Malcolm X Day San Francisco – to make his birthday an official holiday

Celebrate Malcolm X Day San Francisco on Sunday, May 17, 1-4 p.m., at Kenneth Harding Plaza, Third and Palou, Bayview Hunters Point

Malcolm X Day San Francisco is part of a national effort to declare May 19, the birthday of Malcolm X – El Hajj Malik El Shabazz – an official holiday.

Malcolm-X-headshot-web-214x300, Malcolm X Day San Francisco – to make his birthday an official holiday, Culture Currents
Malcolm X

Malcolm X Day will be celebrated in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point District on Sunday, May 17, with free outdoor music and guest speakers. Performers include local rappers and poets Selassie, Talia Monet, Jabari Shaw and Ras Ceylon.

Community restaurants will serve free food. The event is dedicated to raising awareness of and seeking solutions for current challenges faced by San Francisco residents – gentrification, unemployment, poverty, racist discrimination and police brutality – in the context of the ideology and principles of Malcolm X.

Malcolm X Day San Francisco celebrates the life, work, ideology and leadership of a man whose relevance to American society remains as powerful and important today as it was during his lifetime. His acute intelligence, personal integrity and search for truth and justice transformed him from a young, disadvantaged boy to Harlem criminal to prisoner, from dynamic Nation of Islam minister to a powerful global human rights leader.

He strove unceasingly and uncompromisingly to gain unity, self-respect and self-determination for all Afrikan Black peoples of the world and believed in achieving Black freedom BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. His life and work can be an inspiration to all of us regardless of race, religion or economic status.

May 19, National Malcolm X Day, seeks to restore his true ideology and principles and to challenge the willfully wrong “violent white hate” message propagated by the white power structure that purposely excludes him from the American education system and mainstream culture. Just as the work of Martin Luther King Jr. has been distorted to represent a pacifistic acceptance of state and societal brutality and oppression, the work of Malcolm X has been wrongfully relegated to a dusty FBI file cabinet marked “hate groups.”

These distortions and the government’s assignation of an official day of “peace” – Martin Luther King Jr. Day – are designed to further the power structure’s agenda of oppression and exploitation of people of color.

The event is dedicated to raising awareness of and seeking solutions for current challenges faced by San Francisco residents – gentrification, unemployment, poverty, racist discrimination and police brutality – in the context of the ideology and principles of Malcolm X.

Unlike the official National MLK Day, which has been reduced to a token celebration by government institutions, Malcolm X Day reflects a true and powerful message that unifies and strengthens all oppressed people in the United States. It is a day of deep meaning and social empowerment that celebrates Brother Malcolm’s vision, work and legacy. In honoring Our Shining Black Prince, we honor the best in ourselves.

Please show your support for Malcolm X Day San Francisco by joining us at our May 17 public event from 1:00 to 4:00 at Kenneth Harding Plaza, Third Street and Palou. That Sunday afternoon will be one of several Bay Area weekend events honoring Malcolm X, dedicated to raising awareness for the national call-out on the following Tuesday, May 19, Malcolm X Day: No School! No Work! Buy Black!

Local businesses are encouraged to support this event. Current supporters include JJ’s Fish, The Roadhouse, Krispy Krunchy Chicken and The African Outlet.

Organizers are Bilal Mafundi Ali, Sylvia Rorem, and Mesha Irizarry and Jeremy Miller of the Idriss Stelly Foundation. Connect with us on our Malcolm X Day San Francisco page on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/events/371319149705588/, or call Bilal Ali at 415-860-3921 for more information.