Mukasa (Willie Ricks) is coming to Los Angeles

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.., called Willie Ricks “the fiery orator of SNCC” in his 1967 book, “Where Do We Go From Here”.

Topics:

Black Power view of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement, and How to get out of our wretched condition of today.

Saturday, February 26, 2005

5:00 p.m.

Faith United Methodist Church

1713 West 108th Street (near Western Avenue), Los Angeles, California 90047

“Willie Ricks must rank as one of those unknown heroes who captured the mood of history. In calling for Black Power, he caught the essence of the spirit, moving Black people in the United Sates and around the world who were poor, Black, and without power”.

by: James Forman

In 1966, during the Meredith March across Mississippi, Willie Ricks, then a young field secretary and Central Committee member of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, first popularized the slogan, Black Power” that became the rallying cry for the militant black community rebellions that shook this country to its foundations. Mukasa’s introduction of the “Black Power” demand was indicative of the leadership that he has provided in the course of over 35 years of courageous struggle on behalf of poor and working African people. Beginning as a student organizer in Tennessee, where he and his family were targeted by the Klan with cross burnings and gunfire at their home, Ricks has fought on the front lines of the struggle for black freedom.

Key leader of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Mukasa built the student movement in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and throughout the South, leading sit-ins, voter registration campaigns and fearlessly organizing in the rural areas.

Organizer of the 1964 Freedom Summer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, working with the legendary freedom fighter, Fanny Lou Hamer.

Foremost organizer of Black Power Movement, initiated the cry for Black Power and organized in Lowdes County where the Black Panther Party originated.

Traveled throughout the world organizing for African liberation, including to Guinea, Mozambique, Uganda, Libya, and Nicaragua.

Fought on the frontlines building opposition to the U.S. war against Vietnam, organizing African people to burn draft cards and disrupt induction centers.

Worked with the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party to promote Pan Africanism.

In 1966, he was a major organizer of the “Black Power March”, which spanned from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi. This march started out as the “March Against Fear”, but changed to the “Black Power March”, after James Meredith was shot. The slogan “Black Power” is often associated with Brother Mukasa because he was a major force in popularizing it throughout the South, from the urban to the rural areas.

During the course of his work to build Black United Fronts in over 100 cities, Brother Mukasa saw that an institutional means was necessary to build the kind of political consciousness required to bring about the liberation of African people. Consequently, he was instrumental in the fight to establish Black Studies programs on campuses across the county, and in the building to several independent schools, including the Malcolm X University, and the Pan-African Work Center.

Joining the Black Panther Party in the late 1960’s, and later becoming an organizer with the All African People’s Revolutionary Party, Brother Mukasa has consistently been in the vanguard of the African liberation movement.

Black Power view of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement

Sponsored by the Pan African Forum