Home / Full timeline / Black poet Imamu Amiri Baraka tells the representatives of the National Council of Churches that the nation’s major religious organizations must support the revolution of the poor or cease to exist. His appearance receives mixed reactions.
Black poet Imamu Amiri Baraka tells the representatives of the National Council of Churches that the nation’s major religious organizations must support the revolution of the poor or cease to exist. His appearance receives mixed reactions.
1972 (Dec 4)
Black poet Imamu Amiri Baraka (born LeRoi Jones) told the representatives at the triennial general assembly of the National Council of Churches that the nation's major religious organizations must support the revolution of the poor or cease to exist. Baraka, an influential resident of Newark, New Jersey, called for the destruction of capitalism, claiming it was part of a cruelly primitive social system that subjected the poor to misery in this country and abroad. Observers of the American Jewish Committee, Rabbi A. James Ruden and the Reverend Gerald Strober, voiced their disappointment at Baraka's appearance and accused him of anti-white racism and anti-semitism. Many other delegates stood to applaud the Black poet.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.