A Street Named Rashidah Muhammad
There is a street in Oakland
nobody knows
hardly sees
they pass it going downtown on 20th Street/Tom Berkley Way (A Black Man)
Rashidah intersecting Tom Berkley
how nice
a black man's street intersecting a black woman's street
how nice
but who knows this Rashidah Muhammad
how many women or men or children
black or white, Muslim, Christian
but there it is
Rashidah Muhammad Street
named for a little warrior woman
midwife community organizer mother wife lover
who fought and killed her white rapist
down south and survived
police beatings and prison
The Uhuru Movement pushed her case nationwide
Free Dessie X
Free Dessie X
Uhuru! Uhuru!
Salaam Rashidah Muhammad Salaam.
We love you.
--Marvin X
3/19/10
Thanks Brother Marvin,
ReplyDeleteI drive down that street on my way home from clinic just to see the name :-). I remember when I worked on her defense committee, and when she came to the Bay Area, for our benefit celebration at Dock of the Bay, she put the white folks on blast. It was comical to me as a young nationalist. Anyways, she liked here enough to return and become part of our community.
I love and miss her. I know she is with my sons and Javad and so many more of our loved ones watching over me and whispering into my heart with her love.
Peace
Mama Ayanna Mashama
I had to rescue Rashidah from domestic violence from one brother, then another. After the second rescue she told people she was my wife. And that was ok until she told my mother. When she called my mother and told her she was my wife, Mom told her she'd heard enough about Marvin and his wives, please don't call her again. Mom had enough of me crying on her knees about my wives, especially my mistreatment of them. But Rashidah was one of the coolest women ever. She supported me when I had problems teaching at Laney College. When my dean, Melvin Newton, had me arrested for an incident with a stage technician, Rashidah said, "Melvin Newton didn't come from the same womb as Huey Newton, Melvin came from a baboon's asshole."
ReplyDelete