Community Alert
For immediate release - February 12, 2008
For more information Contact NBUF- 713-942-0365
It has come to the attention of the National Black United Front (NBUF) - Houston Chapter , hip hop icon Professor Griff suffered the loss of his home in Atlanta , Georgia Monday night., February 11, 2007, while he was in New York to do a lecture. The house burned after an explosion caused by a gas leak.
He says 90% of his belongings - including his studio, books, cds, dvds, clothes, pictures and more were destroyed.
Professor Griff has had a close working relationship with NBUF and other organizations and individuals in Houston , being a major part of the success of the 10th Annual Sankofa: Caravan to the Ancestors.
NBUF - HOUSTON is organizing a fundraiseer to assist our brother . Location and date of the fundraiser will be forthcoming. Meanwhile, donations can be dropped off at the NBUF building. Call 713-942-0365 before coming by, or mail to NBUF, 2428 Southmore, Houston, Texas 77004.. Checks should be made out to : Kavon Shah , and can also be mailed directly to him at P.O. BOX 1919, Atlanta Georgia , 30355
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Friday, February 15, 2008
Discrimination Against Blacks Linked To Dehumanization
Discrimination Against Blacks Linked To Dehumanization, Study Finds
===================================================================
Crude historical depictions of African Americans as ape-like may have
disappeared from mainstream U.S. culture, but new research reveals that
many Americans subconsciously associate blacks with apes. (Credit: Image
courtesy of Stanford University)
ScienceDaily (Feb. 8, 2008) — Crude historical depictions of African
Americans as ape-like may have disappeared from mainstream U.S. culture,
but research presented in a new paper by psychologists at Stanford,
Pennsylvania State University and the University of California-Berkeley
reveals that many Americans subconsciously associate blacks with apes.
In addition, the findings show that society is more likely to condone
violence against black criminal suspects as a result of its broader
inability to accept African Americans as fully human, according to the
researchers.
Co-author Jennifer Eberhardt, a Stanford associate professor of
psychology who is black, said she was shocked by the results,
particularly since they involved subjects born after Jim Crow and the
civil rights movement. "This was actually some of the most depressing
work I have done," she said. "This shook me up. You have suspicions when
you do the work—intuitions—you have a hunch. But it was hard to prepare
for how strong [the black-ape association] was—how we were able to pick
it up every time."
The paper, "Not Yet Human: Implicit Knowledge, Historical Dehumanization
and Contemporary Consequences," is the result of a series of six
previously unpublished studies conducted by Eberhardt, Pennsylvania State
University psychologist Phillip Atiba Goff (the lead author and a former
student of Eberhardt's) and Matthew C. Jackson and Melissa J. Williams,
graduate students at Penn State and Berkeley, respectively. The paper is
scheduled to appear Feb. 7 in the Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, which is published by the American Psychological Association.
The research took place over six years at Stanford and Penn State under
Eberhardt's supervision. It involved mostly white male undergraduates. In
a series of studies that subliminally flashed black or white male faces
on a screen for a fraction of a second to "prime" the students,
researchers found subjects could identify blurry ape drawings much faster
after they were primed with black faces than with white faces.
The researchers consistently discovered a black-ape association even if
the young adults said they knew nothing about its historical
connotations. The connection was made only with African American faces;
the paper's third study failed to find an ape association with other
non-white groups, such as Asians. Despite such race-specific findings,
the researchers stressed that dehumanization and animal imagery have been
used for centuries to justify violence against many oppressed groups.
"Despite widespread opposition to racism, bias remains with us,"
Eberhardt said. "African Americans are still dehumanized; we're still
associated with apes in this country. That association can lead people to
endorse the beating of black suspects by police officers, and I think it
has lots of other consequences that we have yet to uncover."
Historical background
Scientific racism in the United States was graphically promoted in a
mid-19th-century book by Josiah C. Nott and George Robins Gliddon titled
Types of Mankind, which used misleading illustrations to suggest that
"Negroes" ranked between "Greeks" and chimpanzees. "When we have a
history like that in this country, I don't know how much of that goes
away completely, especially to the extent that we are still dealing with
severe racial inequality, which fuels and maintains those associations in
ways that people are unaware," Eberhardt said.
