(ThyBlackMan.com) Happy Black History Month!
The month of February, the shortest month of the year, when some Black entertainers, inventors, historians, civil rights leaders are remembered for their contributions to society. We remember Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Rosa Parks and even occasionally the history books and media will mention Frederick Douglas, Nobel Drew Ali, Carter G. Woodson, Lewis Latimer, W.E.B. Du Bois, Harriet Tubman, and Mother Sojourner Truth during Black History month. All of these notables have had a mighty impact on who we are as Black people.
Today, we as a people, are standing on the shoulders of these great ones through the many struggles that they went through to get us to where we are today in America and in the diaspora globally. We remember the greats like Queen Nefertiti, Kwame Touré, Winnie Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Haile Selassie, Huey Newton, Che Guevara, Muammar Gaddafi, Fidel Castro, and the many other great leaders who worked hard in their mission to fight for Black liberation, Black excellence in education, freedom mentally and economically in a world that dehumanized everything Black.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw9OQy5xvwg
Knowing now that Black is universal and it is the essence from which all things exist, as one whose parents and siblings came up through the Black Liberation Movement in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, I can’t forget in New York we had GIANTS in the cause for Black Liberation that we must remember like Dr. Ben Jochannan, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, Abubadika Sonny Carson, Jitu Weusi, Gil Noble, Elombe Brath, Dr. Carlos Russell, Dr. Khalid Muhammad, Minister Abdul Hafeez Muhammad, and others. Each of them sacrificed, taught, and led by example for Black liberation, and excellence which should be duly noted for posterity.
Black History Month started in 1976, which grew out of “Negro History Week” in 1926 spearheaded by Carter G. Woodson. He wanted an “Education for Liberation.” It was designed to recognize the many and most times overlooked accomplishments of Black people in America and around the world.
One of the greatest quotes that I ever read was from the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the Georgia-born eternal leader of the Nation of Islam, which was started by his teacher in 1930–– Master Fard Muhammad. Fard Muhammad once said “Of all our studies, history is the most attractive and it is best qualified to reward our research.” The reward for our research then is to learn, to know, to understand, to grow and to develop in the various areas of education, finances, and conscious upliftment as individuals, as a family, as a community and ultimately as a Nation.
One of the greatest leaders often overlooked, misrepresented, either by design, or by the whitewashing from those telling “OUR” history is the accomplishments of the Nation of Islam’s eternal leader the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. The world needs to know of the works of this divine man in the resurrection of a once sleeping people. They need to know of the value of this man who started the first independently owned and operated Black school called the Muhammad University of Islam, established in 1934. Never to forget the very popular Black-owned, operated, and distributed Muhammad Speaks newspaper that the men of The Nation circulated nearly 1 million copies of per week in various cities around the country from 1961 to 1974. They need to know of the hundreds of thousands of Black men and Black women who were once considered the dregs of society who became clean, learned, up-standing individuals from 1930 to present. We need to educate the new generations growing into consciousness of the teacher of Minister Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Imam W.D. Mohammed, Clarence 13X, Minister Louis Farrakhan, and others who grew from the Black Liberation Movement of the past.
The Black Power movement created giants in sports, music, religion, politics, and academia because of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s strong preaching of “Do for Self,” and “Accept Your Own and Be Yourself.” He inspired the likes of James Brown with his song “Say It Loud––I’m Black and I’m Proud” The call for “Black Power” by then Stokely Carmichael, the chairman from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to the Black Panther Party’s “Ten-Point Program” by Huey P. Newton. Chuck D, one of the greatest conscious rappers, from the group Public Enemy said on one of his hit songs that inspired millions to learn their history with the lyrics “Word from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad know who you are to be Black!” All of these great luminaries were inspired by the works, teachings and beliefs of the Nation of Islam and its leader “The Messenger,” the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. We need to know, not only in Black History Month, but in no limit of time, the foundation that Mr. Muhammad built with the farms, schools, restaurants, factories, gas stations, banking, businesses, real estate, aviation, health care, training units for Black men, women, and children. The epitome of Do for Self that gave pride and direction to Black people everywhere is owed to the man and his mighty works, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. The diet fads of today like intermittent fasting, the OMAD (one meal a day) diet and others are direct derivatives of the teachings in the “How to Eat to Live” book given to the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad from the Saviour Master Fard Muhammad.
During and after the turbulent times of the ’60s and ’70s and the insidious works of COINTELPRO under J. Edgar Hoover, no nation, no organization, or group ever recovered from the wickedness done to them other than the Nation of Islam which was rebuilt with the cardinal principles, and the same veracity of his teacher since September 1977 by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.
Black History Month needs to highlight the works of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan who has been divinely guided and missioned to continue to do the work of his spiritual father, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He has accomplished calling a Million Man March where nearly two million Black men showed up to hear him on a Monday morning. Minister Farrakhan traveled throughout Africa and in America on World Friendship Tours to unite and to help within the diaspora. The Minister is the founder of the Black Press award winning newspaper The Final Call established in 1979 which currently has celebrated over 40 years of uncompromising truth delivered by the Mighty F.O.I. throughout America, the United Kingdom, the Caribbean, and Africa on a weekly basis. He has, like his teacher, re-established the great and flourishing Muhammad University of Islam schools in various cities where many of the students are in the “Who’s Who” in education. We owe it to the generations now and in the future to know about the Peace Summits with feuding gangs and rap groups who he inspired and who he helped to mediate skirmishes with and to squash beefs.
Yeah, the mainstream media won’t tell you about the accomplishments of the brothers and sisters in the Nation of Islam who cleaned up their lives from the suites and from the streets, from gang banging, from the recidivism of prison life to the college students building a deeper understanding of Nation hood, to becoming upstanding respectful fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, and children all because of Allah, his Messenger, and our Minister.
Some Black History Month purveyors won’t record and disseminate the truth of the governments’ wicked hand in the assassination of Minister Malcolm X and the exoneration of the Nation and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. There are many historical facts, legacies, traditions, and customs that have not been told or shared but “history is the most attractive and it is best qualified to reward our research.” Join us for “The Crowning Event of Black History Month” Saviours’ Day 2022, live from Mosque Maryam in Chicago via webcast @NOI.org 1 p.m. CST / 2 p.m. EST to hear the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan “The Swan Song” which might be his last message to the world.
Written by Daleel Jabir Muhammad
Official website; https://Twitter.com/DaleelJabir7