JACKSON, Miss. (FinalCall.com)- Ignoring the weak protestations of marginal elements within the city’s religious community, a diverse crowd packed the Rose McCoy Auditorium on the campus of Jackson State University here March 25 to receive guidance from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.
“Wherever I go, it seems as though there is controversy,” Minister Farrakhan said to those present as well as thousands viewing live via Internet webcast. The Minister was a guest speaker at the 6th annual Veterans of Mississippi Civil Rights Conference.
A full media contingent was present including a fi lm crew from France working with the sponsoring organization. Lines wrapped around the auditorium of those eager to hear him. Councilman Kenneth Stokes presented a proclamation signed by all of the Black members of the Jackson City Council welcoming Min. Farrakhan to the city.
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In the days prior to the event, a coalition led by Jewish rabbis registered their displeasure that Min. Farrakhan was chosen as the keynote speaker. However, many Jewish members of the sponsoring organization came to hear the Minister speak and during the four-day conference speakers from different religious faiths and ideologies participated.
“Have you ever seen Whites so afraid of something that a Black man is saying that they don’t want you to hear it? Isn’t this a college? Don’t they teach you critical thinking?” asked Min. Farrakhan. “A liar is always afraid when there is a bold person that is willing to speak the truth and give his life for that truth.”
Reminding listeners of the words of Jesus, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free,” Min. Farrakhan told elders of the civil rights movement and young Black students–the future leaders of the Black community–that they still need deliverance from the shackles of ignorance.
“If the truth is going to set you free then it is your mind that is the thing that is shackled. You are out of physical chains, but the chains have moved up,” said Min. Farrakhan pointing to the head. “You are still in need of somebody to provide a duty that they don’t like, and that duty is to tell you the truth that will set you free.”
Blacks have suffered more in Mississippi than in any other state and this should be considered “hallowed ground” because of the blood and sweat of those 34 who sacrificed their lives for progress, said the Minister.
Despite all the degrees and political accomplishments, more must be done to provide a future for generations to come and to address the needs of the masses of Blacks who still suffer socially, politically, economically.
“What yardstick are you using to measure the amount of progress we have made?” the Minister asked. “When you measure progress, you have to measure it up against goals and objectives.”
The Minister also chided those in religious leadership who concentrate on building fi ne churches, hesitate to represent the fullness of what is contained in scripture and fall short in providing life repair needed by those who go to church seeking solutions to problems.
“If you really were followers of Jesus, they would be doing to you what they are doing to me! They would hate you like they hate me.
Jesus was not of this world! How in the hell can you be of the world and claim Jesus as your master?” he asked.
Min. Farrakhan admonished political leaders to work for the people who vote them in, not special interest groups with money.
“The corrupters are always where the politicians are. You cannot lead for the people and work for corporate interests at the same time!” Min. Farrakhan said.
“America is under the control of corporate elites and Zionist control.”
Minister Farrakhan described the world’s imperialist powers as “liars and thieves who give noble motives for their wickedness.”
President Obama may have a noble goal and “humanitarian interests” in his heart, however, his advisors and the many nations dropping bombs on Libya attempting to oust longtime leader Muammar Gadhafi , do not share the same lofty goals, he warned.
The people protesting in what is called the Middle East want liberty, not American style democracy, said Min. Farrakhan.
The civil rights struggle
Owen Brooks, executive director of the Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, has known Min. Farrakhan for decades. Mr. Brooks’ uncle was Min. Farrakhan’s choir director during the Minister’s youth in the Episcopal Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He told the crowd how almost 50 years ago, when Min. Farrakhan led Muhammad Mosque No. 7 in New York, he wanted to bring him to speak in Mississippi. At the time, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad denied the request.
Mr. Brooks was persistent, eventually succeeding in bringing the Minister to speak at Jackson State University in 1979 on Dr. King’s birthday with the assistance of the late Dr. Margaret Walker, a beloved educator and founder of Institute for the Study of the History, Life, and Culture of Black People. Ms. Walker was active in the movement that resulted in establishment of Black Studies departments at universities across the U.S. “This was the Minister’s first journey to Mississippi and it was important–I believed–for the people here in Mississippi, the Delta and all over. He came, and I can boastfully say that folks came from out of the walls and stood on the ceiling to hear Brother Minister speak,” said Mr. Brooks.
“He’s been here several times and he has spoken on this campus. He spoke at Oxford–Ole Miss. He spoke at Mississippi Valley and everywhere he went, folks wanted to hear his message. Praise the Lord, I knew that I had done the right thing,” Mr. Brooks added.
While many celebrated civil rights gains of the 1960s that resulted in the opportunity to patronize businesses previously limited to Whites only, Black owned businesses in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia went under, Min. Farrakhan said.
