Community and Culture and Essays on Struggle: Position and Analysis

“Forging Our Future With Fannie Lou Hamer: The Urgency and Value of Voting”

Dr. Maulana KarengaOctober 8, 2020

In the midst of the pandemic of COVID 19, the ongoing pathology of racist oppression and lying imposed as a way of life, the sacred charge to us by our honored foremother, Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer (October 6), to constantly question and radically transform America is both urgent and enduringly relevant. She taught that justice and freedom require truth and “if we want America to be a free society, we must stop lying” and stop people’s lying from going unchallenged. Indeed, we must speak truth to the people and speak truth to power

Dr. Maulana Karenga

“Pursuing the Seven-Fold Path of Blackness: Practicing Principles of Life and Struggle”

September 24, 2020

As we continue to mark, celebrate and commemorate the 55th Anniversary of the founding of our organization Us, 6205 | September 7 | 1965, I want to continue to draw from some of our early ideas and practices and discuss and demonstrate their current and enduring relevance.

COVID-19 Dr. Maulana Karenga

Bringing Forth the Fire Within Us: Weathering the Worst of Winters

Dr. Maulana KarengaApril 2, 2020

Reflecting on the challenge before us, I am drawn to the word for “challenge” in Swahili, changamoto. The word is a combination of two words—moto (fire) and changa which has several meanings, but is here interpreted as both to collect and to contribute. Thus, it literally means both to collect and contribute fire, a gathering and giving of fire, interpreting fire here as vital and transformative energy and focused and determined agency.

Dr. Maulana Karenga Opinion

Righteous and Relentless Struggle:  Reflections on the Principle and Practice

Dr. Maulana KarengaAugust 30, 2018

Even without understanding it in the depth that would come later, we were in, 1965, a new generation building on centuries of sacrifice and struggles of all those who preceded us, those who cleared firm and sacred ground on which we stood and still stand and who opened essential and upward ways on which we would continue the unfinished struggle for liberation and ever higher levels of human life. In speaking of this history, Mary McLeod Bethune told us we are heirs and custodians of a great legacy,” but we were not always able to recognize and rightfully respect the historical and cultural ties of life and struggle that bound us with each preceding generation.

Dr. Maulana Karenga Op-Ed Opinion

Remembering Malcolm and Martin: Living Lives of Service and Sacrifice (PT 2)

Dr. Maulana KarengaMay 10, 2018

Part 2. In the midst of the rising tide of resistance and liberation struggles in this country and the world, Min. Malcolm taught that we must always be ready to make the ultimate sacrifice. Indeed, he said, “if you are not ready to die for freedom, put the word out of your vocabulary”.

Dr. Maulana Karenga Opinion

Rightfully Remembering Malcolm and Martin: Living Lives of Service and Sacrifice (PT 1)

Dr. Maulana KarengaMay 10, 2018

Part 1. The troubled, troubling and taxing times in which we live, and the rugged, racist and treacherous terrain on which we fight demand more from us than episodic engagement, convenient contributions and controlled anger from the edges. Indeed, the life and death of Min. Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and all our other honored ancestors who gave their lives in service and sacrifice for us and the advancement of human good taught this fundamental lesson.