By Paul Lee Special to the Michigan Citizen The following is the second part of a revised, updated version of an article on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) conspiracy against Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, known during the 1960s as the firebrand Black Power advocate H. Rap Brown, which originally appeared in The Michigan Citizen in the April 7th-April 13th and April 14th-April 20th, 2002, issues. ...

By Paul Lee Special to the Michigan Citizen On Oct. 28, 2009, Imam Luqman Abdullah, formerly Christopher Thomas, the 53-year-old leader of Masjid Al-Haqq, a mostly African American Muslim congregation on Detroit’s near West Side, was shot and killed by a joint task force led by the Detroit field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Abdullah was reportedly shot at least 18 times after alleged ...

A message from Detroit City Council President Emeritus Erma L. Henderson On Sunday, Aug. 23, 2009, Detroit City Council President Emeritus Erma L. Henderson celebrated her 92nd birthday. In 1977, she was the first African American and the first woman to be elected president of the city council and the first to serve three consecutive terms in that office. The Rev. Patrya A. Smith, Ms. Henderson’s daughter, ...

When and why Bobby Kennedy visited 12th Street By Paul Lee Special to the Michigan Citizen The following article is adapted from a forthcoming book by Paul Lee, Bobby Kennedy @ Detroit’s “Ground Zero,” May 15, 1968. — Ed. The Democratic National Convention at Denver, Col., this week featured a rare speech by Caroline Kennedy, the last living member of the immediate family of President John F. Kennedy and hi ...

Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman and the roots of black power in Detroit By Paul Lee Special to the Michigan Citizen Pt. IV of IV: Spotlight on Black Power This week, we conclude our special four-part series celebrating the 97th birthday of the late Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman, formerly the Rev. Albert B. Cleage, Jr., the founder and First Holy Patriarch of the Shrines of the Black Madonna of the Pan African Orthodox Chri ...

Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman and the roots of black power in Detroit By Paul Lee Special to the Michigan Citizen Pt. III of IV: Spotlight on Black PowerOur special series celebrating the 97th birthday of Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman, formerly the Rev. Albert B. Cleage, Jr., the founder and First Holy Patriarch of the Shrines of the Black Madonna of the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church (PAOCC), concludes with the t ...

Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman and the roots of black power in Detroit By Paul Lee Special to the Michigan Citizen Pt. II of III:The economics of power Black Star ventures On Jan. 22, 1969, Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman, then still known as the Rev. Albert B. Cleage, Jr., reviewed the contributions of the militant Citywide Citizens Action Committee (CCAC), which had been organized in the wake of Detroit’s destructive Rebe ...

Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman and the roots of black power in Detroit By Paul Lee Special to the Michigan Citizen Pt. I of III: Programming for power This month, the Shrines of the Black Madonna of the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church (PAOCC) are celebrating the 97th birthday of the church’s founder, Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman, who was born Albert B. Cleage, Jr., at Indianapolis, Ind., on June 13, 1911. He made h ...

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: 'A More Perfect UnionPhiladelphia, PA March 18, 2008 As Prepared for Delivery "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union." Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who ...

The real and complex story of Bumpy Johnson By Paul Lee Special to the Michigan CitizenPT. 2: THE PROTECTOR The legacy of the real-life black Harlem gangster Ellsworth Raymond (Bumpy) Johnson is a complex one, but audiences won’t get any sense of this in the brief portrayal of him in the opening minutes of the current motion picture American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington as heroin kingpin Frank Lucas ...