Members of the Jewish community and architects of the civil rights movement promoted a policy of “noneconomic liberalism.” They started the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Congress of Racial Equality, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the oldest civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, using that policy which permitted civil rights activism but left out economic justice.
“You have never fought for economics, you fought to integrate into people’s social justice, but where was the economic piece to your pie! Where was it? They didn’t want you to have it because they were living from your sweat!” said Minister Farrakhan.
Additionally, the Talmudic interpretations of leading Jewish rabbis resulted in the creation of the myth of the cursed descendants of Ham. This spread worldwide and was effectively used as justification for the historical subjugation of Blacks throughout the globe. Much of this is outlined in the book “The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Volume Two,” Min. Farrakhan said.
“Jewish people need to read this because many of them don’t even know why we are in the condition that we are in,” said Min. Farrakhan. “The wiser ones know because they put us in this condition. If you would read this book, it would tell you the architecture of White supremacy.”
“You certainly are not the architects of it. You are the victims of it,” he added.
A message to Whites
Addressing the Whites in the auditorium as well as those viewing via webcast the Minister asked, “Have you noticed that the womb of the White woman is not as productive as the Black and the Brown and the Pakistanis and the Indians?”
“Aren’t you proud to be White?” the Minister continued.
“Then why would you want to destroy your race, because if you mix with us you are gone.”
Because of the dominant genes contained within Black people, any race mixing between Blacks and Whites results in White genetic annihilation.
“We’re taking you off the planet with another kind of weapon,” said Min. Farrakhan.
“Since you love to promote sex and the coming together of the races, the more that happens, the less we’ll see you and in a little while, we’ll look up and Whites will be gone.”
Invoking the violent history of Mississippi, which includes the tragic murder of Emmitt Till, Minister Farrakhan recalled Whites in the South strongly opposed race mixing. In fact, Black men were lynched and killed for intermingling with White women in any way.
Historically, when White women were found to have been sexually involved with a Black man, they immediately claimed rape.
Minister Farrakhan said many wise Whites see the demographic shift, the problem is Blacks don’t yet know their power, their history nor their prophetic destiny.
“With the scholarship that is in this room, we could run the state of Mississippi if it was ours,” said Min. Farrakhan. “Black people, you built Mississippi. You made America rich and strong. The Delta produced more cotton than any place on the planet and king cotton made many Whites and Jewish people rich.
You shouldn’t feel that this is not yours. Your sweat fueled the agrarian economy of the South and the industrial revolution of the North.”
Prophecies are being fulfilled, and the worst trials and tribulations are yet to come. Satan is also using the desires of Black people in leadership positions, with the aim of turning them against their own people in an attempt to thwart the progress of Black people. The youth of today are not interested in obtaining civil rights, they want justice and human rights, he said.
“No more civil rights.
Human rights. The right of self determination. The right to be a nation of yourselves. This is what God wants to make of you,” Minister Farrakhan said. “Are you prepared for the division that is going to come up among those of us who don’t want to really be free? Are you prepared to handle that? Did you think that all of us were going to be together when there are some of us that don’t want what God wants for us?” Minister Farrakhan asked. “The worst enemy is an enemy that comes out your own bosom,” he added.
Reactions to a powerful message
In attendance at the keynote address was former political leader and civil rights activist Marion Barry, who spoke the previous day at the conference. Born in the small Mississippi town of Itta Benna, Mr. Barry told The Final Call the conference was a fantastic opportunity for elders to pass on the history of the civil rights struggle to Black youth who have no idea what took place in the past. Having been the mayor of Washington, D.C., and a key supporter of the historic Million Man March in 1995, Mr. Barry said as long as he has known Min. Farrakhan, the Minister has always been a courageous defender of truth.
“The Minister is always on target with anything he says,” said Mr. Barry. “He makes adjustment for the times, but he’s unwavering in truth. We need to hear the truth. He has courage, tenacity, is not afraid to speak the truth and doesn’t let anybody stop him from telling the truth.”
“I work with a lot of young people, and I know they are eager to learn and have the desire to go the right way. Deep within their souls, they recognize the truth when they hear it, and the more they can hear it, the easier it is for them to come to the right path, and having someone like Minister Farrakhan come and speak to them is like getting a triple dose of the truth that takes them to another level,” said 69-year-old Hollis Muhammad, who became involved in the civil rights movement in 1959, joined the Nation of Islam in 1970 and is a board member for the sponsoring organization.
“How anybody could think that Min. Farrakhan’s visit would be anything but positive and good for our people is beyond me,” said David Muhammad, coordinator for the Nation of Islam’s Muhammad Study group in Jackson. “Mississippi got an awakening tonight and we are going to take this momentum and go after all of our people throughout all these cotton fields in the Delta from Memphis all the way down to Biloxi and Gulfport.”
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