In 1969 Black minister, professor, and activist Muhammad Kenyatta received a letter at his home from the FBI, warning him to stop fighting for civil rights in Mississipi. If not, the letter threatened, they’d “take other measures … which would not be as cordial as this note.”
They’d threatened his life! He sued the FBI for harassment. But that wasn’t the end of it.
In 1971, a group of anti-war activists broke into the FBI’s office and stole their now-infamous COINTELPRO files!
The documents not only proved that J. Edgar Hoover had approved the letter threatening Kenyatta, but also that the FBI had put him on an “agitator index,” infiltrated his church, and tried to accuse him of stealing a TV set! So, that’s all the evidence he needed, right?
Unfortunately, the jury decided against his case when it went to trial in 1985. But he didn’t stop fighting.
"For some people, the issue regarding Black oppression … is an issue of finding a good master versus a bad master,” he said. “My perspective is that ... I want our people to be the masters of their own fate."
Kenyatta died at only 47 years old, his work unfinished.
This country will always lie about the injustices it commits and punish those seeking freedom. But we have to know – they don't give us anything, we have to take it!