February 25 marked the seventh-year commemoration of the passing of attorney and former Jackson, Mississippi, Mayor Chokwe Lumumba. Of course, we know that, nationally, our dear hero el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, known to most of the world as Malcolm X, is also commemorated during February. So, in the demand and tradition of Brother el-Shabazz teaching that critical thinking is promoted to everyone and celebrated daily, I’m taking the moment to remember and celebrate one of Mississippi’s intellectual warriors, former Mayor Lumumba. Last week, I was asked by Mississippi Civil Rights icon Dorie Ladner to read my poem, “Free-the-Land Man (for Chokwe Lumumba)” on the Lance Reynolds Radio Show, which broadcasts from Washington DC. (The poem is included as an addendum to this article, and to see my reading of it during Mayor Lumumba’s homegoing celebration, go here and here–the second video, which was audience-made catches the people’s call and response to the poem.) Of course, many have different and wonderful memories of former Mayor Lumumba because he was a well-rounded man: loving husband, loving father, fearless socio-political warrior, avid sports fan, supporter of the arts, great neighbor, wonderful sense of humor, and more. Yet, what I most remember about him is that former Mayor Lumumba was not just a man of rhetoric; he was a man of action and results. Before Lumumba became a mayor and city councilman, he was a top-notch defense attorney. Most remember his representation of Tupac Shakur. As an Attorney, Lumumba’s legacy is that he never just represented a client but always represented a person with the understanding that, often, defending African Americans in a court of law meant doing battle with institutional racism. Thus, Attorney Lumumba’s work was responsible, not just for ensuring that individual defendants received fair trials, but that the cases that he litigated became case studies and inspiration for changing and modifying the law. Then, after becoming Mayor, one of his first initiatives was a tax bond to build the city’s Convention Center. So, while Lumumba was a man of verbal power and eloquence, he was also a man whose deeds spoke as loudly as his words.
Thus, I would be remiss if I do not address the current war of words between former Mayor Lumumba’s son, the current Jackson Mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba and Jackson City Councilman Kenneth Stokes, stemming from the city’s current water crisis. First, my advice to current Mayor Lumumba comes from my maternal and paternal grandparents: don’t argue with a fool because a third party who does not know which person is the fool won’t be able to differentiate the two. Next, it is important to remember there is a difference between ideological disagreements and attention-grabbing personal disputes. Brother el-Shabazz and Martin Luther King, Jr., were human beings whose politics were heart-felt, but their responses toward each other were defined chiefly by ideology not by personality. To be clear, very few humans are so high-minded as to be able to avoid all personal attacks. (Consider how a brilliant mind such as W. E. B. Du Bois once called Marcus Garvey “a fat little monkey.”) When I teach the seven major types of propaganda in my freshman composition course, I tell my students that “ad hominem” arguments tend to a be a sign the argufier has no more empirical evidence to present. This is the case when Councilman Stokes leveled unsubstantiated accusations at current Mayor Lumumba’s character and associations. To be clear, as long as Councilman Stokes focused on what he perceives as the Mayor’s ineffective response to the city’s water crisis, I would have no problem. But, his attempt to castrate another black man’s character is indefensible.
While I have many issues with Councilman Stokes’ leadership style, I’ll always give him props for being the only councilman who was willing to reject a sweetheart deal other city leaders wanted to give WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers, which would have bankrupted the city. Yet I can’t think of what else Stokes has done to help his ward or the city. I want to be careful not to grab low-hanging fruit by criticizing Councilman Stokes for failing to enhance life in a ward that’s elected him for thirty years. That would make me guilty of the glittering generality (another of the seven major types of propaganda) and name-calling in which Stokes himself has engaged. I don’t want to imply that having a black-elected official alone is enough to change the condition of a ward or city. Still, I must note too that Councilman Stokes, for years, has refused to attend work sessions of the city council yet has time to hold press conferences. Maybe he imagines his constituents benefit more from a good (sensational) speech than from the actual work of governance.
Black folks in Jackson have been tremendously embarrassed by Stokes’ war of words with the Mayor. That war has been mostly one-sided, and while I might have preferred the Mayor refuse to waste anyone’s time on responding to Councilman Stokes’ verbal assault, it wasn’t my name and character that was being assaulted. I should add that, years ago, when someone made false accusations about my Pops who was a member of the state Democrat Executive Committee, my sister Beth wanted to “roll up on ole boy” and “holler at him.” Thankfully, my Pops was above all that. My sister wants me to add that was before she earned her PhD. However, jus’ between me and y’all, she still don’t mind snatchin’ off her earrings, puttin’ some Vaseline on her fo’head, and layin’ down her PhD to have a li’l “hand talk.” But, y’all didn’t hear that from me ‘cause I digress.
