'We need land' - The Time And What Must Be Done
BY FINALCALL.COM NEWS | LAST UPDATED: NOV 20, 2013 - 12:06:41 PM
“Did you know that coming out of slavery, Black folk set up 60 all-Black towns in America? We built 60 towns. We had over 600 state legislators, 18 congressmen; and two senators in the first 10 years out of slavery.” —The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan |
CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - At the beginning of the 20th century Blacks owned 16 million acres of land, but today the lack of ownership of producing land has left Blacks in dire straits.
Land was not only the basis of economic development but the beginning of burgeoning independence killed by a political agreement in 1877, said the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, using lessons from history as the foundation for a vision for independence and progress in the 21st century.
This important message was webcast Nov. 16 as Part 45 of the Minister’s historic weekly lecture series, “The Time and What Must Be Done.” The message was a continuation of his address from the previous week, “Atonement, Reconciliation and Responsibility, Part 2” which was originally delivered at Mosque Maryam on Sunday, October 16, 2011.
“Did you know that coming out of slavery, Black folk set up 60 all-Black towns in America?” the Minister asked. “We built 60 towns. We had over 600 state legislators, 18 congressmen; and two senators in the first 10 years out of slavery. And White folks said, ‘We can’t have this! If we allow these Blacks to continue like this, they’ll take the country from us!’ And that is when Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Ku Klux Klan (the Night Riders), all of that came into play to push us back on the plantation as sharecroppers,” the Minister said.
A political compromise in 1877 over the presidency forced Blacks into racial serfdom in the South. “In the Wormley Hotel in Washington, D.C., on February 26, 1877, they developed a plan, The Compromise of 1877. … [When] the Civil War was over, Union troops were in the South to make sure that we would be protected; but in that Compromise of 1877 … they agreed to draw the troops out of the South that protected us,” he said.
The agreement allowed rights granted to slaves to be revoked and when unions were formed, Jewish labor leader Samuel Gompers locked out Black artisans and tradesmen and Eastern Europeans were brought in, the Minister observed. Whites destroyed the thriving community known as Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he said. It was the first time a bomb was dropped from an airplane in U.S. history.
“Did you know that we are the People of God’s Promise—and what is God’s Promise? His promise is that after we had served 400 years in a strange land among strange people, he would come. … If [God] promises land to somebody, then he has the power to serve anybody an eviction notice,” said Minister Farrakhan.
Blacks must get behind the economic program and position of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and pool their resources, buy land and the America government can be approached for leasing 100 million acres as a beginning, he said.
“Consider what you can produce from one bale of cotton: 215 jeans, 249 bed sheets, 409 men’s sport shirts, 690 terry bath towels, 765 men’s dress shirts; 1,217 men’s t-shirts; 1,256 pillowcases; 2,104 boxer shorts; 2,419 men’s briefs; 3,085 diapers; 4,321 mid-calf socks; 6,436 women’s knit briefs; 21,960 women’s handkerchiefs; or, 313,600 $100 bills,” said Min, Farrakhan.
Similar opportunity exists in agriculture, dairy farming, shoemaking, and textiles that can give Black youth and so-called gang members an alternative to drug trafficking, he said. We need faith in God and unity, Min. Farrakhan said.
Read the edited transcript of this important message. To support the Economic Blueprint log on to EconomicBlueprint.org or send your donation of 35 cents a week, which is $18.20 a year, to:
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