I am one of the selected signatories on this historical November 30, 2009 statement, urging Cuban authorities to free the imprisoned dissident, Afro-Cuban civil rights activist, Dr. Darsi Ferrer. Other signatories on the statement include Cornel West, Melvin Van Peebles, Ruby Dee Davis, Susan Taylor, Kathleen Cleaver, Ron Walters, James E. Turner, Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A Wright, and the author of the statement, David Covin, Professor Emeritus, University of California at Sacramento, Past President of National Conference of Black Political Scientists, among others.
Dr. Darsi Ferrer was freed from prison on June 22, 2010, less than seven months after our statement was released. Amnesty International had declared Dr. Darsi Ferrer to be “a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for his activism to promote freedom of expression.”
Click here to download a pdf of Acting on Our Conscience.
ACTING ON OUR CONSCIENCE
A DECLARATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN SUPPORT FOR THE CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE IN CUBA
We, the undersigned, join the growing international outcry against the unjust imprisonment by Cuban authorities of Dr. DARSI FERRER, an internationally known Afro Cuban civil rights leader and courageous man who for 17 days has endured a hunger strike and placed his life at risk to draw attention to the conditions of racism and racial discrimination in Cuba that has hitherto been ignored.
We support the position of the Honorable Professor ABDIAS NASCIMENTO, historical leader of the Black Movement of Brazil, and others from around the world, who are demanding Dr. Ferrer’s immediate release from imprisonment. Moreover, we also support the demand that Cuba recognizes Dr. Ferrer as a political prisoner, rather than a “common criminal”, as is now the case. (See Professor Nascimento’s Open Letter – attached)
Dr. NASCIMENTO’s joint letter to the Heads of State of Cuba and Brazil, respectively General RAÚL CASTRO RUZ and President LUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA, is unequivocal. He requests of Cuba’s President that he intervene to stop the unwarranted and brutal harassment of black citizens in Cuba who are defending their civil rights. Similarly, he requests that Brazil’s President immediately prevail on the Cuban government to safeguard the rights of Cuba’s most oppressed citizens who, in this case, happen to be more than 62% of the total population.
Professor NASCIMENTO has been a long standing supporter of the Cuban Revolution and government, but he, like we, cannot be silent in the face of increased violations of civil and human rights for those black activists in Cuba who dare raise their voices against the island’s racial system. As of late, these isolated, courageous civil rights advocates have been subject to unprovoked violence, State intimidation and imprisonment.
As African Americans, we know firsthand the experiences and consequences of denying civil freedoms on the basis of race, and we certainly understand what racial discrimination is and does to people. We have not tolerated it for ourselves, and will certainly not acquiesce in its perpetration against any other people. For that reason, we are even more obligated to voice our opinion on what is happening to our Cuban brethren a few miles away.
We support Cuba’s right to enjoy national sovereignty, and unhesitatingly repudiate any attempt at curtailing such a right. However, at this historic juncture, we also do believe that we cannot sit idly by and allow for decent, peaceful and dedicated civil rights activists in Cuba, and the black population as a whole, to be treated with callous disregard for their rights as citizens and as the most marginalized people on the island.
Racism in Cuba, and anywhere else in the world, is unacceptable and must be confronted!
We call on the authorities and Government of Cuba to immediately and unconditionally free our brother, Dr. Darsi Ferrer.
Signatories
____________________________________
Richard Adams, Jr.
Co-Convenor Western Pennsylvania Black Political Assembly (WPBPA)
J.B. Afoh-Manin, Esq.
Roslyn Alic-Batson
Publicist
Marva Allen
Manager, HUE-MAN Bookstore & Cafe (New York)
Dr. Molefi Kete Asante [said to have admitted at a conference in New Orleans that he had been tricked into signing]
Historian, Author
Peter Bailey
Bethune-Davis Institute
Dr. Gloria Batiste-Roberts
President, National Association of Black Social Workers
Lili Bernard
Fine Artist
Marie Brown
Literary Agent
Khepra Burns
Author
Dr. Iva E. Carruthers
Professor Emeritus, Northeastern Illinois University
Dr. Kathleen Neal Cleaver, Esq.
Professor, Emory University
Clarence Cooper
Manager, Sylvia’s Restaurant (NY)
Dr. David Covin [Author of Press Release accompanying this petition package. Scroll down to view.]
Professor Emeritus, University of California at Sacramento
Past President, National Conference of Black Political Scientists
Evelyn Crawford
Audiovisual artist
Dr. Earl Davis
Former Director, Institute of African Studies, New York University
Ruby Dee Davis
Actress. 2007 Academy Award Nominee
Bill Day
Artist Photographer
Rev. Dr. Yvonne V. Delk (Ret)
United Church of Christ
Leonard G. Dunston
President Emeritus, National Association of Black Social Workers
Honorable Commissioner Betty T. Ferguson (Ret)
Former Miami-Dade County Commissioner
The Honorable Ambassador Ulric Haynes (Ret)
Former Executive Dean, Hofstra University
(New York), member of the US Council on Foreign Relations
Nzinga Heru
President, Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations
Marlon Hill, Esq.
Past President of the Caribbean Bar Association
Eugene Jackson,
Chairman and CEO of the World African Network
Dr. Winston James
Professor, University of California at Irvine
Guy Johnson
Author
Leroi C. Johnson, Esq.
