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The Threat of a Black Messiah
The Coalition on Political Assassinations
in collaboration with the
DDPA Watch Group and WBAI Pacifica
Radio
Sponsor on the
45th Anniversary
of the Assassination of
Malcolm X
The Threat of a Black Messiah
21 February 2010, 6 PM to 8 PM
Judson Memorial
Church
239
Thompson Street
New York
City, NY
Moderated by:
Dowoti Désir, former
Executive Director of the Malcolm X &
Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial, Educational and Cultural Center
Confirmed speakers include:
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Internationally renowned
human rights activists and COINTELPRO expert
Roland Sheppard, an eyewitness to the assassination events
Dr. William Pepper,
Esq., author of Orders to Kill and Act of State,
focused on the King assassination
Wynne Alexander, WDAS radio journalist in Philadelphia,
who was at the scene of an earlier murder attempt
Kwame Somburu, member of the Organization of Afro-American Unity
and witness to the
assassination
John Judge, Director of the Coalition on Political Assassinations,
and independent researcher on political assassinations  The Coalition on Political Assassinations [COPA]
will host a panel with new speakers and revelations about the targeting and assassination of the rising "Black Messiah"
so feared by J. Edgar Hoover's COINTELPRO
program, the CIA's Operation Chaos, as well as, elements of the military intelligence. The panel will also address the efforts
of the FBI and other agencies to disrupt civil rights and the Black Power movements by attacking and killing their leadership,
including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
another potential "Messiah".A 1967 COINTELPRO memo established
principal goals that stated: For maximum effectiveness of the Counterintelligence Program, and to prevent wasted effort,
long-range goals included undermining the coalition of militant Black Nationalist groups especially its charismatic leaders
and youth was a priority. Recognizing in unity there is strength, the FBI,
CIA et al acted against the possibility of an effective alliance of Black Nationalist
groups as they might be the first step toward a real "Mau Mau" [Black Revolutionary Army] in America, the beginning of a true black revolution. Preventing
the rise of a "Messiah" who could unify, and electrify, the militant Black Nationalist movement was an imperative.
Malcolm X might have been such
a "Messiah" and was perceived and indeed was the martyr of the movement of the day. Since 1994 COPA's network of researchers include medial and ballistic experts, academic, authors,
researchers and concerned citizens had held a series of national and regional meeting to present the most recent credible
research into the unsolved political assassinations of John and Robert
Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. and Malcolm X.Co-founder, John Judge has been organizing events often on the  sites of major political assassination in Dallas and elsewhere argues against
"conspiracy deniers." He has gathered an expert panel of speakers who will explore the notion of the Black Messiah
from the historical, political, and theological perspective. Judge observes,
"Over the years the release of new evidence and classified records have revealed the extent of unreasonable fear at
the top levels of government, law enforcement, intelligence and military agencies concerning the potential rising political,
social and moral leadership in the Black communities that had so long been disenfranchised and oppressed by the system of
white privilege and control. This fear led first to an obsessive surveillance from World War I; and then to attempts to
obstruct, divert, disrupt and destroy that leadership on both local and national levels. Finally, it led to illegal conspiracies
to destroy and to assassinate that leadership in both the civil rights and the Black Power and Pan-African movements, including
the deaths of Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, FredHampton and other Black Panthers. This war has not ended yet and COINTELPRO lives on in surveillance
and attacks on the sons and daughters of those targeted and slain; the current political Hip Hop artists; and even in the
current administration's sanction of assassination hit lists against American citizens suspected of promoting terrorism."
