05/19/23 05/19/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> the reason we are witnessing these uproar's right now from to say just -- desantis to the action of the college board, is that education is integrally related to social change. and that is something that malcolm talks about his words

and actions. amy: is the teaching of black history is coming under attack, we spend the hour marking what would have been malcolm x's 98th birthday. we will play a major address on his legacy by professor angela davis given in the ballroom where he was gunned down. we will also hear from civil rights attorney ben crump and then malcolm x in his own words. >> to dream about the complete independence of people of african descent here in the western hemisphere come here in the united states, and bring about the freedom of these people five any means necessary. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as the g7 summit gets underway in hiroshima, japan, world

leaders agreed to new sanctions against russia over the invasion of ukraine. ahead of their first joint meeting today, president biden and other members paid tribute to the victims of the first attack, 1945, laying wreaths at the hiroshima peace memorial and planting a tree. a group of anti-nuclear activists rallied on the streets. >> biden is in hiroshima. i cannot forgive him. he needs to apologize to the people in hiroshima. and go at least 145,000 -- amy: at least people died in the 145,000 nuclear bombing of hiroshima, which leveled the city. three days later, the u.s. dropped an atomic bomb on nagasaki, killing another 74,000 people. japan's prime minister fumio kishida is from hiroshima and

lost relatives in the city's bombing. he has pushed for the abolition of nuclear weapons, while leading the nation's biggest military buildup since world war ii. meanwhile, oxfam reports g7 countries collectively owe poor nations in the global south more than $13 trillion in development and climate assistance. but instead, these countries are saddled with daily debt repayments of $232 million, deepening the global chasm of inequality. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is expected to appear at the g7 summit over the weekend to appeal for more arms and aid for the war. russia and ukraine have agreed to a two-month extension of the black sea grain deal, which grants ukraine safe passage to export food and fertilizer. u.n. secretary-general antonio guterres said it would save lives. >> ukrainian and russian

products feed the world. the black sea initiative, more than 10 million tons of food have been exported. amy: the pentagon said thursday an accounting error led it to overestimate the value of arms shipments sent to ukraine by the biden administration as part of a $44 billion military aid package approved by congress last year. the pentagon said by correcting the error, it could send another $3 billion worth of weapons to ukraine. the u.s. military has dropped its claim a man killed by u.s. drone strike in northwest syria may 3 was a senior al qaeda leader stop interviews, family members denied the 56-year-old had any ties to al qaeda and said was a former bricklayer and father of 10 who was attending a sheep when u.s. missile killed him. so far u.s. central command has refused to say who its target was. meanwhile, syrian president bashar al-assad is in saudi arabia to attend his first arab

league summit since syria was suspended from the group 12 years ago as the country descended into a devastating civil war following assad's violent crackdown on protesters. earlier this month, the arab league agreed to readmit syria as part of an effort to reintegrate the war-torn nation in the region. volodymyr zelenskyy is also in jeddah for the summit where he will meet with crown prince mohammed bin salman and others. tens of thousands of israeli nationalists escorted by heavily-armed soldiers marched through occupied east jerusalem thursday marking flag day, which celebrates israel's seizure of jerusalem and the west bank in the 1967 middle east war. many of the marchers chanted "death to arabs" and directed racist slurs at palestinians. palestinian residents of the old city's muslim quarter were beaten by israeli ultra-nationalists. far right national security minister itamar ben gvir was among senior politicians who joined the march. ben-gvir was previously convicted of racist incitement against arabs and supporting a terrorist group.

