Calling Black men to build community

By FinalCall.com News | Last updated: Dec 3, 2013 - 11:52:08 AM

CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - Reciting a litany of abuses inflicted from outside of the community and self-destructive acts committed on one another, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan called for Black men to stop the violence, acquire knowledge and take their place as community builders and not destroyers.

Self-knowledge and self-love are needed, said the Minister in the 47th installment of his weekly webcast, “The Time and What Must Be Done.” The 52-week series is broadcast Saturday evenings at 6 p.m. CST at NOI.org/TheTime. The Nov. 30 segment was taken from a speech delivered to Black men in Houston in 1994, “Let Us Make Man.” It was the fourth city visited as the Minister embarked on a Men’s Only Tour to call Black men to take up the responsibility to address crime and violence afflicting Black America. The meetings were the run-up to the spectacularly successful Million Man March in 1995. Some 28,000 to 30,000 men showed up at Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church with 15,000 forced to stand outside in the streets.

Black people, the unlearned masses represented in scripture as an ass, and young learned Blacks, styled in scripture as colts, are tied to White America but not being used. It is time for Black people, Black men especially, to strike out and create a future for themselves, said the Minister.

God is with us and our women would love and respect us for doing what we should do as children of God, he said.

“Under J. Edgar Hoover and the Counterintelligence Program (“COINTELPRO”) of the United States government, they treated us like we were aliens—sending spies and agent provocateurs in among all our Black organizations to discredit our Black leaders, and cause us to fight and kill one another,” said Minister Farrakhan. “The government did this; using the dollars of our taxes.”

The Minister continued, “I think it’s time, now, that Black men stand. I think it’s time, now, that Black men put the gun down for the destruction of yourself and your brother.”

God has chosen Black men to do a mighty work and by pooling resources, we can buy, rebuild and restore our communities and create jobs and industry, said the Minister.

“Suppose the 14,000 on the inside put $10 together? Then, 4,000 times $10 is $140,000. Put it in a treasury. Come back next week, contribute the same, you have $280,000—put it in a treasury. Come back the third week, put it in a treasure $420,000; and by the fourth week, you would have had over a half a million dollars in liquid cash,” he said.

With that money and financial leverage, property could be purchased from banks, youth could learn trades as apprentices and Blacks could own, protect and control their neighborhoods, bringing peace and progress, the Minister said. Investments could then be made into farming and industry, he added.

(See edited transcript of this important message. To support this vision for progress today, please visit EconomicBlueprint.org.)

The Final Call