By Nkechi Taifa
Normally my morning walks don’t include going down Memory Lane, particularly one that has been invisible for almost a century. But there I was, in Lafayette Park one Saturday morning last month, right near Lafayette School and its adjoining Recreational Center in upper NW D.C., and Black history came to greet me.
I saw a crowd and I saw a sign. So I did what anyone would do in 2021: I turned on my phone and went to Facebook Live. …
By Nkechi Taifa
To say I was an “interesting” teenager is an understatement. Once upon a revolutionary time, I was a Black Power teen who lived in the once Chocolate City but went to an all-white, all girl high school. I hung out, however, with Black Panthers and brothers from the Nam, recited poetry, attended organizing meetings for the first U.S.-based African Liberation Day, and celebrated Kwanzaa. And upon my high school graduation, I couldn’t wait to join my parents’ alma mater, Howard University. …
by Nkechi Taifa, Esq.
WASHINGTON — If acknowledgement is the first step toward acceptance, reparations for Black people in America has taken a major step forward. The Feb. 17th House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Reparations is one case in point. Then you add the recent Harvard study from Harvard Medical School and the Lancet Commission on Reparations and Redistributive Justice that shows, as Kamm Howard from the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) testified, America would have gotten a 100 to 200 percent return if it had instituted reparations in the past.
On This Stormy MLK Day, There’s No Better Time to Call for Reparatory Justice!
By Nkechi Taifa, Esq.
The terror Blacks feel is in our bones. For me, it began when white storm clouds of terror hung over the home of Mose Wright late one August night in 1955, when white, armed terrorists demanded his great-nephew, 14-year-old Emmett Till, be handed over to them. I was scarcely eight months old. …
By Nkechi Taifa, Esq.
WASHINGTON — I am at Ground Zero. My law degree cannot protect me. My fancy address cannot protect me. My radio appearances and Zoom book tour cannot protect me. I check with, and for, my daughter against this madness as we all should the way the Black Power Movement taught me.
On the 24-hour cable television there are many references to how the situation is comparable to the burning down of the White House during the War of 1812. …
In a Time of Desecrated Black and Indigenous Bones Across North America, a Buried Black Cemetery in Montgomery County, Md. Continues to Meet White Indifference
By Nkechi Taifa
If there are two truths I know well, they are these: first, history doesn’t have a statue of limitations and second, bearing witness creates its own eventual energy. When I look at the determination of Marsha Coleman-Adebayo and others to ensure that a bulldozed Black cemetery is remembered and eventually preserved, those maxims come to the front of my mind.
A group she coordinates was out picketing Monday in Montgomery County, an…
July 15, 2021
Dear Rolling Stone Editors:
The day I discovered the commentary you ran — which was Tuesday, in the morning — I was poised to participate in a Washington, D.C. press conference with some of America’s most progressive faith leaders who had gathered to push Congress to pass H.R. 40, proposed legislation that would study and develop reparations proposals for African Americans, before the Congress’ August recess.
As the 2022 midterm elections loom, more and more of America is beginning to understand that the country en masse stole from Black people — land and labor at the very…
COINTELPRO: WHAT HAPPENED AND LESSONS FOR TODAY
Testimony of Nkechi Taifa, Esq. before May 10th Congressional Forum
On May 10, 2021 three members of the House of Representatives hosted a Congressional Forum, COINTELPRO: WHAT HAPPENED AND LESSONS FOR TODAY. The Forum’s stated purpose was to explore J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), the contemporary impacts, and policy changes made in response to the revelations of the abuses of COINTELPRO, and the work that remains. The Forum was chaired by Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN); Congressman Bobby Rush (D-ILL); and Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D — CA). …
By Nkechi Taifa
As a lifelong D.C. resident, I’ve learned not to put too much faith in the White House, the House of Representatives, the Senate and the U.S. Supreme Court. But I have worked as part of the grassroots as well as the grasstops, so I know that change is possible. President Biden’s first 100 days are approaching and Black pundits and activists, including this writer, will have a lot to say in a virtual national Report Card forum on April 29.
Happily, however, there are current, direct black linings in the white, nebulous clouds surrounding both chambers of…
This is an important chance to take advantage of the popular culture to talk about America’s naked attempt to destroy Black movements
by Nkechi Taifa
First he was the Black man who had to overcome the sexual kryptonite of the white woman in “Get Out.” Then he became T’Challa’s frienemy, W’Kabi, in Marvel’s “Black Panther.” And now his topnotch portrayal of Fred Hampton, the Chicago Black Panther Party leader slain in bed, has led Daniel Kaluuya to the Oscars for a second time. …
Nkechi Taifa
Movement Attorney, Author of BlackPowerBlackLawyer.com; TheTaifaGroup.com; NkechiTaifa.org; @Nkechi_Taifa; Convener of JusticeRoundtable.org; @justiceroundtab
