"Speaking Truth to Power on MLK"©

by Alton H. Maddox, Jr.


This article will not be printed in the mainstream Black media. It would have been printed in Freedom's Journal, the North Star, the Negro World, Memphis Free Speech, the People's Voice and my op-ed piece in the New York Amsterdam News before the death of Bill Tatum.

Blacks get sidetracked because Bill Tatum married a white woman. With a white woman by his side, Tatum was more principled than any Black selected official or leading Black in New York despite their marriages to Black females. Reportedly, Elinor Tatum married a Black man.

Different belief systems separate Elinor Tatum from her father, Bill. Elinor practices censorship. Bill, like Medgar Evers, opposed it. I was Exhibit A. The New York Amsterdam News could never afford my writings but Tatum, nonetheless, offered me an unpaid position at the New York Amsterdam News. Bill said, "Your voice must be heard regularly in the Black community".

By asking me to write every week in his newspaper, he was also taking a stance against censorship and in support of free speech. This was a dangerous course of action for a Black newspaper. An example is Walker's Appeal to the Colored People of the World. The Georgia Legislature made it a capital offense to circulate David Walker's writings. David Walker was assassinated in Boston for his political writings.

In 1883 in Cairo, IL, Blacks founded a daily newspaper called the Cairo, Illinois Gazette. It did not practice censorship in any respect. Instead, it was an advocate for Black rights. This was its downfall, however. Within six months of its operation, white arsonists torched it. Blacks are forbidden from "speaking truth to power". The Bill of Rights is a mythical document for Blacks.

Bill Tatum's words were buried with him. Suffice it to say that a "leading Black" and a "leading Black selected official" started "whispering" in Elinor's ear. The New York Legislature had already filed an unprecedented, disciplinary complaint against me in 1988. Elinor's father had refused to be obedient to this bill of attainder. Now, he was gone. The rest is history.

Gil Noble unabashedly admired Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Malcolm X and Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. Two men had been assassinated and the other man had been booted out of Congress. These men captured the essence of "Like It Is". Gil knew that he had no firm support in the Black community. The public record told him so. He knew that both of us were joined at the hip.

It now appears that Gil only confided in me or others who are now afraid to talk. After two leading Black selected officials in New York City visited the offices of WABC-TV to complain about Gil, he called me. Black selected officials and the "HNIC" wanted his head. Blacks did not need a historical perspective in television programming. They wanted "Here and Now".

We can start by putting two and two together to reach this conclusion. Within the past twenty years, there is not a single letter in the public record from any Black selected official in the tri-state area even though "Like It Is" was supposed to be a public affairs program in the same way that "Meet the Press" is a public affairs program. White elected officials need public affairs programming like a camel who is trekking on the Sahara Desert.

To be sure, Black selected officials have more resources than myself to sponsor a media seminar. It would also be in the interest of Black selected officials to support public affairs programming. I am not in politics. My only interest has to be to further the vision of Medgar Evers.

"Here and Now" is an arts and entertainment program. This is a "bait and switch" from "Like It Is". Black selected officials are comfortable with it. Medgar Evers was not assassinated on June 12, 1963 because he entertained white people. He was assassinated because he was smart enough to invoke the "Fairness Doctrine" and he made a political speech attacking white supremacy on May 20, 1963 on WLBT-TV on Jackson, MS.

Medgar Evers paved the way for both Malcolm X and Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. who, in turn, paved the way for me in Pagones v. Maddox et. al. Dr. King's mouth was the motivating factor for New York Times v. Sullivan. The Supreme Court had to nominally sanction "speaking truth to power". Like Dred Scott, every Black person should read it.

Unfortunately, New York Times followed Cong. Adam Clayton Powell's attack on the New York Police Department. Esther James would have had no shot against Cong. Powell after the U.S. Supreme Court had decided the issues raised by Dr. King. The Speech and Debate Clause only protected Cong. Powell on the floor of Congress.

Any Black person who clams to be an activist and has not been sued by law enforcement agencies is suspect. It does not help that the Black activist refused to defend his words in a defamation action. I had to defend my words in Howard Beach and Tawana Brawley. Law enforcement agencies sued me in both cases.

Litigation is personally expensive but I won both cases on the legal issues. In Brawley, the jury found that Pagones was involved in the rape of Tawana Brawley but this judicial finding failed to help me and to hurt Pagones. Something is wrong with this picture.

I want to thank Earl Caldwell and Michael G. Haskins for inviting me on the "Caldwell Chronicle", WBAI-FM (99.5) this Friday, January 13, 2012 at 4:00 p.m. It will be a fitting tribute to Dr. King from a legal and historical perspective. The struggle for Gil's vision of "Like It Is" must continue. This includes lessons learned from Martin, Malcolm, Medgar and Adam.

