In 1969, in the city of Detroit, Michigan, the National Black Economic Development Conference held by many prominent black leaders of the United States was seized by a group of militant brothers who submitted a document demanding reparations to the Afro-American people of the country. The Black Manifesto was directed primarily "to the white Christian churches and the Synagogues in the United States of America and to all other racist institutions".

The sum of $500,000,000 was requested (which at the time amounted to $15 "per nigger" for the population of 30,000,000 black Americans) from the above organizations and from the American government. The Manifesto asked that the money be dispersed to the advantage of the development of blacks around the nation, which included educational and training facilities, banking, media, and publishing establishments, and financial institutions.

The premise of the demands of the Black Manifesto was "total control as the only solution to the economic problems of black people". During the revolution of the 60's, after blacks began to break free from the prolonged fetters of suppression and poverty, naturally, anger was felt.

Because of anger - as it would be in any being suppressed to thus kind of treatment - black movements reacted in violence and aggression, charging their oppressors to recompense the black race to the fullest degree. Of course, the American government apathetically winked at the demands by passing laws that attempted to, and succeeded in, appeasing the race.

Now that the country has advanced slightly morally and to more adequate economic conditions to the point of greater recognition and opportunity for all, there is need of an alternative means in establishing a power structure for the black race. Below is a more modernized rendering of demands from the American government not based on any sum of money as reparation - for money can never repair the damage - but rest on moral, humanize terms that every man should receive from his fellow human being.

Brothers and Sisters:

It is apparent to the masses of Afro-Americans in the United States of America that racism and discrimination continues to with-hold mass economic development from the black race and that civil liberty laws created for reasons of opportunity are benevolent yet deterring gestures. We also realize that the economical, political, and cultural degradation of the Afro-American is second hand agenda to the social prosperity of the Anglo-American.

Consequently, there are many blacks who have adjusted to the ways of the American life and culture convinced that there is no longer a black problem in the country except for those who are late adjusting. It is clear there is a class division among Afro-Americans, some attributing to the conservative traditions, and some leaning more toward the liberal.

It would further equip the Anglo-American's strategy of divide and conquer if one sector of the black community alienated themselves from the other. Segregation of the black race from the black race is not the answer. If, as a people, we begin adapting the mentality used to divide us, the race as a unit will never rise. There must be a common agreement among all members of the black race. To accomplish this, all blacks must realize their own identity.

To war against the mentality of capitalism is not an impossible feat. Nations today have commenced to destroy the imperialist born government. The Israeli Jew has little to do with the position of the black man in this country; they only seek to gain power for their own. The Afro-American's problem involves whites and whites only. They are the nation that initiated the enslavement of Africans in addition to depriving us of opportunity, and the nation that have sought to control the world. For our war is not with Israel but with America.

The idea of Afro-American families migrating back to African for the purpose of improving Africa's economic situation is one of nonsense, we have yet to improving our own here in America. The leaders of Africa are aware of the situation of the colored people in the world: how the imperialist American government exploits them; therefore, they must also agree with other nations - including the blacks of America - that this form of rule must soon end. An attempt by America to defer this arrangement will occur as in the past, but her enemies are great and far reaching and are not as weak as before. It is a chance America will take.

Placing the lives of Afro-Americans in danger by talk of a furiously violent overthrow of this government is suicide. Violence brings only poverty and lost hope. Afro-Americans should never turn to the strategies of the enemy but seek to out-think him. Using whatever means necessary to gain what is rightfully ours lack reason and creativity and is a primitive expression of desperation. The gun barrel brought us to America and forced us to slave, yet it shall be by the point of a pen and the answer to our prayers, by which we shall stand, or leave.

The vision of Afro-America liberating all colored people throughout the world is a possibility but only one that can be accomplished if those same Afro-Americans free themselves from the mental and spiritual bondage of American illusion and imagery. Before the horrid days of slavery, the black man was, content and secure in his own land. They lived by virtue and the standards that make great kings. The lie of the white man that blacks was uncivilized and savages were merely uncivilized and savage words. Fear of the black man was then, as it is now.

Blacks are not the only nation of people that the white man fears, nor who are his enemies, therefore, blacks have nothing to fear where it pertains to the white man's censure of his demands or request. The world and we watched America's senseless murder of the Vietnamese and his destruction of the Japanese with the A-bomb. We constantly observe his bombings of smaller, defenseless countries that pose no more than idol threats, and afterward the way they scurrilously drop care packages from airplanes upon the disabled nation. All, and God, see the arrogance of America in all her glory yet her time is not come. Until it comes, the Afro-American must not, and cannot risk any more of its royally descendant, pseudo-American blood.

The revolution that approaches will not be initiated by the black man but will come naturally, as an act of nature and history, and in the aftermath a nation will rise contrary in economic, political, and cultural policy to that of America. Thus, the objective must be well thought out in the mean time. We must devise or agree on a system now that will appropriate and provide for the future rulers and citizens of that new nation.

If capitalism and imperialism is what we seek to destroy, and all manner of prejudice and discrimination, and all injustice and bigotry which were all what this country was built upon, then to this day it must subside. If indeed this is what fueled America's strive for world dominance then the Afro-American must rid himself of all these immoral attributes and think clearly as to what we truly want.