Although such grotesque characterizations of African Americans have
largely disappeared from mainstream U.S. society, Eberhardt noted that
science education could be partly responsible for reinforcing the view
that blacks are less evolved than whites. An iconic 1970 illustration,
"March of Progress," published in the Time-Life book Early Man, depicts
evolution beginning with a chimpanzee and ending with a white man. "It's
a legacy of our past that the endpoint of evolution is a white man,"
Eberhardt said. "I don't think it's intentional, but when people learn
about human evolution, they walk away with a notion that people of
African descent are closer to apes than people of European descent. When
people think of a civilized person, a white man comes to mind."
Consequences of socially endorsed violence
In the paper's fifth study, the researchers subliminally primed 115 white
male undergraduates with words associated with either apes (such as
"monkey," "chimp," "gorilla") or big cats (such as "lion," "tiger,"
"panther"). The latter was used as a control because both images are
associated with violence and Africa, Eberhardt said. The subjects then
watched a two-minute video clip, similar to the television program COPS,
depicting several police officers violently beating a man of undetermined
race. A mugshot of either a white or a black man was shown at the
beginning of the clip to indicate who was being beaten, with a
description conveying that, although described by his family as "a loving
husband and father," the suspect had a serious criminal record and may
have been high on drugs at the time of his arrest.
The students were then asked to rate how justified the beating was.
Participants who believed the suspect was white were no more likely to
condone the beating when they were primed with either ape or big cat
words, Eberhardt said. But those who thought the suspect was black were
more likely to justify the beating if they had been primed with ape words
than with big cat words. "Taken together, this suggests that implicit
knowledge of a Black-ape association led to marked differences in
participants' judgments of Black criminal suspects," the researchers
write.
According to the paper's authors, this link has devastating consequences
for African Americans because it "alters visual perception and attention,
and it increases endorsement of violence against black suspects." For
example, the paper's sixth study showed that in hundreds of news stories
from 1979 to 1999 in the Philadelphia Inquirer, African Americans
convicted of capital crimes were about four times more likely than whites
convicted of capital crimes to be described with ape-relevant language,
such as "barbaric," "beast," "brute," "savage" and "wild." "Those who are
implicitly portrayed as more ape-like in these articles are more likely
to be executed by the state than those who are not," the researchers
write.
The way forward
Despite the paper's findings, Eberhardt said she is optimistic about the
future. "This work isn't arguing that there hasn't been any progress made
or that we are living in the same society that existed in the 19th
century," she said. "We have made a lot of progress on race issues, but
we should recognize that racial bias isn't dead. We still need to be
aware of that and aware of all the different ways [racism] can affect us,
despite our intentions and motivations to be egalitarian. We still have
work to do."
For Eberhardt, two stories of race exist in America. "One is about the
disappearance of bias—that it's no longer with us," she said. "But the
other is about the transformation of bias. It's not the egregious bias
anymore, but it's modern bias, subtle bias." With both of these stories,
she said, there is an understanding that society has moved beyond the
historic battles centered around race. "We want to argue, with this work,
that there is one old race battle that we're still fighting," she said.
"That is the battle for blacks to be recognized as fully human."
This research was supported by a Stanford University Dean's Award to
Jennifer Eberhardt.
Adapted from materials provided by Stanford University.
====================================
Title Not yet human: Implicit knowledge, historical dehumanization, and
contemporary consequences.
Author(s) Goff PA, Eberhardt JL, Williams MJ, Jackson MC
Institution Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University.
Source J Pers Soc Psychol 2008 Feb; 94(2):292-306.
Abstract Historical representations explicitly depicting Blacks as
apelike have largely disappeared in the United States, yet a mental
association between Blacks and apes remains. Here, the authors
demonstrate that U.S. citizens implicitly associate Blacks and apes. In a
series of laboratory studies, the authors reveal how this association
influences study participants' basic cognitive processes and
significantly alters their judgments in criminal justice contexts.