Black children are an intricate part of this struggle. This is the reason for Freedom Retreat for Boys and Girls which was born out of the struggle for Tawana Brawley and the "Central Park 7". Thirteen civil deaths, at the very least, arose out of these struggles. Black selected officials were noticeably absent in each struggle. Freedom Retreat for Boys and Girls is a reminder of our children's struggles.

The National Law Journal is a trade journal. Its focus is on the law. A person interested in law should have access to legal literature. I doubt if the Association of American Law Schools would grant accreditation to a law school without a law library. Law books are the tools of the trade. Compare a carpenter without a hammer and a nail.

In its October 31, 2011 edition, the National Law Journal profiles Vinita Gupta of the American Civil Liberties Union in an article entitled "Minority 40 under 40". As a Soros Justice fellow at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, she saw a documentary about the arrest of 38 persons of African ancestry in one day in Tulia, Texas.

Soon, she was on a flight to Texas. Her first step was research at the courthouse. She researched the court files and hit the jackpot. All of the arrests were based on inconsistent testimony from a single, undercover officer. Eventually, she was able to coordinate a legal effort which led Gov. Rick Perry to pardon 35 convicted defendants of African ancestry.

On MLK weekend, no Black selected official in New York should be seen at a MLK celebration. They have failed to introduce any legislation in any legislative body. These officials should also be disqualified for opposing the philosophies of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. Among other things, Dr. King said, "an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". Similarly, "if a man has nothing to die for, he has nothing to live for".

Like in Tulia, Texas, racial targeting is running amuck in New York City. A white minority in the New York City Council politically rules a Black, Latin and Asian majority. This group enjoys the benefits of being present in the New York City Council but it refuses to shoulder the responsibility of representing Blacks, Latinos and Asians. This is a breach of the social contract.

The solution for ending racial "targeting" is simple. "He who pays the piper calls the tune". The New York City Council funds the New York Police Department. If the members of a municipal agency consistently violate their oath of office, they have forfeited their right to receive public benefits. This is a basic principle of contract law.

No member of the New York City Council is immune from prosecution for committing a crime. Twenty-three voters in a specific county may convene a grand jury under Article 190 of the Criminal Procedure Law to investigate crimes and indict any suspects. Any person who stops this legitimate, grand jury process is guilty of obstruction of justice.

Unfortunately, Black voters are ignorant of the law. Instead, they choose to follow Judas goats and whine about grievances as though the First Amendment as well as the Second Amendment do not exist. Most Blacks are stupid enough to waive these guardian rights.

In "protecting" the right to vote, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 nullified the presumption that everyone is presumed to know the law. Ignorant people can now endorse their own oppression by voting and, afterwords, be subject to prosecution for endorsing unjust laws.

This presumption is now creating havoc in exercising voting rights. It is also adding to the population of the prison-industrial complex. New York has imported South Africa's apartheid law of prosecuting and imprisoning children. The public miseducation system is also a pipeline to the prison-industrial complex.

Within the past fifty years, the biggest and widely publicized hoax in New York's legal system has been the non-prosecution of Tawana Brawley in a civil action and the disbarment of Alton Maddox despite a five year suspension order based on a bill of attainder which has been outlawed in the United States. This illegal process also violates due process.

A bill of attainder violates " separation of powers" doctrine. The New York Legislature wrote the Judiciary Law. It is prohibited from enforcing the law. The New York Legislature not only wrote the Judiciary Law but it also enforced the law by filing a disciplinary complaint against Maddox. This "separation of powers" doctrine should be understood by any voter.

Tawana Brawley was never sued by Steve Pagones. Yet, the late Justice S. Barrett Hickman claimed that he had issued a monetary judgment against her and in favor of Pagones. This means that New York never acquired personal jurisdiction over Tawana and her legal guardian. Thus, New York lacks the judicial power to issue a judgment.

In other words, there is no summons and complaint filed against her in the Dutchess County Courthouse. This means that New York has never had jurisdiction over her and Hickman had to have filed a false instrument in the Dutchess County Supreme Court. This violates the New York Penal Law. The Black media has embraced and reprinted the lies of the white media.

In that same courthouse, the verdict sheet in Pagones v. Maddox et. al clearly states that a petit jury consisting mostly of whites, found that Pagones was involved in the rape of Tawana Brawley. There is also an autopsy report. It found that Harry Crist, Jr. had been murdered. The last two person admitted to have been with him were his "friends". This investigation has been placed in a cold case file even though the direct evidence is hot.

