Letter To The People

One of the very first obligations/task of a Revolutionary is to go among the People; the community, the masses of poor-wage slaves,the oppressed Nation, and learn from them. Meaning, as We attempt to educate them- transforming the colonial mentality into a revolutionary mentality, and before We can bring forth Programs for Decolonization We have to learn what the People of that particular area see as the core issue's that affect their day to day lives. As servants of the People,Our formations and the programs We intend to implement must be geared toward meeting the immediate needs of the community in which We serve. i organized the 1st annual 'Rebuild: New Afrikan Peoples Assembly' in my city of Terre Haute, in, 2019. As We promoted the assembly for 7 months, brothers & sisters in their early 20's to elders in their 80's all raised a common issue - the gentrification and denial of access to Our community center : The Hyte Center, now known as The Booker T. Washington Community Center.

As I have mentioned on numerous occasions this is an issue that i take personally, not only because my grandpa was the architect and Vice Chairman on the original board of its founding members,but like so many others from multiple generations, i grew up in that building. i know why it was created, the purpose it served, and what it means to the New Afrikan community. For many people in Terre Haute, the Peoples Assembly was their first introduction to the New Afrikan Liberation Collective (N.A.L.C) and Our mission to instill self-determination into minds/homes within the community. i spoke to the People in attendance and told them that Our first task in Terre Haute would be to regain access,and or control of the center explained that it would take THE COMMUNITY to take back THE COMMUNITY CENTER, and through this work the oppressive forces working against us as well as the People would recognize the power of a community/nation when We educate, organize & mobilize together for Our common goals.

Following the assembly We reached out to the occupants of the center and described ourselves as a community based organization. We explained that N.A.L.C intended to utilize the classrooms in order to hold Nation Building courses, i.e, Political Education classes that would bring forth Community Reconstruction & Social Development programs. They told us that We would have to pay a $25 an hour fee and a deposit each time. We refused to allow people from Outside of Our community to profit/capitalize from the FREE community work that We do in the community center they took from the People! We began organizing the 2nd annual New Afrikan Peoples Assembly for July 2020, one of the main focus points being to gain signatures for a Community Petition that demanded Free access to the gymnasium, classrooms, and soup kitchen. We had movement veterans from around the Nation travel to Terre Haute in order to help raise the consciousness of the People and link with other community formations that have also been vocal about the need to regain access/control of the Hyte Center. The following day before leaving Terre Haute six of Our comrads attended service at a local church to discuss the need for the People getting behind N.A.L.C's initiative to hold classes. The pastor of the church had access to the gym several nights a week already, and also has an organization that calls for community control including ownership of the Hyte Center. Several days after attending the service, Our comrad in Chicago Khaleed London of "The Re:Build Collective" received a phone call from this pastor saying that N.A.L.C would have free access to the classrooms,that i would need to draw up the programs. Around this same time a weekly meeting was put together for community organizers, including my mom, dad and a comrade from IDOC Watch who traveled from outta town to discuss ideas and strategy surrounding the Hyte Center. We presented the group with the 5 initial Programs for Decolonization on behalf of N.A.L.C and FROLINAN.

A second meeting was set for the following week where it was mentioned that the basis of that date would be meeting with members of law enforcement to discuss body cam's and other issues with police. My family refused to attend this meeting,seeing absolutely no reason for members of Our community to have a sit down with the colonial occupying forces. Also seeing this as extremely problematic,and bringing into question the politics and class mentality of these other individuals. i personally kept in contact wit the pastor via weekly phone calls to work toward the two of Our organizations doing grassroots work and uniting with several newer activist in Terre Haute that had emerged that summer in the wake of the George Floyd uprisings. However,the community meetings fell apart due to these individuals/orgs all operating on Neo-liberal/colonial concepts and refusing to develop any kind of concept for Self-Determination or a concrete class analysis based on the dialectics of Our National oppression as New Afrikan/Black people. After numerous positive phone calls with the pastor that were very assuring and revolutionary in nature,he disclosed that he couldn't publicly work with N.A.L.C in fear of what the people "downtown" would think. Also adding that any unified front of individuals/orgs in Terre Haute to fight for the center would have to be led by his organization as the face,because he and his org wasn't following nobody. Asking me "Have you ever seen anything with two or three heads?It'd be ugly/scary,right?" This is another obligation/task of the revolutionary: to expose the People and the unconscious masses to these "class contradictions" that exist even within the black community. To raise awareness to "class struggle"/clash of views, aspirations,ideology and theory between members of the same oppressed Nation. In these early stages of struggle and a "new" movement developing, the People may find it hard to see the difference between the two because We both look like them, and both come across as "being for the People".

