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On Friday, October 14, 2005, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, PDA Advisory Board Member and CEO of Hip Hop Caucus, gave the following address at Howard University in Washington, DC. The occasion was a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March:
First and foremost it is an honor and a blessing to be asked to speak during the 10th anniversary weekend of the Million Man March, now called the Millions More Movement.
I want to thank the Howard University Student Association, and in particular Byron Stewart, the Student Government President, for asking me to be the keynote speaker for this historic "Rally in the Valley" here on Howard University's campus. It is a privilege to be presenting in front of so many of this country's phenomenal college students, who have come here from all over the country and gathered in preparation for Saturday's March.
The youth of this country and the entire Hip Hop community are at a lunch counter moment in history, and while I recognize that most of you present here today were not present at the original Million Man March ten years ago, either because you were too young, a woman, or just didn't want to come, let me take this moment to say that I am so pleased that this year's organizers have recognized, as President Hugo Chaves of Venezuela stated not too long ago, that "there is no revolution without women." I am also glad that people of all colors and people from the gay community have been invited, because if we are going to change this country, everyone in this country must be involved.
I am also glad that the name has been changed from the Million Man March to the Millions More Movement, because the March is only the site of the message, but the Movement is where the liberation will take place.
It is time for liberation, and it is time for liberation now!
This country has been living under the effects of two disastrous hurricanes: Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane George.
While I will speak on the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast and the effects of the failures of this government on our people in particular, I want to spend a bulk of my time on the effects of Hurricane George and this unjust war in Iraq.
Let me say that I always get a certain glee when I return to the Mecca, because it is on this campus where I have spent much of my life. My father taught African-American history on this campus for many years, and it is on this campus where I developed a love for my people, as well as most of my theological training.
But it is also the place where I see my people, so close to freedom through education but so far away from working for justice. It is also the place where I was beaten by the campus police for speaking truth to power and wanting to ask Ken Melhman the Chairman of the Republican Party questions about disenfranchising black voters for the past 40 years.
Tomorrow we will rise and march to the National Mall in an effort to re-energize our movement. But as W.E.B. Dubois stated, "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line." Unfortunately, we are reminded by Hurricane Katrina that we have the same problem in the 21st century, but now the color line is both black and green.
We must do better in this country in regard to matters of race and class, or we will not have either a country or civilization for too much longer. The longer this current administration is in power, the more quickly we are moving from an American democracy to an American hypocrisy.
On August 28, 1963, there was a March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I have a Dream" speech. Thousands marched to the Lincoln Memorial to hear Dr. King call for all people to be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. But 42 years later to the date, that was exactly the case, people were marching to the Superdome in New Orleans, not for a dream or for safety, but for a continuous nightmare.
While America must deal with the poverty crisis in this county, we as progressives must start a poor people's campaign to ensure that every citizen in this country has every basic right they are entitled to as citizens of this country. It is time for the people to have freedom. We must be ready to stand up and say: freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody.
But since I'm sure that the bulk of discussions at tomorrow's march will deal with poverty, I want to spend most of my time today dealing with Hurricane George and this unjust war that we are engaged in at this time.
The African-American community has an important role to play in the task of peacemaking in countering this unjust war, despite the fact that African Americans are most often merely the victims of white violence, and thus not highly visible in antiwar protests.
African Americans are not surprised by the unjust war nightmare that has been created. Yes, there is a form of Hip Hop called "gangster rap," but this is one of most gangster administrations ever in the history of American society. That is why people of color unfortunately are seldom found in the crowds protesting this unjust war. We have lived with white violence for nearly 400 years, faced slave ships, auction blocks, lynchings, ghettos, inadequate education and medical care, indecent housing, chronic unemployment, and constant police brutality. When physical survival is a daily task in which the odds are against you because the nation in which you
are a citizen has defined you as the enemy, there is little motivation to protest against an unjust war that your enemies have created, especially when the people protesting look like your oppressors and do so little to connect justice with peace issues.
But this can no longer be our excuse. One of my best friends in the movement is Cindy Sheehan, the mom who with courage--beyond courage-- stood at the gates of the President's vacation home in Crawford, Texas, and demanded to know, "What noble cause did my son die for?" Cindy Sheehan who has become the Rosa Parks of the antiwar movement, Cindy Sheehan my comrade in the movement. Together we can care less if one is male or female, black or white, straight or gay, all we care about is justice, and that it is time to stop this war now!
We need to thwart any perception that this unjust war lies outside the purview of the Hip Hop community. It certainly was not outside the purview of Martin Luther King, Jr., who frequently opposed poverty, racism, militarism, and stressed their interrelatedness to the war in Vietnam. On the occasion of receiving the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, King lectured at Oslo University on the subject of world peace. Until the end of his life, he continued decrying "the triple evils of poverty, racism, militarism." Recognizing that "blacks had a vital stake in the peace movement," King showed how funds diverted to war efforts only increased black deprivation
and oppression, as we saw not too long ago in New Orleans.
On September 24th, there was a powerful antiwar march on Washington sponsored by United for Peace and Justice, and a group that I work with--Progressive Democrats of America.
But where were you? Not only should you be here today, but you should have been there outside the gates of the White House, yelling to stop this unjust war. We are never going to achieve justice and end this unjust war, if all we keep having are all-white marches, and then all-black marches. The antiwar movement cannot be segregated! We must come together to fight against this war with all we have, and only then, when we come together, will we be able to succeed. The Hip Hop community must be at the forefront of the antiwar movement, because it is the poor people of this country and the people of color who are fighting this unjust war.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' seventh Beatitude is, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matt. 5:9). Some churches or those from the Christian right would have us accept a special interrelatedness between the fifth, sixth, and seventh Beatitude, wherein the meek and merciful peacemaker renounces personal and material security. Such an estimate leaves the impression that Jesus envisioned peacemaking as reckless, passive, nonresistance. The vision and promise of peace are calls to action on the part of persons seeking to participate in God's Kingdom.
The frightful prospects of this unjust war require the Hip Hop community and communities of color to study, speak, and act boldly on behalf of world peace. But the Hip Hop community in particular must redouble its efforts to end this unjust war. Hip Hop's voice and witness is needed to fill the courageous void that appears to exist in the United States. The presence of the Hip Hop community within a modern military-industrial "super power" is strategic, and its witness must be informed anew by a new Progressive movement.
So as we gather tomorrow for the Millions More Movement on the National Mall, yes we will focus on mobilizing men, women, and youth into an effective national movement with the goal of transforming American society and eliminating poverty and injustice.
But we must stand against this war, with everything we have--our creativity, our love, our hip hop, because as Dr. King once said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
So will you join me in this movement to end this unjust war? Will you please join as we fight for justice?
It is time for all of God's children--black, white, yellow, and brown, straight, gay, male, and female--to come together to fight for justice once and for all.
In the 21st century we will not sing, "We shall overcome" anymore, in the 21st century we will sing, "We will overrun" for justice.
We will end this war!
We will overrun! We will overrun! We will overrun! We will overrun!
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