3 6 June 10-June 16, 2010
THE NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS
Happy physical day, Abubadika Sonny Carson
By WA,T.E.R. 17
Special to the AmNews
Many times, an individual's
accomplishments are not as
readily recognized when they're
physically alive as they are
after one has made the transition on to the realm of the
ancestors. While some freedom
fighters' deeds are often overlooked by people who are oblivious to those efforts but still reap
the benefits, those with their
third eye open usually carry on
the baton.
The Ogun energy expressing
itself as Abubadika Sonny Carson will forever be felt in his
home, "The Planet BrookljTi,"
where he positively touched so
many lives.
While he was well respected
amongst other freedom-loving
Diasporan Africans within the
metropolitan area for combating against thirsty drug dealers; trigger-happy, crooked
killer cops; and exploitive
invaders to his communities, he
was also deeply despised by
opportunistic
politicians,
preachers and school ofBcials.
Robert Carson, Jr. was bom
in South Carolina on May 20,
1929. His family moved north a
few years later, settling in the
People's Republic of BrookljTi.
After completing his formal
education, he enlisted in the
U.S. Army, serving a tour of duty
in the Korean War, where he
encountered "an opposing Korean soldier who questioned him:
'Why would a Black man fight
for a country that would not let
you drink from the same water
fountain in Mississippi?'"
remembered Carüon'a comrade
Ali Lamont, chairman of the
Committee to Honor Black
Heroes [CTHBH].
Back in BrookljTi, Sonny
fought for proper education—
always correcting errors of the
youth in the schooling system—
and also against rampant police
executions of young Black men.
"He was there to make sure
we fought against police brutality," reflected Atiim Ferguson,
chief of staff for the CTHBH.
In 1974, Carson detailed his
coming of age in his tnie-to-Ufe
book "The Education of Sonny
Carson," and the classic bioflick by the same name that
soon followed. He was again
paid homage by the current hiphop generation when Sonny's
flick was sampled on Ghost
Face Killah's 1996 classic solo
debut, "Iron Man." Also, The
Fugees' female vocalist said in a
Rolling Stones magazine interview that the title of her 1998
solo album, "The Miseducation
of Lauryn Hill," was partially
inspired by Sonny's own story.
"No justice! No peace!" was
Abubadika's famous phrase as
he organized communities to
combat police-led executions
and racially motivated attacks
by Caucasians against Blacks
in N.Y.C. He was also instrumental in orchestrating various public demonstrations
where thousands of upset citizens who said they were tired
of being "terrorized" by the
NYPD converged on the Brooklyn Bridge-The Day of Outrage, City Hall and other vital
city locations to jam up traffic,
suppress their dollars and let
their voices be heard.
"A.B. was a straight-up man
who didn't pull no punches. He
loved to help his people the best
way he could. He visited prisons
to help those people any way he
could. He'd speak to the youth
to keep them from going back.
He did a lot of work that he didn't get recognition for," observed
Pop Gaskins, events coordinator
for the CTHBH.
During the mid-'80s, he led
mass protests following the
Howard Beach and Bensonhurst murders, in which
Michael Griffin and Yusuf
Hawkins lost their lives in separate incidents because of angry
Caucasian mobs.
CarSon helped quell the
three-day Crown Heights uprising that erupted on August 19,
1991, after a 22-year-old
Hasidic Jew named Yosef Lisch
drove through the intersection
of President Street and Utica
Avenue, nuining a red light, as
he attempted to remain part of
a three-car motorcade. He lost
control of the vehicle, jumped
the curb and struck 7-year-old
Gavin Cato and his 7-year-old
cousin Angela, killing the boy.
On another note, "What a lot
of people don't know is that the
African Burial Ground wouldn't
have been the African Burial
Ground without Abubadika,"
reflected Atiim. "He stopped the
construction, stopping the 18wheelers from t£iking out the
dirt and our bodies. Even
though he was the frontrunner
of that, nobody today reminds
people that it was Sonny Carson who started this whole
thing. A lot of people helped
build it, yes... but they were not
the initial part."
