{"id":1072,"date":"2012-02-25T12:58:59","date_gmt":"2012-02-25T17:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/ossie-davis-malcolm-x-mlk-100-black-men-roy-copeland-today-and-tomorrow.html"},"modified":"2012-02-25T12:58:59","modified_gmt":"2012-02-25T17:58:59","slug":"ossie-davis-malcolm-x-mlk-100-black-men-roy-copeland-today-and-tomorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/ossie-davis-malcolm-x-mlk-100-black-men-roy-copeland-today-and-tomorrow.html","title":{"rendered":"Ossie Davis, Malcolm X, MLK, 100 Black Men, Roy Copeland, today and tomorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"Kay Harris wrote for the VDT yesterday,\n<a href=\"http:\/\/valdostadailytimes.com\/local\/x952191335\/Artifacts-exhibit-this-weekend\">\nArtifacts exhibit this weekend<\/a>,\n<blockquote>\nActor Ossie Davis delivered the eulogy at the funeral of Malcolm X\n<a href=\"http:\/\/valdostadailytimes.com\/local\/x952191335\/Artifacts-exhibit-this-weekend\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/d6673sr63mbv7.cloudfront.net\/archive\/x952191299\/g0a00000000000000006f6d9222a709b23dfce8c4e2774afcba3f08bd58.jpg\"><\/a>\non Feb. 27, 1965. It was a strong statement of support for the life\nof a man whom controversy followed until his assassination at the\nage of 39. So why did Davis potentially risk his career to pay\ntribute to Malcolm X? A letter, written by Davis, explains his\ndecision. The letter will be on public display this weekend.\n<p>\nDavis&#8217; letter will join dozens of other historic artifacts for a\nspecial Black History Month observation, sponsored by the 100 Black\nMen of Valdosta Inc. The Sixth Annual African-American Artifacts\nexhibit will be on display noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Feb.\n25 and 26.\n<\/blockquote>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/wzJ_KoxLviw\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/i4.ytimg.com\/vi\/wzJ_KoxLviw\/default.jpg\"><\/a>\nKind of weird phrasing there, Ms. Editor, given that Ossie Davis&#8217; tribute\nwas after Malcolm X was assassinated&#8230;.\n<p>\nI&#8217;d like to read that letter. How about you?\n<p>\nHere is a\n<a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/wzJ_KoxLviw\">\nvideo of that eulogy<\/a>\n(although the voice is not that of Ossie Davis):\n\n<!--more-->\n<p align=\"center\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wzJ_KoxLviw\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>\nAh,\n<a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/p_TXg15sq1s\">\nthis one sounds like Ossie Davis<\/a>:\n<p align=\"center\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p_TXg15sq1s\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>\nThat one may be from\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0104797\/\">\nSpike Lee&#8217;s movie,<\/a>\nin which Ossie Davis is credited as &#8220;Eulogy Performer (voice)&#8221;.\nHe sounds like he was from around here.\n<p>\nFinally, this appears to be a sound recording of\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2005\/2\/7\/ossie_davis_eulogizes_malcolm_x_in\">\nthe actual eulogy as it was delivered.<\/a>\nIt was much longer than the snippets that were used in the movie or that\nare usually reprinted. For example:\n<blockquote>\nWe have ceased to care. We have ceased to be concerned. We have\nceased to remember our humanity. We are things, we are cogs, we are\nclose to being dehumanized in this great country of ours.\n<p>\nMalcolm came along and said, stop, stop, you are men. Stop, you do\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2005\/2\/7\/ossie_davis_eulogizes_malcolm_x_in\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/images\/story\/87\/1487\/medium\/ossiemalcolm.jpg\"><\/a>\ncare. Stop, there is life in you. Stop there is still the\npossibility that manhood, that courage, that strength, that\nimagination, will make the difference. It was he who rallied our\nflagging efforts, who taught us to stand up off of our knees,\nespecially the black men, but also the whites, but to stand up off\nof our knees, to address ourselves to the truth, even if we were\nkilled for it, and it&#8217;s been a long time since that kind of courage\nand bravery was abroad in our land.\n<\/blockquote>\nHe was referring specifically to a famous event in New York City of\nthat time, but those words are even more true today.\n<blockquote>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Malcolm_X\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/c\/cb\/Malcolm_X_NYWTS_2a.jpg\/220px-Malcolm_X_NYWTS_2a.jpg\"><\/a>\nWe&#8217;ve had men, men who were mountains, men who were mighty, men who\nset us great and good examples, but they had one advantage that\nMalcolm did not have. They were men of education. They were men of\ncollege. They had had training. Malcolm came from the lowest depths.\nAnd therefore, in measuring the man we have to measure the place\nfrom whence he came. All of us sitting here tonight, men and women,\nblack and white, can stand a little taller because a man like\nMalcolm X walked on our earth, lived in our midst, smiled his smile\non the face of Harlem.\n<p>\nI am happy to have known him and if there is a possibility of\nredemption for me, for you, for Harlem, for our country, Malcolm is\nthe man who said that such a redemption was possible, and when he\ndied, he was pointing the way to this redemption. We sat tonight. We\nwere uplifted by the singing, by the dancing, by the presence of\ngreat leaders among us, and you must have noticed that our greatest\nleaders turned out to be women.\n<\/blockquote>\nSo what&#8217;s our excuse?\nWill we be sitting on the couch watching TV when a bad law is passed or an innocent person is beaten?\n<p>\nHere&#8217;s\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2005\/2\/7\/ossie_davis_eulogizes_malcolm_x_in\">\na (slightly inaccurate) transcript.<\/a>\nApparently the transcriber had trouble understanding Ossie Davis&#8217;\nGeorgia accent.\nMaybe we can understand him better.\n<p>\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kay Harris wrote for the VDT yesterday, Artifacts exhibit this weekend, Actor Ossie Davis delivered the eulogy at the funeral of Malcolm X on Feb. 27, 1965. It was a strong statement of support for the life of a man whom controversy followed until his assassination at the age of 39. So why did Davis [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,19,133],"tags":[1998,8701,7,2999,8845,2998,183,6],"class_list":["post-1072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-history","category-vdt","tag-100-black-men","tag-georgia","tag-lowndes-county","tag-malcolm-x","tag-mlk","tag-ossie-davis","tag-roy-copeland","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-hi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}