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The
spirit of Marion Nzinga Stamps, one of Chicago’s great activists, is
much needed today. Marion possessed the kind of fighting spirit in her
organizing work that is truly missing in our struggles today. Marion
Stamps was an “In-Your-Face Activist.” Let us remember her
contributions.
African people around the world suffered a tremendous loss with the
transition (death) of Marian Nzinga Stamps in Chicago on Wednesday,
August 28, 1996 at the age of 52.
Since the late 1960s, Sister Marion was one of the leading activists
and organizers in the Chicago area whose impact was felt throughout the
country. Upon coming to Chicago from Jackson, Mississippi in 1962,
Marion quickly gravitated to the activism taking place in the Black
Movement in this city, and as the Black Panther Party emerged she
became associated with its work on the north side in the Cabrini-Green
Housing Development.
Under the guidance and leadership of the Professor Edwin Marksman,
Marion and several other powerful African women in America organized
and established the Tranquility Community Organization based in the
Cabrini-Green Housing Developments. After the death of Professor
Marksman, it became known as the Tranquility Marksman Community
Organization.
Whenever someone like Marion leaves our midst and makes their
transition, forces outside of the African Community always try to
interpret these giants to fit their own interests. This is the model
that white supremacy forces use in their efforts to explain and control
African contributions.
In recent years, we can observe this phenomenon with Elijah Muhammad,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Fred Hampton, to name a few.
The white supremacy forces and spin doctors have tried through their
writings and movies to reinterpret their work to fit their interests.
Fortunately, they have not been successful. They also attempted to make
their move on interpreting the life of Sister Marion Nzinga Stamps.
The first shot they threw, in their efforts to reinterpret Sister
Marion, began in the Chicago Tribune article written by Flynn McRoberts
on September 8, 1996. McRoberts wrote, “For all her ability to grab
media attention— and her funeral was no exception— Stamps and her
approach to community activism had become largely irrelevant long
before she died of a heart attack late last month.”
Continuing, McRoberts wrote that, “Her verbal bomb throwing had its
roots in the tactics of Saul Alinsky, the father of community
organizing. But like sloganeering and stunt staging of advocates for
the homeless, Stamps’ tactics ultimately had little effect on policy;
in her case failing to change the course of redevelopment at
Cabrini-Green.”
The arrogance of McRoberts’ attempt to define Sister Marion fits into
the strategy of one of the key issues she addressed for over 20 years.
In Chicago, Marion was one of the few people who publicly alerted the
African Community to the land grab schemes of the white developers,
bankers and city officials.
These schemes have been designed to remove significant populations of
low-income African people from urban areas and disperse them to
outlying areas, or the suburbs, so that white people in their
development schemes could repopulate these urban areas.
Marion Nzinga Stamps fought with all her spirit and soul on this issue
of the land-grab and Black removal. The white power structure and many
of their Black allies fought Marion “tooth and nail” and tried to
undermine her credibility with the masses.
As a result of Marion’s leadership on the land-grab issue, many African
people were educated on why we should not abandon the urban areas so
that white people could take the land back.
McRoberts was obviously ignorant to the fact that most of the
significant public policy changes that have occurred in America, aimed
at benefiting Africans in America, took place because of the “in-
your-face activism” of people like Marion Stamps.
In Chicago, specifically, the “in-your-face activism” of Sister Marion,
and many others, led to the climate that created the conditions for
Chicago’s first African American Mayor, Harold Washington, to be
elected.
Marion was part of a cadre of activists in Chicago that challenged
successfully, in the 1970s and 80s, the Chicago Board of Education and
its racist policies, the Chicago Housing Authority and its racist
practices, the Chicago Police Department and its racist practices, and
numerous other agencies and institutions in this city.
Sister Marion truly understood what Malcolm X meant when he said, “By
Any Means Necessary!” In her organizing activities, Marion lived by
this slogan. If it meant going to jail, being attacked by the police,
or sitting down with the white power structure officials, she was clear
that you must use all tactics and strategies to deal with the question
of power and self-determination for African people.
Funerals often tell a lot about the life of a person. Such was the case
at Sister Marion’s funeral. The masses of people from all walks of life
in the African Community in Chicago showed up in droves to pay their
respects to this freedom-fighter who fought to the end for her people.
Finally, Marion was a proud mother of five daughters, and her daughter,
Karla, wrote the following about her mother that summarizes much of the
spirit of Sister Marion:
“The way for each of your daughters has been unique to her, and you have,
uniquely prepared us for our lives. You wanted each of us to be you, but you
allowed us to be ourselves...I will never forget how you alone made me feel
beautiful, loved and treasured.”
Long live the spirit of Sister Marion Nzinga Stamps!
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BlackCommentator.com Columnist, Conrad W. Worrill, PhD, is the National Chairman Emeritus of the National Black United Front (NBUF). Contact Dr. Worrill and BC.
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 is published every Thursday |
Executive Editor:
David A. Love, JD |
Managing Editor:
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