BHS Day 15: National Black United Front

Hi! For our 3rd Community Spotlight in this year's series we're going to be focusing on another organization, but this one has a bit of a checkered past, from the bit I have heard about it over the years. I never researched the organization in depth before today though, so I'll be learning about it alongside you. I think I want to start focusing a little on organizations and people whose policies and platforms I may not personally agree with, partially because I think you can acknowledge someone's accomplishments and failings without doing either a disservice, and because I don't want to unintentionally.....whitewash (for lack of a better term) what I cover in our history as a people. Some of our history is muddy. Some of our loudest voices and biggest advocates had messy pasts and I don't want to minimize that in an effort to highlight the positive. I hope all of this made sense, because I said all of that to say that today's organization seems to be described as (at least partially) having Black nationalist-leaning principles, which is a concept I personally do not stand by. While I understand the point and agree with the surface ideals they state, I don't believe in furthering nationalist policies or beliefs for any race, including ours. Despite that, I think it's still worth giving them their moment in the spotlight. I feel like today's featured organization is a bit more aligned with NBUF's beliefs, so that's why I chose it. Let's get into it!

Source

Name: National Black United Front, 1980-

Date of establishment and founders: 1980 by Dr. Conrad Worrill and a collective group of individuals dedicated to the Black Power Movement

Purpose of organization: To advance the Black race as a whole; to address the political, economic, social, and cultural forces that impact on people of African ancestry in the United States; to liberate the Black community

Why is the Spotlight on it today? For its work in liberating and educating the Black community, for empowering people to seek prosperity and abundance in society, and its long lasting foothold in the community for people who need it

Background:

--Functions by an eight-point policy structure (some is loosely paraphrased, some is verbatim):

• "Struggling for self-determination, liberation and power for African-American people; 
• Working together in the struggle with Afrikan liberation movements and its followers
• Building a politically conscious, unified, committed and effective Black mass movement
• Eliminating racism of all kinds, eliminating the international inequality, oppression, exploitation and overall sexist behavior towards women, and eradicating monopoly capitalism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, imperialism and national oppression.
• Maintaining the political and financial independence of the organization
• Building unity throughout the struggle with African-Americans and others abroad, as long as Black interests are not compromised in any way
• Continuing the political and cultural revolution to create a new vision and value system for the new Black man, woman and child based on the struggle to meet Black needs 
• Continuing to struggle and maximize the unity within the Black Liberation Movement and all Black people; to eliminate internal violence, character assassination and self-destruction; to establish a viable process to arbitrate all major conflicts within the Black Liberation Movement and Black community

--At one time, boasted over 20 chapters across the nation, all with the intention of empowering and mobilizing the Black community to rise; currently actively promotes 13 who have embraced social media and are mobilizing today's generation 

--Partially formed due to the FBI's COINTELPRO program, which was a series of targeted surveillance attacks meant to damage many civil rights leaders and organizers during the '60s and '70s 

--Helps the community through a number of outreach programs, one of the more successful being the Feed the Hood Project, which provides local needy individuals with a monthly survival supply bag

--Is different from other prominent civil rights and liberation organizations in that it seems to further Black nationalist views in the quest for liberation

--Received pushback internally and in-community for the lack of female leadership and oppressive behavior towards women in the organization, despite having a policy specifically geared at ending female oppression

--Are longtime allies of the Minister Louis Farrakhan, despite in-community pushback for his alienating views on Jews and negative descriptions of Whites

--Helps the Black community to understand the value of its dollar by furthering the "Buy Black Empowerment Initiative, " which encourages supporting, establishing Black-owned businesses and recirculating the Black dollar within the community rather than contributing to the mainstream economy

--Creates workshops throughout the year on helping Black people understand their legal rights and what to do when confronted by police

--Isn't often classified with other civil rights organizations throughout history due to its militant beliefs and policies, conflicting with the more prominent view of nonviolence and peaceful protesting

--Aides in helping those caught up in the criminal justice system by helping to get inmates with death row sentences released

--Went through some issues in the '80s, between the blatantly sexist behavior directed at NBUF's women and a lack of activity in many of the local chapters

--Was recently named as a certified Black organization by the National Black Organization of Charities

--Created the National Black United Front Human Rights and Genocide Campaign, which is a petition of over 200,000 Africans who believe that the United States is committing genocide against the African population in the States

Further reading and resources:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Quote of the Day:

"The National Black United Front (NBUF) is an organization that believes the black people in America need to become organized and work as one in order to become free, liberated and independent. They urge black citizens across the nation to join their organization because it is an organization that is working in the best interests of our people. The black community has immense culture and history that extends back long before we can even remember. Even though much of our past is filled with hardship and can be termed “critical” our status as black people in America is not irreversible. Our long history of struggling in this country has brought about our many victories against racism, political oppression, economic oppression, and cultural domination. The mission of The National Black United Front is to continue on with the fight for equality. They believe in this day and age there is a need for bold radical actions and strong commitment to be organized for Black Power."

-National Black United Front mission statement

Today's organization: Organization for Black Struggle

Source

What does this organization provide? A solid platform for furthering the knowledge and growth of today's generation of Blacks that helps lead the conversation on many of the issues affecting the community today. A self-described radical organization, OBS seeks to continue the legacies left behind by the Congress of Afrikan People, the Black Nationalist Party, and other Black radical organizations in order to recraft the message for today's generation. They serve as advocates for a number of national and international campaigns geared around furthering the Black nationalist message.

Donate | Membership 

See you tomorrow!