afp's jerusalem correspondent rosie scammell published video of israelis throwing sticks, stones, and bottles at journalists at the damascus gate, writing, "they cheer every time they hit us with projectiles." three journalists were wounded, at least two of them with head injuries. in the gaza strip, israeli soldiers fired live rounds and tear gas toward palestinians who'd gathered to protest along the heavily fortified barrier separating the besieged territory from israel. this is hamas official ismail rudwan. >> the march of the flags will not bring you sovereignty over jerusalem, which you turned into a military base. jerusalem will forever remain the single united comfortable air of palestine. -- capital of palestine. amy: here in the united states, members of the far-right house freedom caucus are calling on republican house speaker kevin mccarthy to suspend negotiations with the white house on raising the limit on the national debt. caucus members said they're

willing to allow the u.s. to default on its debts, something that could happen as soon as june 1, unless democrats agree to sweeping cuts in federal spending on housing, education, healthcare, food assistance, and the environment. they're also demanding that democrats agree to speed the approval of oil, gas, and mining permits and rescind most of the climate legislation signed by president biden. in response, a growing number of democrats are calling on biden to invoke his authority under the constitution to avert a debt default, a legal strategy that's never been tested. this is vermont independent senator bernie sanders. >> the 14th amendment of the constitution clearly states "the validity of the public debt of the united states shall not be questioned." is this a perfect solution? is imposing the 14th mm a perfect solution? no, it is not, but using it would allow the united states to continue to pay its bills on time and without delay, prevent

and economic catastrophe, and prevent devastating cuts to some of the most vulnerable people in this country. amy: california democratic senator diane feinstein suffered far more serious complications from her recent illness than her staff previously acknowledged. that's according to "the new york times," which reports feinstein's recent bout with shingles triggered a previously-unreported case of encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, which can leave patients with lasting memory or language problems and other cognitive effects. she's also reportedly suffering from vision and balance impairments and facial paralysis from ramsay hunt syndrome. feinstein, who is 89 years old, returned to capitol hill last week after a months-long leave during which she missed more than 90 floor votes in the -- floor votes. her absence also held up dozens of votes on president biden's nominees to federal courts in the senate judiciary committee. a growing number of democrats have called on feinstein to resign but so far she has refused. progressive lawmakers have

reintroduced legislation that would expand medicare coverage to all u.s. residents. the medicare for all act of 2023 has garnered more congressional support than ever before, with over 120 lawmakers backing the measure. washington democrat pramila jayapal, who chairs the congressional progressive caucus, says 38% of people surveyed last year reported they did not get the medical care they needed because it was too expensive. >> that is not to mention the millions who are drowning in medical debt and the millions who are one broken bone, one car accident, one new prescription away from medical bankruptcy. an estimated 68,000 people die every year solely because they can't afford health care. that is criminal. amy: in more news from congress, legislation that would guarantee paid family and medical leave nationwide was introduced wednesday. the measure, co-sponsored by democratic congressmember rosa

delauro of connecticut and senator bernie sanders, would grant everyone working for businesses with 15 or more workers to earn up to seven paid sick days a year. some 34 million u.s. workers still don't have paid sick time. in immigration news, an eight-year-old migrant girl from panama has died in the custody of u.s. border patrol. anadith tanay reyes alvarez was being detained at a border facility in harlingen, texas, with her parents and two older siblings when she began experiencing a medical emergency and was later pronounced dead at a local hospital customs and border protection, or cbp, said wednesday. her parents, who are from honduras, said she was born with a heart condition. honduran officials are demanding a thorough investigation into what happened. this is the first known death of a migrant child in border patrol custody under the biden administration and comes a week after it was confirmed a 17-year-old honduran migrant teen died at a u.s. health and human services facility in florida earlier this month. a four-year-old child from honduras also died in march in hhs custody.

in related news, the u.s. supreme court has dismissed an attempt by republican-led states to revive the trump-era title 42 pandemic policy which was lifted last thursday by the biden administration. the rule was enforced for three years leading to the expulsion of nearly 3 million asylum seekers at the u.s.-mexico border without due process. and democratic congressmember cori bush has introduced a bill that would allocate $14 trillion in reparations for black americans. the progressive lawmaker from missouri spoke wednesday at a news conference in front of the u.s. capitol. >> we know we continue to live under slavery's vestiges. we know how slavery has perpetuated jim crow. we know how slavery's ampex leave on today from the black/white health gap to the voter suppression, to redlining to disparities infant or tally rates and other outcomes.