Specifically, this Black-ape association alters visual perception and
attention, and it increases endorsement of violence against Black
suspects. In an archival study of actual criminal cases, the authors show
that news articles written about Blacks who are convicted of capital
crimes are more likely to contain ape-relevant language than news
articles written about White convicts. Moreover, those who are implicitly
portrayed as more apelike in these articles are more likely to be
executed by the state than those who are not. The authors argue that
examining the subtle persistence of specific historical representations
such as these may not only enhance contemporary research on
dehumanization, stereotyping, and implicit processes but also highlight
common forms of discrimination that previously have gone unrecognized.
(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).
Language eng
Pub Type(s) Journal Article
PubMed ID 18211178
---------------------------------------
author of "The Black Holocaust for Beginners"
Social Activism is not a hobby: it's a Lifestyle lasting a Lifetime
http://blackeducator.blogspot.com
---------------------------------------
===================================================================
Crude historical depictions of African Americans as ape-like may have
disappeared from mainstream U.S. culture, but new research reveals that
many Americans subconsciously associate blacks with apes. (Credit: Image
courtesy of Stanford University)
ScienceDaily (Feb. 8, 2008) — Crude historical depictions of African
Americans as ape-like may have disappeared from mainstream U.S. culture,
but research presented in a new paper by psychologists at Stanford,
Pennsylvania State University and the University of California-Berkeley
reveals that many Americans subconsciously associate blacks with apes.
In addition, the findings show that society is more likely to condone
violence against black criminal suspects as a result of its broader
inability to accept African Americans as fully human, according to the
researchers.
Co-author Jennifer Eberhardt, a Stanford associate professor of
psychology who is black, said she was shocked by the results,
particularly since they involved subjects born after Jim Crow and the
civil rights movement. "This was actually some of the most depressing
work I have done," she said. "This shook me up. You have suspicions when
you do the work—intuitions—you have a hunch. But it was hard to prepare
for how strong [the black-ape association] was—how we were able to pick
it up every time."
The paper, "Not Yet Human: Implicit Knowledge, Historical Dehumanization
and Contemporary Consequences," is the result of a series of six
previously unpublished studies conducted by Eberhardt, Pennsylvania State
University psychologist Phillip Atiba Goff (the lead author and a former
student of Eberhardt's) and Matthew C. Jackson and Melissa J. Williams,
graduate students at Penn State and Berkeley, respectively. The paper is
scheduled to appear Feb. 7 in the Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, which is published by the American Psychological Association.
The research took place over six years at Stanford and Penn State under
Eberhardt's supervision. It involved mostly white male undergraduates. In
a series of studies that subliminally flashed black or white male faces
on a screen for a fraction of a second to "prime" the students,
researchers found subjects could identify blurry ape drawings much faster
after they were primed with black faces than with white faces.
The researchers consistently discovered a black-ape association even if
the young adults said they knew nothing about its historical
connotations. The connection was made only with African American faces;
the paper's third study failed to find an ape association with other
non-white groups, such as Asians. Despite such race-specific findings,
the researchers stressed that dehumanization and animal imagery have been
used for centuries to justify violence against many oppressed groups.
"Despite widespread opposition to racism, bias remains with us,"
Eberhardt said. "African Americans are still dehumanized; we're still
associated with apes in this country. That association can lead people to
endorse the beating of black suspects by police officers, and I think it
has lots of other consequences that we have yet to uncover."
Historical background
Scientific racism in the United States was graphically promoted in a
mid-19th-century book by Josiah C. Nott and George Robins Gliddon titled
Types of Mankind, which used misleading illustrations to suggest that
"Negroes" ranked between "Greeks" and chimpanzees. "When we have a
history like that in this country, I don't know how much of that goes
away completely, especially to the extent that we are still dealing with
severe racial inequality, which fuels and maintains those associations in
ways that people are unaware," Eberhardt said.
Although such grotesque characterizations of African Americans have
largely disappeared from mainstream U.S. society, Eberhardt noted that
science education could be partly responsible for reinforcing the view
that blacks are less evolved than whites. An iconic 1970 illustration,
"March of Progress," published in the Time-Life book Early Man, depicts
evolution beginning with a chimpanzee and ending with a white man. "It's
a legacy of our past that the endpoint of evolution is a white man,"
Eberhardt said. "I don't think it's intentional, but when people learn
about human evolution, they walk away with a notion that people of
African descent are closer to apes than people of European descent. When
people think of a civilized person, a white man comes to mind."