Resist! The suggested concepts of emulation of the white race. We no longer need to rely on what the white race wants and what the white race thinks and imagines, for we have come to a maturity of our own. We have our own wants and our own needs and desires, why concentrate on how to integrate among people that practice deception, trickery and oppression. We are not a people destined for world dominance and destruction, but for world peace and equality. We must practice the fruits thereof; then, we must understand the plight of all people who have been subjugated beneath the cold arms and thoughts of the white race.

Our fight remains against racism, but heightens against classism and greed of the capitalist mind. Capitalist reasoning lust abundance and the monopolizing of the world's resources regardless of whose land it comes. We must respect a nation's land, resources, culture, and god, unlike the white man that spits, pisses on, and smites the face of any race other than the white.

Yet the theology of the Afro-American as a New World power must respect others and be sure to recompense the world its due. We must see God as he is and not as we define him to be. We must trust in him wholly and not as the nation before us, who mockingly capitalized from His name vainly. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have a theology, one of faith, love, and righteousness.

Harmony amongst the white, or any race that attempts to reconstruct the capitalist government can never be obtained, therefore, we ask that no black or any colored man or woman seek to build along side as a token of harmony, with one who envisions oppression. Compromising and bargaining the Afro-American self-worth in the likeness of money can never pay retribution for the millions of souls, mothers and fathers; children and grandparents, that were sacrificed upon American soil.

For we, the Afro-American does not ask for blood tokens of murdered souls; nor, do we seek plots of this stolen land. Neither of the above will compensate. What can a people impart, or say, to a nation stripped and robbed of her identity and heritage since the year of 1619? The answer is based on a concept and the concept is recorded in the following Manifesto:

(1) We call for love, as opposed to $500,000,000 amounting to $15 a nigger.
(2) We call for respect, as opposed to $200,000,000 for a Southern Land Bank.
(3) We call for justice, as opposed to four major publishing and printing companies.
(4) We call for truth, as opposed to four major futuristic television networks.
(5) We call for honesty, as opposed to a research skills center to psycho-evaluate black people.
(6) We call for distance, as opposed to a training center for community development.
(7) We call for liberty, as opposed to welfare programs.
(8) We call for peace, as opposed to $20,000,000 to establish a National Black Labor Strike and Defense Fund.
(9) We call for spirituality, as opposed to $20,000,000 for the International Black Appeal Fund.
(10) We call for faith, as opposed to $130,000,000 for a black university.

To bring these demands to past we realize that we must have the support of people, therefore:

(1) We call upon believers of God, as opposed to racist.
(2) We call upon the masses, as opposed to the elite.
(3) We call upon the worker, as opposed to the rich.
(4) We call upon the humble, as opposed to the arrogant.
(5) We call upon the meek, as opposed to the proud.
(6) We call upon the individual, as opposed to the title.
(7) We call upon the heart, as opposed to the mind.
(8) We call upon the soul, as opposed to the emotions.
(9) We call upon the sinner, as opposed to the saved.
(10) We call upon God, as opposed to any man.

Brothers and Sisters, we were a people born into anguish and distress, yet we are now full of love and aspiration. We no longer have to bow our heads and hush our voices to the man that watches so intently over our labors. We no longer have to hustle, or lie, or cheat to survive this life. We have a refugee above us, one that is always a place of promise. There are no washouts or shiftless or incompetents within, there are only those who see nature work for and not against them. Let us see no blood nor violence or hostile communities nevermore, but the promise is of unity for all that believe.

If death is our destiny then let it be so, for we know that what lies beyond life is even better. Who knows what this world will amount to some day, and who cares if it never establishes peace the way we see peace. If there is one thing our eyes have seen, it is the calling of our names to where we must go, to where we once were. Our land is one that need not be purchased for it has already been redeemed for us to dwell. We know that our brothers all over the world wish and pray the same prayers that we say, and we know that very soon the answer will be heard loud and clear by us, and by those contrary to the one who answers.

Let not faith in God be destroyed by mere words based on lies, discouraging actions in place of decent behavior. We know that the Christian Anglo-American misused the words of God in his conquest for the world, yet, my brothers and sisters, there is a God that looks beyond the faults to our needs. Our needs, as stated before, are met, brothers and sisters, it is the needs of those that have mocked God in all His glory and excellence that must be addressed, and speedily. Vengeance is mine saith the Lord, wait, I say, on the coming of the Lord. Love is not a thing to be trampled, so know, people, that it is a power more intelligent than force. Reason with him that is foolish in heart and never compromise dignity for lust.

The objective in this Manifesto is to reach out to the white race, and all others who suppose that the deprived and the oppressed are voluntarily lazy and shiftless without realizing that the position to rise from was not one of choice, but of circumstance. Oh, that it is asked for reason from a people that sit high above all reason, or to expect an ear that hears without injustice laid at its root. So humble are the demands above that once read and conceived may fall through the mind yet drop to the heart, convicting that which was long dead. The demands are negotiable, yet should not be ignored. If so, what we plead as a cause that grew from the soil of the earth as natural, will be what judges the opposed on the day he realizes that all we say is true. We live by the words:

There is one God
There are one people
We speak the truth
We speak in Love

© 2004 By AfroStaff