the black-white wealth gap is $14 trillion, it is unjust and it would not happen in a just and fair and equitable society. amy: cori bush was surrounded by co-sponsors of the bill, including california congressmember and u.s. senate candidate barbara lee, who also introduced a resolution to create a commission on truth, racial healing, and transformation. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. when we come back, angela davis on malcolm x. he was born 98 years ago today. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. malcolm x was born 98 years ago today in omaha, nebraska, on may 19, 1925. malcolm was assassinated just 39 years later on february 21, 1965 when he was standing at the podium before a crowd in harlem's audubon ballroom. his wife betty shabazz, pregnant with twins, and his four daughters, aged 6, 4, 2, and five months, were in the ballroom looking on. in february, the family of malcolm x filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against the fbi, the cia, new york city and state, the nypd, and the district attorney's office for

concealing evidence of their involvement in malcolm x's 1965 assassination. two men were convicted of his murder and spent decades in prison but were fully exonerated in 202 welltoday wepend theour memberinmalcolm we begin with angela davis, the world-renowned abolitionist, author, activist and distinguished professor emerita at the university of california, santa cruz. her many books include "abolition. feminism. now," "freedom is a constant struggle," and "are prisons obsolete?" earlier this year, she gave the keynote address at a february 19 event at the malcolm x and dr. betty shabazz memorial and educational center, housed in the former audubon ballroom. professor davis spoke about malcolm's legacy, as well as the increasing attacks on the teaching of black history by florida governor ron desantis and others. she began by referencing the actor ossie davis, who gave the eulogy at malcolm x's funeral

describing him as "our own black shining prince!" >> ossie said the following in malcolm's eulogy, "last year from africa he wrote these words -- malcolm wrote these words to a friend. my journey, he says, has almost ended. and i have a much broader scope and when i started out, which i believe will add new life and dimension to our struggle for freedom and honor and dignity in the space. i am raising these things so that you will know for a fact the tremendous sympathy and support we have among the african states for our human rights struggle. the main things come he wrote,

is that we keep united front where in our most valuable time and energy will not be wasted fighting each other. malcolm's words and his trajectory as a movement leader and a movement participant are as valuable today as they were six decades ago. they resonate in powerful ways because the change malcolm was calling for, the change we were calling for, has not yet happened. therefore, malcolm's vision cannot be relegated to the past. his vision still helps us to imagine the future we want to see. now, official united states

narratives a past history always attempt to assimilate demand for radical transformation into a neat story of progress and triumph. the very fact that black freedom struggles came to be compressed and constricted by the rubric civil rights movement -- of course, the civil-rights movement was important that that was not the entire story of the black freedom movement. and that in itself is indicative of this assimilation, the tendency, the fact we ourselves often refer to the movement for black freedom as only a civil-rights movement. during the 1960's, malcolm

emphasized the need for us to expand our vision. he told us that it was not only about civil-rights, the rights that can be accorded to individuals by a single nation state and its government, our vision needed to be brought. it had to move, malcolm said, across the borders of nation states. it has to be transnational, it had to be international. the framework that malcolm urged us to use was human rights. now, malcolm's trajectory and his insistence on radical frameworks has never been easily a similar ball into a narrative of u.s. history is one in which increasing numbers of people get to participate in the circle of justice, equality, and freedom.

i am thinking about the way in which dr. king's image has been entirely assimilated into a capitalist narrative, which is not to say that dr. king represented those ideas but this is the official narrative, the official representation. now, malcolm's vision from the very outset -- or at least from the time he made the pilgrimage to mecca -- was an international vision, including not only people in the u.s. and not only black people, but people all over the world.