Consequences of socially endorsed violence
In the paper's fifth study, the researchers subliminally primed 115 white
male undergraduates with words associated with either apes (such as
"monkey," "chimp," "gorilla") or big cats (such as "lion," "tiger,"
"panther"). The latter was used as a control because both images are
associated with violence and Africa, Eberhardt said. The subjects then
watched a two-minute video clip, similar to the television program COPS,
depicting several police officers violently beating a man of undetermined
race. A mugshot of either a white or a black man was shown at the
beginning of the clip to indicate who was being beaten, with a
description conveying that, although described by his family as "a loving
husband and father," the suspect had a serious criminal record and may
have been high on drugs at the time of his arrest.
The students were then asked to rate how justified the beating was.
Participants who believed the suspect was white were no more likely to
condone the beating when they were primed with either ape or big cat
words, Eberhardt said. But those who thought the suspect was black were
more likely to justify the beating if they had been primed with ape words
than with big cat words. "Taken together, this suggests that implicit
knowledge of a Black-ape association led to marked differences in
participants' judgments of Black criminal suspects," the researchers
write.
According to the paper's authors, this link has devastating consequences
for African Americans because it "alters visual perception and attention,
and it increases endorsement of violence against black suspects." For
example, the paper's sixth study showed that in hundreds of news stories
from 1979 to 1999 in the Philadelphia Inquirer, African Americans
convicted of capital crimes were about four times more likely than whites
convicted of capital crimes to be described with ape-relevant language,
such as "barbaric," "beast," "brute," "savage" and "wild." "Those who are
implicitly portrayed as more ape-like in these articles are more likely
to be executed by the state than those who are not," the researchers
write.
The way forward
Despite the paper's findings, Eberhardt said she is optimistic about the
future. "This work isn't arguing that there hasn't been any progress made
or that we are living in the same society that existed in the 19th
century," she said. "We have made a lot of progress on race issues, but
we should recognize that racial bias isn't dead. We still need to be
aware of that and aware of all the different ways [racism] can affect us,
despite our intentions and motivations to be egalitarian. We still have
work to do."
For Eberhardt, two stories of race exist in America. "One is about the
disappearance of bias—that it's no longer with us," she said. "But the
other is about the transformation of bias. It's not the egregious bias
anymore, but it's modern bias, subtle bias." With both of these stories,
she said, there is an understanding that society has moved beyond the
historic battles centered around race. "We want to argue, with this work,
that there is one old race battle that we're still fighting," she said.
"That is the battle for blacks to be recognized as fully human."
This research was supported by a Stanford University Dean's Award to
Jennifer Eberhardt.
Adapted from materials provided by Stanford University.
====================================
Title Not yet human: Implicit knowledge, historical dehumanization, and
contemporary consequences.
Author(s) Goff PA, Eberhardt JL, Williams MJ, Jackson MC
Institution Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University.
Source J Pers Soc Psychol 2008 Feb; 94(2):292-306.
Abstract Historical representations explicitly depicting Blacks as
apelike have largely disappeared in the United States, yet a mental
association between Blacks and apes remains. Here, the authors
demonstrate that U.S. citizens implicitly associate Blacks and apes. In a
series of laboratory studies, the authors reveal how this association
influences study participants' basic cognitive processes and
significantly alters their judgments in criminal justice contexts.
Specifically, this Black-ape association alters visual perception and
attention, and it increases endorsement of violence against Black
suspects. In an archival study of actual criminal cases, the authors show
that news articles written about Blacks who are convicted of capital
crimes are more likely to contain ape-relevant language than news
articles written about White convicts. Moreover, those who are implicitly
portrayed as more apelike in these articles are more likely to be
executed by the state than those who are not. The authors argue that
examining the subtle persistence of specific historical representations
such as these may not only enhance contemporary research on
dehumanization, stereotyping, and implicit processes but also highlight
common forms of discrimination that previously have gone unrecognized.
