Thirteen Black Men Who Changed the World

My name is Oscar Crawford. I once presented the Keynote Address for Black History Month to students of Cincinnati Community College in Cincinnati, Ohio. The event was sponsored by the Black Student Union. The title of my presentation was 13 Black Men Who Changed the World. The criteria for making the list of illustrious was that each had to be a courageous revolutionary working against insurmountable odds whose acts resulted in change for black people that was both liberating and empowering, nationally and internationally.

Number One is Richard Allen, Former Slave, Founder of The Free African Society and the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Allen was a man of African race and a pioneer of black institution building. Allen prompted the organizing of the first black organizations, secular and spiritual, in America for African people to support one another.

Number Two is Pierre Francois Dominique Toussaint L'Ouverture, Former Haitian Slave, the Liberator of Haiti.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Haiti would become the first independent black republic since the advent of colonialism. Its liberation came as a result of a slave turned revolutionary.

Number Three is Frederick Douglass, Former Slave, Orator, Statesmen, and Abolitionist. Frederick Douglas ran away from slavery at the earliest opportunity to do so, educated and associated himself with the abolitionist movement to do away with the institution of slavery and the slave trade. A notable Douglas quote, "I say at once in peace and in war, I am content with nothing for the Black Man short of equal and exact justice."

Number Four is Thurgood Marshall, juris doctor and first African American Supreme Court Justice. Marshall's legacy is that he confronted a defective and hypocritical legal and judicial system of government that denied blacks, women, and others equal rights and privileges. His life came to symbolize American Justice and particularly justice and equality for the downtrodden. He was the lead attorney in the case of Brown vs the Board of Education, the victory which resulted in overturning the separate but equal doctrine.

Number Five is Marcus Garvey. This crown of the identified Negro Leadership, created The Universal Negro Improvement Association. The first leader among black people to enjoy a massive following, numbering more than two million black people in 1919. Garvey said upon arrival in the U.S. from Jamiaica in 1916, "Here I found a new and different problem. I immediately visited some of the then so - called Negro leaders, only to discover, after a close study of them, that they had no program, but were mere opportunists who were living off their so - called leadership while the black poor were groping for survival in the dark.

Number Six is Frantz Fanon, Martinique born psychiatrist, Algerian Revolutionary, and Theorist. Dr. Fanon's analyses of colonialism and decolonization place him among the leading revolutionary thinkers of his time. In the United States, where his works became known after his death, (particularly because he wrote in French), Fanon became a guiding figure in the black liberation movement, particularly in the formation of the Black Panther Party. His political thought developed from his own experiences in Algeria while it was under French rule and, to a lesser extent Black Africa, where he traveled on assignment for the Algerian National Liberation Front.

Number Seven is The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Peace Be Upon Him. Unlike Black Christian leaders who had come before him, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad shook the foundations of "the Negro Christian Community" by completely repudiating Christianity as a tool of racist oppression and as the ideology and theology of white devils who sought to perpetuate the exclusion of Blacks from the benefits of American life.

Number Eight and Nine are Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Minister, Drum Major for Peace and Justice, Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X), Voice of The Nation of Islam. The two are presented together that the contrast of their lives can be observed. Dr. King would lead non - violent initiatives in hopes of peaceful resolutions. Malcolm espoused the rhetoric of achieving justice for black people by any means necessary. Both were born to the homes of Baptist ministers. The King Family was interested in accessing the dream of living like the middle class, white, and mainstream. The Little Family was nationalist oriented after the leadership of Marcus Garvey. The King Family prospered. The Little Family was disintegrated. Both would be assassinated. Dr. King was killed by a white assassin. Malcolm was killed by Black assassins.

Number 10 is Minister Louis Farrakhan, Leader of The Nation of Islam. He is the second most prominent and influential of Elijah Muhammad's converts from the "mud" to be "polished up". Early on he was a calypso dancer and musician. He became Louis X after his conversation to Islam in 1955. He wrote the nation's first popular song entitled, 'White Man's Heaven Is Black Man's Hell' and authored the nation's first play, 'Orgena', A Negro spelled backwards. In the 1970's, he became Louis Farrakhan Ali, the representative of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and the voice of the nation. He draws standing room only crowds where ever he goes, not the least of which was October 16, 1995, which brings us to brother Number Eleven.

Number Eleven is the Million Man March. One Million Plus Black Men stood together in Washington, D.C., October 16, 1995. The sign my group from Delaware, Ohio held high said "One In a Million" from Graham Central Station. I refused to allow my children and grand children wonder where I was on October 16, 1995. I wanted them to know I was there. Crowning moments of the day included my cousin finding me in the crowd by taking hours to make his way to the sign and when the MC said, "would the brothers with the sign from Delaware, Ohio please lead others in taking a step back because we are all just packed too tight. All over the world our community had lifted up from out of the multitude.

Number Twelve is Nelson Mandela, African National Congress Organizer, President of Post Apartheid New South Africa. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in 1918, the eldest son of a Xhosa speaking Tempu chief. He has been involved in revolution and the liberation of African peoples all of his life. An attorney by training, Mandela proved to be militant. He led the ANC sponsored and organized non violent resistance to discriminatory laws. He was banned from public speaking for two years in 1953. In 1956 he would be charged with treason but acquitted in 1961. He devised the guerilla wing of The ANC that engaged in sabotage in urban areas. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1963 and refused to appeal his sentence.

Yielding to higher authority, in February 1990, the apartheid government freed Mandela and legalized The ANC. Negotiations led to the end of apartheid to democracy. Nelson Mandela was elected as President of Post Apartheid New South Africa. He would also receive the coveted Nobel Peace Prize.

Number Thirteen is the Woolly Headed Black Foot of African origin. Greeks call him Christos. Romans called him King of The Jews. Jews called him Mashiah. Contemporary followers call him Jesus. The report of this Black Man is that he walked among people and made the blind to see, fed the hungry, healed the sick, calmed raging waters, cast out demons, walked on the water, is the architect and builder of all loving relationships, lived and died to atone for the wrong doing of a wicked and unjust humanity that rose from the dead with all power in his hands.

All thirteen men on this list were all biologically male and culturally descended from Africa and were revolutionary leaders that said yes to black people when oppressors said, no. All thirteen were intellectuals who showed up, on time, with a plan, and the commitment to carry it out, at all costs, and by any means necessary. These are thirteen black men who changed this world.