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Books by Marvin X
Love and War: Poems /
In the Crazy House Called America /
Woman: Man's Best Friend /
Beyond Religion Toward Spirituality
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Marvin X and Fresno State University
Forty Years Later
By Marvin X
In 1969 Marvin X.
Jackmon came home to lecture in black studies at Fresno
State College, now University. He had been living
underground in New York’s Harlem—actually he lived in
the Bronx but worked in Harlem at the New Lafayette
Theatre as associate editor of Black Theatre magazine.
He had come to Harlem via Chicago after living in
Toronto, Canada in self-imposed exile as a Vietnam War
resister. In Canada he published his first collection of
poetry, Sudan Rajuli Samia, 1967. Sudan Rajuli
Samia, Fly to Allah, poems, 1969, Son of
Man, proverbs, 1969, Flowers for the Trashman,
play, 1965, and the Parable of the Black Bird,
1968 are now recognized as seminal works of Muslim
American literature. Marvin X is considered the father
of this new genre of American literature.
While a student at
San Francisco State College, now University, the drama
department produced his first play, Flowers for the
Trashman, 1965. He was hired as a teaching assistant
by novelist Leo Litwak in the English/Creative writing
department. It was another novelist, John Gardner, who
took his play to the drama department.
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In 1966, Marvin X.
Jackmon, bored with academia, dropped out of college and
founded his own theatre in San Francisco’s Fillmore
district. His co-founder was playwright Ed Bullins.
Their actors included Danny Glover and Vonetta McGee.
Later Marvin would leave the theatre, Black Arts West,
and establish the political/cultural center known as
Black House, along with Ed Bullins, Ethna Wyatt and
Eldridge Cleaver. Marvin introduced Eldridge Cleaver to
his friends from Oakland’s Merritt College, Bobby Seale
and Huey P. Newton, co-founders of the Black Panther
Party. See his play
Salaam, Huey Newton, Salaam, recently performed in New York at the New
Federal Theatre. |
When Marvin dropped
out of college, he lost his college deferment and was
drafted but refused to serve, saying no Viet Cong called
him a nigguh. (See his court speech, Black Scholar
magazine, circa 1970.) Muhammad Ali made the same
assertion and went to prison. Not only did Marvin resist
the draft but resisted arrest by going to Canada, in the
tradition of his ancestors who fled there to escape
slavery. After six months he returned underground to the
United States, 1967.
Although wanted by
the FBI, in Chicago and Harlem, he associated with
artists who were establishing the Black Arts Movement
(BAM), the most radical literary and artistic movement
in American history. Its esthetics was grounded in Black
Nationalism and Islam, especially the teachings of
Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X.
Chicago associates
included Gwen Brooks, Hoyt Fuller, Carolyn Rogers and
Don L. Lee. When he left Chicago after the assassination
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his Harlem comrades were
Askia Touré,
Amiri Baraka,
Ed Bullins, Nikki Giovanni,
The Last Poets,
Sonia Sanchez and
Sun Ra. (See
The Black
Arts Movement by James Smethurst, University of
North Carolina Press. Also Somethin’ Proper, the
autobiography of Marvin X. Jackmon, Black Bird Press,
Castro Valley CA, 1998.)
Upon returning to
New York from a weekend in Montreal, Canada, Marvin X
was arrested at the border for resisting the draft. His
lawyer was famed civil rights attorney, Conrad Lynn.
Conrad got him out of jail pending trial in San
Francisco.
It was during this
time he received an invitation to teach from the Black
Studies Department at Fresno State University. He was
hired to lecture three classes: literature, journalism
and drama. Seventy students enrolled. And then it was
discovered he was on trial for draft evasion. Governor
Ronald Reagan got involved as president of the state
college board of trustees. Entering a board of trustees
meeting, Gov. Reagan said, “Get him off campus by any
means necessary. . . .”
