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Excerpt-Freedom of Speech Clash-African Immigrant Impedes Protest for Tuskegee Airman
January 23, 2013

Here's an excerpt below from a longer commentary that speaks of the conflict between an African immigrant /leader of a drum corps, and foreclosure fighters defending 90 Year Old Tuskegee Airman, Ben Reed on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. While foreclosure fighters tried to hold a news conference and had asked in advance for the drummers to stop playing for a few minutes ( News Conference was 10 minutes), the drummers continued to play their drums while the foreclosure fighters pled with Wells Fargo Bank via media for a humanitarian solution to foreclosure of the Reed home.


Actions to Help Tuskegee Airman Ben Reed----

What you can do!
Honor Dr. King! Call Wells Fargo Out Now- Tell Them to Save Tuskegee Airman Ben Reed's Home & Other Homes! +1 415-623-7738 Brenda Wright, SVP Wells Fargo/MoAD Board, and +1 866-878-5865 John Stumpf, CEO
To: brenda.wright@wellsfargo.com, alfredo.pedroza@wellsfargo.com, ruben.pulido@wellsfargo.com, Timothy.P.Rector@wellsfargo.com, john.g.stumpf@wellsfargo.com
Cc: action@occupybernal.org

Sample message:  Dear Wells Fargo Officials, please work out a fair deal modification for 90 Year Old Tuskegee Airman Ben Reed and his wife I Lee Murphy Reed.  Do not auction off their home as you have planned.  Give this World War II veteran a chance to live the rest of his golden years in his home. 

Sincerely,

Wright Enterprises-Community Spotlight
Wright Enterprises-Community Spotlight

Commentary
For Immediate Release
News Conference to help 90-Year Old Tuskegee Airman, Ben Reed, save his home was drummed out by African Drummers in front of MoAD. No courtesy extended to stop for even 10 minutes while  the short news conference was conducted.
Were the musicians rude or had they been instructed to drum during the news conference?

On the streets of San Francisco, The Fight for Freedom of Speech-    

African Drums Drum against Tuskegee Airman on "The Drum Major For Justice" Martin Luther King Jr.'s  Celebration

 

 

 


San Francisco January 22, 2013 - "There's more than meets the eye."  You be the judge! Did MoAD use the ruse of entertainment to try to shutdown the First Amendment Right of the "Freedom of Speech for Occupy Bernal, Occupy Noe and ACCE?"  Listen to the videos and read except taken from the midsection of  the commentary from Jackie Wright--- judge for  yourself... For complete "what happended was" Commentary ---Click Here.

.....There was no plan for a noisy demonstration. (MoAD received a courtesy notice in just over an hour after media advisory was sent.  Click here to read.)    We were just going to speak to the press and hand out flyers to people attending the museum, people interested in stories about Black people.  We had a story that was unfolding, making history in our time and they, the museum attendees, could be a part of it by picking up the phone to call Wells Fargo Bank to help a soldier , a Tuskegee Airman, Ben Reed, who served this country so they could have "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

 

It happened!  The clash of "Freedom of Speech," but nothing as strident as some that have occurred on the streets of San Francisco.  I had cordially spoken to the Executive Director and the PR consultant when I arrived.  As it was nearing time for the news conference, they both had left the museum, so I spoke directly to the drummers that were assembled as I gave them the flyer about our imminent action.



tuskegee-airmen

 

"We're going to take a few minutes to briefly speak to the press about creating a humanitarian solution to foreclosures and a Tuskegee Airman who's home is threatened to be auctioned off in a couple of days," I explained to the group of drummers.

  

In a very thick African accent and hostile tone, the woman leading the group with a cowbell, responded, "You do what you do over there.  We do what we do here.  We will play."

  

"I'm just asking that for a few minutes, let us talk to the media about this 90- year old Tuskegee Airman who could lose his home this week, if we don't do something.

  

"We are going to play.  We were hired to play.  You do what you do over there!"

 

"Are you dismissing me," I asked.   

  

"No, I am not dismissing you!" "We were hired to do this job."

  

The outrage boiled up in me as her thick African accent rolled through my ears and the sight of her 'I'm a conscious Black woman' big beautiful woolly afro filled my eyes.   

  

"Look, let me tell you one thing," I responded in a equally stern voice.  "You would not even be here, if it were not for people like this Tuskegee Airmen who sacrificed for this country and the thousands of people with Dr. King who suffered during the Civil Rights Era."  "You...."And then I felt the pull of the back of my jacket and I went with the tow....because it was beginning to wail up big and strong, my adverse feelings about the "Motherland" that I expressed for the first time last year to  French-Cameroonian Filmmaker Jean Pierre Bekolo ( Conversations with International Film Director Jean Pierre Bekelo was posted in the San Francisco Bayview Newspaper. (http://sfbayview.com/2012/conversation-with-international-film-director-jean-pierre-bekolo/).  

