Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 25, 1994 TAG: 9401250178
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MARA LEE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
He led the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee as it evolved from the group that sponsored Freedom Riders to one that allied itself with the Black Panthers Party for Self-Defense.
Brown, now known by his Muslim name, Jamil A. Al-Amin, said in an interview at Virginia Tech before his speech Monday that history was misunderstood and always would be.
Al-Amin, perhaps most famous for his quote, "Violence is as American as cherry pie," now quotes the words of Mohammed, the prophet of Islam.
He broke from the well-modulated tones he used to discuss the Koran, or Islamic holy book, when he dismissed those who reduced his role in the struggle for black equality to that snappy sentence.
"It ain't worth two dead flies that they remember that particular quote."
Of white liberals who see the Black Power movement as less noble, effective or meaningful than the civil rights movement, he said, "That's their opinion.
"History is `his story.' It doesn't have anything to do with truth."
In the end, he couldn't resist a dig at those who write off black power's results. He said, "But if it didn't have any importance, why are they still talking about it?"
Al-Amin said he never was a separatist, though tactics SNCC took, such as expelling whites from the Central Committee, might be perceived as such.
"I never was anti-white blanketly," he said, adding he dealt with each white individual from where he was coming from, even the white prison guards.
"It was not black vs. white, but right vs. wrong, which is the essence of all struggle. [A movement] ebbs and flows, but struggle is constant. It is always there."
Al-Amin converted to Islam in 1971. The morality he saw in Islam appealed to Al-Amin, because he thought the movement was searching for that base and not finding it.
The former SNCC chairman, now imam, or leader, of a Muslim community in Atlanta, talked about the state of the union. "African Americans are no better off or worse off than all of humanity at this time. You see the same sickness manifested everywhere you see manmade concerns put ahead of the divine guidance."
In the speech he delivered to about 75 listeners, Al-Amin continued to talk about the "debaucracy" in this country, saying it has spawned large numbers of rapists, serial killers, homosexuals, child molesters, drug abusers and cannibals.
He blamed capitalism and its worship of technology for acid rain, ozone depletion, water pollution and chemical food additives that lead to colon cancer. He said the same hormones, as well as the Pill, were transposing gender roles.
"Men are acting more like women. They're concerned about things that are more women's." And a woman on the Pill "begins to take the masculine attitude and the masculine disposition."
One-on-one, Al-Amin seems more resigned about racism and capitalism. "America is no big thing. They've been condemned by the things they've sent out. They couldn't possibly be successful by the things they've done." The "they" he refers to is what used to be called the Establishment, "anyone who benefits from oppression."
As to the 1993 Los Angeles riots that seemed to show how little progress had been made in 23 years, he said, "You're never surprised when the system has not changed. It's still the same system." He shrugged. "It's still America."
"I don't reminisce," Al-Amin said, though he said he still talks to friends from SNCC.
And who has changed more in a quarter century, Rap Brown or America? He answered with a smile, "I'll let you make that determination."
by CNB