Josephine Baker becomes First Black Woman Honored at the Pantheon in Paris, France

Black, American-born, a woman, and arguably best known for her exotic dancing: Josephine Baker hardly fits the profile of France’s historical heroes. But today, the performer from Saint Louis, Missouri, was granted one of France’s highest honors: A tomb in the Pantheon in Paris, the country’s monument to its heroes. There have been only 80 people granted the honor since the tradition began in Napoleonic times. Baker is the first Black woman honored at the Pantheon, according to the Elysee Palace. She is also only the sixth woman, which includes scientist Marie Curie and politician Simone Veil.

I was fortunately able to be living in Paris and Europe in 1971-72 with all the many other African American’s experiencing the same creative mind/life altering “expatriate” life, with the INCOMPARABLE Josephine Baker and James Baldwin. 

Ms. Josephine Baker- Always the Charmer, mannering in such a way as to suggest a playful attraction; flirtatious, with a disarming coquettish smile that melted the coldest of men. Yet she was more seductive with her intelligence, intoxicating with her infinte logic obviously gleaned for her years of unimaginable suffering beneath that gorgeous armoured exterior! A “DEVINE knowledge” I came to realize and call it as that “DIVINUS”– GOD CONSCIOUS/CONSCIENCE DRIVEN MANDATORY PREREQUISITE seemed to guide us all through our universe challenging academic exchanges of enlightenment usually convened by Beauford Delaney! Without it, you had not admission ticket, and ALL privileges were denied!

James Baldwin, “Jimmy” as we called him, was “sub-conscientiously” EVERYWHERE (America and around the World) at ALL of the important events of the Civil Rights Movement – rarely in the background. He ALWAYS presented a vivid drama, intermingling the personal and the political, as one of the most enigmatic figures in 20th-century American history. They both, Josephine Baker and Baldwin, and ALL those in our circle at the time, including and especially Beauford Delaney, were exceptionally intelligent, gregarious and charismatic, artistic in a highly unusual visionary way- but were denied their TRUE place in HISTORY- until after their deaths, but stilled strolled in the limelight denied them for various “excuses” as reason THEN that still exist TODAY- TOO INTELLIGENT, TOO BLACK, TOO POLITICAL, TOO WELLSPOKEN/OUTSPOKEN, and some just “gay”.

Beauford Delaney’s Abdul-Jalil al-Hakim, c.1971

I had the DISTINCT HONOR of having my Portrait painted by Beauford Delaney-  “Portraitist of the Famous”, the most important African-American artists of the 20th century! He has painted portraits of Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, Emperor Halle Selassie of Ethiopia, W.E.B. Du Bois, John F. Kennedy, Salvadore Dalí, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Robert Kennedy, Marian Anderson, Jacob Lawrence, Ella Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, Charlie Parker, James Jones, Jean Genet, Ethel Waters, Cab Calloway, W.C. Handy, Countee Cullen, Henry Miller, Jean-Claude Killy, Herb Gentry, Alain Locke, Cy Twombly, Sterling Brown, Georgia O’Keeffe, Augusta Savage, Stuart Davis, Richard A. Long, John Koenig, Jackson Pollock, Vassili Pikoula, Henri Chahine, Lawrence Calcagno, Elaine DeKooning, Palmer C. Hayden, Darthea Speyer, Herbert Gentry, Ed Clark, James Jones. Henry Miller, Richard Wright, Jacob Lawrence, to name a few! 

Delaney was a respected elder of the Harlem Renaissance crowd. His intimate portraits from this period show his beliefs of love, respect and equality between all people. In this time he became a “spiritual father” to writer James Baldwin.

Baker — a dancer, singer and wartime spy — is a household name in France. Her scantily-clad dancehall routines — often playing on colonial tropes — are synonymous with the wild reverie of the 1920s. Although less well-known in her American homeland, she was proud of her humble roots in Saint Louis and later in life became a fierce advocate for civil rights, speaking at the 1963 March on Washington. 

The coffin with soils from the US, France and Monaco is carried towards the Panthéon monument, France, Tuesday. Credit: Christophe Ena/AP

Baker’s voice resonated through streets of Paris’ famed Left Bank as recordings from her extraordinary career kicked off an elaborate ceremony at the domed Pantheon monument. Baker joined other French luminaries honored at the site, including philosopher Voltaire, scientist Marie Curie and writer Victor Hugo.

Military officers from the Air Force carried her cenotaph along a red carpet that stretched for four blocks of cobblestoned streets from the Luxembourg Gardens to the Pantheon. Baker’s military medals lay atop the cenotaph, which was draped in the French tricolor flag and contained soil from her birthplace in Missouri, from France, and from her final resting place in Monaco. Her body stayed in Monaco at the request of her family.

French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to “a war hero, fighter, dancer, singer; a Black woman defending Black people but first of all, a woman defending humankind. American and French. Josephine Baker fought so many battles with lightness, freedom, joy.” 

On Tuesday afternoon, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke at a ceremony at the Pantheon to mark Baker’s interment. Though her body remains buried in Monaco at the request of her family, a coffin was entombed at the site bearing handfuls of dirt from four important locations in her life — Saint-Louis, Paris, Milandes — the site of her chateau home — and Monaco. This is not the first time that the honor has been bestowed this way, according to the Elysee. French Resistance fighters Genevieve de Gaulle-Anthonioz and Germaine Tillion are represented by caskets with earth. The date of her interment also holds significance, marking the anniversary of when she received French citizenship in 1937. Macron tweeted a video celebrating Baker’s life Tuesday, in which he said she had “all the courage, all the boldness, she’s quite synthetic of what it means to be French.” Hailing her fight for universalism, her war-time acts, and her “absolute freedom,” Macron added in the video that Baker “is quite inspiring.”

“Josephine Baker, you are entering into the Pantheon because, (despite) born American, there is no greater French (woman) than you,” he said.

Baker was also the first American-born citizen and the first performer to be immortalized into the Pantheon. 