Blacks have been entitled to public affairs program on each of at least six television stations in the tri-state area since 1966. This right has been honored in the breach. It was fought for and won by Medgar Evers who was assassinated for his effort. Yet, no Black organization in the tri-state area has had the courage to pick up the baton of Medgar Evers.

Blacks in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will not continue to enjoy public affairs programming even though President Barack Obama is up for re-election in 2012 because white racists said so. Blacks will have to prepare for the 2012 political season by watching arts and entertainment on WABC-TV. This is akin to a football team preparing for a rough and tumble, football season by doing ballet.

I recently researched the public record at the Federal Communications Commission. It shows that only United African Movement and Ted Murray, by name, had ever challenged white supremacy at WABC-TV. This means that Gil Noble was the "Lone Ranger" at WABC-TV. The population of the tri-state includes more than three million persons of African ancestry.

If you search the public record for the past 40 years, it will show that I was unquestionably in the vanguard of any movement in New York to challenge white supremacy and I am now marching virtually alone. The public record is beyond dispute. My absence over this period would have been tantamount to Black activism in New York without positive results. Gil Noble and I are similarly situated.

When I walk into a room, virtually everyone gets "hat". Leading Black activists are never present in the same room for an extended period of time. Any effort that I am engaged in for Blacks has to be done with my money including "Like It Is". This modus operandi happened before May 21, 1990 and it still continues to this day.

As is usual, censorship will be in full force this "MLK Weekend". Our children, because of compulsory education, will be falsely told that Dr. King was nonviolent. This was only a tactic in confronting white supremacy. This was not his philosophy. Blacks will listen to Dr. King's speeches this weekend but they will refuse to embrace his philosophy of natural law and social justice.

Gil Noble had to forego his retirement to keep "Like It Is" on the air. This continued fourteen years past his retirement age. He kept one eye on the public record and another eye on his birth certificate. His prognosis and the prognosis of his people are not good. The diagnosis is hypocrisy.

Ignorance and fear is a common thread that connects most Negroes to each other but it is not a quality that ran through the veins of Martin, Malcolm, Medgar, Harry Moore and Adam and their revered ancestors. In this weekend, Blacks should compute where they would be today without the contributions and struggles of our revered ancestors over the past four hundred years.


Montgomery, AL not only became the "Cradle of the Confederacy" on May 1, 1863 but it was upended by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1956. "Jim Crow" died, nominally, without legal fanfare, in Montgomery, AL because Rosa Parks refused to endorse it. Stated differently, she refused to endorse her own oppression.

From that point, Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. had a vision to reinstate and extend the Reconstruction laws. This included the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments and the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The Compromise of 1877 would declare the Confederate States of America the victor of the Civil War.

Beginning in 1955 and ending in 1968, Dr. King influenced and contributed to the enactment of four major federal statutes, three major U.S. Supreme Court cases and a constitutional amendment. Although he was not a lawmaker, he emulated the legislative achievements of Cong. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

As we have put more Black faces in public offices our economic, political and social conditions have worsened. Black selected officials are unable to change the name of three blocks of a street named after a white supremacist to honor a revered ancestor. Blacks have also embraced the "white primary" system of governance.

Earl Caldwell is a leading authority on the Civil Rights Movement and he was present in Memphis, TN on April 4, 1968. Given the fact that I have been invited to appear on "Caldwell Chronicles" on January 13, it is not a leap to conclude that Earl and I will engage in a serious discussion of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. A discussion of Dr. King's legal contributions is unprecedented.

We must also show our appreciation for the legacy of Gil Noble who would annually have a serious discussion of Dr. King on or about his birthday. WABC-TV must be warned that we expect no less from "Here and Now" this station must be bombarded with e-mails and phone calls. "Power concedes nothing without a demand. The e-mail address is: dave.j.davis.@abc.com. The telephone number for Dave Davis is 212-456-7000.

Dave Davis, general manager of WABC-TV, said that Blacks are only interested in arts and entertainment. He would love to believe that we would "do" in our revered ancestors. This would give him an opportunity to argue that Blacks are "heathens". This definition can be found in slave codes. Circulate this article en masse throughout the tri-state area.

Too honest for the White Press and too black for much of today's Black Press; bullet columnist Alton Maddox upsets the same people and status quo as he did as an uncompromising Defense Attorney. He is also a founding member of the Freedom Party. Please sign his Petition to save "Like It Is." Contact him at c/o UAM P.O. BOX 35 BRONX, NY 10471