WTC 9/11 special

Voices of Black women, Rev Jesse Jackson, and the prophetic words of Martin Luther King Jr

The day we will never forget -
US women of African descent speak out on 9/11

Diane Weathers

What would you say if a magazine editor asked you "what lessons should we take away from the events of September 11, 2001?"

Would you tell the truth about your fears and doubts as a Black person? Maybe. But probably not.

Stunned by the macho warrior talk of retaliation and further aggression, the new editor of Essence, a Black women's lifestyle magazine, wondered: "Why are these the only voices speaking for me". Indeed, "Where are the voices of their wives, daughters, mothers, teachers and wise aunties?"

Searching for answers, editor Diane Weathers, sought "the views of some of the smartest women of African descent we know, seeking their wisdom on the lessons we can learn from the atrocity".

Marcia Ann Gillespie

Marcia Ann Gillespie, editor in chief, Ms magazine said:
"The ugly truth is that this country has never been immune to terrorism. We Black folk know this only to well - the Klu Klux Klan and White Citizens' council, the race riots that targeted and destroyed Black communities, the lynchings, the church bombings."

Charlayne Hunter-Gault

Charlayne Hunter-Gault, bureau chief for CNN, well-known broadcaster and former journalist on the New York Times said:
"As I replayed over and over in my mind those terrible images of the flaming towers in New York City and the smouldering Pentagon in Washington, the scenes of other flames made their way into the same space, the flames of America's cities in 1968, flames fuelled by anger that took America by surprise, as much as the planes slamming into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon did...[but] the signs of simmering discontent in America's cities were not a part of the world on the radar screens of the media decision makers."

Angela Y Davies

Angela Y Davis, activist, author and professor, University of California, Santa Cruz said:
"I am thankful that my congressional representative, Barbara Lee [a Black woman], had the courage to be the sole voice against a presidential blank check for war. We need peace, especially now."

Note
The respondents were women of various ages, walks of life and from all parts of the Diaspora. They included an Episcopal minister, author, journalist, college president, the national spokesperson for the Nation of Islam, and Jamaica's former first lady. Together, says Essence, their responses "harmonise into a collective prayer that our global community can find a peaceful and just path forward in 2002".

With acknowledgements to Essence magazine, December 2001.

Remember Emmett Till

Rev Jesse Jackson

This heartfelt cry swept through the mean streets where many Black folks live in America, Jesse Jackson, world-renowned civil rights leader, told Jet, the popular Black news magazine, following the 9/11 event.

"The Jet story on the lynching of Emmett Till [1955] was Black people's World Trade Center Terrorist attack in Mississippi. Jet wrote the Emmett Till story and took it national. It was so deep and so ugly even Montgomery, Alabama, was an aftershock of Emmett Till. The Montgomery Bus Boycott came in the wake of Emmett Till; Dr King emerged out of that. People remembered Emmett Till and would put the Jet pictures and story on their walls."

Emmett Till and relative

Note
Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black youth from Chicago, Il, was kidnapped and gruesomely murdered by two white men in Leflore County, MS, where he was visiting relatives, because he allegedly spoke to a local white woman.

With acknowledgements to Jet magazine November 26, 2001

From the mountain top

Decades after his death by a sniper's bullet 4 April 1968 Martin Luther King's call to the America to end the war in Viet Nam rings true in the post 9/11 crisis of our times.

Martin Luther King

For too long, he said, "I was quiet while a charade was being performed". Then, something said to me, "Martin, you have got to stand up on this. No matter what it means".

"As I reviewed the events, I saw an orderly buildup of evil, an accumulation of inhumanities, each of which alone was sufficient to make men hide in shame. What was woeful, but true, was that my country was only talking peace but was bent on military victory. Inside the glove of peace was the clenched fist of war."

With these words, King combined a trinity of thoughts. These include his own non-violent beliefs and prophetical themes of the gospel church, a piercing analysis of black exploitation in a segregated society, and a critical view of the moral and political culpability of his nation engaged in foreign wars.

Note
King's views are elaborated in the newly published book The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr edited by Clayborne Carson. See also the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University http://www.stanford.edu/group/king

Exchange ideas at the Message Board