She is not only praised for her world-renowned artistic career but also for her active role in the French Resistance during World War II, her actions as a civil rights activist and her humanist values, which she displayed through the adoption of her 12 children from all over the world. Nine of them attended Tuesday’s ceremony among the 2,000 guests. 

“Mum would have been very happy,” Akio Bouillon, Baker’s son, said after the ceremony. “Mum would not have accepted to enter into the Pantheon if that was not as the symbol of all the forgotten people of history, the minorities.”

Bouillon added that what moved him the most were the people who gathered along the street in front of the Pantheon to watch. 

“They were her public, people who really loved her,” he said. 

The tribute ceremony started with Baker’s song “Me revoilà Paris” (“Paris, I’m Back”). The French army choir sang the French Resistance song, prompting strong applause from the public. Her signature song “J’ai deux amours” (“Two Loves”) was then played by an orchestra accompanying Baker’s voice on the Pantheon plaza. 

During a light show displayed on the monument, Baker could be heard saying “I think I am a person who has been adopted by France. It especially developed my humanist values, and that’s the most important thing in my life.” 

The homage included Martin Luther King’s famed “I have a dream” speech. Baker was the only woman to speak before him at the 1963 March on Washington.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Baker became a megastar in the 1930s, especially in France, where she moved in 1925 as she sought to flee racism and segregation in the United States.

Josephine Baker is the sixth woman to be commemorated in the Panthéon. Credit: Siegfried Modola/Getty Images

“The simple fact to have a Black woman entering the pantheon is historic,” Black French scholar Pap Ndiaye, an expert on U.S. minority rights movements, told The Associated Press. 

“When she arrived, she was first surprised like so many African Americans who settled in Paris at the same time … at the absence of institutional racism. There was no segregation … no lynching. (There was) the possibility to sit at a cafe and be served by a white waiter, the possibility to talk to white people, to (have a) romance with white people,” Ndiaye said. 

“It does not mean that racism did not exist in France. But French racism has often been more subtle, not as brutal as the American forms of racism,” he added.

Baker was among several prominent Black Americans, especially artists and writers, who found refuge in France after the two World Wars, including famed writer and intellectual James Baldwin.

They were “aware of the French empire and the brutalities of French colonization, for sure. But they were also having a better life overall than the one they had left behind in the United States,” Ndiaye, who also directs France’s state-run immigration museum, told The Associated Press.

Baker quickly became famous for her banana-skirt dance routines and wowed audiences at Paris theater halls. Her shows were controversial, Ndiaye stressed, because many activists believed she was “the propaganda for colonization, singing the song that the French wanted her to sing.”

Baker knew well about “the stereotypes that Black women had to face,” he said. “She also distanced herself from these stereotypes with her facial expressions.”

“But let’s not forget that when she arrived in France she was only 19, she was almost illiterate … She had to build her political and racial consciousness,” he said.

Baker became a French citizen after her marriage to industrialist Jean Lion in 1937. The same year, she settled in southwestern France, in the castle of Castelnaud-la-Chapelle. 

“Josephine Baker can be considered to be the first Black superstar. She’s like the Rihanna of the 1920s,” said Rosemary Phillips, a Barbados-born performer and co-owner of Baker’s park in southwestern France.

Phillips said one of the ladies who grew up in the castle and met with Baker said: “Can you imagine a Black woman in the 1930s in a chauffeur-driven car — a white chauffeur — who turns up and says, ‘I’d like to buy the 1,000 acres here?’”

In 1938, Baker joined what is today called LICRA, a prominent antiracist league. The next year, she started to work for France’s counter-intelligence services against Nazis, notably collecting information from German officials who she met at parties. She then joined the French Resistance, using her performances as a cover for spying activities during World War II.

In 1944, Baker became second-lieutenant in a female group in the Air Force of the French Liberation Army of Gen. Charles De Gaulle.

After the war, she got involved in anti-racist politics and the civil rights struggle, both in France and in the United States. 

Toward the end of her life, she ran into financial trouble, was evicted and lost her properties. She received support from Princess Grace of Monaco, who offered Baker a place for her and her children to live. Baker died in Paris in 1975 at age 68.

The ceremony bore all the hallmarks of French pomp: A military orchestra, the rousing national anthem, and a choir of children singing one of Baker’s own songs, according to the Elysee. The symbolic, tricolore-draped coffin was carried by six members of France’s air and space force, followed by another member of the Air Force carrying the five decorations that France bestowed upon Baker during her life. These include the World War II Resistance medal and the Knight of the Legion of Honor, one of the country’s highest awards.While she died in 1975, much has been made of the decision by Macron to grant her this honor now. For Macron, the occasion offers a chance to rally France around its pride of those who resisted the Nazi occupation in World War II, as well as address a long-standing deficit in the number of women, and people of color, who rest under the Pantheon dome.As Baker’s coffin was brought to the steps of the Pantheon, a recording of her most famous song was played: “J’ai deux amours” (I have two loves: My country and Paris).

ABDUL-JALIL RECEIVES “Certificate of Recognition” from CALIFORNIA SATE ASSEMBLY for 2021-22 HUMANITARIAN, CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACHIEVEMENTS!

I pray to God you and your Families are well, your health is robust, business is thriving, everything is perfect and stay in God’s Love, Grace, Guidance and Mercy.

“In another religion they honor people who serve like you with Sainthood!”” – Economics Professor Adeel Malik,Oxford University, England and World Renowned News Expert Commentator, speaking about Abdul-Jalil and the Aaron & Margaret Wallace Foundation.

“GOD sent me an ANGEL!”” – Hammer, speaking about Abdul-Jalil.