Dr. Ollie Johnson
Professor, Wayne State University
Dr. Joyce E. King
President Academy for Diaspora Literacy, Inc.
Dr. Arthur Lewin
Professor, Bernard M. Baruch College of the City University of New York
Dr. Shelby Lewis (Ret)
Former Project Manager, Special Programs, United Negro College Fund
Dr. Ruth Love
Educator
Dr. Acklyn Lynch
Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Dr. Julianne Malveaux
President, Bennett College for Women
Honorable Congresswoman Carrie Meek (Ret)
House of Representatives of the Unites States of America
Dr. Claudia Mitchell-Kernan
Dean and Vice Chancellor for Graduate Studies, University of California at Los Angeles
Dr. Michael Mitchell
Professor of Political Science, Arizona State University
Editor of the National Political Science Review
Dr. K. C. Morrisson
Professor, Mississippi State University
Past President, National Conference of Black Political Scientists
Melvin Van Peebles
Film director, playwright, and author
Lori Robinson
Editor, Vida AfroLatina.com
Dr. Mark Sawyer
Professor University of California at Los Angeles
Bernestine Singley, Esq.
Author
Dr. Ann Smith
President, The Gamaliel Foundation
Dr. Donald H. Smith.
Past President, the National Alliance of Black School Educators
Rev. Dr. J. Alfred Smith Sr.
Pastor Emeritus, Allen Temple Baptist Church
Edward S. Spriggs
Former Executive Director of Hammonds House Galleries and Resource Center
Susan Taylor
President, National CARES Mentoring Movement,
Editor Emerita of ESSENCE magazine
Dr. James E. Turner
Professor, Africana Studies and Research Center,
Cornell University
Makani Themba-Nixon
The Praxis Project
Patricia Valdés
Marketing Specialist
Dr Marta Moreno Vega
President, The Caribbean Cultural Center
African Diaspora Institute
Dr. Ron Walters [wrote in continued support of this petition:
Professor Emeritus of Government and Politics
University of Maryland College Park
Dr. Cornel West
Professor, Princeton University
Randy Weston
Musician/Composer
Al Whack
Executive, National Cable Communications (NCC)
Rita Coburn Whack
Broadcasting Producer
Antonia Williams-Gary
Miami Consultant
Dr. Conrad Worrill
President, National Black United Front
Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.
Pastor Emeritus, Trinity United Church of Christ
___________________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS RELEASE — EMBARGO until Monday, November 30, 2009 at NOON.
CONTACT: Dr. David Covin
Professor Emeritus, University of California at Sacramento
Past President, National Conference of Black Political Scientists
covindl@csus.edu8 (916) 288 3060
AD HOC COMMITTEE FOR RACIAL AND HUMAN JUSTICE
PROMINENT BLACK AMERICANS CONDEMN CUBA´S CRACKDOWN ON BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS
In a landmark “Statement of Conscience by African Americans,” 60 prominent black American scholars, artists and professionals have condemned the Cuban regime’s stepped-up harassment and apparent crackdown on the country’s budding civil rights movement. This statement is the first public condemnation of racial conditions in Cuba made by black Americans.
Traditionally, African Americans have sided with the Castro regime and condemned the United States’ policies, which explicitly work to topple the Cuban government. Yet this landmark statement by prominent African Americans condemns the growing persecution waged by the Cuban government against Afro-Cuban movements.
It warns: “Racism in Cuba, and anywhere else in the world, is unacceptable and must be confronted.”
It also denounces the “callous disregard” for the “most marginalized people on the island.”
The statement is signed by scholar and Princeton University professor Cornel West; famed actress Ruby Dee; former Essence magazine editor and current president of the National CARES Mentoring Movement Susan Taylor; Bennett College President Julianne Malveaux; UCLA Vice Chancellor Claudia Mitchell-Kernan; Chicago´s Trinity United Church of Christ’s pastor emeritus, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright; former Black Panther activist Kathleen Cleaver; retired Congresswoman Carrie Meek; professor emeritus University of Maryland College Park and Rev. Jesse Jackson presidential campaign manager Ron Walters; and film director Melvin Van Peebles.
The statement also calls for the “immediate release” of Dr. Darsi Ferrer, one of black Cuba´s most prominent imprisoned civil rights leaders who has been on a hunger strike to bring attention to the crisis. A physician, Ferrer has angered Cuban authorities by setting up independent “people’s clinics” housed in private homes and garages to attend to the growing numbers of impoverished blacks who no longer receive medical attention from the state. Ferrer was jailed on criminal charges four months ago and consigned to a maximum security prison for common criminals in the outskirts of Cuba´s capital Havana.
The U.S. State Department estimates Afro-Cubans make up 62 percent of the Cuban population, with many informed observers saying the figure is closer to 70 percent.
Afro-Cubans are experiencing strong and growing instances of racism on the island, with their 25-odd civil rights movements reporting a wide-range of discriminatory practices in hiring, promotion and access to Cuba´s socialized medicine and educational system.
Young black Cubans bitterly complain of aggressive racial profiling conducted by police, and Cuba´s jail population is estimated to be 85 percent black, according to black Cuban civil rights activists. Some 70 percent of Afro-Cubans are said to be unemployed.
In such conditions, a vigorous rebirth of Cuba´s black movement, banned in the early years of the Cuban Revolution, is occurring. Cuban authorities are responding with violence and brutal civil rights violations.