(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).
Language eng
Pub Type(s) Journal Article
PubMed ID 18211178
---------------------------------------
author of "The Black Holocaust for Beginners"
Social Activism is not a hobby: it's a Lifestyle lasting a Lifetime
http://blackeducator.blogspot.com
---------------------------------------
Black Miseducation
Only 3 out of 100 Black males entering kindergarten will graduate from college Every 5 seconds during the school day, a Black public school student is suspended. Every 46 seconds during the school day, a Black high school student drops out. Every minute, a Black child is arrested and a Black baby is born to an unmarried mother. Every 3 minutes, a Black child is born into poverty. Every hour, a Black baby dies. Every 4 hours, a Black child or youth under 20 dies from an accident, and every 5 hours, a Black youth is a homicide victim. Every day, a Black young person under 25 dies from HIV infection and a Black child or youth under 20 commits suicide. Marian Wright Edelman, The Children's Defense Fund Discipline, Special Education, and Jail • Black students, while representing only 17 percent of public school students, account for 32 percent of suspensions and 30 percent of expulsions. In 1999, 35 percent of all Black students in grades 7-12 had been suspended or expelled from school. The rate was 20 percent for Hispanics and 15 percent for Whites. • Black children are labeled mentally retarded nearly 300 percent more than White children and only 8.4 percent of Black males are identified and enrolled in gifted and talented classes. • Black males in their early 30s are twice as likely to have prison records (22 percent) than bachelor's degrees (12 percent). • A Black male born in 1991 (today's 7th grade student) has a 29 percent chance of spending time in prison at some point in his life. The figure for Hispanic males is 16 percent, and for White males is 4 percent. • A Black male is 700 percent more likely than a White male to be sentenced to a local, state, or federal prison. • Black male s are imprisoned at a rate of 3,405 per 100,000 (3.4 percent); Hispanics at a rate of 1,231 per 100,000 (1.2 percent); and Whites at a rate of 465 per 100,000 (.465 percent). High School Performance, Course Enrollment, and Graduation 17.5 percent of Black students, 13.2 percent of Hispanic students, and 9.3 percent of White students in grades K-12 were retained at least one grade.3 13 percent of Blacks ages 16-24 have not earned a high school credential. The rate for Whites is 7 percent. 30 percent of Black high school students have taken advanced mathematics courses compared to 45 percent of Whites. 5 percent of Black high school students take a fourth year of a foreign language with 2 percent taking an AP foreign language course. 12 percent of Black high school students take science classes as high as chemistry and physics. 27 percent of Black high school students take advanced English. Black students take AP exams at a rate of 53 per 1,000 students. The rate for Hispanic students is 115 per 1,000 and for Whites is 185 per 1,000. The average SAT scores for Black students is 433V and 426M; for Whites it is over 22 percent higher at 529V and 531M. The average ACT score for Black students is 16.9; for Whites it is nearly 30 percent higher at 21.8. Unemployment The unemployment rate for Blacks ages 16-19 is 25 percent. The unemployment rate for Blacks without a high school credential is 30 percent, 19 percent with high school but no college, 10 percent with some college but no degree, and 6 percent with a bachelor's degree. ------------ --------- --------- --------- ---- References: Indiana Education Policy Center. (2000). Minority Overrepresentation in Indiana's S pecial Education Programs. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University. National Center for Education Statistics. (1993-1994). America &'s Teachers: Profile of a Profession. U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. (2001). Educational Achievement and Black-White Inequality. U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. (2003). Status and Trends in the Education of Blacks. U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. (1995). The Condition of Education, 1994: The Educational Progress of Black Students. U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. (2001). The Condition of Education, 2001. U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Learning Disabilities. (April 2003). Minority Students in Special Education. New York, NY: NCLD. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. (2003). Poverty in the United States: 2002. U.S. Department of Commerce. