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From: "Pan-African News Wire" <ac6123@wayne.edu>
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2001 6:01 PM
From: Paul Lee <besteffortsinc@yahoo.com>
Black Star Community Bookstore is proud to host a
two-part lecture-video series, "Prevent the Rise of a
Messiah: The FBI's Secret War on Black America,"
which will be presented by historian and filmmaker
Paul Lee on Friday, June 22 and Friday, June 29, 2001,
from 7:00-9:00 p. m.
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's notorious secret
crusade to "neutralize" Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
in the 1960s was more than a mere personal feud.
It was, in fact, only part of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's secret war on Black America, a
nationwide campaign of intrusive surveillance and
political disruption that began as early as World War
I.
Hoover was determined to "Prevent the rise of a
messiah who could unify, and electrify," the black
rights movement, as was stated in a now-infamous 1968
"Counterintelligence Program" memo.
Among those targeted were Universal Negro Improvement
Association leader Marcus Garvey; anti-lynching
campaigner Ida B. Wells-Barnett; Nation of Islam
leader Elijah Muhammad; singer, actor, and political
activist Paul Robeson; black nationalist and Muslim
leader Malcolm X; black power and Pan-Africanist
leader Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture);
Communist activist Angela Davis; and the leaders of
the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the
Black Panther Party.
PROGRAM I
In the first program, Lee will present excerpts from
an in-depth documentary that he helped research and
write, which has never been screened in Detroit.
This once-secret story is exposed in a candid
interview with a Black former FBI informant, former
Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, and historian
Chancellor Williams, author of "The Destruction of
Black Civilization."
Craig Ciccone, an historian of political
assassinations of the 1960s, will make a special
presentation on the FBI's role in the 1969
assassination of Illinois Black Panther leader Fred
Hampton.
PROGRAM II
In the second program, Lee will screen--again for the
first time in Detroit--a documentary on the FBI's
attempt to recruit Malcolm X an undercover "mole" in
the Nation of Islam after his 1963 suspension by
Elijah Muhammad because of his unauthorized comments
about President Kennedy's assassination.
At both programs there will be an exhibit of rare
photos and documents and a suggested reading list.
Lee is the director of Best Efforts, Inc., a
professional research and consulting service that
specializes in the recovery, preservation, and
presentation of black history and culture.
He has been a historical researcher and consultant for
several PBS series, including "Eyes On the Prize II"
and "The American Experience," and Spike Lee's 1992
motion picture "Malcolm X," starring Denzel
Washington.
Ciccone is a Highland Park-based historian who is
researching a study on Fred Hampton's assassination.
Black Star Community Bookstore is located at 19410
Livernois at Outer Drive.
The suggested donation is $10.00 for adults, $5.00 for
seniors and students, and free for children 12 and
under.
For further information, call (313) 863-BOOK (2665).
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Jun 30 2001 - 19:29:13 EDT