However, this class struggle that takes place in the mind of the oppressed individual is apart of the colonial mentality in which these individuals have yet to break the psychological chains of slavery that prevents them from taking a path to liberation and freedom that doesn't include the master/oppressors permission, or not using his rules and guidelines to go about obtaining social change. Most of these individuals have good intentions,and do truly believe that they are acting in the best interest of the people. i can assure you that as a People suffering on an educational, economical, political,social, cultural level, and being kept in that caste of suffrage through the colonial security forces, i.e, police,military, courts, jails and prisons; While fighting to establish the right to control Our own destiny- the way to change that and overcome centuries of genocide & colonialism is NEVER going to be through settling for what the u.s government or "city officials" give us/approve of. Unless the New Afrikan community in Terre Haute comes together and DEMANDS what it is that We as a People believe We need in order to Rebuild Our community,then We will continue to depend on Our oppressors and its rigged system for Our every need. "The Booker T. Washington Community Center",a community liberation center that greets you with a wall to wall painted mural when you walk in of Malcolm X, Jamil Al Amin (H.Rap Brown), Marcus Garvey, Fredrick Douglas,among others showing them breaking chains that read "slavery"; As well as a young New Afrikan child with a shirt on that says "Its Nation Building Time"...is being leased out from the city to a euro-american(white) individual from outside of Our community for his own after school/youth program that is supported by the public school corporation. All that may be somewhat feasible if the city and its occupants recognized their privilege of having access to all the land, property and resources available in Terre Haute for their offices and programs. While the center is the only institution that We have in order to build and rebuild upon,therefore allowing ones to bring back Open Gym/Night League, Feed The People Program,and designate office or classroom space for community based organizations. There are countless athletic mentors and individuals, esp during a resurgence of social awareness and community activism that have something to offer the People, but We have no institutions to place the programs and do the work. In Feb 2021 We were finally able to have an in person meeting with the Director/ C.O.O of the Center,my mom and dad were there to represent N.A.L.C and Our families historical connection to the building,as well as the non profit org "The Social & Cultural Development Fund" that i recently Founded with the help of my family and comrades. We presented him with articles and pictures from the two Peoples Assemblies,the 5 suggested programs,and requesting access to the classrooms starting Feb 7th to host a group study for Jalil Muntaquims "We Are Our Own Liberators" Zoom classes. He expressed his only concern being some of the language used in my previous articles about regaining ownership,and worried that once in the door that We would force him out and replace him with the a fore-mentioned pastor. We explained that We had already purchased land last year, We are in the process of raising the funding to open Our own building and that We only wanted access to the Hyte Center now to engage with the People and get the doors opened again for the community. We were told that they would have to move some things around with their schedule in order to accommodate Our use of the classrooms,and that he wanted to have another meeting in a week with us and the President of the Terre Haute NAACP among others. Since then he hasn't responded to any messages or emails from us. As We move forward and launch the "Land Fund" on the N.A.L.C website to raise the initial $30,000 needed to get the building put up for the New Afrikan Peoples Center/ The Social & Cultural Development office,We must still come together as a COMMUNITY and act in the collective interest of not only ourselves but the younger generations that are coming up. We do this by implementing a community based steering committee geared toward a strategy in relation to the Hyte Center and other Land in the community. We will also be posting the Community Petition For Free Use Of The Hyte Center on the New Afrikan Liberation Collective (https://www.newafrikanliberation.org/), Prison Lives Matter(https://www.supportprisonlives.org/) , and IDOC Watch (IDOC Watch). You DO NOT have to be from Terre Haute to sign your name to the petition. The gentrification and denied access to Our institutions are a form of social and cultural genocide,this is a systematic issue that reaches far beyond the city of Terre Haute. Freedom and Independence is never just handed over to the People fighting for it from those who have stolen it. One of the fundamental reasons We as a people still remain 3/5ths of a human being, in a fabricated state of existence and identity based on "paper citizenship" that was forced upon us - and the colonizer has remained a global empire- is because We still refuse to collectively wake up from a Willie Lynch induced coma and realize that We have the power on so many levels to be in control of Our own destiny and direction if We stand up and move in solidarity. With that being said, We encourage ones from all over to support both endeavors with the Hyte Center and fund raising for the New Afrikan Peoples Center. We are one COMMUNITY and one NATION! But most importantly, remember: WE ARE OUR OWN LIBERATORS!!