The Saturday Free School

Good morning. Due to technical issues, we are only able to livestream on YouTube today. Watch through this link:

Honoring Reverend James Lawson

THE SATURDAY FREE SCHOOL FOR PHILOSOPHY AND BLACK LIBERATION BIDS FAREWELL TO REVEREND JAMES MORRIS LAWSON JR.

FAREWELL DEAR BROTHER, MENTOR AND FRIEND

Reverend James Morris Lawson Jr. has died. Long live his revolutionary spirit. He was an exemplary freedom fighter. His love and generosity for the people; his belief that humanity could achieve freedom and peace, are values which will endure forever. He possessed unbending courage and at any time would have given his life for the sake of the world. He was born and grew up in the coal and steel regions of Pennsylvania and Ohio. He was a child of the Black Proletariat and of the working class. His worldview and commitment to Freedom were forged by the struggles of the proletariat during the Great Depression. His father was a Methodist minister; he followed his father into the ministry. In the early 1950s, he refused to be drafted into the U.S. military to fight in U.S. imperialism’s genocidal war against the Korean people and their peace-loving civilization. He served thirteen months in federal prison. Upon his release he went to India to study non-violent resistance and Gandhi’s philosophy of satyagraha (soul force and truth force) and ahimsa (nonviolence). After two years of study, he returned to the United States. Soon after returning he joined the Black Freedom Movement. He organized a study and action group in Nashville, Tennessee among students at the historically Black Fisk University. Among the participants were historic figures such as Diane Nash, James Bevel, John Lewis, Marion Barry and Bernard Lafayette. This group led protest actions and civil disobedience against segregation in Nashville. They would play prominent roles in the Freedom Rides and in other civil rights campaigns such as in Birmingham and Selma. Lawson became a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and an advisor to Martin Luther King Jr. He went forward to champion the struggle for peace, and against the war in Vietnam, linking war to poverty and racism.

The Saturday Free School for Philosophy and Black Liberation has a special connection to Lawson. In 2019 we initiated the Year of Mahatma Gandhi, celebrating his 150th birth anniversary, entitled “Mahatma Gandhi and Our Single Garment of Destiny: Our Inescapable Struggle for Peace and Justice.” James Lawson was our featured guest at our commemoration of Gandhi’s birthday. He was awarded by Philadelphia’s City Council the City’s Citation and presented a lecture in the Mayor’s Reception Room. At a banquet that evening, he delivered another lecture on the Civil Rights Movement and nonviolence at the historic Church of the Advocate.

During his visit he spent time with Free School members in discussions of the Black Freedom Movement, Gandhi’s philosophy and Martin Luther King. Among our discussions was a memorable one where we discussed nonviolence as resistance to injustice and whether it had a theory of how the people could achieve state power. We probed Lenin’s “State and Revolution” and Mao Tse Tung’s idea that power comes from the barrel of the gun. While we did not reach any firm conclusions, it showed Lawson’s wide understanding of the complex issues of revolutionary democracy and modes of transition to people’s power.

On August 16, 2023 in Chicago, the Saturday Free School organized an “Evening Honoring the Life and Ideas of James Lawson and a Discussion About Nonviolence for Our Time.” The event included a Free School-produced documentary on James Lawson’s life.

Reverend Lawson was an optimist, seeing possibilities and seeing the world constantly through new eyes. He sought the truth, believing that the truth could set us free. His theology combined Gandhian satyagraha (soul force and truth force) and ahimsa (nonviolence) and Black Christian liberation theology. As such his theology was founded upon the principles of Freedom, Love and Truth.

James Lawson’s death was met with deep sorrow by the Saturday Free School, because of our intimate relationship with him and our efforts to make known his life and ideas to a broad audience, especially young people. In the spirit of revolutionary solidarity, we will continue to spread his life, his ideas and his legacy.

All Glory to James Morris Lawson Jr. and his revolutionary life. May we be worthy of him.

As humanity protests the horrific genocide in Gaza done in the name of Zionism and Jews, the state of Israel unabashedly proclaims it is defending Western values. James Baldwin testifies and clarifies to us today that the genocide in Gaza reflects the crisis of a dying Western, white civilization.

