Louis Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Nation of Islam, spoke about the need for blacks to understand their history in order to come to grips with societal constraints against their economic progress in a lecture Monday night at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
“Whenever man goes off the path God appoints a representative to return man to God’s favor,” Farrakhan said in explaining the reason for his five decades of service to the Nation of Islam.
He said the Nation of Islam appreciates the prophets of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
“There is a common thread through all of the prophets and messengers of God,” Farrakhan said. “When the Messiah comes he will take this common thread and measure the threads into oneness.”
Farrakhan said the 400-year trans-Atlantic slave trade represented a great evil visited upon the black race.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“We more than anyone on the planet fit the description of lost sheep,” Farrakhan said. “We lost our homeland. We lost so much. Now we are looking to the slavemaster’s children to give us a job and our place in the sun.
“What is a slave name?” Farrakhan asked the crowd. “The name most of you walked in with tonight. These are English names but you are not Englishmen. Your name came from the last slave master of your ancestors. If a Chinese man came in and introduced himself as John Witherspoon wouldn’t you look a little perplexed? If a yellow man looks strange with a white man’s name then how strange does it look to see a black man with a white man’s name?
“If you don’t feel the need to change your slave name to a free man’s name then perhaps he still owns you,” Farrakhan said.
Farrakhan said that Malcolm X, an early leader in the Nation of Islam, persuaded Cassius Clay to become Muhammad Ali.
“Muhammad is a godly name, it means worthy of praise and Ali means the most high,” Farrakhan said.
“You must take a Godly name and give up your slave name,” Farrakhan said.
Reconstruction
Farrakhan noted that what is now UAPB was founded during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era.
“In 1875 when this school was founded black people had already established and built 60 towns,” Farrakhan said. “There were black sheriffs and black police governing these 60 towns.
“White folk didn’t build anything,” Farrakhan said. “Black folk built Congress and the White House and buildings throughout the South. Black people were seamstresses. Today you can barely sew at all or cook at all.
“Grandma knew how to cook but today you go to the supermarket, pick something out that looks nice and freeze it up,” Farrakhan said.
Farrakhan said that during Reconstruction black people became professionals.
“We were architects, engineers, carpenters, all of that,” Farrakhan said. “But today we don’t know how to build anymore. It is passed on to father and son. Home economics is passed on from mother to daughter.
“In all of the major cities we are the number one killers of each other,” Farrakhan said. “Hatred and self-hatred are the order of the day. We never did this in the darkest days of slavery.”
In touch with the earth
Farrakhan reminded the audience that UAPB started as an Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal College.
“What was the root of this institution?” Farrakhan asked. “Agriculture. They knew that the secret to life is in the earth.
“We need to create a new educational paradigm,” Farrakhan said. “Land-grant colleges like this were set up to give black folk an education after coming out of slavery. You all are much more educated now. Isn’t it strange that with all of this education you are less productive?”
Self-worth
“As beautiful as you are you don’t think so,” Farrakhan said. “You’re so ashamed of the darkness of your skin, the broadness of your nose, the kinkiness of your hair. That’s why the Koreans built Korea towns just selling us hair products.”
Farrakhan said a dangerous divide had developed between young people and their parents.
“You’re down on your babies and you are pushing them away from you,” Farrakhan said. “There is a generation gap between parents and children and into that gap Satan has stepped. Children think their parents have nothing to teach them.”
Farrakhan said girls are getting pregnant and then going to get abortions.
“You’re killing the answer to your own prayers,” Farrakhan said. “My mother tried to abort me three times. After she failed the third time she said Lord just let it be.
“God didn’t make women to be for the pleasure of and to be discarded by men,” Farrakhan said. “If you don’t have a job you have no business messing around with a woman.”
Black history
“People know about the Holocaust because a Jewish child is taught by a beautiful Jewish mother what happened to them,” Farrakhan said.
“How many of you know about the history of suffering of our people?” Farrakhan asked. “Only a few. Only a very few. You don’t know your suffering. You are so foolish that you don’t teach your children what we went through and what you went through.
“We had black bus companies, black hotels, black motels, black insurance companies,” Farrakhan said. “You could walk out of your house and didn’t have to lock the doors. We had love, dignity and respect for one another. We had to because we couldn’t be around white folks. You couldn’t drink at a white water fountain, you couldn’t relieve yourself in a white toilet, you couldn’t even be buried in the ground with them.
“God has to raise somebody and take the fear out of him to give voice to the voiceless,” Farrakhan said. “White people, we know you better than you know yourselves. We know who we are dealing with. We know your origins and we know when your end will be.
“Out of the darkness came light and out of the black man came white,” Farrakhan said. “If there were no black man there couldn’t be a white man. White folks are new on this planet. They have only been here for 6,000 years. We are the father of the Olmec civilization in Mexico. We were here before the Mayflower. You are the alpha and the omega.”
Farrakhan said that a compromise was negotiated between the north and the south in 1877 to settle a deadlocked presidential election.
“In the Compromise of 1877 supporters of Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden agreed that Hayes would be president and federal troops who were in the south to protect blacks would be removed and blacks would be returned to the plantations,” Farrakhan said. “This is when the lynchings began and black towns were burned.
“You are not as free as you think you are,” Farrakhan said. “When we were returned to the plantation we hated the land. If you don’t know what happened yesterday you cannot be prepared for today.”
Farrakhan said blacks need to prepare themselves for success.
“We need liberal arts but we also need vocational training,” Farrakhan said. “Education must constantly evolve with the times. This is a great school with a great potential. We need historically black colleges and we need you strong. Every one of us must do something to help ourselves. You can’t plan on begging for a job when you graduate. You must have the ability to provide for yourself. You need to choose a discipline that challenges you.
“There is a conspiracy to keep you in a non-threatening position through inferior education,” Farrakhan said. “I was sent to you to free you from your slave masters.”