[Marxism] Black Power Advocate, Willie Mukasa Ricks, Visits Detroit

["Charles Brown" <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Black Power Advocate, Willie Mukasa Ricks, Visits Detroit

Originator of Black Power slogan speaks to NLG and at New Bethel Baptist
Church

By Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor
Pan-African News Wire

DETROIT, 6 April, 2004 (PANW)--Calling for the organization of the
masses to carry out a revolutionary transformation of world capitalism,
Willie Mukasa Ricks, visited the city of Detroit over the weekend for a
series of speeches and interviews.

Ricks, who was a field organizer for the Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the 1960s, was also the first
person to advance the Black Power slogan during the historic 'March
Against Fear' in June of 1966 in Mississippi.  The slogan was later
popularized by the then SNCC chairman, Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture).

On Saturday evening Ricks was the keynote speaker for the Detroit
chapter of the National Lawyers Guild's annual fundraising dinner held
at Greater Grace Temple on the northwest side.  Ricks encouraged the
legal group to re-claim the struggle of the 1960s when dozens of NLG
lawyers travelled to Mississippi to provide support for the civil rights
movement.

The dinner paid tribute to the many attorneys from the Detroit area who
established a legal defense office in Jackson, Mississippi during the
summer of 1964, when nearly a thousand student volunteers had entered
the state to organize a massive voter registration drive that eventually
lead to the formation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
(MFDP).  This organization unsuccessfully challenged the seating of the
all-white state Democratic Party delegation to the 1964 convention in
Atlantic City.

On Sunday afternoon, Ricks was the keynote speaker at a community forum
held at the Historic New Bethel Baptist Church on the city's west side.
The meeting, which was
entitled: "Stop the Death Penalty, Stop the Violence," was organized by
the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality (DCAPB). The DCAPB, which
was organized over seven years ago to fight the rising phenomena of
police misconduct and brutality in the city.

This event was held in honor of the 36th anniversary of the
assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968 in
Memphis, Tennessee, where the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
was providing support for a massive city-wide sanitation workers strike
that had crippled the metropolitan area.  Ricks had marched with Dr.
King in Alabama and Mississippi in 1965-66. Yesterday's forum was
covered by all three major television networks in the city.

Over the last several weeks the Coalition has worked to halt the efforts
in the Michigan state legislature to impose the death penalty in the
state.  Michigan, which was the first english-speaking territory to ban
capital punishment, has never had the death penalty since the state was
incorporated into the United States nearly 160 years ago.

This recent effort to impose the death penalty in Michigan sprang up
after the slaying of two white police officers on Detroit's southwest
side in the notorious 4th precinct on February 16.  At present some 18
officers from the precinct have been indicted and eight are curently on
trial for violations of federal laws related to charges of filing false
police reports and extortion against community residents.
Detroit is currently under two federal consent judgements aimed at
implementing over 150 reforms in the police department.

Sunday's meeting at New Bethel Baptist Church also featured Congressman
John Conyers of Detroit, who is the ranking Democratic member of the
House Judiciary Committee in Washington. Also speaking at the community
forum was Ron Scott, the spokesperson for the Detroit Coaltion Against
Police Brutality and Sandra Hines of the DCAPB and Amnesty
International.  Ricks stated during his keynote address, that "those who
wish to impose the death penalty should be on death row themselves" for
their involvement in the mass murder and exploitation of African people.
The community forum at New Bethel was covered by all three major
television networks in the metropolitan Detroit area.

Ricks was later interviewed on W-DTR, 90.9 FM for the "Open Forum" radio
program where he discussed his history of involvement in the civil
rights, black power and pan-african movements since the 1960s.
According to Ricks, "Dr. King called Ruby Doris Robinson at SNCC
headquarters in Atlanta in
1961 and told them that he was a good organizer, but he was to
'militant' for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)and
encouraged the student group to recruit the young firebrand activist
from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

During his tenure with SNCC, Ricks was arrested and beaten on many
occasions by white racist law-enforcement officers in the south.  In
Selma and Montgomery Alabama in 1965, he played an instrumental role in
mobilizing high school and college students to engage in mass protests
that eventually brought about the Selma to Montgomery march and
consequently the passage of the Voting Rights Act.  Ricks stated that he
"meet with Dr. King the day before he was assassinated and warned him
that the system was ought to have him killed."

Ricks praised the people of Detroit for the rebellion of 1967 and the
way in which "the people in this city transformed the African struggle
in this country.  We are forever grateful to the people of Detroit for
showing us the way in fighting the racist capitalist system in this
country."

After he left SNCC, Ricks joined the All-African Peoples Revolutionary
Party (A-APRP) where he became an organizer in the pan-african movement.
He later travlled to Cuba and eventually Africa during the late 1960s
and the 1970s where he took on the name, Mukasa Dada, in Uganda.

According to Mukasa, "we need revolution right now."  He went on to
point out that "Africans must reclaim their land and resources on the
continent" and that he supported wholeheartedly the policies of
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe who has seized the farm land of
thousands of white settlers since the year 2000.

At W-DTR, Mukasa stated that his parents were from Alabama and
eventhough they lived in Chattanooga, they often went back to the state
to pick cotton.  It was during this period that Mukasa came into
consciousness on the character of racism and class oppression of African
people.  His initial involvement in the civil rights movement began
during the sit- in campaigns.

On Monday, Mukasa visited Pershing High School in Detroit where he
addressed students on the history and current situation facing African
people worldwide.

Sandra Hines of the DCAPB and Amnesty International stated at the forum
at New Bethel that Mukasa "fired up my enthusiasm for the struggle
against police brutality and the death penalty."

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