Coalition on Political Assassinations, P.O. Box 772, Washington, DC 20044
www.politicalassassinations.com
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIESMODERATOR: Dowoti
Désir - Previously, Executive Director of The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz
Memorial and Educational Center a not-for-profit focused on human, civil, and educational rights. Dowoti Désir, the
former Associate Publisher of The AFRIcan Magazine has served as an Adjunct Professor in the Africana Studies Department
of Brooklyn College, City University of New York. She has worked for over 20 years in the arts community in the U.S. As
the Director of Community Arts Initiatives of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council [LMCC], at LMCC she conceived and managed
the innovative cultural assessment project, Mapping New Terrain: Communities in Transition, which analyzed the impact of
globalization in the Harlem's various communities. An expert advisor to the U.N. Venezuela Mission's Presidency to the International
Conference for New or Restored Democracies [ICNRD], she is the Founder of the Durban Declaration & Action Program Watch
Group. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Georgia's first African-American Congresswoman and an internationally renowned advocate for voting rights, human
rights and the rights of the Palestinian people. A member of the Georgia state legislator from 1988 to 1992, she was elected
to the U.S. House of Representatives 1992, and served six terms. McKinney earned a B.A. in International Relations from
the University of Southern California in 1978 and is currently working to complete her dissertation. Outspoken on issues
of militarism, war, civil and human rights, government accountability and foreign relations, McKinney chaired a Congressional
briefing on the FBI's COINTELPRO program and on the unanswered questions about 9/11. She was the original sponsor of the
Martin Luther King, Jr., Records Act in the House, and introduced the first legislation to impeach President Bush.Roland Sheppard, A retired Business
Representative of Painters Local #4 in San Francisco, Sheppard has been a life long social activist and socialist. He was
an eyewitness to the assassination of Malcolm X. In his retirement, he has been writing about his life experiences as a
socialist, as a participant in the Black Liberation Movement, the Union Movement, and almost all social movements. He has
published a book of his essays, The View From the Painters Ladder, based upon his involvement in the struggle for workers
democracy and freedom for all humanity. He is the author of two essays on the assassination of Malcolm X: The Day the Music
Died Malcolm X's Assassination February 21, 1965 and The Assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. These
essays can also be found online at http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret.Kwame M. A. Somburu, (Paul B. Boutelle: 1934-1979) Born in Harlem Hospital,
and lived in New York City for 39 years, he now resides in Massachusetts. He is a Black Nationalist, Socialist, and
an Atheist. He joined the Freedom Now Party and ran as its candidate for State Senate in 1964. He became a member of the
Organization of Afro-American Unity in the summer of 1964), and he was present at assassination of Malcolm X. Member of
Socialist Workers Party from 1965 to 1983, and he founded Afro-Americans Against the War in Vietnam in1965. Secretary of
the Black United Action Front in 1965, and Chairman of Committee of Black Americans for Truth About the Middle East in 1970.
Member of National Black Independent Political Party, 1980 - 83. Somburu toured England, Germany, and The Netherlands, in
1993 and spoke on Malcolm X, Black Nationalism and Socialism.Dr.
William Pepper, Esq. - A Barrister in England and an attorney, admitted in a number
of jurisdictions in the US, whose work has focused on International Human Rights. Dr. William Pepper was a close friend and
colleague of Martin Luther King, Jr. during the last year of his life, following Dr. King's reading of his article on the
Viet Nam war when he was a young journalist who exposed the war crimes against the civilian population. At Dr. King's request,
he directed the National Conference For New Politics, an umbrella peace and freedom organization formed to oppose the war
and continue the struggle to empower the poor. He became James Earl Ray's attorney in 1988, after becoming convinced that
he was an unknowing patsy. He represented James Earl Ray until he died, and then represented the King family at an historic
trial in 1999, where a jury in Memphis found that a government conspiracy existed to kill Dr. King, and cleared Ray. Pepper
investigated the King assassination for some 30 years, and is the author of Orders to Kill, and Act of State, with a final
work in preparation. He has been a visiting scholar and Fellow at Cambridge and Oxford Universities and convened the Seminar
in International Human Rights for two years at Oxford University, and he was Robert F. Kennedy's Citizen Chairman in Westchester
County, when he ran for the Senate in the year before Malcolm was assassinated. He is now is lead Counsel for Sirhan Sirhan,
who he has come to believe was yet another patsy in that assassination.Wynne Alexander - Author and investigative journalist, Wynne Alexander
wrote GET IT FROM THE DRUMS, the first and only music-infused civil rights curriculum in the United States, featuring the
work of 17 musical superstars. She has also produced the highly informative website WDASHistory.org chronicling the groundbreaking
civil rights work of that radio station and its work with Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Congressman Adam Clayton
Powell, Jr., Coretta Scott King, and many other national leaders. Wynne has garnered awards as " a leading voice for
social justice" and commendations for her "life's work at the intersection of music, civil rights and journalism.
WynneAlexander.com.John Judge - Independent researcher, author and lecturer, John Judge has been the executive director of the National Coalition
on Political Assassinations since 1994, which holds regional and national conferences on the major political assassinations
presenting the best evidence of medical, forensic and ballistics experts, academics and authors and researchers, and works
to secure full release of all classified government files and records related to these murders. Their work led to the passage
and implementation of the JFK Assassination Records Act and the release of over 6.5 million pages of previously hidden government
files. He is the author of Judge for Yourself. Judge is currently working on the passage of a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Records Act as well. www.politicalassassinations.com
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