Lessons learned from all the heroes and civil rights leaders.

All of these great leaders who have fought for freedom and civil rights have essentially the same message.

• Freedom is a right, not a privilege.

Every person should be entitled to healthcare, education, freedom of speech and religion.

• All men are created equal.

I remember when I first read the book, “Animal Farm” by George Orwell, in high school during our literature class, we were amused by the statement in the conclusion of the story:

“all animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

But the irony is that men actually believe that some humans are more superior to others. Hence, the constant battle for riches and power. The hatred against each other, the discrimination, and racism.

• The color of your skin should not determine your rights.

The spirits of pride, prejudice, and deception contaminate the lives of those who believe that complexion determines character.

• Education is the primary tool that will elevate anyone in life.

Education has improved my economic and social status in life. It is possible for everyone to gain success through education.

•  You cannot be afraid to stand up for principles and your rights as a human being.

Always endeavor to be knowledgeable about your inherent rights as a person regardless of your color, nationality, religion or social status.

• In today’s society, the black race in the Caribbean and USA needs to emancipate themselves from mental slavery.

We cannot continue to blame the slavemasters for our plight in society. The responsibility of our self-development lies with each of us.

• Self-confidence is necessary to fight your way out of poverty.

You have to believe that God has given you the ability to attain greatness. He has given you gifts and talents for you to gain success.

Therefore, learn to believe that with the help of God you are capable of obtaining your goals in life.

•  Develop our communities by becoming entrepreneurs and business people so that others will respect us.

A developed community will increase employment opportunities for the youths thus keeping them off the streets of idleness. Always remember that the devil finds work for idle hands to do.

• If we learn to be satisfied and reduced the thirst and greed for high-end goods, we will increase our potential of gaining wealth.

Every country must trade to develop economically. But, if your spending is more than your income you will remain in poverty. The same goes for each individual.

Message to the Black youths

Put away the guns, crime, and violence; get out of the drug house and house of prostitution; get off the streets of idleness and get yourself enrolled in a college or university.

The only way you will gain equality and respect is to get educated and acquire positions in high places of administration and legislation where you can influence and make laws that will uplift your race into success.

Obey the words of the great Martin Luther King:

“In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again, and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.” (King)

Marin Luther King had a dream over fifty years ago, but the dream still lives on and can only be fulfilled through Jesus Christ who brought liberty to all men irrespective of color or social and economic stance, through His redemptive work on Calvary.

If we will only believe and receive.

According to the words of Martin Luther King,

“It is with this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.” (King)

With this faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, freedom will not only ring in the USA but from every corner of this world where people are in bondage because of race, color, nationality, religion, social, economic and gender.

And above all freedom from the bondage of sin.

As we take care of our spiritual needs, we also need to be proactive and begin to improve ourselves in education, business and socially. Let us become practical and obey the following advised of Minister Louis Farrakhan at the million-man march:

“Black man, you don’t have to bash White people, all we gotta do is go back home and turn our communities into productive places. All we gotta do is go back home and make our communities a decent and safe place to live. And if we start dotting the Black community with businesses, opening up factories, challenging ourselves to be better than we are, White folk, instead of driving by, using the “N” word, they’ll say, “Look, look at them. Oh, my God. They’re marvelous. They’re wonderful. We can’t, we can’t say they’re inferior anymore.”

But, every time we drive-by shoot, every time we carjack, every time we use foul, filthy language, every time we produce culturally degenerate films and tapes, putting a string in our women’s backside and parading them before the world, every time we do things like this we are feeding the degenerate mind of White supremacy, and I want us to stop feeding that mind and let that mind die a natural death.” (Farrakhan)

Let Freedom Ring!

What other lessons can we learn from the leaders of the past?

References: Voices of Democracy; American Rhetoric; Wikipedia; Thekingcenter