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. (2002). The Black Population in the United States: March 2002. U.S. Department of Commerce. U.S. Department of Education. (1999). Hope for Urban Education: A Study of Nine High-Performing, High-Poverty, Urban Elementary Schools. U.S. Department of Education. U.S. Department of Education White Paper. (October 20, 1997). Mathematics Equals Opportunity. U.S. Department of Education. U.S. Department of Justice. (12/31/03). Summary Findings of Prison Statistics. http://www.ojp. usdoj.gov/ bjs/prisons. htm University of Nebraska-Lincoln. (2000). The Color of Discipline: Sources of Racial and Gender Disproportionality in School Punishment. Policy research Report #SRS1. Edelman, Marian Wright. (2001). What Can We Do? Quoted from: How to Make Black America Better (p. 122). New York, NY: Anchor Books. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Nati onal Assessment of Educational Progress, 2003. http://nces. ed.gov/nationsre portcard/ Alexandeer, K., Entwisle, D., & Kabbani, N. (2001). The Dropout Process in Life Course Perspective: Early Risk Factors at Home and at School, Teacher's College Record, Volume 103, Number 5 (p. 775). October 2001. New York, NY: Teachers College, Columbia University. |
Texas Black Vote 2008, We Decide
Community and Media Release
On Sunday, February 24, 2008, at 3:00 pm, The National Black United Front - Houston Chapter (NBUF) will host a Community Education Forum entitled:The Texas Black Vote 2008! We Decide! The forum will be held at the S.H.A.P.E. Community Center 3903 Almeda, Houston, Texas.
Speakers will include:
Franklin Jones (Texas Southern University, Political Science)
Kofi Taharka (NBUF-Houston Chairman)
Other invited guests
Representative of the Barack Obama Campaign
Representative of the Hilary Clinton Campaign
Representative of the Cynthia Mckinney Campaign
Campaign Representatives will be asked questions of specific importance to people of African Descent.
In addition topics to be covered during the forum will include:
¨ Convention Delegates & Super Delegates
¨ Precinct Elections
¨ The Electoral College
¨ What is the agenda for our community?
¨ Playing the “Race card†in politics
¨ The Black Power Movement & Electoral politics.
Limited Seating Available
NBUF Houston
ABOUT NBUF
The National Black United Front (NBUF) is a 25 year old activist organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois led by National Chairman, Dr. Conrad Worrill. Currently the organization has 16 chapters across the country and supporters nationally and internationally. Among NBUF'S goals are to unify Black people from various social/political persuasions, to build a politically conscious, unified, committed and effective Black mass movement and to confront white supremacy in it's various manifestations. Over the past two decades NBUF has contributed in meaningful ways to many major causes affecting people of African ancestry in the U.S. and around the world including: community control of schools, election of Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, the new Jua Movement (Prime Minister Maurice Bishop of Grenada), the Free South Africa Movement, the Million Man March, protest demonstration of the 1996 Democrat Convention, and most recently, raised the issue of genocide against the Black population in the United States, co-sponsoring the Durban 400 at the United Nations' World Conference Against Racism, and a leading organization involved in the Reparations Movement.
OUR MISSION
We believe that in order for Black people in America to become a free, liberated and independent people we must be organized. Therefore, we believe all Black people should join an organization that is working in the interests of our people. We believe that the National Black United Front (NBUF) is such an organization and we urge you to join us. Although our condition in this country may be termed critical, it is not irreversible. We must remember that we are a great people with a culture and civilization which extends to antiquity. We must also realize that a raging river of struggle flows through our history in this country which has brought forth all of our victories against racism, political and economic oppression and cultural domination. NBUF is an extension of this river that continues to fight for our people. You should consider joining NBUF because we believe that in these critical times there is a need for bold action and strong commitment to organize for Black Power, Self-Determination (Kugichagulia), and a higher quality of life for Afrikan and Afrikan descended peoples worldwide.
HOUSTON CHAPTER
In Houston the list of past leaders of the organization is impressive including entrepreneurs, community activists, politicians, etc. The Houston chapter has played a role in many issues related to the African-American community.
