Malcolm

The Organization of African American Unity, or the African American Union, is a human rights organization founded by the African American human rights activist Malcolm

This organization - which was modeled on the Organization of African Unity, which was founded in Ethiopia in 1963 - sought to unite 22 million African Americans with the peoples of the African continent.

It developed a program that focused on ways to advance the interests of black Americans such as reconciliation with identity and history, education, economic security, political participation, and self-defense.

After the assassination of Malcolm

Establishment

The Organization of African American Unity was founded on June 28, 1964, in Harlem, New York, by Malcolm

Malcolm

Founding context

The African-American human rights activist and preacher Malcolm Islam has a different vision from the visions of the leader of his previous group, and adopts a new approach in the struggle for the rights of black Americans.

He said about that period in a book about his biography: “Hajj expanded my thinking and opened my insight. I saw in two weeks what I had not seen in 39 years. I saw all races, from blue-eyed whites, even black-skinned Africans, and I united their hearts with true unity and brotherhood.” They began to live as if they were one person under the care of God.”

After performing the Hajj rituals, he left Jeddah in April 1964 and headed towards Africa, visiting Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Morocco, and Algeria.

During this trip, he began to think about internationalizing the issue of blacks in America as an issue at the core of human rights, and not a civil rights issue as he had previously advocated. During his meetings with a number of intellectuals and officials in the countries he visited, he spoke of the unity of Africans and Americans of African descent. .

He gave a lecture at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, in which he appealed to independent African nations to work to raise the issue of African Americans to the United Nations, considering that the time has come for black Americans to join the African world.

He said that "we, African Americans, can remain in our bodies in America and fight for our constitutional rights, but philosophically and culturally we are in dire need of returning to the fold of the African group and working within its framework."

From the city of Lagos in Nigeria, Malcolm

He said at the symposium that 22 million African Americans constitute a major force from which Africa can benefit, and that “African nations, for their part, can use all their capabilities in international forums to eliminate American racial discrimination.”

Nation of Islam movement logo (Al Jazeera)

His speech at the Organization of African Unity

Malcolm It was founded in Ethiopia in May 1963 (it has changed its name to the African Union since 2002), with the aim of promoting African unity, international cooperation and economic development.

On his second trip to Africa, his adherence to the issue of black human rights and the fight against racism increased, and he took it as the basis of his struggle, and considered it an alternative to calling for civil rights.

He was invited to attend the meeting of the Organization of African Unity held in Cairo in July 1964, and he delivered a speech before its leaders as a representative of the Organization of African-American Unity, in which he appealed to them to stand alongside the Americans of African descent in their struggle, and called on them to support their cause in the United Nations. He said, “Our problems are “Your problems...they are a human rights problem.”

Following this meeting, the Organization of African Unity issued a statement in which it affirmed its alarm at the manifestations of racial intolerance and oppression to which blacks are subjected in America, and called for the speedy and complete elimination of all forms of discrimination based on race, color or ethnic origin.

Malcolm

Objectives and means

Malcolm

The general goal of the organization was to achieve complete independence for people of African descent in the United States of America and all of the American continent, and its slogan was: freedom, justice, and equality.

Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad in 1965 (Getty)

Malcolm said in his speech, "This is our motto: We want freedom by any means necessary. We want justice by any means necessary. We want equality by any means necessary. We do not feel that way in 1964, and we live in a country that is supposed to be based on freedom, and is supposed to be the leader of the world." "The heat."

The organization targeted all people of African descent in America and Africa. It was not just an organization to unite the efforts of Africans in the United States of America only, but also to unite the efforts of these people with all Africans in North, South and Central America and with the people of the African continent.

His speech stated, “The purpose is to unite all those of African descent in the Western Hemisphere into one unified force. Then, once we unite among ourselves in the Western Hemisphere, we will unite with our brothers in the motherland on the continent of Africa.”

One of the goals set by the organization's charter and detailed in Malcolm's founding speech is self-defense, as he affirmed the right of African Americans to defend themselves, in accordance with the Constitution, which clearly affirms the right of every American citizen to defend himself.

