On Wed, May 29, 2013, the Philadelphia branch of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) held a candlelight vigil for Stephen "Cheesy" Henderson III at the corner of Wyalusing Avenue and Frazier Street in West Philly.
This was same location where Cheesy was killed by Philly cops on the night of Wednesday, May 22nd.
Stephen Henderson III became one more of the countless African victims of colonial police terror that strikes our communities every day.
Eyewitnesses from the African community where Henderson was murdered state that Henderson had been hit by a car and his hands were empty when police murdered him.
The candlelight vigil drew a crowd of at least 75 people.
Some were friends and family of Cheesy, others were concerned community members who are tired of living in fear of the police.
As the candlelight vigil was being held for Stephen, an announcement was made that another African was murdered by the police in a neighboring section of Southwest Philly, on 53rd Street.
That announcement served to validate InPDUM’s stance, which details how the police function as an occupying army in the African community, waging a colonial war of aggression against our entire people.
Within four days of the murder of Stephen, the blood-thirsty Philly pigs shot three other African men.
Belton Lomax was one of those victims. He was a neighborhood mechanic from Germantown, whose execution left eight children fatherless.
At the vigil, Stephen’s grandfather and the people committed to resist their oppression and build for the Court for Black Justice, where they could put the State on trial.
Videos of the vigil, interviews of witnesses and Cheesy's grandfather can be found at the end of this article.
Cheesy’s grandfather stands strong
When the police murdered Cheesy they killed the wrong African.
Cheesy’s grandfather, Stephen Henderson Sr., is a member of the African revolutionary movement known as the Uhuru Movement.
Stephen Henderson Sr. joined with members of the African People’s Socialist Party on the 2011 Marcus Garvey Legacy Cruise. He is a website designer and has contributed to the development of the website, www.omaliyeshitela.org, which is now announcing the Omali Yeshitela Worldwide Speaking Tour 2013.
Stephen is committed to fight for justice not only for his grandson but for all African people who have faced death and terror at the hands of the colonial police.
He is rapidly becoming a leader in Philly’s African community.
Stephen’s commitment to the struggle for justice for his grandson was evident in his political stance before, during and after the vigil was held. He played an instrumental role in organizing the vigil and mobilizing dozens of his grandson’s friends and family members.
During the vigil, Stephen Sr. made a powerful call for the people rise up and resist our oppression before the same thing happens to them or someone they know.
Today, Stephen functions as the interim President of the Philadlephia branch of InPDUM.
As such, he is leading the organized struggle for Black Power and justice for all victims of police murder and terror.
Present at the vigil was InPDUM’s International President, Diop Olugbala.
President Olugbala made a powerful call-to-arms encouraging Africans to turn their backs on the colonial court and police apparatus and to resist our oppression.
He explained that what happened to Cheesy was a textbook example of colonial violence, violence that is inflicted on the entire African community without regard for any law or democracy for Africans.
President Olugbala pointed to the evidence that was revealed by people who saw Cheesy’s murder as evidence of the fact that the Philadelphia police, like colonial police forces throughout the U.S. and the world, have a shoot-to-kill policy when it comes to Africans and other oppressed peoples.
According to eyewitnesses, the police chased Cheesy for at least a quarter mile, firing shots at the back of an unarmed man.
In the aftermath of Cheesy’s murder, the police forensics picked up empty shells of police bullets for the entire distance of the chase. At the end of the trail was Cheesy’s lifeless body.
Cheesy’s alleged gun was found a quarter mile away from his body. This means that the police were firing shots at an unarmed man.
When they caught Cheesy they executed him, shot him while he was on the ground, clearly posing no threat to anyone.
Cheesy’s killing was premeditated!
The police had the clear intent to kill this African. The circumstances around Cheesy’s murder are not unlike the circumstances around the numerous other recent police shootings that have occurred in Philly over the last several days. On a national scale, an African is killed by the police every 28 hours under those same types of circumstances, according to a recent report by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.
It is clear that the police have a shoot-to-kill policy.
It is clear, based on the fact that none of the cops who murder our people ever go to jail, and that the U.S. court system cooperates in this war against our community.
None of this comes at a surprise when we look at the fact that the entire U.S. government and state (police, prisons, courts, etc.) was founded as an organization to protect a system of slavery and colonialism.
The earliest forms of police and armed forces in this country were in place to murder the Indigenous peoples and facilitate the theft of their land.
Originally, the police were gangs of thugs who would patrol the roads of this country in search of Africans who attempted to escape their enslavement.
Today, the police, prisons and the courts are just as colonial and anti-African as they were in the beginning.
This is the reason why there are more than 2 million Africans in prison.
This is why an African is murdered by the police AT LEAST every 28 hours in the U.S., and this is why the police who murder us never go to prison.
The African nation is oppressed around the world
The relationship that the U.S. colonial and imperialist state has with Africans in this country is the same relationship that it has with Africans around the world.
Today, African people are being murdered by the police in South Africa. The South African government and police are controlled by U.S. and other imperialist forces.
This is also a relationship that the U.S. has with other oppressed peoples from whom it intends to steal land and resources.
The U.S. marines murder and maim Afghani people in Afghanistan in the same fashion as the Philadelphia Police function as a colonial occupying army in West Philly.
This analysis was shared with the people at the vigil. Some people responded with nods of approval, while others listened.
The material reality of the situation made it impossible to dismiss what InPDUM was saying. It was clear that the idea of revolution was being grappled with by the people.
People began signing up to join the struggle and reading The Burning Spear newspaper and fliers that discussed the police shootings.
In response to the city of Philadelphia's intensifying war on the African population,
InPDUM Philly will be holding the Court for Black Justice and Reparations (CBJR), or tribunals in attempt to push the state back while organizing revolutionary mass resistance.
The Court for Black Justice and Reparations is part of the international campaign of resistance against colonial occupation that InPDUM launched at its last convention.
The campaign calls on InPDUM branches to build the CBJRs. As stated in the RNDP,
"As a serious component of the struggle to achieve state power, we call on Africans throughout the U.S. and Canada to unite with the Uhuru Movement-established tribunal, founded in 1982 as the first session of the International Tribunal on Reparations for African people in the U.S.
“The International Tribunal is the basis of our incipient revolutionary national democratic state power wherein Africans will conduct our own trials and hearings in the quest for justice within our colonized communities and achieve justice in issues between Africans and the U.S. colonial state and citizens."
During the vigil, the people called for a march on the notorious 19th district of the Philadelphia Police Dept, the district that the pig who murdered Cheesy is based out of.
The 19th District was recently under international scrutiny after being caught on camera savagely beating an African man named Askia Sabur.
INPDUM Philly is in the process of organizing similar vigils for the other Africans who have been murdered by the cops in other parts of the city.
The following links are interviews conducted with Stephen Henderson, Taisha Morrison and Jamia Morrison, both eyewitnesses to the murder of Stephen Henderson III.
InPDUM's video interview of Stephen Henderson, Cheesy's grandfather:
InPDUM's video interview of witnesses:
InPDUM's video footage of the vigil (part 1 of 8):
(Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8)
Touch One, Touch All!
One Africa, One Nation!
Bring the pigs to our Court!
End the war on the African community!
Build InPDUM!