Black folks were disappointed, angered, and mortified by the one-sided war of words, but Mississippi Governor Tater Tot Reeves was all too happy to pile onto the disparagement of Mayor Lumumba and the city of Jackson: “The State doesn’t run Jackson, but maybe it should.” He continued, “Jackson’s water issues didn’t happen overnight. It has been caused by over fifty years of neglect.” Most people might have missed the importance of Governor Tater Tot’s last sentence since he was attempting to throw shade onto Jackson and the concept of black leadership. Yet, Jackson has not been under black leadership for the past fifty years. Its first African-American Mayor, Harvey Johnson, was elected in 1997, which is, if my poetic math is correct, only twenty-four years ago. So, for over half of those years that Governor Tater Tot cites, Jackson was under white leadership. Thus, it was white leadership that neglected Jackson’s failing water system. It was white leadership that neglected Jackson’s education system. It was white leadership that neglected Jackson’s economy. But, black leadership takes the brunt of the blame. This is why it is important to remember and celebrate our own history and our own icons, such as el-Shabazz, King, former Mayor Lumumba, Hollis Watkins, Dorie Ladner, Fannie Lou Hamer, Lula C. Dorsey, Medgar Evers, and others so that the truth about our current situation can be known, allowing us to develop empirical plans of action based on research rather than emotion and personal agenda.
Finally, I must admit that not every move by current Mayor Lumumba has been great. There have been missteps. Mayor Lumumba’s biggest hurdle is how to implement his good plans when Jackson’s tax base continues to dwindle because many middle-class black folks would rather be concubines of whiteness than leaders of their own being. Thus, I’m going to keep saying it because it is true. White flight does not kill a city. It’s the middle-class Negroes chasing behind their loving masters that kills a city. Once black folks began to amass political power in Jackson and Hinds County, we knew it was going to be difficult. The question is: how do we overcome difficulty? Do we overcome it by waging verbal assaults on each other without creating effective plans of action? Or, do we overcome it by asking the difficult questions to arrive at effective solutions? In the spirit of Brother el-Shabazz and former Mayor Lumumba, I can only ask that Jackson and Hinds County leadership ask themselves this question: Do my words, actions, solutions, and long-term planning perpetuate black dependence on the white power structure, or do my words, actions, solutions, and long-term planning lead to black independence? I don’t pretend the answer will always be obvious. My concern is that far too many Negroes among our leadership class are too lazy and/or too cowardly to ask themselves that question. Until they do, the masses of black folks must continue developing our minds and our characters so that we thrive despite them.
xxx
“Sometimes a superhero’s greatest power is the ability to instill hope in the people.”
Pops McInnis
“Free the Land Man (For Chokwe Lumumba)”
Just like a river that knows where it’s going,
your feet have kept you like the Wise Men
headed for the North star.
There was no fat cat with pockets full enough.
There was no pot hole deep enough.
There was no curve, bend, or speed bump in the road
to keep you from arriving at your destination.
You are a steamroller grinding angry asphalt into smooth street,
making rough roads ready for revolution to ride to town.
You are the cement foundation upon which we build our freedom house.
You are the forest of fruit from which we may find
nourishment from the fangs of poverty.
You are the fortified fortress that protects us from the vandals of industry.
You are the ocean of hope in which we swim to safety.
A Detroit demolition man destroying the dragons of self-hate so
that self-determination can fertilize the community into a bouquet of spring flowers.
Better than Superman,
you be Free-the-Land Man,
able to leap skyscrapers of injustice in a single bound
and slam dunk the lies about us through the hoop of truth,
able to slay slimy Judges with a lightning rod of litigation.
Faster than a speeding bullet,
you erased the “t” from can’t, making us a city of can.
And stronger than a locomotive,
you broke through the barriers
that have kept us herded like cattle,
unshackling our dreams from the dungeon of Dixiecrats,
a liberation lawyer willing to lumberjack the liars
who attempt to lay waste to the lives of rainbow children.
More than a mouthpiece for a moment,
you welded words into stainless steel
to slash the noose of oppression from the wretched of the earth.
Even when bad times became storm clouds blocking the sun,
you were a lighthouse leading people to the land of liberty.
Whether it’s planting proper seeds into your sons
so that they can sprout into life-giving trees
or being an architect for your daughter
giving her the blueprint of properly engineered manhood,
you are a brick wall that protects all families
from the wolves, thieves, and pimps
that lurk like fungus in the pit of the night.
One of the Chief Captains of the Justice League of Super Negroes—
more amazing than Spiderman, you be Anansi the word weaver
spinning webs to stop the wicked from stampeding our sanity,
more fantastic than the four,
our shining Dark Knight of Democracy
freeing the land from monstrous mercantile Magnetos.
When my mild mannered mayor removed his suit,
there was MXG[1] on his chest,
and instead of a Bat-Signal when we needed him,
we simply shined NAPO[2] in the sky.
Yet, the feet-washer that he was kept him
Assembled among the People,
our own Afro-American Robin Hood
who was more Daring than those Mississippi Devils.
Now that your spirit finally became too big for your body,
you are a pulsar that will forever illuminate our path to justice.
–C. Leigh McInnes
1. Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
2. New Afrikan Peoples Organization