"Africans sold us out!"  There could not have been a slave trade without African duplicity and direct involvement.   As a result, I personally never had that euphoric endearing feeling about visiting "the Motherland."  I did add that my stance had somewhat softened.

  

Before me was an African immigrant getting in the way of a message to help a descendant of former slaves on the very day we honor a leader that is a descendant of former slaves, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.   May I note here, President Barack Obama, a Black man, is not a descendant of former slaves, although his wife bears the blood of those who suffered cruelly for generations as slaves.

  

My fellow foreclosure fighting colleagues reassured me that the drummers were not hired by MoAD as a tactic to "manage the protest," (thinking our protest was going to be loud and wild as demonstrations in San Francisco can be).  The drumming entertainment was probably already planned.  "Let's just focus on the message and do the best if any media shows up given everything that's going on today," said SF Filmmaker, Jacquie Taliaferro, who repeated and reinforced our fellows' calming message to me.

 

So the drummers drummed on and all I could think of was a Johnny Weismuller "Tarzan" film.  Just before the Africans attacked the drums began... drumming through the night... wearing down the intruders.  In this case, the African led drummers were intruding and I focused on the business at hand, standing for a cause in the face of that awkward resistance of a benign face that looks like you but impedes the way.  No wonder there is  "the God of our silent tears" that James Weldon Johnson wrote about.

 

The experience with the drummers in front of MoAD reinforced for me the sacredness of the battle with Wells Fargo Bank.  As I mentioned to assembled media (KPFA, Channels 2 and 11), "We stand in front of MoAD to support Tuskegee Airman Ben Reed and others who are in danger of losing their homes.  We point out that on one hand, Wells Fargo gives pennies to Arts organizations like MoAD to appear to be as a good citizen and on the other they are committing bank robbery stealing the homes of Americans.  Wells Fargo Bank has moved away from its moral center.  There can be a humanitarian solution to foreclosure.".... For Complete Commentary CLICK HERE.  

 

After Helping Ben Reed by Making Phone Calls and Speaking with Media about His Story,

Larry Faulks, now homeless, Shared His Dream About His  

Family Home on MoAD's Sidewalk Chalk Board During

Free Museum Day Activity. 

 

Wherever you are in the Bay Area or any other part of the country or world, you can help.  

 

ACTION FLYER HAS PHONE NUMBERS TO CALL TO HELP BENJAMIN REED'S FAMILY!

http://occupytheauctions.org ALSO HAS EMAIL ADDRESSES TO WELLS FARGO EXECUTIVES.

VIDEOS of ACTION (For Complete VIDEOS go to http://occupytheauctions.org)  Also, Thank you to KTVU Channel 2, NBC 11 and KPFA for coverage of the action...and their willingness to move about so that they could get the story.

Part VI of Occupy Wells Fargo at MOAD on Martin Luther King Jr Day, January 21, 2013
Jackie Wright Speaks at Occupy Wells Fargo at MOAD on
Martin Luther King Jr Day, January 21, 2013


 
Part IV of Occupy Wells Fargo at MOAD on Martin Luther King Jr Day, January 21, 2013
Larry Faulks Speaks at  Occupy Wells Fargo at MOAD on
Martin Luther King Jr Day, January 21, 2013


Part V of Occupy Wells Fargo at MOAD on Martin Luther King Jr Day, January 21, 2013
 Ed Donaldson Speaks at Occupy Wells Fargo at MOAD on Martin Luther King Jr Day, January 21, 2013


Dr. King told the AFL-CIO in 1961, "Our needs are identical with labor's needs: Decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old-age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children, and respect in the community."

 

"I freed thousands of slaves. I could have freed thousands more, if they had known they were slaves." Harriett Tubman

 

Whether MoAD's actions were intentional or not, they are worthy along with other Arts organizations to receive more financial support from Wells Fargo Bank and the general public.

 

I do hope it was just a case of them hiring "rude musicians." 

 

Humbly Submitted!

 

Jackie Wright


1/28/13*** Note**** The African Drummers were a planned event at MoAD the Museum of the African Diaspora.   It seems in deed that it was just a case of "rude musicians." 

MoAD's advance publicity:

[Media Alert]  •  [MoAD Website]  •  [eBlast]


 

 

 

Articles of Interest   

 

As racism played a major role in the mortgage crisis, this New York Times Article although not on the mortgage crisis, is interesting-Reverend Greggory Brown of Oakland is quoted:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/21/us/politics/blacks-see-new-patience-and-high-expectations-for-obama.html?ref=todayspaper

 

Pastor Calls for Help/ Open Letter to Faith Leaders-USE POWER AGAINST FORECLOSURES

 http://www.wrightnow.biz/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=78091&columnid=

 

"Django" and "Lincoln," Do they Call for Reparations?

http://www.wrightnow.biz/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=78056&columnid=

 









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