 |
Remembering
all the Ancestors and un-heralded freedom fighters
by Marguerite
Laurent - August 13, 2004
As free Haitians who are remembering August 14th and August 22nd in world
history, we also remember the resistance to slavery and Jim Crow apartheid in
the United States, such as the Nat Turner's rebellion in 1831 and the Marin
Courthouse 1970 takeover. Events that also altered the course of U.S. history and
happened on August days and helped motivate and inspire many civil rights
movements worldwide.
Today, as our Black brothers and sisters face down another occupation and
U.S-supported dictatorship in Haiti, as 3,000 have died to date since said
occupation, we light candles with the Haitian people in Haiti to remember their
sacrifices, as well as salute their courage and tenacity along with all the
nameless, faceless and un-herald freedom fighters of this Western Hemisphere in
world history. We do this by forwarding the public statement concerning Black
August events in the United States from the family of Jonathan and George
Jacksons.
In the U.S. 1 out of every 3 Black males are on parole or behind bars. Haiti,
since February 29, 2004, is being turned into a PENAL colony for Black folks,
by the same mindsets who find nothing wrong with 2.6 million people in jail
in the U.S., mostly Black, brown and poor.
We remember them this August 2004 as we celebrate the Haitian Revolution. In
solidarity, as lawyers and ordinary citizens who use the tools of democracy to
resist exclusion, struggle for world peace, for the equal application of the
laws, for justice and co-existence and do not acquiesce to, nor accept, State
sponsored human rights violations of any sort.
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
August 13, 2004, the day before Bwa Kayiman, 2004 |
|