Abubadika's organization,
CTHBH (located at 1360 Harriet Tubman Blvd., Suite 15 in
Brooklyn,
NY
11216,
718.783.1824) is responsible for
renaming a few streets and
schools after some prominent
freedom fighters, including:
Sumner Avenue to Marcus Garvey Blvd. and a stretch of Utica
Avenue from Fulton to Broadway that was changed to Malcolm X Blvd., as well as initiating the on going effort to
rename Fulton Street after
Harriet Tubman. Also, the former Public School 262 is now El
Hajj Malik El Shabazz because
of Abubadika, and he contributed to establishing Medgar
Evers College, which is named
after the civil rights leader.
"A street should be named
after Abubadika. He is one of
the strongest examples of the
work done by the ancestors.
Once inspired by them, he
dropped his slave name, took a
free African name and made
himself emotionally and educationally mature. Abubadika significantly contributed to our
efforts to be free. All of us are
going to have to go down that
same road," asserted Brother
Tarik Haskins, a longtime Carson comrade.
"One of the last great things
that he did was to bring the continuity that we need with the
Continent," assessed Atiim. "He
took his ancestors back to
Ghana, through 'the door of no
return' and brought the connection between the Africans in
North America and the ones in
Africa to become one family.
That was a spiritual thing that
he brought. That was the climax
in The Education of Sonny Carson.'"
Hampton Rookard, the silent warrior
By HERB BOYD
Special to the AmNews
Sometimes in the very
moment of celebration, you can
be knocked back into a painful
reality. That's how I felt last
week, minutes before I was to
receive an EUie Charles Award
from African Voices, when I
learned
that
Hampton
Rookard had joined the ancestors. Nayaba Arinde, scheduled to present me with the
award, showed me the funeral
program with Hampton smiling broadly, bis strong face
emitting that tough, no non- would find him right up front,
sense demeanor that could dis- making sure the leaders were
arm you.
protected. He was as reliable a
But behind the seemingly protester as the late Mother
severe exterior was a gentle Franklin, Grandad and Carol
warrior. His ^ t e . full of .Taylor, always ready with
bracelets and -fin^K bedecked •advice and encouragement.
with a variety of rings,
I never really got to know
adorned with an array of him, in fact, all I knew was
cowrie shells, and the amulets Hamp, but he possessed a "g
around his neck gave him an wealth of information, and I s
air of African strength and cer- remember on a couple of occa- s
titude.
sions he drove me home in his ^
There was a time when Jaguar.
^
every rally, demonstration or
When Naya showed me the Hampton Rookard's family
march against police brutality funeral program, it took my breath away. I hadn't seen him
in several years and wondered
piecemeal budgeting is not the pressing forward to narrow the what became of him. Perhaps
way to do it, and if it means gap. They, according to the gov- he was still doing what he
stopping things for a couple of ernor, "seem to be bringing always did; maybe my pattern
(Continued from Page 1)
dayS, then we're prepared to do some real reductions to the of being on the ramparts had
Nassau County Dean Skelos it," he told the press on Tues- table."
changed.
was opposed to the plan, insist- day.
However, they will have to
Hamp never hungered for
ing that Republicans will not
On the other hand. Assem- bring a lot more than the recognition. He seemed conhelp the Democrats reach the bly Speaker Sheldon Silver recent $1 billion in reductions tent to be merely an unheraldnecessary 32 votes. "Right now, and State Senate Democratic to close the gap, and bring the ed foot soldier, an unsung hero
our conference believes that Leader John Sampson are budget baby to term.
in the trenches of our struggle.
Budget
Like Shakespeare's Othello,
Hamp, you did the state some
service and a few of us know it.
Though you rarely uttered a
sound, your presence was powerful, your integrity unblemished.
We need a cadre of Hamps,
an army of silent warriors who
know their mission and are,
happy to be there for the people.
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