Episode 5 of our podcast, “JAMES BALDWIN: GOD’S REVOLUTIONARY VOICE,” airs this Sunday, June 16th at 4:00 p.m. EST. Watch/listen live via YouTube, Facebook, or X.

We’ll be starting soon! Join us at the Church of the Crucifixion, 807 Bainbridge St, for the first day of our symposium on the crisis of knowledge. We’ll also be live streaming on Facebook and YouTube.

"Science is a great and worthy mistress, but there is one greater and that is Humanity which science serves."

Today we are confronted on all sides by wars and rumors of wars. Can a new knowledge arise that answers humanity's cry for freedom and peace?

In 1908, W.E.B. Du Bois gave a speech to graduates of Fisk University. He sought to halt the university's move toward menial industrial training as a means to lure white philanthropy, which would sacrifice its mission of genuine knowledge and education for Black folk.

To make his point, Du Bois turned to the life of Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei as allegory.

When charged with heresy for his heliocentric vision of the cosmos, Galileo crumpled before the rulers of the all-mighty Catholic Church and recanted his belief. For Du Bois, the weight of Galileo's lie was greater than all of his scientific contributions put together. Why? Because this lie threatened the very foundations of human civilization upon which science is built. And in the great drama of human progress, Du Bois insisted the achievement of peace was a paramount demand for the modern age.

Then as now, it is only the enemies of humanity and their acolytes who scorn this demand for universal peace. And it is within that halls of America's universities that a cowardice even more sinister than Galileo's is enshrined, producing knowledge that disfigures and abuses humanity.

The time is ripe for a new knowledge to be discovered and built, based on principles put forth by figures like Du Bois and James Baldwin. Such an endeavor must find its root outside the walls and domain of the university.

This weekend, we will hold a two-day symposium addressing the crisis of knowledge and the American university through Baldwin, Du Bois, and the Black Freedom Tradition. We invite you to join us in picking up the mantle of struggling for our human future.

June 1-2, 2024 » Church of the Crucifixion, 807 Bainbridge St, Philadelphia

More info: https://www.yearofjamesbaldwin.org/science-and-epistemology.html

Our Year of James Baldwin symposium on the crisis of knowledge and the American university begins in just two days at the Church of the Crucifixion, 807 Bainbridge St in Philadelphia.

Start times for the two days: Saturday, June 1st starting at 9 am; and Sunday, June 2nd starting at 11 am.

Please consider donating toward food and refreshments for attendees: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-crisis-of-knowledge-a-symposium-on-james-baldwin

THE CRISIS OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: James Baldwin and the Struggle for Our Human Future

In the throes of a student movement against Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, we will hold a two-day symposium on the crisis of the American university and the search for a revolutionary philosophy through James Baldwin and the Black Freedom Tradition.

June 1-2 at the Church of the Crucifixion, 807 Bainbridge St in Philadelphia. Free and open to the public.

More details to come on our website: yearofjamesbaldwin.org/events

"Brilliance without passion is nothing more than sterility."

In his book No Name in the Street, James Baldwin wrote a damning critique of American intellectuals and their cowardly performance during the period of McCarthyism. His critique rings true for our time.

The cowardice of most academics and intellectuals today—when universities are exposing their true nature as arms of the ruling class in their crackdowns on student protests for Palestine—is all the more shameful because America's history shows us that there *is* a place for intellectuals in the struggle for ideas, for science, for art, and for freedom. This was the story of the Harlem Renaissance, and of the Civil Rights Movement.

This weekend, we will hold a two-day symposium addressing the crisis of knowledge and the American university through Baldwin and the Black Freedom Tradition. We invite you to join us in picking up the mantle of struggling for our human future.

June 1-2, 2024 » Church of the Crucifixion, 807 Bainbridge St, Philadelphia

More info: https://www.yearofjamesbaldwin.org/science-and-epistemology.html

The program for our upcoming symposium "The Crisis of Knowledge and the American University: James Baldwin and the Struggle for Our Human Future."

June 1-2 in Philadelphia (Church of the Crucifixion, 807 Bainbridge St). Free and open to the public.

