By Herb Boyd
Managing Editor, Our World Today
Photo: Minister Louis Farrakhan. Photo by Herb Boyd
Chicago--If the hundreds entering the Nation of Islam’s Mosque Maryam here last Sunday had not heard that Minister Louis Farrakhan would be addressing the “Crucifixion of Michael Jackson” the great entertainer’s image projected on a huge screen at the front and festooned elsewhere around this impressive temple provided a telling clue.
Before Farrakhan focused on Jackson, who died June 25 and whose death is still being investigated, he amply discussed the subtheme of the historic destruction of Black leadership. Beginning with Denmark Vesey’s failed rebellion in Charleston in 1822, to Nat Turner’s more successful campaign in 1831, to the FBI’s and J. Edgar Hoover’s counter intelligence program and its malicious determination to “prevent the rise of a messiah,” Farrakhan laid out a litany of governmental intrigue to nullify Black liberation.
“They [the government] stripped W.E.B. Du Bois of his passport,” the minister continued, referring to the legendary scholar and giving his discussion a more contemporary edge, “forcing people to view him negatively.” Others targeted for elimination, he said, were Marcus Garvey, Paul Robeson, Dr. King and Malcolm X. Farrakhan said, “Not only do they want to kill the man, they want to kill his ideas.”
This nefarious process begins in the media, he added. “You are first crucified in the media…demagnetized to end your attraction to the people.” When the government’s attempt to denigrate Dr. King by charging that he was a notorious liar failed, they turned to his extramarital affairs, “as if an affair will make a man less of a warrior,” Farrakhan said, inciting one of many standing ovations.
At the start of his speech, Farrakhan advised his listeners that his message of Jackson’s crucifixion was “a strange subject.” And for several riveting minutes he spoke of Jesus’ crucifixion through the Scriptures while tracing David’s ancestry from Jesse to Solomon. He drew an analogy between Jackson and Jesus, noting that one was deemed the “King of the Jews,” and the other the “King of Pop.”
As Farrakhan recounted Jackson’s phenomenal career, there were opportunities to deal with the attacks he had endured, including the most disturbing one of his being anti-Semitic. “Am I anti-Semitic or are they [in this case Hollywood moguls] anti-Black?” Farrakhan asked, citing such racist films as Birth of a Nation. “I didn’t write Little Black Sambo. No, I’m not anti-Semitic, they are anti-Black.”
Farrakhan recalled several conversations he had with Jackson; particularly one soon after a fire singed his scalp. “I told him ‘let the pain serve your genius,’ and he followed with the album HIStory,” Farrakhan said. To drive home a point of Jackson’s musical gifts, Farrakhan, himself a talented musician, began reciting (almost rapping and a bit teary) a mixture of Jackson’s lyrics—“No force of nature can break your will” and “Beat me, bash me/you can never trash me. Hit me/ kick me/you can never get me,” the latter lines from They Don’t Care About Us, which he repeated several times.
Many listeners were surprised when Farrakhan quoted from a speech Jackson delivered at Oxford University in 2001. At the core of the speech was the reflection on his lost childhood, forgiveness of his father, and a universal need to protect the children of the world. “Love, ladies and gentlemen, is the human family's most precious legacy, its richest bequest, its golden inheritance,” Farrakhan said, quoting Jackson. “And it is a treasure that is handed down from one generation to another. Previous ages may not have had the wealth we enjoy. Their houses may have lacked electricity, and they squeezed their many kids into small homes without central heating.
“But those homes had no darkness, nor were they cold,” he continued. “They were lit bright with the glow of love and they were warmed snugly by the very heat of the human heart. Parents, undistracted by the lust for luxury and status, accorded their children primacy in their lives.”
Showing even more of Jackson’s generosity and humanity, Farrakhan related a story told to him by Dick Gregory that Jackson had purchased all of Little Richard’s songs and returned the publishing rights to him without any charge. Not even the most informed of the audience were aware that Jackson had donated $100,000 to the Million Man March in 1995. Farrakhan said he had asked Jackson to perform his “The Man in the Mirror” at the event, but he was persuaded not to perform. Jackson gave the money instead.
There was an increased sadness when Farrakhan talked about his last phone calls from Jackson in which there were indication that he might not be able to complete the scheduled 50 concerts in London. But he had to do them or be sued, Farrakhan explained. The charismatic minister brought the crowd to its feet again when he offered his interpretation of Jackson’s movements during his final rehearsal for the concerts, entitled This Is It! Farrakhan imitated Jackson, thrusting his fist and then giving the peace sign. And when he noted the way Jackson was marching “it was like the FOI (Fruit of Islam),” Farrakhan laughed as the audience roared.
If Jackson and Jesus were killed because of their growing influence and their courage to speak truth to power, as Farrakhan intimated, then Jackson’s connection to President Obama was one of universal congruence. Jackson possessed a universal sound that brought people together, and Obama, with his empathy and sympathy, has united the world like no president in our history, Farrakhan asserted.
And their similar unity, Jackson’s “anointed spirit,” and Obama’s compassion, for Farrakhan, are in keeping with aspects of the Messiah. In conjunction with Farrakhan’s speech, there was a two-day conference hosted by the Final Call, the NOI’s newspaper, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary.
Under the direction of its editor and at the suggestion of Akbar Muhammad, such Black journalists and broadcasters as George Curry, Bill Reed, and Warren Ballentine were invited to share their experience on ways in which the Final Call can continue its national presence and expand its readership.
