MUMIA ABU-JAMAL’S COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS TO BROOKLYN FRIENDS SCHOOL
On Friday June 16th, Mumia Abu-Jamal addressed the Class of 2000 of the Brooklyn Friends School, a Quaker School, at its commencement exercises held at the Marriott Hotel in Downtown Brooklyn. At the same time as the graduation was taking place, a discussion with three of the senior class students who had been interviewed in the WBAI studios earlier in the week, was aired over the Pacifica news. The students discussed why they had invited Mumia to speak at their graduation.
Mumia seemed pleased to address a still younger audience than the college audiences he has now spoken to on several occasions. To the best of our knowledge, Brooklyn Friends is the first high school Mumia has addressed. from prison.
When the Brooklyn Friends School administration heard of the students' plan to have Mumia speak at the graduation, they tried to derail the plan. They were upset both about the potentially "bad" publicity this would bring to the school, and about Mumia's reference in his speech to the fact that several of the early Quaker leaders had been slave owners. (He also noted that Quakers had played a leading role in the Abolitionist movement.) As a result, the head of the school called a meeting with the senior class and tried to pressure the students to vote again, this time with greater secrecy than had initially been in place. The students were quite angry at this maneuver, strongly and loudly objected, and refused to hold a second vote. Ultimately, permission was granted to play the speech.
Two seniors, CeCe Ross and Javier Gaston-Greenberg, introduced Mumia to the audience, and the tape was played. At the end of the speech, a transcript of which follows below, there was a loud, prolonged, and enthusiastic ovation from the entire audience. No one walked out. No one booed. Many students, parents, and guests noted that Mumia's address had lent the graduation a very special quality, had made it that much more meaningful to everyone. Indeed, Mumia had reached yet another audience - without compromise, omission, or false praise.
Let the word spread. Let Mumia speak to two, three many schools. Let's reach out to every possible corner of support.
Ona Move! Free Mumia! Free all Political Prisoners!
From: Suzanne Ross suross@ibm.net
COMMENCEMENT TO BROOKLYN FRIENDS SCHOOL
© Mumia Abu-Jamal 2000
First, please let me congratulate all of the new graduates of Brooklyn Friends. I congratulate you young folks for your hard work, and your perseverance which led to this day. Your parents and your teachers are justly proud of you, and I join them in saluting you.
Secondly, I thank you for your brave invitation for me to address your graduation; I am really delighted to speak to you, because I really enjoy young people; young folks are the human detergent that washes society clean! So, I thank you!
Now what can an old geek like me tell young folks like you; kids sitting with robes on, dying to get outta here?
I can only think of the words of the late Black revolutionary, Malcolm X, who said, "History best rewards our research" Uh-oh! I think I hear some kids groaning, and saying, "Oh no! Not another history class! We're graduating! And we're tired of that stuff!" To which I can only reply, I can dig it! This won't be history class - but none of us can ignore history, for we are all, yourselves included, part of the vast river called history. Who we define ourselves as, how we speak, how we see the world, how we dress even, is a function of our history. None of us can escape history. For example, all of us know that the early Quakers were leading Abolitionist, who worked against slavery, right?
Well, that's true, but it wasn't always so; George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, owned slaves; so did his famous disciple, William Penn, founder of the Pennsylvania colony. Over a century later, as late as the 1730's, one of the leading slave dealers in Pennsylvania (called "The Quaker State)was a Quaker named Isaac Morris.
Did you guys and gals know this? If you didn't, or if you did, I hope it gives you some inkling of the value of history.
History isn't just a boring excursion into cry, hoary piles of books, filled with a mind-numbing explosion of dates, names and facts. History, true history, teaches us more about today than yesterday. History can tell us why things are the way they are, and how they came to be.
History, done well, can be utterly fascinating!
Brooklyn Friends is a good school, according to some friends I know, who have kids there. Therefore, names of historians like John Hope Franklin, Howard Zinn, Herbert Aptheker, Ella Forbes, Eric Foner, James Mc Pherson, and the like, should be familiar to you. If they aren't, don't panic. For let me tell you a secret; graduating from high school isn't the end, it's the beginning of learning. You'll find, if you go to college, or study independently, that much of what you've learned will have to be unlearned. Welcome to the maddening world of adults! The world adults have fashioned is one of sheer complexity, and stark conflict.
No one could blame you if you looked at it with serious concern, or even fear, and trepidation. Don't worry: that's normal. Your youthfulness is the one thing that will carry you through, for to be young, is to have hope, and nothing is ever possible without hope.
Don't let the adult world beat that out of you, for that is one of your more glorious features.
We live in a world where social movements have shaped consciousness. How could this have been possible without hope?
You all, in your hearts, in your souls, have something truly precious in your midst: hope.
With this alone, you can begin to transform history.
Source: Thomas, Hugh, The Slave Trade (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997) pp.259, 451.
With all my best wishes, Thanx, Ona Move! Long Live John Africa!
From Death Row, This is Mumia Abu-Jamal