Is Farrakhan the New Garvey
Is Farrakhan the New Garvey?
By Brother Demetric Muhammad
The new Lifetime Network film entitled Betty and Coretta is extremely offensive to Black America. How in the world could a film be rolled out during Black History Month that offers such ugly caricatures of our powerful Black heroes and there not be national outrage. How could the Sanitsky company be allowed to premier this wickedly motivated film during this very special Black History Month? Black History Month is very significant because it comes in the aftermath of the inauguration of America’s first Black President’s second term. And while Blacks bask in the tremendous accomplishment of President Obama, a blow to the legends of our history comes out of nowhere to sucker-punch the Black electorate when they least expected it.
As a student of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, I am intrigued by the fact that this film has all the hallmarks of the documentaries and films that were produced in the 50’s and 60’s at the height of the infamous COINTELPRO program of the FBI. These films were designed to destroy the magnetism and popularity of the strong Black American dissidents who were seeking to hold America accountable for centuries of mistreatment, injustice and inequality. And while this film mocks a broad group of our leaders, Minister Louis Farrakhan is depicted in the worst light. This movie places the blame for the murder of Malcolm X onto Minister Louis Farrakhan.
This horrible lie against the Minister should concern all in the Black community. Because despite there being a Black man in the White House as President of the United States, he is burdened with trying to be everything to everybody. Therefore his benefit to the Black community is diluted and virtually ineffectual. Minister Farrakhan on the other hand, has no such burden and is free to be a gallant strong man and hero for Black causes. Minister Farrakhan has demonstrated a great deal of love, humility and an impressive ability to forgive other Black leaders who repudiate and speak ill of him to appease white and Jewish concerns. He has always been generous in lending his credibility with the masses to defend Blacks in trouble. He openly defended Marion Barry, Rep. Alcee Hastings, David Dinkins, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Michael Jackson and numerous others. This is a function and outgrowth of his profound love for his people and what God has given him of a special wisdom that allows him to see the hidden hand of Satanic forces at work in the undoing of the Black community.
The Minister is at the root of the most powerful event in modern history. The Million Man March in 1995 brought out between 1.6 and 1.8 million Black Men of all faiths, ages and walks of life for the noble purpose of atonement, reconciliation and responsibility. That event, more than any other event, clearly communicated Minister Farrakhan’s value and importance to more than just the Nation of Islam. We learned at the Million Man March that Minister Farrakhan had become the most influential man in all of America.
Minister Farrakhan’s ability to attract and impact the lives of millions of people with the message of self-love, Black nationhood, and divine destiny is reminiscent of one of the great patriarchs of Black people’s struggle for liberation, the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey.
Marcus Garvey’s United Negro Improvement Association attracted between 6 and 8 million followers. Both Marcus Garvey and Minister Farrakhan’s wide appeal made them targets for the FBI’s anti-messiah objectives. COINTELPRO memos outlined the specific denial objective “to prevent the rise of a “messiah” who could unify, and electrify, the militant Black Nationalist movement.” That Hoover feared Black nationalists being “unified” and “electrified,” reveals what Hoover understood of Biblical prophecy. The Bible in Ezekiel 37:10 speaks of a people referred to as “dry bones”. These despondent and life-less people are the subject of the Prophet Ezekiel’s ministry. Ezekiel, who is considered a type of the Messiah, causes these “dry bones” to come alive and to become “unified” into what the Bible calls and “exceedingly great army.” Hoover therefore understood Black people’s place within Biblical prophecy.
The behavior of the FBI towards both Garvey and Minister Farrakhan indicate that both have been viewed as the political and prophetic messiah. Minister Farrakhan might be considered the New Garvey or New Messiah as both he and Garvey bear striking similarities to one another as revealed in a 1919 Department of Justice memo written by J. Edgar Hoover.
In The COINTELPRO Papers, Authors Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall include a memo dated October 11, 1919 from the Department of Justice that describes just why the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey was considered dangerous. In the memo Hoover is disappointed that “Unfortunately, he (Garvey) has not as yet violated any federal law whereby he could be proceeded against on the grounds of being an undesirable alien, from the point of view of deportation. It occurs to me, however, from the attached clipping that there might be some proceeding against him for fraud in connection with his Black Star Line propaganda…”
The Memo continues with Hoover’s description of Garvey and his work:
1. Garvey is a native of the West Indies and one of the most prominent negro agitators in New York. (Minister Farrakhan’s parents are both from the West Indies. Minister Farrakhan as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s minister in New York City from 1965-1975 was considered the most powerful Black leader in New York during that time. It bears noting that Hoover’s use of “agitator” is in a negative or pejorative sense. But the agitator has a very positive connotation when it describes the large cylindrical moving part inside a clothes washing machine. It is the dirt and grime on the clothes that is agitated and removed from the clothing in an effort to make the clothes clean and wearable. Black leadership therefore should take pride in being called an agitator to cleanse America of its disease of racism, injustice and inequality that keeps a stain on any global mention of the United States.)
2. He (Garvey) is a founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. (Minister Farrakhan in his leadership role within the Nation of Islam has articulated and espoused similar if not identical political and social positions as that of Marcus Garvey’s UNIA. The Minister also served as deputy commander of the World Islamic People’s Command. His leadership also produced the National African American Leadership Summit-NAALS and the Millions More Movement)
3. He (Garvey) is promulgator of the Black Star Line and is the managing editor of the Negro World. (Minister Farrakhan is the promoter of several cooperative economic initiatives in the same vein of Garvey’s Black Star Line, for example the Power Personal Care Products Line, NOI Security, and the 3 Year Economic Savings Program. Garvey was the managing editor of the Negro World newspaper; Minister Farrakhan is the publisher of the Final Call Newspaper. Both leaders understand the power of the printed word and the distribution of positive messages in the transformation of their communities.)
4. He (Garvey) is an exceptionally fine orator, creating much excitement among the negroes through his steamship proposition. (Minister Farrakhan is without a doubt, the most exceptional orator ever produced for the articulation and advocacy of Black causes. The Minister’s speeches, programs and initiatives routinely produce excitement among all who listen. In 1994 Time magazine documented that Minister Farrakhan had a 67% approval rating in the Black community. It was the Minister’s mighty voice that produced the great Million Man March. Statistics revealed that 80% of the men who attended were of the Christian faith. So the power of the Minister’s delivery of the divine revolutionary message is evidenced in this statistic which shows how what he speaks is not contained within the narrow confines of any one particular religion or ideology. His voice is the universal sound that the oppressed hear and respond to as though it is the voice of God.)
Minister Farrakhan like Marcus Garvey has broken no laws. This is upsetting to his enemies who want a reason to arrest him and destroy his movement. Like Garvey he has the attention and support of millions. The Black community at-large should rally around the Minister and demand that the governments classified files on the Nation of Islam and all Black groups be released and un-redacted. Black people have suffered too much to continue on believing that our movements and our leaders are failures, turn-coats and murderers of one another. We deserved the once hidden hand of government to be revealed so that justice and healing can come as the product of our full access to truth.