and i tell you that i treasure the story that was told to me by a man about hosting a meeting in her harlem apartment were malcolm met with survivors of the bombing, the atomic bomb that was dropped on hiroshima. and there is also a photograph of yuri leaning over malcolm's body in this place. shortly after he was assassinated. i often wonder, why is it that photograph is not circulated more widely? and why did we not see yuri represented in spike's film? this is a time when we can

reflect on what we should call the long struggle of freedom. the long struggle for freedom conducted by an on behalf of black people in the americas, the struggle against slavery, the struggle against segregation and secondhand citizenship and the struggle of africans against the slave trade and colonialism and neocolonialism. this is a time to reflect deep on the long struggle for liberation that has already spanned multiple centuries. it is also a time to reflect on how we might accelerate that struggle in order to guarantee those who have been denied entrance into the circle of freedom might not only be

admitted, but by recognizing their struggles, their collective multigenerational visions, it might be possible to imagine future worlds. and malcolm asked us to keep our eyes on the future. future worlds, radical, democratic features for all beings who inhabit this planet. so in the spirit of malcolm's contributions, i one is to ponder a couple of questions. how has it actually been possible for black people and our allies, including in the first place indigenous people, how has it been possible to remain committed over so many centuries, over so many

generations to the struggle for freedom? that is phenomenal. that each generation has passed on that and pulls the fight for freedom to the next. -- impulse the fight for freedom to the next. and often times when we thought the flames had been extinguished, we had black lives matter movement erupting. and so i think that we should acknowledge the phenomenal quality of black culture, black political culture, black music because where have we learned to

cultivate that impulse for freedom? that is the reason why we observe black history. black history is not just because there are black people in various parts of the world. it is about what black people have offered to people all over the world. and that is the desire, the cultivation of the desire to keep on struggling for freedom. [applause] it is in the heart. it is the very heart of the music. that is why black music is known by people all over this planet. now, there's also the question, which we have to acknowledge,

why is it that racism has persisted for so long? and why has it become so naturalized that its proponents often believe that what we refer to as racism is a natural destiny of the world? now, malcolm understood the deeply ideological character of racism. i use the term "ideology" to mean the way we humans imagine ourselves in relation to the conditions of our existence. malcolm understood that ideology, even when you define it as the source of illusory ideas about such conditions, that ideology's role is precisely to make the conditions

of our lives appear to be normal. and as a matter of fact, the more normal something appears to be, the more likely it is to be produced in an through ideology. this is the point that abolitionist make about the permanence of jails and prisons come about the permanence of police, about the so-called school resource officers come about the child protection -- so called child protective services that dorothy roberts calls the family policing system. but thanks to the way in which malcolm taught us to engage in the kinds of radical reflection on that which is ideological, we know that we can envision life

beyond prisons and police, we can envision life beyond capitalism. malcolm used his remarkable oratory and his phenomenal sense of humor to trouble our sense of comfort in a world that was predicated, that is predicated, remains predicated on white superiority. malcolm helped us to understand how we internalize those ideological assumptions and how their persistence depends on all of us doing the work of prisons, the work of the police, the work of capitalism, white supremacy. now, i had the opportunity to hear malcolm in person. [applause]

one of the things i'm most proud about connected to my time in college was the fact that malcolm came in april 1963 to speak at grand ice university. and because there was only a handful of black students there, i got to meet him. all of the black students got to meet him and spend time with him. but that is another story. i wanted to point out that there are signs that we can challenge

that which is ideologically imposed. i am thinking about one area that we have seen a lot of change in over a relatively short period of time. and that is the demystification of the gender binary. yes. [applause] i mean, who would have ever thought 20 years ago that we would be acknowledging again the ideological character of gender? that we would be attempted to pronoun? who would have ever imagined that? i think it is important to recognize it, not only in terms of the advances that the trans

movement has made, but also as evidence that we can dismantle other institutions who seeming permanence is also our product of ideology. [applause] even as we develop the capacity to think about the damage brought by racism, we often take shortcuts. we capitulate to headroom patriarchal assumptions -- hetero patriarchal assumptions that racism is primarily black men or ethnocentric assumptions that racism affects exclusively black people. ron desantis --