 

“Jalil, YOU ARE A TZADIK (SAINT)!”– Barry Barkan, Live Oak Institute and

  Ashoka Fellow at Ashoka Foundation:Innovators for the Public

“I thank God for you and for bringing you into my life and for the ministry you have been given to help the people of God!”– Pastor L. J. Jennings, Kingdom Builders Christian Fellowship, speaking about Abdul-Jalil and AMWF

“Certificate of Recognition” from CALIFORNIA SATE ASSEMBLY

In 1971, I had the DISTINCT HONOR of having my Portrait painted by Beauford Delaney-  “Portraitist of the Famous”, the most important African-American artists of the 20th century! He has painted portraits of Emperor Halle Selassie of Ethiopia, W.E.B. Du Bois, John F. Kennedy, Salvadore Dalí, James Baldwin, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Josephine Baker,  Langston Hughes, Robert Kennedy, Marian Anderson, Jacob Lawrence, Ella Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, Charlie Parker, James Jones, Jean Genet, Ethel Waters, Cab Calloway, W.C. Handy, Countee Cullen, Henry Miller, Jean-Claude Killy, Herb Gentry, Alain Locke, Cy Twombly, Sterling Brown, Georgia O’Keeffe, Augusta Savage, Stuart Davis, Richard A. Long, John Koenig, Jackson Pollock, Vassili Pikoula, Henri Chahine, Lawrence Calcagno, Elaine DeKooning, Palmer C. Hayden, Darthea Speyer, Herbert Gentry, Ed Clark, James Jones. Henry Miller, Richard Wright, Jacob Lawrence, to name a few!

As CEO and President of the Aaron & Margaret Wallace Foundation (AMWF), I want to sincerely “THANK” ALL my/our supporters and I am thankful of the recognition for the work done as a Humanitarian for societal change/advancement with the establishment of real economic, social, and political equality across gender and color lines, in Civil Rights and Social Services addressing: Homelessness; Constitutional Reform; Social Justice Reform; Hunger and Food Insecurity; Police Reform; Climate Justice Reform; Criminal Justice Reform; Gun Violence; Religious Hate, Bias, Islamophobia, Xenaphobia and Bigotry; Immigration/Refugee Crisis; Healthcare; Education Equality; School-to-Prison Pipeline; Wealth Inequality/Poverty and Basic Needs; Voter Rights; COVID-19 Pandemic Relief Response; Sport and Athletes Human Rights and the fight for Judicial Reform to END Grand Systemic and Endemic Corruption, that includes Judicial/Legal Systemic Racism, Bigotry, Persecution, as a subset, that provides for the unlawful, and unconstitutional acts of The “COURTEL”– COURT CORRUPTION CARTEL, the Corruptocrats and Kleptocrat politicians.

I, Abdul-Jalil al-Hakim, as a Muslim litigant, in 2005 filed a Federal Corruption Complaint with the United States Attorney General, Department of Justice, of a Hate Crime of Islamophobia, Xenophobia, Bigotry, Racism  and Civil/Human Rights Violations committed against him through State sponsored persecutory terror and civil conspiracy by Federal, Sate, County and Local Judicial, Law enforcement, Governmental and Legal entities and agencies!

Federal Corruption Complaint with the United States Attorney General, Department of Justice, also brought charges of criminal extrinsic fraud upon the court of the State of California, spoliation of evidence, and fraud against defendants/hostile intervener AAA Insurance; Ron Cook and the law firm of WILLOUGHBY, STUART & BENING; defense counsel Steve Barber and the law firm of Ropers Majeski; and others. The complaint, drafted and filed by al-Hakim, has broad based support from Democrats and Republicans, was submitted by Congresswoman Barbara Lee with the offices of Congressmen John Conyers, and Charles Rangel, has been review by several legal experts, with advocacy by former Republican Representative J. C. Watts, a client of al-Hakim’s.

The complaint addresses the concern that a Superior Court Judges’ conduct rose to the level of consideration for a Federal Crime and a Civil Rights violation because the bench upon which the judge rules is “under the color of law” and certainly the violation of anyone’s civil rights is a federal crime. “Muslims, just as any other group, can not be afraid to speak up when their rights have been abridged. If one does not speak up, then the transgressions goes unreported and the perpetrator goes on to harm again unchecked, it does not matter whom the transgressor is” said al-Hakim. The complaint, perhaps even more importantly, not only requested Merrily Friedlander, Chief of the Civil Rights Division, to make an investigation of a judicial hate crime, but also the many other civil rights and due process violations of judicial misconduct, and attorney extrinsic fraud upon the court and law that are themselves directly the matters complained. J. C. Watts in asking “What does a supposed terrorist act in Russia have to do with the negligent contamination of a home in America?” posed the argument that there must be consideration of and a response to the many issues in the complaint.

Abdul-Jalil was Honored in June 2011 in Port Au-Prince, Haiti and Miami, Fla. for 2010 Relief Missions to Haiti by The World Conference of Mayors (WCM) and The National Conference of Black Mayors (NCBM); and 1997 Awarded national recognition as “Muslim of the Year” from Imam W. D. Mohammed Community.

He has negotiated a series of contracts that included many unprecedented benefits to the individual clients, one of which was interest-free loans that could be forgiven. Upon review by the Internal Revenue Service, the contracts and  returns where thrown out and challenged by the IRS as the IRS filed suit. After an 8 year legal battle, he prevailed in Federal Tax Court and established that Interest free Loans where in fact legal. This unprecedented legal ruling was established as a standard in the Tax Laws and was written in several National Law Journals. Cite:  “IRS vs Al-Hakim” published by Commerce Clearing House(CCH) Tax Court Memorandum Cases editions KF 6234A 505 and Maxwell McMillian (Prentice Hall) Federal Tax Cases edition KF 6234A 512 Tax Court Memorandum Decisions. Articles and citations available upon request….

The Historic “al-Hakim” Tax Code §7872 [692] Ruling
After al-Hakim’s victory in the Federal Tax Courts against the Tax Commissioner, in December 2000 the IRS moved to change the Tax Codes with the historic “al-Hakim” Tax Code §7872 [692] Ruling. The IRS changed the Federal Tax Codes such that it now “prevents no-interest loans” and was instituted to eliminate and close the Federal Income Tax loop-hole created with al-Hakim’s use of interest free loans in sports and entertainment financial transactions.
CITE: Tax Notes, Dec. 4, 2000, p. 1311; 89 Tax Notes 1311 (Dec. 4, 2000) “al-Hakim Tax Code” Ruling.

al-Hakim’s victory in the Federal Tax Court over the U. S. Tax Commissioner has the nations foremost academic institutions and academians in the study of Law and Business teaching al-Hakim’s use of interest free loans in Tax Free financial transactions as part of the Law and Business ciriculum in such hallowed halls as Harvard University, Yale University,Washington University, Stanford University, University of Virginia, and Wake Forest University Schools of Law Federal Tax Courses, among others.

