Shortly before midnight on March 29. Detroit. Michigan police stormed into the New Bethel Baptist Church where the Republic of New Africa was holding its first annual national convention. For 20 minutes the police fired pistols and shotguns into the church interior as children, women and men hid under pews. All the Afro-Americans, about 150, were then herded into police vehicles and held ifcommunicado until a black judge arrived at police headquarters and began processing the arrested persons.
The police claim that a group of about a dozen members of the Black Legion of the Republic shot two white policemen outside the church, killing one and seriously wounding the other, and then ran into New Bethel and fired upon police reinforcements who had arrived to aid their fellow officiers. The New Africans state that no one fired upon police from inside the church.
This was the first annual national convention of the Republic of New Africa (RNA) which was founded on March 31, 1968, by a gathering of over 200 black nationalists called together from all parts of the United States by the Malcolm Society. RNA works the creation of an independent black nation in the present states of Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina in the southern section of the USA. RNA has tried to open negotiations with the US government fo reparations, *a payment to which black people are entitled from the United States government for the free labour stolen from our ancestors during slavery and for the damage suffered by all of us, since slavery, by reason of racial discrimination and oppression."
The 1968 founding convention elected a provisional government which was to function until January 1970. The officers include: Robert Williams, self-exiled rights leader from Monroe, North Carolina, who fled to Cuba and then China because of police harassment; Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X; Rap Brown who attracted national publicity when he was head Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); Charles P. Howard, United Nations correspondent.
The E17O active leaders of RNA are the brothers Miton and Richard Henry, whose Swahili name Brother Gaidi, is a Yale University honour law graduate and was named 'one of the top ten criminal lawyers in America' by the National Lawyers Guide. He currently practices law in Michigan and was a city councilman in Pontiac. He participated in the formation of an independent black politica. party, the Freedom Now Party, in 1964 and then became a close friend and collaborator of Malcolm X. Brother Gaidi founded the Malcolm society which organized the founding convention of the Republic of New Africa.
Richard Henry legally changed his name to Brother Imari last year and got rid of his slave name Richard Henry.' In the early 1960's he pioneered against prejudiced textbooks in the Detroit public school system. He withdrew his son from junior high school classes for two weeks in order to protest the use of a history textbook biased against black Americans. As leader of Group for Advanced Leadership (GOAL), he rallied the support of the black community and was able to force the Detroit Board of Education to drop the history text and change its basic policy on the selection of learning materials for all Detroit school children. Brother Imari's book War in America outlines the political and economic theories underlying the RNA. Minister Information.
He and his brother met with Robert Williams in Dar Es-Salaam, Tanzania, East Africa, and with other RNA officers in preparation for the first legislative session of the Republic's National Council Representatives. The legislative session was held in Chicago in May, 1968, and it passed a number of acts including: a bond issue to finance a new city to be built in Mississippi; an appropriations measure to finance projects such as a government printing press and plebiscites in the "subjugated areas of the US (where black make up majority) to determine whether the people wanted to become independent of the US government; and, a Universal Military Training Act setting up a Black Legion to defend the lives of New African citizens and the property of New Africa.
In February, 1969, the RNA announced details of a recruiting drive to bring hundreds of young black men and women into the Black Legion. It was a group of the Black Legion dressed in green army fatigues and carrying rifles, that attracted the attention of the two young white police officers the night of March 29. The policemen left their car and walked up to the Black Legion group to investigate when, according to the wounded policeman, one of the Afro-Americans suddenly fired at him and his partner.
The wounded man managed to radio for help and the 40 officers who responded rushed into the New Bethel Baptist Church with pistols and shotguns blazing. When they had finished their assault, five New Africans were wounded, pools and trails of blood covered the church floor, extensive damage had been done to church property and everyone present arrested.
The police actions were termed a 'violation of every constitutional and religious tradition of this nation' by Rev. Ralph Abernathy, whoi became head the Southern Christian Leadership Conference after the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Rev. Abernathy flew into Detroit to investigate the situation examined the church and met with leading I murder took place in front of the church did not give the police the right to rush into the building as they did To this date, the Detroit police have not found any real evidence of firing coming from the church. As a matter of admitted fact by the police themselves, the only bullet shells found inside the church belong to the police.
Public attention was shifted away from the actual attack and on to a controversy involving Judge George Crockett and Prosecutor William Cahalan. When he saw how New African prisoners were being deprived of their constitutional rights, the black judge immediately took steps to set up court in the to the release of some of the prisoners and rearrested two. Judge Crockett regarded this action of the prosecutor a personal affront with 'racial overtones' because had he been white instead of black the prosecutor would not have dared act in that fashion.
Demonstrations against and in support of Judge Crockett have taken place almost daily since the shooting. Even policemen have staged several picket demonstrations claiming that Crockett had given people a free license to shoot policemen.' Several large demonstrations in support of Crockett have taken place. coalition of over 40 groups was formed in orde to wage a concerted drive against police oppression' and to support Crockett. Leading black legislators at the state and national level have spoken out in praise of Crockett's actions.
The latest development in the aftermath of the March 29 shooting was an announcement of a public fund drive to create an award for the capture of the killer of the slain policeman and for repairs to the heavily damaged New Bethel Baptist Church. The entire affair reveals the continuing oppression of black people in the United States of America Evelyn Sell, Detroit