Amilcar Shabazz

Statement by New Afrikan Prisoner of War Kuwasi Balagoon

Amilcar Shabazz — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:54:29 PDT

As a member of Kuwasi Balagoon's political defense collective, called the National Committee to Defend New Afrikan Freedom Fighters, I transcribed this statement that he attempted to present in court at his trial in Goshen, NY, that opened July 11, 1983. Orange County Judge David Ritter denied him from giving the full statement that is presented here from the pamphlet that was published for Black August 1983, with the brief introduction that I wrote.

Dope is Death

Amilcar Shabazz — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:03:25 PDT

"Dope is Death" started as a study document for revolutionary nationalist cadres in the 1980s at the height of the Crack Wars and Reaganomics. It was later published in the September/October 1987 issue of "By Any Means Necessary!" newspaper published by the New Afrikan People's Organization. The version seen here is the 1988 pamphlet edition.

Review of They Too Call Alabama Home by Richard Bailey

Amilcar Shabazz — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:26:45 PST

A review of a historical reference work on notable blacks who lived in the state of Alabama.

Putting Black Voices In Print

Amilcar Shabazz — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 11:27:06 PST

A discussion of Philip Foner's magisterial collection of African American orations.

Review of Soulfires: Young Black Men on Love and Violence

Amilcar Shabazz — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 11:20:35 PST

A review of a literary and cultural anthology on African American males on love and violence.

The American Democratic Tradition & the Quest for Access & Equity in Higher Education: The Browns and Blues of Social Change

Amilcar Shabazz — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 08:59:05 PST

In this lecture I revisit the meaning of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and the legal and social struggles that led to the ruling and its consequences especially in the area of higher educational opportunity. I develop the idea of the American Democratic Tradition not as a fossilized ideal but as a contested terrain. The Brown decision and the blues of social change as a protracted, continuous process of struggle is the moment I am trying to render here in this lecture.

The Cornell Law Review invited me to participate in its 2004 Symposium, particularly Panel One on "Law, Democracy, and Ideals: Equal Access to Higher Education" with Professors Marcia G. Synnott and Michael A. Olivas. The symposium was co-sponsored by Allen R. Tessler, Dean of the Cornell Law School, the Africana Studies and Research Center, the Cornell Black Law Students Association, the Cornell Law Students Association, the Federalist Society, the Institute for African Development, and many others. For the complete list of participants and co-sponsors see http://organizations.lawschool.cornell.edu/clr/SymposiumSchedule.htm

Racial Terror & the Attempt to Stop the Desegregation of Lamar State College of Technology

Amilcar Shabazz — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:20:34 PST

The desegregation of Lamar State College of Technology in Beaumont was marked by racial terror. The clash at Lamar climaxed a protracted antidiscrimination campaign that developed during the Second World War, escalated in 1949 when Lamar grew from a locally supported junior college to a state-supported senior college, and turned into a court battle in the wake of the victorious 1950 Supreme Court decision in Sweatt v. Painter which opened certain graduate and professional school programs at the University of Texas to African Americans. While in the book Advancing Democracy my focus is on documenting Lamar’s desegregation and situating the Beaumont-based struggle for access and equity in higher education in a larger statewide and national context, in this presentation I discuss one particular aspect in greater detail. Following the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, racial terror was deployed in response to efforts to desegregate postsecondary institutions in various parts of Texas. Terrorist activity and mob violence was successful in blocking efforts in Kilgore and Texarkana, as well as in stemming the organization of lawsuits in other areas, particularly in East Texas. Beaumont, however, was a different story altogether. The experience there calls into question the so-called Backlash Thesis.

One for the Crows, One for the Crackers: The Strange Career of Public Higher Education in Houston, Texas

Amilcar Shabazz — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:44:47 PDT

The dynamics of how the dual system of higher education in Jim Crow America emerged and operated is explored in this article in the context of the largest city in the 20th century U.S. South: Houston, Texas. The history herein moves from a pragmatic response to a deep need for postsecondary educational opportunity in the 1920s to a major expansion in the 1940s in the face of the lawsuit of Heman Sweatt to the 1960s after state-mandated segregation is officially ended.

How Deep the Well: History and the Journey from Selma to Timbuktu

Amilcar Shabazz — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 17:04:11 PDT

A summary of an international education summit in Mali in 2001 and the follow-up visit of a Malian delegation to Alabama

"Giving Back to the Community!" Interview with Gil Scott-Heron, February 1995

Amilcar Shabazz — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:47:17 PDT

GIL SCOTT-HERON is a legendary musician in the tradition of Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Larry Neal and other Black cultural artists who helped raise the socio-political consciousness during the sixties. Many credit him as the most influential figure in the early genesis of rap music. His incorporation of wordsongs throughout most of his music helped lay the basis for today's rap artists. Beginning in 1970 with SMALL TALK AT 125TH & LENOX, he has recorded over 22 albums, published two novels and three works of poetry, and has performed throughout the world. In 1994, Gil Scott-Heron, after a 12-year absence from the music studio, released the album SPIRITS. During February of 1994, he toured America performing for various causes -- in this case, the struggle of death-penalty abolitionist Gary Graham. Moments before a high-spirited performance, Gil Scott-Heron talked to journalists Larvester Gaither, Lynn Page, Bakari Kitwana, and political historian & educator Amilcar Shabazz.

The Forty Acres Documents: An Introduction

Amilcar Shabazz — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:33:50 PDT

The Forty Acres Documents: What Did the United States Really Promise the People Freed from Slavery? Wrote introduction and co-edited with Imari and Johnita Scott Obadele. * A revised and expanded edition is in the works *

Scholar-Activist Exemplar 1: G. I. Forum v. Texas Education Agency

Amilcar Shabazz — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 17:01:41 PDT

Herein are some primary documents related to my involvement as an expert witness in the case "G. I. Forum v. Texas Education Agency" (U.S. District Court, Civil Action No. SA-97-CA-1278EP). I gave a deposition on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills Test and was the Plaintiff's rebuttal expert witness at trial on 29 September 1999, in San Antonio, TX.