Author
pablito
Coming out of the 2004 elections and inauguration into Black History
Month, this program features 3 African American voices on elections and
politics.
Coming out of the 2004 elections and inauguration into Black History
Month, this program features 3 African American voices on elections and
politics. Malcolm-X, Katrina Messenger, and Jesse Jackson look beyond
and behind the election curtain from three different racially-informed
perspectives from the left of our political spectrum.
Malcolm X encouraged African Americans to look beyond their ballots
and work themselves for the cures to their communities' problems. His
philosophy of Black Nationalism might still be useful to groups still
struggling with systematic oppression.
Malcolm X gave a speech entitled "the ballot or the bullet" in 1964
in Columbus, Ohio, best known today as the seat of 2004 voting
irregularities [sic]. Here are some excerpts:
(audio)
Katrina Messenger is an activist and African American living in
Washington, DC. She is perhaps one of the disgruntled mentioned
by Malcolm X. In this essay written shortly after the 2004 election,
she suggests that it is time for white Americans to undergo
a similar education and awakening as happened to African Americans
in the 60's.
(audio)
Katrina Messenger doesn't trust the vote, and neither does Jesse
Jackson. Reverend Jackson recently spoke about corrupt voting practices
in Ohio. Reverend Jackson was one of several speakers before a crowd of
approximately 500 on January 6th, 2005, a cold, drizzly work-day morning
in Washington, DC
That's the day congress would certify the vote of the electoral college.
Several members of both houses of congress would later that day protest
the normally rubber-stamped certification in what some call a historic
act.
Rev Jackson spoke at a rally in Lafayette Park across from the White
House:
(audio)
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