The Story Behind Kwame Ture’s Last Fireside Chat at Howard University

By Jonathan Hutto Sr., former HUSA president and Undergraduate Trustee

- Kwame Ture speaking to a packed audience of mostly Howard University students at Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel February 17th, 1998.

My connection to the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) began in June 1997. I had recently been elected President of the Howard University Student Association (HUSA) on the theme of “IT’S NATION TIME!” inspired by the late Imamu Amiri Baraka who attended Howard University in the mid-late 1950’s. His son, Ras, is Mayor of Newark, New Jersey today (Ras was instrumental to the 1989 Shutdown of the University captured in “We are Worth Fighting For” by Dr. Josh Myers of the Africana Studies Department). The theme was the cornerstone of the 1972 Black Political Convention which inspired me Freshman year as I watched PBS “Eyes on the Prize” in the Video Room within the Undergraduate Library.

It’s important to note the A-APRP because one cannot seriously discuss and study the life of Kwame Ture absent understanding his deep devotion [and] commitment to advocating and fighting from within an organization of committed persons. Whether it was his undergraduate days at Howard from the base of the Non-Violent Action Group (NAG), or from the base of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in his early to mid-20’s, Kwame Ture always labored from within the base of an organization. I was introduced to his comrades in D.C. by Haki Halisi, the 1997 Homecoming Chair and my Graduate Assistant from Charles Drew Hall freshman year. The two A-APRP comrades I was introduced to were Bob Brown and Banbose Shango. Bob is credited with being a principal founder of the Chicago Chapter of the Black Panther Party: the chapter giving rise to the late Revolutionary martyr Fred Hampton.

My relationship to Bob was pivotal and life changing. It was Bob who inspired me to attend the World Festival of Youth and Students that summer taking place in Havana, Cuba from late July until early August. This festival brought together thousands of the most progressive revolutionary youth from throughout the world. I attended representing HUSA along with the Political Director Nik Eames — a former SGA VP out of Tuskegee University in the early 1990’s — and a key mentor-trainer of me on the yard. It was in Cuba [that] I met and [held] fellowship with Assata Shakur and other veterans of the Black Liberation Struggle that had obtained asylum away from the dragnet of US Imperialism. Fast forward to January 1998 — I had completed a semester as HUSA President (a very successful one) and was embarking on a campaign for Undergraduate Trustee. It was early January when Banbose Shango presented HUSA with the opportunity of hosting Kwame Ture on the campus in the month of February. I was very moved and elated at the opportunity — all of us within the Movement sphere knew Kwame Ture was struggling with prostate cancer. The general feeling was this would be Kwame’s last lap within the United States before finally going “Home” to Conakry, Guinea.

- Howard University Student Association President Jonathan W. Hutto speaking with Kwame Ture shortly before his last Fireside Chat at his Alma-Mater via Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel February 17th, 1998.

We moved expeditiously by first executing a contract with the A-APRP (Honorarium of $5000.00 paid directly to the A-APRP) along with reserving Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel, through Dean Bernard Richardson, slated for February 17th, 1998. The publicity for the event covered the entire gamut (before social media) which included 10,000 plus flyers on the campus (one in every Dormitory student’s mailbox), ads in The Hilltop along with letters to key faculty members. We also made the program a broad campus wide event, solidifying co-sponsorship from the International Student Association (ISA), the African Student Association (ASA) and the Undergraduate Student Assembly (UGSA).

Bob Brown was instrumental in helping me craft an introduction of Kwame that would encompass the full breadth of his political and social family, including those students of a religious persuasion being that the event was taking place in the chapel. The theme for the program was “Two Generations of African Students on the Frontlines of the African Revolution.” We also titled the Program a “Homecoming: at the Mecca.” It was Bob who pushed me to broaden the understanding of what we meant by “Home.” Within the introduction, there was a rousing applause when I stated, “We the leadership of the Howard Student Body are honored to take our place among a host of student leadership and administrations over the past thirty years, to welcome Kwame home. We know that to some people home is heaven, and that to others Africa — Guinea is his [Kwame’s] home, but Howard University is and will always be Kwame’s Home away from Home.”