See full info: https://www.yearofjamesbaldwin.org/science-and-epistemology.html

DAY 1 | Saturday, June 1st » 9 AM-6 PM

🟦 Panel: The University as an Arm of the State: Zionism, the War Economy, and the Consequences for Knowledge

⬜️ Roundtable: Knowledge, Theory, and Ideology in the Black Freedom Tradition

DAY 2 | Sunday, June 2nd » 11 AM-6 PM

🟥 Panel: Counter-Revolution Against Knowledge: Postmodernism, Identity Politics, and Pessimism

🟨 Roundtable: The Revolutionary Philosophy of James Baldwin and the Path Towards a Human Future

For our next symposium in the Year of James Baldwin, we will address the crisis of the American university, its implications on the crisis of knowledge, and the search for a revolutionary philosophy through James Baldwin and the Black Freedom Tradition. Help us to bring this event to the people of Philadelphia by donating to our GoFundMe. All contributions will go toward food and refreshments for attendees:

Donate to The Crisis of Knowledge & the American University, organized by Sambarta Chatterjee THE CRISIS OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: James Baldw… Sambarta Chatterjee needs your support for The Crisis of Knowledge & the American University

The Crisis of the University Demands Revolutionary Knowledge for Humanity’s Future A call to students, teachers, scientists, artists, and all peace-loving people

A Call to Students, Teachers, Scientists, Artists, and All Peace-Loving People in Philadelphia

America today stands at the crossroads of history. The impoverished, war-weary, and despairing masses are rising in rebellion against the most corrupt and inhuman ruling elite the world has ever seen. The American State's unabashed financial, military, and ideological support for Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has further deepened this crisis of legitimacy.

On one hand, this is a moment of shared outrage and disbelief at the barbarity of the “civilized” West. Equally, this is a moment of reckoning that calls for ideological clarity and moral courage.

At the heart of this reckoning is the crisis of the American University, precipitated by the brave and moral stand taken by students all over the country against the genocide in Gaza. The crisis of the American University is rooted in an epistemic crisis of knowledge, which calls for a re-assessment of the assumptions on which knowledge production is based.

We believe that James Baldwin and the Black Freedom Tradition — a rich body of knowledge and revolutionary thought stemming from the lifeworks of W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., and Baldwin himself — offer us a philosophical and epistemological framework that holds the key to our future. In this symposium, Baldwin will speak to the current moment as a revolutionary thinker and philosopher who has a message for humanity.

We call on all peace-loving people to join us in paying our debt to Gaza. The demand for a new basis for knowledge is also the demand for a new world order centered on human freedom and peace. Every scientist and every intellectual must choose in this urgent moment, to stand with humanity or with the enemies of human freedom and knowledge.

A Two-Day Symposium
Saturday, June 1st » 9 AM-6 PM
Sunday, June 2nd » 11 AM-6 PM

Location: Church of the Crucifixion, 807 Bainbridge St, Philadelphia

Free and open to the public.

More info at https://www.yearofjamesbaldwin.org/science-and-epistemology.html

THE CRISIS OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: James Baldwin and the Struggle for Our Human Future

In the throes of a student movement against Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, we will hold a two-day symposium on the crisis of the American university and the search for a revolutionary philosophy through James Baldwin and the Black Freedom Tradition.

June 1-2 at the Church of the Crucifixion, 807 Bainbridge St in Philadelphia. Free and open to the public.

More details to come on our website: yearofjamesbaldwin.org/events

Like generations of freedom fighters who came before them, today's students have said to the nation: "We can't turn back."

They will not give up until the genocide is ended and Palestine is free.

At today's teach-in at Penn, students and community are welcome to explore our shared revolutionary inheritance together:

TODAY: Teach-in at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Penn

A conversation with Anthony Monteiro and Catherine Blunt about their experiences in the anti-Vietnam War and anti-apartheid struggles — connecting today's student movement to free Palestine with the Black Freedom Tradition in Philadelphia. Students and community members are welcome to take part in exploring this inheritance together as a principled basis for further unity.

With Lotus at Penn.

Thursday, May 9th from 5-7 PM.

TODAY: Teach-in at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Penn

A conversation with Anthony Monteiro and Catherine Blunt about their experiences in the anti-Vietnam War and anti-apartheid struggles — connecting today's student movement to free Palestine with the Black Freedom Tradition in Philadelphia. Students and community members are welcome to take part in exploring this inheritance together as a principled basis for further unity.

