ... and that was a call for self-defense against the violent enemy, a call for revolutionary change. That's the core of who Malcolm X was."
Brown explained that Malcolm X became the voice for both the Nation of Islam and black America and sought to gain international awareness about domestic oppression. According to Brown, Malcolm X encouraged 33 African nations to sign a statement denouncing the treatment of black people in the United States.
Brown described herself as a "legatee" of Malcolm X and explained that the Black Panther Party's message was inspired by his teachings. She maintained, however, that depictions of Martin Luther King Jr. as the peaceful protester and Malcolm X as a militant leader are not necessarily true.
"We know that Dr. King - he was assassinated," Brown said. "Both of them were the targets of the FBI ... but we also have Malcolm's saying, and I quote, 'Dr. King wants the same thing I want - freedom!' Why is it relevant today? Because as Malcolm talks about revolution as a solution to the problem black people face, one of the first things we have to do is recognize that we are an oppressed people - something we don't recognize today."
Much of the black community felt that the election of Barack Obama would alleviate some of this oppression, but Brown expressed disappointment in his efforts and spoke against his invasion of Libya.
"Many black people thought when Obama was elected that was the manifestation of the dream of King," she explained. "Some of you in this room thought that, but now you've had a little change of mind. It's starting to look rough right now."
Brown also serves as Executive Director of the Michael Lewis Legal Defense Fund, an organization seeking to gain freedom for Michael "Little B" Lewis, who she said was wrongly convicted of murder. She spoke extensively about his case and how it is representative of the status of blacks in America. According to Brown, who also wrote a book titled "The Condemnation of Little B," Lewis was convicted to life in prison at the age of 13, in violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. A major problem, Brown said, was the passage of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act during Bill Clinton's presidency.
"People argued that Bill Clinton was the first black president," she said. "That gave him a pass to do anything. Black people voted for him in a way that he was going to be our friend."
However, according to Brown, the law resulted in the rise of the "prison-industrial complex," and the prison population doubled between 1994 and 2004. She said that politicians had misperceptions of the so-called "black on black violence," and it resulted in serious setbacks for black youth.
Brown also used numerous historical anecdotes to demonstrate the history of oppression in the United States, but suggested that today's youth and leaders do not acknowledge that it continues. She suggested that the downfall of the Black Panther Party resulted in the movement losing its voice.
"In the absence of the movement, in the absence of the resistance, we have mass incarceration, we have no jobs and no 40 acres," she said. "We have to get back to an agenda for freedom if we want to talk about Malcolm X because that is a common thing for Malcolm and Martin. It's a big agenda. These people died for it, but the only thing we can do is look at the situation and ask ourselves, 'Where can we go from here?'"