He therefore believed that in areas where the government was either unable or unwilling to protect the lives and property of Africans, they had the right to protect themselves by any means necessary.

Education is one of the organization's basic goals and issues, as Malcolm

In his founding speech, Malcolm

Therefore, the organization developed a program to end the racist education system through stages, the first of which is handing over 10% of schools to be managed by principals and teachers of African origin, and adopting textbooks about blacks.

The organization also worked to establish special schools for African Americans throughout the country to train children from this community to become scientists in many fields, in addition to educating adults through job retraining programs.

American historian John Henrik Clarke contributed, along with Malcolm

Vision

Malcolm X believed that there are two types of power that are important in America: economic power and political power, as social power is derived from these two types. Therefore, he believes that in order for African Americans to be able to control their destiny, they must be able to control and influence the decisions that control their destiny, whether economic, political, or social, and this can only be done through organization.

To achieve this, the organization planned to organize the African-American community and make it aware of its strength and potential, by launching a voter registration campaign to make every unregistered voter in the African-American community an independent voter, and working to support and organize political clubs, present independent candidates for office, and support any African-American in the position he is in. And launching a campaign to educate voters to enable the black community to understand the science of politics so that they know the role that a politician plays and understand when he is doing his job and when he is not doing it.

One of the organization's social goals is to fight organized crime in the African American community through creative and useful activities for those who have lost their way, and to establish centers to provide assistance and treatment for drug addiction.

In the field of culture, the organization aims to launch a cultural revolution to liberate the African American community from the white man’s superiority complex. In this regard, Malcolm

One of the means to achieve this cultural revolution is the establishment of a cultural center in Harlem that includes people of all ages and organizes workshops in all arts such as cinema, creative writing, drawing, theater and music.

For him, the importance of the Cultural Revolution lies in its being “a journey to rediscover ourselves,” and he says that “history is the memory of the people, and without memory, man descends to the level of lower animals.”

Elijah Muhammad supported Malcolm

Founders of the organization

  • Malcolm

The founder and leader of the union, he was born on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA, into a family that is proud of its African roots. His father was a priest and activist within black nationalism.

He dropped out of high school due to racist practices, and went to prison in 1946 on charges of theft and armed robbery.

He spent 7 years in prison, during which he became acquainted with the literature of the Nation of Islam. After his release, he joined the organization and graduated with the support of its leader, Elijah Muhammad, who admired his enthusiasm and attractive personality.

Malcolm He founded the Organization of African-American Unity and the Islamic Mosque Organization.

He was assassinated in 1965 while giving a lecture in Harlem, New York, and was buried in Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

  • John Henrik Clarke

He was born in Union Springer, Alabama, in 1915, the son of a farmer father and a mother who worked as a domestic maid, and he died in 1998 in New York City.

At the age of 18, John immigrated to Harlem in New York and established himself by self-education. He became a historian and Pan-Africanist, founded the African Heritage Studies Association in 1968, and was responsible for establishing the Department of Black and Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in New York.

He devoted his life to correcting the prevailing idea that the peoples of Africa and people of African descent do not have a history worth studying. Malcolm

American writer John Oliver Collins, known for his political novels (Getty)

  • John Oliver Collins

He was born in 1916 in the US state of Georgia and died in New York in 1987. He was an American writer and activist known for his political novels.

He obtained a bachelor's degree at Howard University, and then began taking evening classes to obtain a law degree at Terrell Law School, but he interrupted the classes due to military service during World War II, and while serving in the South Pacific in the US Army, he was exposed to racism. It inspired his later writings.

In the late 1940s, he began meeting regularly with socially conscious African-American writers, and in 1950 he founded with John Henrik Clarke, Rosa Jay, and Walter Christmas the Harlem Writers Club, which two years later became the Harlem Writers Guild.

Collins was active in the civil rights movement, and by the early 1960s he became more interested in the philosophy of Malcolm X, and in 1964 he helped found the Organization of African American Unity.

The organization after the death of the founder

After the assassination of Malcolm

Its role was limited to commemorating the birth of Malcolm X, which falls on May 19, by organizing workshops and meetings. Despite the short duration of its activity, it remained an inspiration for all black movements that emerged in the following decades.

Source: websites