Washington University School of Law Federal Tax Course,
Professor: Bixby;

Yale University School of Law Federal Tax Course,
Professor: Eric M. Zolt
Text Authors: William A. Klein, Joseph Bankman, Daniel N. Shaviro;

University of Virginia School of Law Federal Tax Course,
Professor: M. Robinson * Federal Income Taxation * L. Dominick
Text Authors: William A. Klein, Joseph Bankman, Daniel N. Shaviro;

Washington & Lee University School of Law Federal Tax Course,

Harvard University School of Law Federal Income Taxation Course Outline,
Professor: Flusche

al-Hakim’s victory in the Federal Tax Court over the U. S. Tax Commissioner has academians teaching al-Hakim’s use of interest free loans in Tax Free financial transactions as part of a Wake Forest University School of Law Federal Tax Course on “ISLAMIC AND JEWISH PERSPECTIVES ON INTEREST” and al-Hakim’s historic impact on Shariah-Riba Complaint financial transactions in the business world.

Wake Forest University School of Law Tax Course on “ISLAMIC & JEWISH PERSPECTIVES ON INTEREST”,

Author/Professor: Newman, Joel S.
al-Hakim’s victory in the Federal Tax Court over the U. S. Tax Commissioner has academians teaching al-Hakim’s use of interest free loans in Tax Free financial transactions as part of the Wake Forest University School of Law Federal Tax Course on “ISLAMIC AND JEWISH PERSPECTIVES ON INTEREST” and al-Hakim’s historic impact on Shariah-Riba Complaint financial transactions in the business world.
Joel S. Newman is a professor at Wake Forest Law School, Winston Salem, North Carolina.
In this report, Newman discusses financial transactions that allow devout Muslims and Jews to obey religious prohibitions against interest, while giving investors a return on their investments. The tax treatment of these transactions is considered. An integral part is al-Hakim’s case.

ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIPS:

~ National Lawyers Guild, ~ Muslim Bar Association of New York, ~ Houston Muslim Lawyers , ~ National Muslim Law Students Association, ~ Association of Muslim-American Lawyers, ~ Associate Board Member- University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business East Bay Alumni Network

LECTURER AND PRESENTOR IN THE FIELDS OF:

*HIP HOP AND THE SPREAD OF ISLAM*

*ISLAM AND MUSIC*

~Music in Islam, University of California, Berkeley, CA 2003~ National Islamic Convention, Seacaucus., NJ 1997,~ Host Evening of Elegance, National Arabic Conference, Oakland, CA. 1997,~ National Islamic Convention, N.Y.C, N.Y. 1996,~ International Islamic Conference, Los Angeles, CA. 1996,~ Oaktown Music Conference, Oakland, CA 1996,~ National Society of Black Engineers Conference-Region 6, San Luis Obispo, CA.  1992,~ CAREER FEST, Oakland, CA. 1986, ~ California State University, Hayward, CA.  1985,~ United States Coast Guard, Oakland, CA.  1982,~ National BALSA Law Conference, Houston, TX 1981,~ National BALSA Law Conference, Philadelphia, PA. 1982,~ National BALSA Law Conference, Oakland, CA. 1979,~ National BALSA Law Conference, N.Y.C., N.Y. 1980,~ Mountain Regional Law Convention, Oklahoma City, OK. 1980,~ College of Alameda, Alameda, CA.  1981,~ Eastern Regional Law Conference, Washington D.C. 1980,~ National Black Media Convention, Oakland, CA. 1972,~ National BALSA Law Conference, Washington D.C. 1976,~ Pacific Coast Law Conference, San Francisco, CA. 1976,~ Stanford Law Society, Palo Alto, CA. 1976,~ National Black History Week Awards, San Francisco, CA, 1974, ~ Golden State Warriors Adonal Foyle’s “Athletics and Academics” Basketball Camp, Oakland, CA. 2006, 

March 1979- The Historic BALSA 1979 National Law Convention
The historic Black American Law Students Association, 11th Annual National Convention, March 28-April 1, 1979, Hyatt, Oakland, was themed: “The Reconstruction of Black Civilizations.” Dedicated to- Rev. Ben Chavis of the Wilmington Ten, Introduction- Mayor Lionel Wilson, Keynote Speaker- Min. Louis Farrakhan, with veritable “Who’s Who” of nations leading Black presenters: Junius Williams-Pres. NBA, Hon. Ben Travis, Abdul-Jalil al-Hakim, Don Warden (Khalid al-Mansour), Dave Wilmont-Georgetown Law Center; Howard Moore, Alfred Slocum- Rutgers School of Law, Angela Davis, Victor Goode- Ex. Dir. NCBL, Hon. Judith Ford, Herb Reed- Howard School of Law, Asa Hilliard, Nathan Hare, Ron Baily- Northwestern University, Michael Ashburne, David Hall- FTC, Denice Carty Bernia- North Eastern University; Moot Court Judges: Hon. Wiley Manuel, Hon. Clinton White, Hon. David Cunningham, Hon. Allen Broussard, with “Thanks” to -John Burris, Peter Cohen, Claude Ames, Robert Harris, Eva Patterson, George Holland.

“The Evening of Elegance” Oakland, CA, 1997-Host with M. C. Hammer;

“1995 Sports Image Awards” Honoring Mohammed Ali

National Footbal League Super Bowl

In 1994 Awarded Silver Cross Pen and Pencil Set for “Distinguished Marketing and Promotional Services” to National Footbal League Super Bowl and “NFL Experience” by NFL Properties.