thank you. for asking us to reflect on what is going on with that -- don't let -- don't let me characterize. i just heard him -- >> [inaudible] >> i just heard him i think it was yesterday, maybe it was the day before, making fun of the fact that queer theory was included under the rubric of the studies advanced placement course you talking about. you know, he is pretty stupid. [laughter] [applause] one of the things you learn --

one of the things you learn when you really try to engage in a serious process of learning, you learn that the more you learned, the less you know. [applause] you learn that there is always so much more to learn. in this governor -- >> [inaudible] >> ok. absolutely. >> [inaudible] >> that you know -- >> [inaudible] >> and what has he said? yes or removed camilla crenshaw,

so you're not love to talk about intersectionality. but i was just going to say, we have to think about the intersectionality of racism. it is not just about identity. because this is a historical moment when we are called upon to comprehend the structural, the systemic, the institutional character of racism, and -- i'm just going to call them country revolutionaries, right? because it reminds me so much of that period of radical reconstruction and the responses to it and following w.e.b. d ubois, i'm going to call them

the country revolutionaries because they are trying to prevent the progressive developments from transforming our lives. all he could think about is wokeness. he doesn't even know what wok eness means. but he thinks that black studies will cause white children to feel bad about themselves. i think you must be talking about himself. but in any event, the reason we are witnessing these uproar's right now from desantis strategies, actions of the college board, is that education is into really related to social change -- integrally related to social change.

that is something that malcolm taught us both through his words and through his actions. thanks to malcolm's decision to teach himself in prison, vast numbers of incarcerated peoples do the hard work of learning from often learning how to read as malcolm did, but certainly learning how to use their intellects. as a matter of fact, that is probably or intellectual greatness behind bars now and in any other place. we are on the verge of substantial shifts in the way people think about race and racism. and those who want to prevent these shifts from happening are frantically trying to turn back the clock. at least 36 states have adopted

or introduced laws that impede educational projects about race and racism. and here in new york, at the end of 2021, republican lawmakers introduced bills that prevent public schools from providing instruction on structural racism. even in the most progressive states -- i come from california. most of the times i am happy to say that i come from california because -- well, first of all, i lived in oakwood. oakland celebrates may 19. oakland and berkeley. malcolm x's birthday is an official holiday in both of the cities.

but even in the most progressive states that was the efforts to restrict and confine instruction. california is also, i think, the only state with a statewide ethnic studies curriculum. but there have been major efforts to prevent the inclusion of palestine and palestinians and palestinian-americans in the curriculum. amidst all of the pain and suffering produced by the covid pandemic, and we are not that far removed from that era, this new collective awareness of the structural character of racism was generated. not that it was a new way of thinking about racism, like

w.e.b. dubois pointed out, scores, decades ago, malcolm talked about institutional change, but the change, as many people have recognized over the decades, is one that involves not so much a shift in subjective attitudes -- although, that is definitely welcomed -- but it is about structural transformation. it is not about white people not liking black people or indigenous peoples or latinx people. and that will change if there structural change. but we can treat racism as character defect or character flaw and believe the entire

structural -- and leave the entire structural intact. they talk about racism without the racist. in the spirit of all of the freedom movements that i tried to evoke at the beginning of my presentation, all of their freedom movements that have preceded us, let us now never to forget the summer of 2020. it was only 2.5 years ago. we are already treating it like -- like it is a relic of history . it was 2.5 years ago when we were deep in the throes of the worst crisis most of us can remember and we collectively experienced the police lynching, the police murder of george

floyd and breonna taylor and all of the others that have been referred to. this occurred in the process of also recognizing that communities that were already subject to racism where the ones who are suffering the most from the covid pandemic. a new awareness of the structural racism within the health care system, within the private ties health care system, within the capitalist health care system. actually, not so much a new awareness but a collective attentiveness to a new idea that activists have been insisting on since the era of radical reconstruction in the aftermath of slavery. and there have been those who have pointed out that racism is connected to capitalism, that capitalism is at its core racial