- The Howard University Student Association (HUSA) Executive Leadership for 1997–98 (President Jonathan W. Hutto and Vice-President Shawn Harvey) sitting with Kwame Ture at a Student Reception after his last Fireside Chat at the Mecca — via Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel on February 17th, 1998.

Early on in his Fireside Chat, Kwame educated our generation of Howard students to the history of Rankin Chapel hosting student activist-organizing meetings when other areas of the University were closed. Kwame then went on to hit on dictums that are permanently interwoven within my Organizing DNA. One of those dictums encompasses a story he relates on an exchange with a “Reactionary” Professor upon his graduation from Howard in 1964. This Professor questioned Kwame’s practicality on going to Mississippi with “those SNCC People.” In the exchange, Kwame reiterates his total faith in the people because he would be giving his all to the people’s struggle. Based on his ground experiences in Mississippi, he tells a packed Rankin Chapel to a Thunderous applause, “That once you fight for the people, the people will always fight to protect you, but your fight must be honest, dignified, with integrity and without no compromise at all.”

It was two months after the Howard University program that on behalf of HUSA, I attended a testimonial dinner in DC for our Dear Brother [Kwame] hosted by his Movement comrades ranging the Ideological spectrum from SNCC to the A-APRP. On the dais that night alongside Brother Kwame were all the Chairmen of SNCC including the Founding Chair and DC Mayor Marion Barry, Congressman John Lewis, Chuck McDew and Imam Jamil El-Amin (Rap Brown). Also on the dais that night was Nation of Islam (NOI) Leader Minister Louis Farrakhan. This would be the night Kwame made his Final Plea to everyone gathered to Build an African-Black United Front:

User Clip: Kwame Ture calling for an African-Black United Front as his Final Plea to his SNCC and… To his Movement Family which included all the Chairpersons of SNCC on the stage-the late DC Mayor Marion Barry, the… www.c-span.org

It was during this same time that by a 59% vote the Undergraduate Student Body selected me to serve as the incoming Undergraduate Trustee. That summer in the month of July, myself, along with the newly elected HUSA President Neville Welch of Guyana, his Chief of Staff Esigie Aguele of Nigeria and Howard University Dean of Housing Bill “Damani” Keene traveled to New York City together to visit Brother Kwame weeks before he departed the United States for his final trip back to Conakry, Guinea. The seed for commemorating Brother Kwame was first planted in my heart and mind by DC Mayor Marion Barry, who had recently decided not to seek re-election and was on his way out of public office. The previous year as the HUSA President, in collaboration with Kwame and Marion’s SNCC comrade the late Lawrence Guyot of LeDroit Park, we successfully led a Struggle on campus to prevent the privatization of the internal streets within Howard University-known as the Howard University Street Privatization Act-documented by Howard University student journalist Ta-Nehesi Coates within the Washington City Paper:

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/280777/cul-de-sacking-the-community/?fbclid=IwAR0UXW%20ah3i6y4GqXofGYI37m6FhNUZcFbFlp1VTbXKCIGxh-Bh_AUeWSoUo

Marion, still believing I was Student Body President, called me in September 1998 seeking the endorsement of the Student Government to rename 6th Street on Howard University’s campus “Kwame Ture Place.” Upon alerting Marion that I was no longer in Student Government but on Howard University’s Board, I immediately alerted HUSA President Neville Welch of Marion’s intentions and what he desired of Howard University’s SGA. Within the midst of these interactions, I recall a brief conversation with Howard University President H. Patrick Swyget who expressed serious reservations about the idea. Post my conversation with Swygert, Marion alerted me that the SGA did not want to endorse the idea. It was at this moment I began to feel a burning desire and fire within to ensure a proper commemoration of Kwame Ture from his Alma-Mater.

— Kwame Ture speaking to a packed audience of mostly Howard University students at Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel on February 17, 1998.

