St. Petersburg, FLORIDA––At a press conference held on January 21, 2016 on the steps of St. Petersburg’s city hall, Chairman Omali Yeshitela of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) promised that this was just one of many shots to be fired in regards to the struggle over the replacement mural.
It was a promise kept and carried out by members of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) and the Uhuru Solidarity Movement with the shut down of St. Petersburg City Hall just a short time after on February 9th.
Now, under the leadership of the Director of the APSP’s National Office of Recruitment and Membership, Gazi Kodzo, InPDUM is locking and loading, preparing to unload a few of those promised rounds onto the city.
InPDUM will host a Sunday Rally at Akwaaba Hall on Sunday, March 20, 2016, with the theme surrounding the mural and a historical timeline presentation delivered by Chairman Omali.
The speakers will include Joseph Wall, John Bryant and the son of Lemeul Green, three of the men who aided Yeshitela 50 years ago in tearing down the racialized mural which hung in city hall and depicted Africans with exaggerated features eating watermelon and serenading white people.
The rally will recognize the heroes of that day and provide the Africans in St. Petersburg with an accurate telling of this historical event.
InPDUM will expose the city’s sly attempt to whitewash history by refusing reach out to those imprisoned after tearing down the racist mural.
InPDUM will call on African artists in the community to submit art portfolios with a chance to become the selected artist to design and recreate the mural.
There will be a real criteria presented so that after 50 years of unoccupied space, that wall in city hall can have a mural depicting the courageous act that set off the Black Power Movement in St. Pete.
This rally is just the precursor to an even bigger event to take place May 1, 2016, hosted again at Akwaaba Hall.
There, an artist will be chosen and a celebration will follow, with APSP members Eshai Anan and Marques Clark delivering dynamic performances, and a public community forum with petty bourgeois African sellouts in attendance to withstand the heat and demands from the African working class.
Africans will control the narrative! Africans will take control of the mural! No asking, no begging!
And in the spirit of obtaining absolute control: IF WE DON’T GET IT! TEAR IT DOWN!