July 1996-  “Community Movement Toward Improvement” Music Conference at Clara Muhammed School & Masjidul Waritheen
“Community Movement Toward Improvement” Music Conference at Clara Muhammed School & Masjidul Warithdeen in Oakland, California featuring MC Hammer, Martin Wyatt-KGO TV, Mohammed (MTV Real World-SF),Sway, Imani, Davey D, Raphael Saadiq- Tony Toni Tone, Greg Khalid Peck- Warner Bros,Karen Lee- Warner Bros Music, Eric B, Rico Cassanova, Abdul-Jalil,Tony Collins- Giant Records, Anita Greathouse-Knight, Gene Shelton, Lenny Williams,Thembisa Mshaka, Roy Tesfaye-Death Row Records shown in ABC-TV news clip.

But the REAL recognition comes from the count of the Angels on judgment day!

We’ve ALL been watching the news, horrified, for the last years as the COVID-19 pandemic, political unrest, police brutality, violence, housing crisis, voter rights violations, food and essentials shortages, wild fires, and unemployment runs rampant, uncontrolled through every state, it’s clear that this is what the NEW racism looks like in America TODAY.

  AMWF has taken the lead in servicing and protecting the poor, homeless, immigrants, refugees and senoir shut-in residents from COVID-19 extending these various services and programs to the economically, mentally, and physically challenged; the needy; the undereducated and undeserved; people living with symptomatic HIV and AIDS; substance abuse; seniors 55 years and older; prenatal women; at risk youth; and homebound people living with serious illness!

 We are and have been heavily involved in the servicing of these communities since the 1970’s that now suddenly the government needs to address as this Deadly agent of the spread of the virus. Providing food IS AN ESSENTIAL service, so we are used for that purpose, we added new food resource donors, we MUST be out to serve and our work has TRIPLED!

  We provide FREE groceries, clothing, shoes, hygiene kits, sleeping bags, blankets, medicine, and hot chef’s prepared gourmet meals to the homeless and homeless encampments and habitations of ALL kinds, from the streets to parks, from trees and bushes to alleys, from corners to ditches, from hand built shanties to tents under freeway overpasses!

  We provide FREE groceries, bagged and hot chef’s prepared gourmet meals, plus the above, to the Safe Parking Programs, among others, at local senior and community centers, and faith based organizations in an effort to provide families and/or individuals who have been displaced and are temporarily homeless, living in their vehicles and need a safe place to park and sleep overnight, with restrooms and an attendant present throughout the night at all of the locations.

  We also provide food to those that had previously obtained necessary items at their Senior Center. But now that they’re closed are vital to the wellness of the community and senior population with our Food Bank program and Free Farmers Market Food Give-Aways.

  One Blessing of the pandemic is we have added MORE retail grocery stores pick ups and arranged several other groups programs with the young adults and kids to participate in servicing the poor, homeless, and senoir shut-in’s, since they are out of school and need something to do, AHDL!! This will stick with them for LIFE!

 We also recently handed out over 400 Eid gifts/toys to the youth.

  The Aaron & Margaret Wallace Foundation (AMWF), a public services organization based on GIVING AND SHARING, is non-denominational, Multi-Cultural, 100% volunteer financed and operated relief organization that provides FREE charitable assistance to the general public with food, medicine, clothing, educational and employment opportunities, mental and physical health referrals, legal aid, shelter and other necessities to individuals, children, families, and organizations who lack these essentials for any reason. We provide private school and college admissions educational opportunities; assists with referrals for job training and placement; rental assistance; social services assistance; homelessness assistance; mental and physical health assistance; medical assistance and legal aid assistance referrals FREE for ANYONE whom has the need.

AMWF serves and provides more direct and meaningful essential sustenance in the form of food, clothing, educational opportunities, medical and legal aid, social services, housing aid, to Muslims in America, per Allah (SWT), then ALL the Islamic charity groups COMBINED in the United States including Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America ICNA, Islamic Society of North America ISNA, Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), Muslim American Society (MAS), Muslim Community Association, MCA-SFBA, American Muslim Alliance (AMA), Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP), Muslim American Leadership Alliance (MALA), the Muslim Reform Movement (MRM), Muslims Facing Tomorrow (MFT), the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), The Mosque Cares, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA), Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA), Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), American Muslim Alliance (AMA), The Mosque Foundation, American Muslim Task Force (AMTF), American Muslims for Civic Engagement (AMCE), The North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), the Muslim Students Association (MSA), United Muslim Americans Association (UMAA), United Muslims of America (UMA), the UMMA, Inner-City Muslim Action Network, Muslim Advocates, Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD), United States Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), MuslimARC, and Zaytuna College!!

We serve the indigent, homeless, needy, under privileged, disadvantaged, disabled persons, underserved, children, many in the Autism Spectrum and other afflictions. We conduct outreach to those living on the streets and offer benefits such as medical and mental health services, substance abuse treatment, social and psychological services, educational support to facilitate homeless student’s transition to school, transitional housing opportunities, and, eventually, permanent housing.  We are serving our clients with mobile hot spot access to complete the necessary forms for service to those chronic homeless and those that do not have internet access to get them off the streets and rally support and create stabilized, lasting solutions.

 We have massive list of clients that we communicate with daily through the same means that we now provide referrals, mail, email, phone, text and voice mail message service with and for our clients.

By way of our global accessible services, we have pioneered new, disruptive healing solutions that take advantage of each of our unique assets to rally our clients in support of our donors charitable causes.

We have hundreds of daily uniquely distinctive, necessitous, and discrete web visitors to video chat, online chat, text, phone, email, and voice mail messages, to obtain precise information designed to relieve their concerns with confidential information and real help with specific performance in the form of any type of the most effective remedy in protecting the expectation interest of the clients. We are able to notice and communicate with 1,000’s via text message at a moments notice!

Our members, and the people we serve are of different race, faith, culture, age, gender, sexual orientation and income levels. AMWF by providing direct services, including providing nutritious food; edvocating for and participating in many relevant social service programs that promote the self-sufficiency of people in need; educating the general public about these issues, their causes and this partial solution while inspiring a consummate social conscience and honoring the dignity of every person. As part of that principal mission, AMWF works for basic economic survival security for all and the elimination of poverty by providing these services thus effecting societal and governmental policies that regulate the less fortunate to the bottom of the economic, social, health, and opportunity pyramid, with full understanding that any policy which affects the poorest of us affects all of us.

