for those who have never heard of this man-read this

[madrchsod]

<http://www.blackcommentator.com/index.html>-"think piece"-jim forman.
could we learn from this man and what he did?

[ooglymoogly]

1. great read

kick

[H2O Man]

2. On James Forman

Oh, I remember him well. He often extended the things that Malcolm started to say, before he was killed. Only a brave individual would dare to do that.

One thing I remember was James talking about Malcolm's teachings on being at the table of plenty in America. Malcolm used to say that just because you had a plate, it didn't mean you were a diner .... that you had to be seated at that fancy table, and have food on your plate. He said too many people thought that because they were serving the those other diners, that it made them one.

James took it the next step. He said that if America didn't seat black people at that table, then black people "should kick the fucking legs out from under the table." He was a serious man.

[H2O Man]

3. "Let the Trumpet Sound"

the biography of Martin Luther King, Jr., by Stephen B. Oates, has very little on James Forman, but the few paragraphs it contains are telling. On page 302, there is a paragraph on the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and the compromise that the administration had proposed to angry blacks:

"As King spoke, SNCC Executive Director James Forman, a burly, ironic man, a year King's senior, was aghast at his 'naivete`.' But after Forman spoke against the Johnson compromise, Rustin asserted that it was Forman and SNCC who were naive about American politics. In the end, the MFDP rejected the proposal. 'We didn't come all the way for no two votes!' exclaimed Fannie Lou Hamer, irrepressible heroine of the Mississippi campaigns."

The second part on James Forman has to do with the famous march on Highway 80. It was at a time when the racist south held the threat of death for those who demonstrated for civil rights. King's people were aware of specific death threats against him. The court system was not supporting the black marchers' consitutional rights. And the state police were prepared to assault and batter any marchers on the "Jefferson Davis Highway.

Because a federal judge had issued an order forbidding the march from Selma to Montgomery, King would lead a token march to the Pettis Bridge, and then turn around when a federal marshall ordered the demonstrators to return to their church.

Back at the church, many people felt betrayed by King's decision. On page 342, Oates notes that "The students wanted to retaliate against white America, hold militant sit-ins and demonstrations in Washington as well as Alabama. 'If we can't sit at the table of democracy,' raged Forman, 'we'll knock the fucking legs off.'"

[autorank]

4. "Liberal-Labor Syndrome" -- explains our current crisis & discontent.

Thank you for this link!