SCAN Salutes: The Students of Prairie View A&M University

The Secret Council of American Negroes salutes the students of Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, TX for holding one of the most relevant and inspiring marches for the cause of civil rights in recent memory.

This was a refreshing change as SCAN is often disappointed by the misuse and abuse of one of the most sacred protest techniques used by American Negroes. The march was once sacred, an effective tool of black resistance through non-violent, peaceful means. The March on Washington, the marches that spawned by Bloody Sunday and lead to the March from Selma to Montgomery, and numerous less publicized, but equally legitimate ones, all were courageous and mature acts of protest that had specific results in mind.


But, of course, times changed and all sorts of folks started using the symbolic statement of the march to further their own less well thought out goals. Who can forget (or remember?) these “marches”:

• Rev. Al Sharpton’s March for Decency in Hip-Hop (because the lyrics are too dirty)
• Rev. Jesse Jackson’s March on Hollywood (just because)
• 50 Cent’s March for Dirtier Lyrics at an Atlanta Strip Club (which was actually pretty well attended)
• Poochie Williams’ March against it being too hot in Alabama every July (shortened due to the heat)

In any case, a big SCAN salute to the students of Prairie View A&M University. There is no more important civil rights issue than what concerns the right to vote. And there is no more effective tool than the march to shine a bright light on real bigotry and injustice wherever it lurks.

Submitted by Chicago operative The Blue