We provide essential services to many inter-faith based organizations with the aim of bettering the condition of the less fortunate. In that spirit of outreach, we have supplied many Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Disabled, Unabled, multi-cultural, inter-faith based businesses and organizations with staples that are in turn distributed to the public, and these events are NOT only fundraisers, BUT MOST are totally free to the public, there is no charge for anything to anyone.

AMWF features high-performing results in the invaluable areas of: youth development; elementary, secondary and college education; poverty alleviation; mental and physical health medical services; social services, as well as other economic-empowerment programs for individuals, families; and small businesses. 

AMWF has forged an awareness and sustained an effort to connect those in dire need with service providers, donors, volunteers and nonprofit groups with these causes. We have taken community foundations and moved into social networking, reaching beyond static “bricks and mortar” to interactive Web sites to serve as a “dynamic virtual clearinghouses or town square” that holds conversations between those in NEED and their local charities, citizens, donors, and volunteers.

While hunger in the land of plenty is not a new phenomenon, the last few years of international economic turmoil have worsened matters for the poor in this country. As unemployment has soared, bankruptcies and foreclosures have increased, little to NO opportunities exist for ANY subsistence, with the disappearance of ANY possible pursuit of happiness, the ranks of the poor have swelled in alarming proportions. So we find ourselves in the anomalous situation that one out of every six people in the richest nation on earth, is today living below the poverty line. Prophet Mohammad, Sallalalahu Alayhi wa Sallam, is reported to have said, “He is not a Muslim who goes to bed satiated while his neighbor goes hungry”. So how can YOU sleep contentedly while the person praying next to you, in your own neighborhoods, in your own backyards, in your own towns, counties, state, country, your neighbors go hungry? And if YOU do so, then in light of the above Hadith, can you call yourselves Muslim?

AMWF serve’s over 30,000 people a month from many Religeous Communities and 20 other locations and provide for thousands with the special events we support that are totally free to the public.AMWF expanded last year to accommodate more people at the Masajids, over 300 families weekly per location giveaway, with twice the quantity, a higher quality, much healthier, more expensive and fresher product that was purely the blessings of GOD.

Our annual accounting reveals that AMWF donated over $400,000 worth of food on just the 21 “Jumaah Free Farmers Market Food” Giveaways at the Berkeley Masajid alone in 2019-20!! Mind you this total DOES NOT include the nights of Ramadan, Eid, and every other weekly giveaways that we have had there, AHDL!

Thanks again

Jalil

Kamala Harris’ Poor Poll Numbers Concern Democrats

Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on July 27, 2021, in Washington, D.C.

Vice President Kamala Harris has work to do to improve her favorable rating among voters, three recent polls have found.

The surveys’ results have created a dilemma for the Biden administration as it maps out its midterm strategy, The Hill reported Thursday.

Three polls combined to produce an unfavorable rating of 46% for Harris, according to an aggregate average compiled by RealClearPolitics. The Hill reported that the number is 3 points below Biden’s 43% unfavorable rating.

An Economist-YouGov poll conducted July 24-27 found Harris’s unfavorable rating to be 48%.

Normally, a vice president travels to support the party’s candidates before a midterm election. Harris’ polling numbers, however, are making Democrats wonder whether she can help them retain majorities in the House and Senate.

“As of right now, I think she has the potential of doing more harm than good for some of these candidates,” one Democrat strategist told The Hill. “My sense is she’ll probably raise a lot of money and maybe she’ll go to some specific districts, but they’ll have to be really strategic with her.

“She doesn’t have the standing at this moment to go to a lot of these tighter districts.”

Even Harris allies are skeptical about her chances to support candidates before the midterms as this puts Democrats in a no-win position. If they use Harris to campaign for the midterms, she could do damage. If they don’t, it confirms that she is politically toxic:

“No one is coming out and saying she’s doing an amazing job, because the first question would be ‘On what?’” one Harris ally told The Hill. “She’s made a bunch of mistakes and she’s made herself a story for good and bad.”

Last week, a Trafalgar Group survey found that more than 60% of likely U.S. voters are not confident Harris is ready to be president.

A total of 58.6% answered “not confident at all” and another 5% said “not very confident,” in the survey conducted July 12-13 among 1,161 likely voters.

Harris has been criticized for several missteps during her first six months in office. She waited three months to visit the southern border after being named to take charge of the immigration surge, and recent reports have said her staff suffers from low morale.

She told asylum-seekers attempting to enter the U.S. “don’t come here” when she finally visited the border. That comment angered some progressives.

“I don’t think someone like [Sen.] Mark Kelly would want her anywhere around him,” the Harris ally told The Hill.

Kelly, D-Ariz., is seeking reelection in a state that Republicans have identified as a pickup opportunity.

However, some disagree, arguing that Democrats would be making a mistake to shy away from Harris ahead of the midterms.

“The reason that Harris is unpopular is that they haven’t been able to make headway against Joe Biden personally, so they really have switched their messaging strategy to focus on Harris and attack him indirectly,” political analyst Rachel Bitecofer told the Hill.

“If Democrats buy into the old-school political book and make the same mistakes that they’ve made in the past and try to shelf her, hide her, run away from her, all they’re doing is reasserting the right’s negative frame against her,” she said.

This is a short-term problem. The bigger, long-term problem for Democrats is figuring out what they’re going to do with Harris if Joe Biden can’t or won’t run in 2024.

Picking Kamala Harris has BACKFIRED on Democrats, as Leftists HATE Her and even Black Voters now say NO WAY! Republicans claim she is far left of the most liberal actual leftists and progressives claim she is right wing or centrist. Worse for Democrats still is that among black voters today, one third say they are now LESS likely to vote for Harris, while a third also said they’d be more likely to ultimately conclude picking her did nothing to help the black vote and only made the leftists angrier with the Democrats!