The poet was
removed by court order and banned from entering the
campus. He continued teaching across the street at the
Christian Center. His students received A’s except an
uncle tom. The court ruled he was never hired. Students
protested, including a group from Los Angeles called the
United Black Students of California who issued a
statement saying, “We want Marvin X not in Vietnam, not
in jail, but on campus. . . .” The Los Angeles students
not only came to Fresno but attended his draft trial in
San Francisco as well. FSU students burned down the
computer center in protest. One student was found guilty
and sentenced to the California Youth Authority.
The Federal Court
found Marvin X guilty of draft evasion, but rather than
show up for sentencing, the poet fled into exile a
second time. This time he arrived in Mexico City at the
home of the revolutionary artist Elizabeth Cattlett
Mora.
In Mexico City he
married one of his FSU students, Barbara Hall, who
dropped out to join him in exile. Barbara is mother of
his daughters, Nefertiti and Amira. The couple soon left
Mexico City for Belize, Central America, against the
wisdom of revolutionary artist Elizabeth Catlett Mora,
who warned him Belize was still a colony of Great
Britain. After teaching black power to the natives, he
was eventually arrested for being a “Communist” and
deported back to America. The deportation order read,
“Your presence is not beneficial to the welfare of the
British Colony of Honduras.” He was taken to the police
station and told to sit down. Soon he was surrounded by
police begging him to teach them black power.
Recalling his
controversial tenure at FSU, retired police officer and
founder of the African American Museum, Jack Kelly, told
Marvin, “When you were fighting to teach at FSU, you
made things better for everyone, not just students.
Before you came black officers could not patrol the
white side of town.”
In recognition of
the forty year anniversary of his fight to teach at FSU,
Marvin X is willing to address the FSU student body and
the citizens of Fresno on this historical event. It is
doubtful many black or white students have knowledge of
what happened during those turbulent months of 1969.
Of course, it must
be seen in the context of other events on campuses
throughout America. At the same time Reagan was kicking
Marvin X out of FSU for his black Muslim beliefs, he was
removing Angela Davis from UCLA for her Communist party
connections.
San Francisco State
University is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the
BSU/Third World Strike to establish black and ethnic
studies. FSU should honor those faculty and students who
supported Marvin X’s right to teach Black studies.
Marvin X should be awarded compensation from the State
of California and the City of Fresno for suffering
racial discrimination. If he was unqualified to teach at
Fresno State, how was he qualified to teach at UC
Berkeley two years later with the same qualifications?
Marvin X has
published five books in the last five years:
In the Crazy House Called America,
essays, 2002,
Wish I Could Tell You the Truth,
essays, 2005,
Land
of My Daughters , poems, 2005,
Beyond Religion
toward Spirituality , essays, 2007,
How
to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy,
2007. How to Recover from White Supremacy is a
textbook in the English department at Berkeley City
College. The book is a manual based on the 12-step model
for recovery from addiction. Peer groups meet to process
trauma and unresolved grief as a result of addiction to
white supremacy.
The poet/playwright
recently visited New York to see the off-Broadway
production of his play Salaam, Huey Newton, Salaam,
produced at Woody King’s New Federal Theatre, along with
Amiri Baraka’s (LeRoi Jones) classic The Toilet.
Salaam is one scene from X’s full length
docudrama of his Crack addiction and recovery One Day
in the Life, the longest running African American
drama in northern California. The play was performed
before recovery groups coast to coast. It was funded by
the City of San Francisco, Marin County Board of
Supervisors and the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts
Commission.
He speaks at
colleges and universities coast to coast, e.g.,
University of Arkansas, University of Penn, University
of Mass, University of Virginia, Morehouse, Spellman,
Howard University, Medgar Evers College, UC Berkeley,
San Francisco State University and elsewhere. The
University of California, Berkeley, Bancroft Library
acquired his archives.
For more on Marvin X at
Fresno State University, check out the archives of Gov.
Ronald Reagan and FSU President Frederick Ness. Google
has ample entries for Marvin X. Visit his blog:
www.marvinxwrites..blogspot.com . Email him at:
jmarvinx@yahoo.com. His books are available from
Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA 94702,
$19.95 each. For speaking engagements, call
510-355-6339.
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|
Eldridge Cleaver: My Friend
the Devil
A Memoir by Marvin X
Coming soon |
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posted 21 December 2008 |