With Lotus at Penn.

Thursday, May 9th from 5-7 PM.

In 1968, just months before his assassination, Martin Luther King spoke to the staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as they prepared to wage the Poor People's Campaign. It was his last thorough evaluation of the Civil Rights Movement.

In his remarks, King called for a new stage of nonviolence that could meet the demands of the moment: what he called mass civil disobedience. Of this higher level of nonviolence, he said, "There must be more than a statement to the larger society—there must be a force that interrupts its functioning at some key point. That interruption must, however, not be clandestine or surreptitious. It must be open. It is not necessary to invest it with guerrilla romanticism. It must be open and conducted by large masses without violence."

Along these lines, King took time to assess the present generation of young people in American society: the radicals, the hippies, and the undecided majority. While critiquing all three groups, he also identified positive trends in each one that could contribute to a broader coalition for peace and democracy in the United States.

King returned to the example set by Black youth during the early stages of the Civil Rights Movement, who sought a more profound education by joining with the masses of their people in a transformative struggle for freedom.

By the force and logic of history, today's youth and people of conscience are answering King's call for a higher stage of nonviolent resistance in their attempt to pull America away from the grips of a war-mongering elite and its genocidal agenda in Gaza. We find ourselves at the beginnings of an education that will go far beyond the confines of college campuses—into the heart of the struggle to "call our nation to a higher destiny...giving our ultimate allegiance to the empire of eternity."

Read the full speech here: https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/media/article/a-new-sense-of-direction-1968

"The moral authority in the Western world is gone. And it is gone forever. It is gone, not because of the criminal record—everybody’s record is criminal. It is gone because you cannot do one thing and pretend you’re doing another!”

— James Baldwin, "Black English: A Dishonest Argument"

Before 2024, before 1968, there was the student movement of 1960.

Today's student movement against the genocide in Gaza has awakened the memory of the student-led nonviolent direct action campaigns of the early 1960s. Pioneered by students from Black colleges across the nation, this student movement took the Civil Rights Movement to higher stage of political activity — and made possible the anti-war movement against the Vietnam War in the years to come.

Reporting on the student movement in Tallahassee, Florida in 1960, James Baldwin wrote: "Americans keep wondering what has 'got into' the stu­dents. What has 'got into' them is their history in this country."

The looming question today is whether the current generation of students and young people in America can rediscover themselves in the history which has produced them: the Black Freedom Movement, or the Third American Revolution. At stake is their future and the future of the world's people, for it is this rising generation which must assume responsibility for completing the task of transforming the United States from an empire of war to a new nation of peace.

Read Baldwin's essay "They Can't Turn Back": https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/baldwincantturnback.html

"And if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace. If we will make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood." — Martin Luther King Jr.

On April 4 and 6, 2024, we convened in the city of Philadelphia to uphold the revolutionary vision of Martin Luther King Jr. on the anniversary of his speech, "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence."

As the second event in the Year of James Baldwin, these two days of discussion and cultural performances became a concrete manifestation of King's World House: a place where the people can gather to work out the principles of their common future, in a city and a nation that cries out for peace, freedom, and democracy—for a rebirth of civilization itself.

Photos by Michelle Lyu

A poem for Martin Luther King, inspired by Langston Hughes's poem for V.I. Lenin

https://avantjournal.com/2024/04/08/king-walks-around-the-world/

An interview with Leo Gadson, whom we honored at our recent intercivilizational concert at Zion Baptist Church.

Full interview: https://avantjournal.com/2024/04/08/leo-gadson-black-pharaoh-of-jazz/

There is no jazz without the blues, without Black folk, without the sorrow songs. And in Philadelphia, there is no jazz without Leo Gadson.

Today, the narrative of jazz is shaped by an essentially white worldview: cut off from the people who made the major contribution to its creation and continuance.

If jazz is to have a future, it must rediscover its roots in the Black proletariat—in their struggles for peace, democracy, and justice—and in the same dark soil that produced Leo.

Our interview with Leo Gadson, Black Pharaoh of Jazz: https://avantjournal.com/2024/04/08/leo-gadson-black-pharaoh-of-jazz/