The Haitian outreach, (Haitian Ministries formed by one of NBUF'S past National Secretaries and member of the Houston chapter) , the release of Clarence Brandley from death row and the Shaka Sankofa (Gary Graham) case are two of the well known criminal justice cases which the organization has organized around.. In recent times NBUF has been involved with the Afrikan-centered education movement, get out the vote campaigns, a major effort which culminated in record numbers of Afrikan American voting ,the support of the residents of Allen Parkway village in their struggle to save their community, and an effort to pass a resolution at Houston's city council for U.S. Representative John Conyers' H.R. 40 Reparations Study Bill. Houston NBUF has received accolades from around the country and indeed the world for it's uncompromising work for Afrikan people.
NBUF Houston is very proud to be a part of a process of Operational Unity which a number of African American organizations including Nation of Islam Muhammad's Mosque Number 45, led by Southwest Regional Minister Robert Muhammad, S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, Director Deloyd Parker, and Shrine of the Black Madonna of the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church participate.. These organizations along with others are redefining how people of African descent from various backgrounds and with different ideologies can work together.
Current activities of NBUF Houston include support of local actions and events for various organizations, preparation for the 29th National Black United Front National Convention and the 11th Annual Sankofa Caravan to the Ancestors.
The National Black United Front (NBUF) is a 25 year old activist organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois led by National Chairman, Dr. Conrad Worrill. Currently the organization has 16 chapters across the country and supporters nationally and internationally. Among NBUF'S goals are to unify Black people from various social/political persuasions, to build a politically conscious, unified, committed and effective Black mass movement and to confront white supremacy in it's various manifestations. Over the past two decades NBUF has contributed in meaningful ways to many major causes affecting people of African ancestry in the U.S. and around the world including: community control of schools, election of Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, the new Jua Movement (Prime Minister Maurice Bishop of Grenada), the Free South Africa Movement, the Million Man March, protest demonstration of the 1996 Democrat Convention, and most recently, raised the issue of genocide against the Black population in the United States, co-sponsoring the Durban 400 at the United Nations' World Conference Against Racism, and a leading organization involved in the Reparations Movement.
OUR MISSION
We believe that in order for Black people in America to become a free, liberated and independent people we must be organized. Therefore, we believe all Black people should join an organization that is working in the interests of our people. We believe that the National Black United Front (NBUF) is such an organization and we urge you to join us. Although our condition in this country may be termed critical, it is not irreversible. We must remember that we are a great people with a culture and civilization which extends to antiquity. We must also realize that a raging river of struggle flows through our history in this country which has brought forth all of our victories against racism, political and economic oppression and cultural domination. NBUF is an extension of this river that continues to fight for our people. You should consider joining NBUF because we believe that in these critical times there is a need for bold action and strong commitment to organize for Black Power, Self-Determination (Kugichagulia), and a higher quality of life for Afrikan and Afrikan descended peoples worldwide.
HOUSTON CHAPTER
In Houston the list of past leaders of the organization is impressive including entrepreneurs, community activists, politicians, etc. The Houston chapter has played a role in many issues related to the African-American community.
The Haitian outreach, (Haitian Ministries formed by one of NBUF'S past National Secretaries and member of the Houston chapter) , the release of Clarence Brandley from death row and the Shaka Sankofa (Gary Graham) case are two of the well known criminal justice cases which the organization has organized around.. In recent times NBUF has been involved with the Afrikan-centered education movement, get out the vote campaigns, a major effort which culminated in record numbers of Afrikan American voting ,the support of the residents of Allen Parkway village in their struggle to save their community, and an effort to pass a resolution at Houston's city council for U.S. Representative John Conyers' H.R. 40 Reparations Study Bill. Houston NBUF has received accolades from around the country and indeed the world for it's uncompromising work for Afrikan people.
NBUF Houston is very proud to be a part of a process of Operational Unity which a number of African American organizations including Nation of Islam Muhammad's Mosque Number 45, led by Southwest Regional Minister Robert Muhammad, S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, Director Deloyd Parker, and Shrine of the Black Madonna of the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church participate.. These organizations along with others are redefining how people of African descent from various backgrounds and with different ideologies can work together.
Current activities of NBUF Houston include support of local actions and events for various organizations, preparation for the 29th National Black United Front National Convention and the 11th Annual Sankofa Caravan to the Ancestors.
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