capitalism and not only here in the u.s., capitalism was produced by colonialism and slavery. finally, it seems people seem to get it. racism does not emanate from the fact that white people don't like black people or indigenous or latinx or asian people, it is produced and reproduced structurally, systemically, institutionally. and this was a kind of collective aha moment and we should never forget that. this is why more people poured out into the streets of this country than ever before in the history. this is why people joined the mobilizations -- this is why more white people joined all of the mobilizations. and people were out in the streets even though we could not

yet know then how covid was transmitted. millions of people poured into the streets at the risk of their own lives, demonstrating this new awareness became more important than the lives of individuals. the most remarkable moment in our recent history, maybe even in the history of this country, and this is why desantis and others are excising examination of this movement from the school curriculum. and so the stage was set for us to attempt to accomplish what should have been done in the 19th century in the immediate aftermath of slavery. it seems a good majority of people in this country, people of all racial and ethnic

backgrounds, seem to realize this. to overlay the political context -- all of this was happening during the presidency of the person whose name shall not be pronounced during our meeting this evening. but the counterrevolution. that is the attack against critical race theory, which is a serious introduction -- interdisciplinary field founded on the work of those who are attempting many years ago to understand the way structural racism express itself through the law. so those of you who are interested in history will be utterly struck by all of the parallels between the reaction to radical reconstruction,

1867-1877, and what we are currently witnessing. the police murder of tyre nichols in the very same city in which dr. king was assassinated punctuates the message that racism is structural. awareness of racism is not about making white children feel guilty. it is about recognizing the deep structures of racism in all of our institutions regardless of who the individual perpetrators might be. it is a machine, it is a system, it is a culture that is produced and reproduced. and now we know better how to initiate the process of ridding our world of racism. we know better than ever before. and i just have a few more words . i want to say it involves standing up against hetero patriarchy.

[applause] we know it involves saying no to economic exploitation. we know we cannot exclude any community that suffers from the effects of racism. and this includes asian americans and this includes arab americans, palestinians. we know -- [applause] we know finally that we cannot struggle for human freedom without recognizing we are all animals and that we must stand in support of our nonhuman co-inhabitants of this planet. [applause] thank you so much for the beautiful metaphor of the rabbit , the pattern of the rabbit escaping. but i think we look at -- we

look at civil creatures like ants that are able to entirely transform a place and build these architectural edifices without at all harming the environment. i think we have much to learn from them, that it is possible to benefit from this earth -- even to transform it -- without annihilating the very conditions of future life on this planet. you very much. amy: professor angela davis speaking at the malcolm x and dr. betty shabazz center, the side of the audubon ballroom in new york city where malcolm x was assassinated in 1965.

angela davis was speaking on the 58th anniversary of his debt this year. malcolm was born 98 years ago. when we come back, we hear civil rights attorney ben crump and then malcolm x in his own words. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we continue to look at the life and legacy of malcolm x, born 98 years ago today, as we turn to civil rights attorney ben crump, representing malcolm's family in a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against the fbi, cia, new york city and state, and the new york police, as well as the district attorney's office for concealing evidence of their involvement in malcolm x's 1965 assassination. three men were convicted of his murder, two fully exonerated in 2021. ben crump spoke on favorite 21st at the malcolm x and dr. betty shabazz memorial and educational center, houston the former audubon ballroom malcolm was shot dead in that day in 1965. >> i think what would have come

of malcolm x had they not 58 years ago on this day assassinated one of the greatest thought leaders that was ever produced in the 21st century. how much more malcolm had to give the world. i often think about that when i think about trayvon. what would have come 17-year-old trayvon had he not been shot in the heart by some wannabe cop? what would have become of breonna taylor, this queen who was just two semesters from getting her college degree, being a nurse, she was executed with nine bullets in her home while she was practically naked?