That fire within moved towards action a month later in early October upon reading a salute to Brother Kwame within “The Final Call” Newspaper from Conrad Worrill of the National Black United Front. It was evident upon reading Worrill’s piece that our Brother had a short time left among the living. My internal voice said to me, “Jonathan, you’re a Trustee of the University, recommend our Dear Brother for an Honorary Degree.” The date was October 23rd,1998 as I began to type out a letter recommending Kwame Ture for an Honorary Doctorate Degree on my desktop. Upon completing the draft I sent it to the late Dr. Mary Rhodes Hoover within the School of Education to proofread it. Once Mary gave me her blessing, the next day I submitted the letter to Board Chairman Frank Savage via the Office of the Secretary (I remember putting it in the hands of Howard Alumnus Lawanda Blanchard). It would be three weeks later on November 15th that Kwame Ture transitioned from this life. Aprill O. Turner of Clearwater Florida, previous Press Relations Director for HUSA the year prior, wrote the Front-Page story for The Hilltop titled “The Revolutionary.” Aprill’s piece made it evident we had successfully introduced and inculcated a new generation of Howard University students to the life and legacy of Kwame Ture and the struggles he gave his life for (Civil Rights-Black Power-Pan-Africanism).

- Aprill O. Turner’s front page editorial commemorating the life of Kwame Ture, entitled “The Revolutionary”

That next semester in the month of February the University announced the Charter Day Alumni Achievement Award recipients, among them Sean “Puffy” Combs of Bad Boy Records. The awarding of Combs raised eyebrows across the campus including my own given we had not heard any official communication from the Board as to the awarding of Brother Kwame. It was at this point I decided to go public within “The Hilltop” newspaper on our efforts to honor both Brother Kwame and James Farmer of The Congress of Racial Equality (recommended by Graduate Trustee Randy Short). The title of the perspective piece I wrote was “Is it all about the Benjamins?” inspired by a hit song released by Combs and his record label. Randy leveraged his relationship with the late Simeon Booker of Jet Magazine to alert the broader Black Public on our efforts to honor Ture and Farmer. That next month, we received communication via the Office of the Secretary that the Executive Committee of the Board had approved Honorary Degrees Posthumously for Kwame Ture and James Farmer. For Kwame, it would be his 2nd Honorary Degree, the first coming from Shaw University in 1971. For Farmer it would be his 26th and last being that he transitioned from this life in August two months after the 1999 Commencement.

One of the highlights of my Board and Howard experience was being able to fellowship with the Mother of Kwame Ture, Mae Charles Carmichael, at a Board Dinner for the Honorary Degree recipients shortly before Commencement. It was at this time that Bob Brown announced the formation of the Kwame Ture Work Study Institute and Library to be located in Conakry Guinea. The vision for the library was to be a repository of Kwame’s works for present and future generations of Youth and Students endeavoring to carry on the Struggle inspired by the Pan-African vision of Kwame Nkrumah and Sekou Ture which ignited Kwame Ture in the late 1960’s.

- Undergraduate Trustee Jonathan W. Hutto pictured with Mae Charles Carmichael, mother of Kwame Ture, along with her daughter and granddaughter including Bob Brown of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) at a Howard University Board of Trustees Dinner honoring Honorary Degree recipients for Commencement 1999. Mae Charles Carmichael accepted the Honorary Degree on behalf of her son and all humanity posthumously.In support of Bob’s vision, Graduate Trustee Randy Short and I held a fundraiser for the Work Study Institute at New Bethel Baptist Church in NW DC hosted by Rev. Walter Fauntroy. Bokar Ture — the biological son of Kwame Ture — carries on that mission today through the Kwame Ture Foundation.

https://dh.howard.edu/hilltop_902000/208/ — Front Page-Kwame Ture Homecoming at the Mecca (February 20th 1998) https://dh.howard.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1227&context=hilltop_902000 -Front Page and Editorial Commemoration of Kwame Ture’s Transition from this Life (November 20th 1998) https://dh.howard.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1234&context=hilltop_902000 — Front Page Activists to receive Honorary Degrees (April 2nd 1999) https://dh.howard.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1238&context=hilltop_902000- Front Page-Farmer and Ture to be Honored (May 8th 1999-Commencement Issue)

J. Hutto, Sr. HUSA President (1997–98) Undergraduate Trustee (1998–99) BA 1999