If you are dependent upon our money, think about this

Bobby-Henry,-Srpins-THIS-ONIf you are dependent upon our money, think about this

Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of SabaothJames 5:4 (NASB)

By Bobby R. Henry, Sr.

There are a few things that we all can participate in to move us forward and make others learn to look at us differently. One of main things is, how we spend our hard earn dollars.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech, “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” (his last), delivered on April 3, 1968, at the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters), in Memphis, Tennessee has an action step that will bring a quicker understanding to the power of  the Black dollar faster than our Black dollar stays in the ‘hood’.

That action step is withdrawing economic support from those who refuse to participate in the true spirit of reciprocity. I have said it before and I will continue to say it over and over again until it becomes a reality, “we need to stop spending our dollars with those that do not respect us, take us for granted and use our monies to keep us down, even if that means those who look just like us.

I don’t know about you but I refused to pay to be treated like chattel. It’s a brand new day.

     For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.”  Ephesians 5:14 (NASB)

Below are excerpts from I’ve Been to the Mountaintop by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Now the other thing we’ll have to do is this: Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal. Now, we are poor people. Individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively — that means all of us together — collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that? After you leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Great Britain, West Germany, France, and I could name the others, the American Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than 30 billion dollars a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? That’s power right there, if we know how to pool it.

We don’t have to argue with anybody. We don’t have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don’t need any bricks and bottles. We don’t need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, “God sent us by here, to say to you that you’re not treating his children right. And we’ve come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God’s children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you.”

And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy — what is the other bread? — Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart’s bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven’t been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on town — downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right.

But not only that, we’ve got to strengthen Black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank. We want a “bank-in” movement in Memphis. Go by the savings and loan association. I’m not asking you something that we don’t do ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We are telling you to follow what we are doing. Put your money there. You have six or seven Black insurance companies here in the city of Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an “insurance-in.”

Now these are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here.

PLEASE READ AND LISTEN TO THE “I’VE BEEN TO THE MOUNTAINTOP SPEECH IN IT’S ENTIRETY AT: WWW.THEWESTSIDEGAZETTE.COM

About Carma Henry 24363 Articles
Carma Lynn Henry Westside Gazette Newspaper 545 N.W. 7th Terrace, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33311 Office: (954) 525-1489 Fax: (954) 525-1861

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