H. Rap Brown
H. Rap Brown
Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin,, also known as H. Rap Brown, was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s, and during a short-livedalliance between SNCC and the Black Panther Party, he served as their minister of justice. He is perhaps most famous for his proclamation during that period that "violence is as American as cherry pie," as well as once stating that "If America don't come around, we're gonna burn it down." He is also known for his autobiography...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActivist
Date of Birth4 October 1943
CountryUnited States of America
The poverty program was not designed to eliminate poverty.
Attack those concepts such as 'third world.' Think about it. If we look at it in terms of numbers, then people of color are the majority in this world. We should be the 'first world.'
Being a man is the continuing battle for one's life. One loses a bit of manhood with every stale compromise to the authority of any power in which one does not believe.
There's no such thing as second class citizenship. That's like telling me you can be a little bit pregnant.
See, it's no in between: you're either free or you're a slave.
I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.
This is a very unforgiving country when you show this country its warts, when you hold the mirror up. If you happen not to share their beliefs, they'll kill you.
Individuals do not create rebellions; conditions do.
When you understand your obligations to God then you can understand your obligations to society.
But black people fall for that same argument, and they go around talking about law breakers. We did not make the laws in this country. We are neither morally nor legally confined to those laws. Those laws that keep them up, keep us down.
I say violence is necessary. Violence is a part of America's culture. It is as American as cherry pie. Americans taught the black people to be violent. We will use that violence to rid ourselves of oppression if necessary. We will be free, by any means necessary.
In terms of the revolution, I believe that the revolution will be a revolution of dispossessed people in this country: that's the Mexican American, the Puerto Rican American, the American Indian, and black people.
Everybody in the black community must organize, and then we decide whether we will have alliance with other people or not, but not until we are organized.