by Danny Tennial
Special to the Tri-State Defender

On Saturday (Oct. 3), Minister Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, attended the funeral of a Chicago teen beaten to death on his way home from school. Next weekend, he will be in Memphis for the 14th anniversary of the Million Man March.

The horror of the fatal attack on Chicago honor student Derrion Albert has affected people around the nation. For his aunt (head bowed), the pain was overwhelming after funeral services at Mount Hebron Church. (Photos by Worsom Robinson/Real Times News Service)

A young man holds the obituary program of Derrion Albert whose vicious beating death was recorded by a man with a cell phone camera.

An-Janett Albert, the mother of Derrion Albert, is escorted by Rev. Jesse Jackson after funeral services for her son who was killed by a group of teens as he was on his way to a community center.

Farrakhan’s Oct. 18 address will be much more than a commemoration speech, Minister Ishmael Muhummad, his national assistant, told the Tri-State Defender in a recent interview. According to Muhummad, Farrakhan will speak directly about the source of the mounting waves of violence that are engulfing African American youth. And about what must be done.

Chicago has become the poster-city for such violence, with the brutal killing of 16-year-old Derrion Albert, another painful reminder. The honor roll student was walking to a bus stop after school when a group of teens attacked him during a street fight late last month. The vicious attack on Albert was caught on a cell phone camera and the images now have been flashed throughout the country.

The theme for the gathering in Memphis is “Accepting Responsibility to Rebuild Our Community.”

“The social and political climate that exists today is the same climate that existed in America 15 years ago,” said Minister Muhummad, using as a point of reference Farrakhan’s appearance in Memphis in 1994 prior to the Million Man March on Oct. 16, 1995.

Asked if it was a matter of finding a solution, or a case of a known solution that had not been enacted, Muhummad said it was the latter, noting that the teachings of The Honorable Elijah Muhummad and the subsequent voice of Farrakhan gave blacks a solution for the longstanding social ills.

“The solution has always been for African Americans to come together as a united black front to solve our own problems,” said Muhummad. “Nevertheless, we chose integration instead of black unity…. We have not acted as a united black front and we are suffering the consequences for our inaction.”

Muhummad, the son of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Tynnetta Muhammad, was forthright with his belief that there are political and social forces outside the community that are the enemy of African-American advancement. He said the kind of education given to black youths equals oppression.

“Any independent educational system that has attempted to teach Afrocentric values and pride to black children has been met with severe opposition from whites,’’ he said.

The 15 and 16 year olds of today were babies when the Million Man March was held in 1995, he said, lamenting that the children born in the 1990’s are part of a lost generation conditioned by mental bondage and without knowledge of self.

There is an urgency that the African-American community must act upon and it is based on doing for self, Muhummad said.

But with a pained expression, Muhummad added that he feared things might actually get worse for the African-American community before there was a concerted move toward the unity solution.

Memphis’ historic significance to the struggle of African-American people adds to the upcoming visit by Farrakhan on the anniversary of the Million Man March and helps set the context for what he will say, said Muhummad.

Executive Editor Karanja A. Ajanaku contributed to this story.