Kamala Harris struggles in the polls behind Biden amid border crisis and reports of ‘toxic’ office

Kamala Harris is facing a steep uphill battle if she wants to succeed her boss Joe Biden in 2024.

Recent poll numbers show the vice president – and Biden’s heir apparent – hovering at just 44.3 percent favorability, according to poll aggregator RealClearPolitics. Her unfavorability is slightly higher at 46.3 percent. 

Plagued by years’ worth of accounts of a toxic work culture under her watch, as well as her very public missteps while handling the monumental task of fixing the border crisis, Harris’ weaknesses are even apparent to Biden’s supporters.

The same aggregator site showed Biden with 51.8 percent favorability against 42.8 percent, and almost one in five people who supported Biden last fall did not think highly of Harris or did not have an opinion of her.  

Harris’ favorability is two points lower than her unfavorability, according to RealClearPolitics

A majority of people in almost every age group ranked the struggling vice president as ‘very unfavorable,’ according to a new YouGov survey. The exception was 18 to 29-year-olds, who mostly (32 percent) said their opinion of Harris was ‘somewhat favorable.’

Only 13 percent of the same age group showed stronger support.

Data shows Harris’ unpopularity is strongest among those aged 65 and up and white men without college degrees – with both numbers hovering above 50 percent. 

The majority of both men and women surveyed ranked their opinion of Harris as ‘very unfavorable’ – 41 percent of males and 34 percent of females.  

Less than half of Democrats surveyed (49 percent) found Harris ‘very favorable,’ while a whopping 87 percent of Republicans chose ‘very unfavorable.’

Harris is facing an uphill battle if she wants to succeed Biden in 2024

Suffolk University Political Research Center Director David Paleologos suggest Biden be ‘more supportive publicly and engage with Vice President Harris so that he can at least shore up his own voters,’ in an interview with the Washington Examiner.

The politics expert said it was clear that some people who voted for Biden in 2020 ‘thought there was a better pick or they’re not convinced that they like her.’ 

Harris has also reportedly been unpopular among her own staff. A damning Politico report from late June uncovered allegations of ‘an abusive environment’ they say ‘starts at the top.’

‘It’s not a healthy environment and people often feel mistreated. It’s not a place where people feel supported but a place where people feel treated like s—,’ a source with direct knowledge of how Harris’ office is run told the outlet. 

A Harvard/Harris poll from June before Harris’ trip to the southern border showed voters’ discontent at her handling of the crisis, which Biden tapped her to lead the response to.

A Harvard/Harris poll from June 15 – 17 2021 reflected Americans’ discontent with the VP’s handling of the border crisis

People surveyed said Harris made no progress on her trip to Central America, before she traveled to the southern border

Harris’ trip to Guatemala to tackle the ‘root causes’ of the crisis was criticized when she bluntly announced during a speech ‘do not come’ to the US. 

In a contentious interview with NBC’s Lester Holt during the trip, Harris appeared to dodge the anchor’s attempts to press her on visiting the border.

At one point Harris told Holt ‘we’ve been to the border,’ to which he pointed out she herself had not – prompting a somewhat confusing response. 

‘And I haven’t been to Europe,’ Harris said. ‘And I mean, I don’t understand the point that you’re making. I’m not discounting the importance of the border.’ 

Biden’s approval rating on immigration comes despite apparent discontent in Harris’ handling of the border crisis, according to numbers from just before her southern border visit (pictured July 22)

The majority of Americans polled by Harvard at the time said Harris was doing a bad job handling the root causes of illegal immigration. 

The vice president made ‘no progress’ on that trip, 40 percent said, and nearly three-quarters say she should have visited the border on the same trip.

The survey also showed Biden had more than 50 percent support on the topic of immigration in June 2021.

Related Stories:

• Harris to Campaign for Newsom in Recall Election
• Harris Releases Strategy to Tackle Migration’s Root Causes

VP Kamala Harris blasted for breaking her own campaign ethics pledge by ‘keeping assets hidden’

Kamala Harris was blown up by breaking her own campaign ethical pledge by “hiding her assets.”

Vice President Harris, 56, keeps his assets in a tax-friendly family trust according to a financial disclosure form released Monday.

Harris has been a trustee of the KDH / DCE Family Trust since 2017.Credit: Splash

Trust in the KDH / DCE family revealed in Harris’ financial disclosure formCredit: White House

According to Filing, she has been a trustee of the KDH / DCE family trust since 2017 and the assets of the trust are considered “unreportable”. In other words, some of Harris’ holdings are hidden from public.

This move would appear to violate the ethical pledges she and President Joe Biden made while following the trajectory of the campaign.

Biden and Harris promised to work with Congress to “eliminate trust loopholes in existing financial disclosure legislation,” and Biden said, “members of his administration, beneficiaries of discretionary trusts, disclose all their holdings. I demand that. “

The pledge is detailed in the Biden plan to guarantee government activity for the people.

Harris and Biden pledged during the “Eliminate the loophole in trust” campaignCredit: AP

It’s unclear why Harris adheres to the pledge and doesn’t need to reveal the assets of the trust.

“If Democrats don’t believe in hypocrisy, they won’t believe anything,” said conservative Republican senior Republican John Fieherly.

The creation of a family trust or life trust gives couples tax incentives, allows them to maximize federal estate tax exemptions, and “owns real estate in multiple states and provides a good way to protect assets. Ideal for those who have. “According to a California law firm.

Harris’s trust holdings may be ambiguous, but he said that some of his assets could be identified from public sources in the area where the Vice President lived. Fox news..

According to real estate records filed in Washington, DC, Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff used the KDH / DCE Trust to purchase a luxury condo near the Georgetown district of DC in 2017.

The condo is currently sold via Zillow for nearly $ 2 million. 

Couple trust is also related to San Francisco real estate.

The city’s asset record shows the trust of the KDH / DCE family as the grantee of the condominium purchased by Harris. $ 489,000 In 2004 she was first elected Attorney General in California.