what would have become of botham jean, a young black man who was in his own apartment, minding his own business when this white policewoman came and shot him while he was eating ice cream and watching tv and then she had the audacity to say self-defense? it was self-defense. but it was not her house. it was botham's house. so we have to continue to stand up, speak up, and fight for our children and our loved ones. because if we don't fight for our children and our loved ones, we can't expect nobody else to fight for our children and loved ones. [applause]

and finally, i think about the shabazz center and the objectives of trying to make sure we educate the future generations with the history that have been contributed by our ancestors. i am ever reminded that we have to fight racism and discrimination wherever it rears its ugly head. so in light of all of those high-profile police cases we fight, there are other battles that are just as important whether it is medical racism

with henrietta lacks, whether it is the $100 million lawsuit filed on behalf of of malcolm x 's daughters because we can never let them think that we will forget about malcolm x. we will continue to fight every day. and we have to fight those who would try to rob our children and all children of learning about black history like our governor in florida ron desantis who is trying to prohibit the teaching of advanced placement african-american studies. and so i am on record, attorney o'neill, if he does not capitulate and allow the teaching of black history, we

are going to sue him. we are going to sue him because as dr. carter g woodson says, also known as the father of black history, if a race does not have a history, if it has no traditions that are respected and taught to the young people, then it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world and become in danger of being exterminated. and we refuse to let governor desantis exterminate black history in florida. we refuse to let anybody exterminate black history in any

state in the united states of america because black history is american history. not only do black children need to know about black history, but white children especially need to know about black history. we will fight because our children need to know that our history made this country what it is today. amy: that was civil rights attorney ben crump speaking in february on the 58th anniversary of the assassination of malcolm x at the audubon ballroom, now the malcolm x and dr. betty shabazz memorial and educational center. we ended today with malcolm x and his own words speaking in that is exceed four. >> what of the first things the independent african nations did was to form an organization called the organization of african unity. the purpose of our organization

of afro-american unity, which has -- to fight whoever gets in our way. to bring about the complete independence of people of african descent here in the western hemisphere and here in the united states. and bring about the freedom of these people by any means necessary. that's our motto. we want freedom by any means necessary. there are more africans here in harlem than exist in any city on the african continent. because that's what you and i

are africans. the universal declaration of human rights, the constitution of the united states and the bill of rights are the principles in which we believe and that these documents if put into practice represent the essence of mankind's hopes and good intentions. desirous that all afro american people and organizations should henceforth unite so that the welfare and well-being of our people will be assured. we are resolved to reinforce the common bond of purpose between our people by submerging all of our differences and establishing a nonsectarian, constructive program for human rights. we hereby present this charter. number one, the establishment. the organization of afro american unity shall include all people of african descent in the western hemisphere.

in essence, what it is saying is instead of you and me running around here seeking allies in our struggle for freedom in the irish neighborhood or the jewish neighborhood or the italian neighborhood, we need to seek some allies among people who look something like we do. it's time now for you and me to stop running away from the wolf right into the arms of the fox, looking for some kind of help. that's a drag. number two, self-defense. [applause] since self-preservation is the first law of nature, we assert the afro american's right to self-defense. the constitution of the united

states of america clearly affirms the right of every american citizen to bear arms. and as americans, we will not give up a single right guaranteed under the constitution. the history of unpunished violence against our people clearly indicates that we must be prepared to defend ourselves or we will continue to be a defenseless people at the mercy of a ruthless and violent racist mob. amy: malcolm x speaking in 1964. he was born 98 years ago today on may 19, 1925. go to democracynow.org to see the full event with dr. angela davis, ben crump, malcolm x's daughter ilyasah shabazz, and many others.

they were at the side of the audubon ballroom in new york city where malcolm x was gunned down favorite 21st, 1965. -- february 21, 1965.