The estimated total value of real estate in trust is reported to be $ 7.2 millionCredit: Splash

It sold for $ 860,000 in March, according to Zillow.

Harris and Emhoff have also moved millions of dollars homes in Brentwood, California to a trust.

Emhoff bought the house for $ 2.

In 2014, the house turned into trust after the couple got married.

Los Angeles real estate is estimated to be worth $ 5.2 million.

The estimated total value of real estate in trust is currently said to be $ 7.2 million.

Tax documents released earlier this week also show that the couple reported total adjusted revenue of $ 1,695,225, and President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden reported total adjusted revenue of $ 607,336. I will.

The form also shows that Harris and her husband donated 1.6% of their income to a charity.

The Truth about Uncle Tom and Tim Scott is No Uncle Tom

by Vivian “Vicki” Jackson

Who was Uncle Tom in Stowe’s novel? A Maryland slave, Josiah Henson, was abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe’s choice to depict in her anti-slavery novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” which was influential in starting the Civil War.Josiah Henson used the Underground Railroad to escape to freedom, he protected fugitives, and he made several trips to bring other slaves to freedom. He settled in Canada where he established a school for fugitive slaves and he worked to organize the Afro-Canadian community that emphasized independence from any white patronage.The climax of the novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is a tearjerker. Uncle Tom is asked to reveal where two runaway slave women were hiding. He knew that concealing their whereabouts would bring about his own death. He protected them anyway and Tom was beaten to death Unfortunately, Uncle Tom’s true character is only contained within the pages of the novel. The stage productions omitted Tom’s protective abolitionist attitude because it was not financially profitable regarding ticket sales. Therefore, stage producers “changed” Uncle Tom’s image into a man whose English is poor, and who will sell out black people for any white person’s favor. It is that “distorted” image of him as being a sell out that made “Uncle Tom” a negative connotative term. Josiah Henson, the real Uncle Tom, was an author, abolitionist, and minister. His settlement in Canada was the last station of the Underground Railroad. He died in Canada at the age of 93.We do a disservice to Josiah Henson/Uncle Tom by comparing him to such black people as Tim Scott and Clarence Thomas. They are no Uncle Toms. I shared this with my students throughout my career. Share with your friends, children, and grandchildren. Let’s not distort the images of our Black Abolitionists.

The REAL UNCLE TOM: Josiah Henson

Conflicting narratives were fed to us for generations, negative indoctrination was at the forefront of those self hate teachings from white Americans!!! Josiah Henson was definitely not a SAMBO the likes of white man’s Senator and other so-called Black Republicans!!! There are SAMBOS!!! BUT, HE IS NO UNCLE TOM!!!

‘She Embarrassed Everyone Who Supported Her’: Amanda Seales Hits Back at VP Kamala Harris for Saying America Isn’t a Racist Country

Posted byBy Atahabih Germain | May 4, 2021 CommentsComments (0)

Those familiar with actress and social justice activist Amanda Seales, know she presents herself as having a zero-tolerance policy for minimizing topics on the well-being of Black and brown bodies in America. When it comes to the subject of racism, Seales’ tell-it-how-she-thinks-it-is approach applies to anyone regardless of status. 

So it came as no surprise that when Vice President Kamala Harris agreed with the only Black Republican in the Senate, Sen. Tim Scott‘s controversial viewpoint following President Joe Biden’s “first address to congress,” Seales had much to say. Following Biden’s speech on Wednesday, April 28, Scott claimed that “America was not a racist country,” setting some quarters of social media ablaze. 

(L-R) Amanda Seales and Kamala Harris. Photo by Leon Bennett/WireImage. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

“Ok! So, everybody on some bullsh-t. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool,” Seales began her fiery post she uploaded to her Instagram page on Saturday, May 1. “That was dumb and embarrassing and she embarrassed everyone who supported her.”

In the caption of the nearly 30-second clip, the “Insecure” star wrote, “Damn, Kamala. The paradoxical political pandering is TIRED and insulting to the constituency that supported you along with affirming the doubts of those that didn’t,” and added, “Please fix this ASAPtuously.”

During Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign run, Seales had often advocated for the candidate, using her social media platforms to encourage all her supporters to go out and vote despite the hesitancy many reserved for the now-vice president. Harris’ record as the top prosecutor in San Francisco and then California before being elected to the U.S. Senate from that state was one of the issues the Black community had with her as a presidential candidate. 

Still, Seales promoted Harris. The 39-year-old even once wrote on Twitter, “STOP SAYING KAMALA HARRIS IS JUST AS BAD DONAL TRUMP” in response to those who did not favor Harris. She added, “JUST STOP. SH-T IS NOT ACCURATE OR HELPFUL AND ANNOYING AF.”

Still, Seales’ remarks garnered mixed reactions from many. While some agreed with the actress and were equally stunned at Harris’ statement, many either condemned Seales’ critique of Harris or reiterated their anti-Harris beliefs. 

“What’s dumb and embarrassing, is a BW who claims to advocate for blackness, demeaning this BW based on a spliced 12 second clip.” They added, “If you knew a damn thing about our VP, you’d know she’s been among the loudest to speak on America’s “Achilles Heel”, it’s racism.” The user concluded her post by telling the former “The Real” host to “think next time.”

Sen. Tim Scott offered his thoughts last Wednesday as part of the Republican rebuttal to President Biden’s congressional address, with Scott stating: “Hear me clearly. America is not a racist country. It’s backward to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination and it’s wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present.”

The following day Harris was interviewed on “Good Morning America,” where she was asked whether she agreed with Scott’s statement. She replied, “No, I don’t think America is a racist country, but we also do have to speak truth to the history of racism in our country and its existence today.” The vice president faced harsh criticism following her statement.

When asked by Craig Melvin whether he too thought America was racist, the President Biden responded, “No, I don’t think the American people are racist. But I think after 400 years, African-Americans have been left in a position where they are so far behind the eight ball in terms of education, health in terms of opportunity.” He added, “I don’t think America is racist but I think the overhang from all of the Jim Crow — and before that, slavery — have had a cost.”