Min. Suhkara Yahweh ‘Stood Up for all Injustices’

 

Min. Suhkara A. Yahweh, formerly known as Lance “Sweet 
Willie Wine” Watson, sat for an interview in 2019 for a story 
about his life’s work. (Photo by Wiley Henry)

MEMPHIS, TN – On Aug. 26, 1969, an angry white mob in Forrest City, Ark., tried to beat the life out of Min. Suhkara A. Yahweh while leading a peaceful “Walk Against Fear” from West Memphis to Little Rock, Ark.

He told the story many times and marked the 50^th anniversary of his near-death experience after returning to Forrest City to keynote a Civil Rights Commemoration Program on Aug. 17, 2019.

Yahweh died March 25 at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis after a brief illness. He was 84. 

Wherever there was injustice and racial upheaval, Yahweh was there in the thick of it during the Civil Rights Movement and beyond. Though age had slowed his pace in recent years, he was still active as much as he could. 

Min. Patricia Lee, an author, publisher, activist, and caregiver, said she was one of the last persons to visit Yahweh, who was known at the onset of his freedom fighting days as Lance “Sweet Willie Wine” Watson. 

Yahweh had billed himself as a civil rights and human rights activist, and a political and social engineer. According to his vitae, he’d worked with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Fannie Lou Hammer, Stokely Carmichael, Andrew Young, and other activists and trailblazers.

“The hospital called me to let me know that someone needed to be at the hospital. That was on March 25,” said Lee, who’d taken food to Yahweh earlier that day. Later that evening, she got the dreaded call.

Lee had known Yahweh for nine years. They penned a book together entitled “The Progression of a Man: The Man, the Mission and the Legacy.” Published in 2021, the book highlights Yahweh’s life’s work as a freedom fighter.

“I’m just glad to be acquainted with such a giant and legend,” said Lee, who was often seen accompanying Yahweh to events. “I’m so glad to be under his tutelage, even though I wasn’t the best student.” 

Lee said Yahweh was the epitome of love and unity. “He had a great love for humanity and for the people.”

Dr. Coby Smith agreed and added: “He was incomparable as an organizer. He brought a lot of talent and people to the movement. He had a unique talent. That energy was with him to the end.”

Smith is a noted activist, educator, and co-founder of The Invaders, a local 1960s militant civil rights group. He first met Yahweh when he was in grade school and Yahweh was in high school at Manassas in the late 1950s. 

Yahweh once served time in prison and changed his life after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Smith noted. Yahweh assumed the leadership of The Invaders in 1969 when he was 31 years old.

“Min. Suhkara was committed to change and wasn’t afraid to tell anybody about it,” Smith said. “People benefited from his intellect and energy. There were a lot of people who were important in the movement, who got their information from Min. Suhkara.”

He said Memphis should be indebted to Yahweh.

Jabril Jabez was at Carnes Elementary School when he first met Yahweh in North Memphis. Like Smith, he remembers Yahweh as a very good dancer. “Some of the guys would gather in front of the grocery store and dance,” he said.

After Jabez was discharged from the military in 1968, he returned to Memphis and eventually joined The Invaders. He met Smith and became reacquainted with Yahweh “when the group got kind of unraveled.”

The Invaders leadership was basically in jail, he said. Yahweh, however, “was out front” and fearless. “He was a big brother to me,” Jabez said.

Yahweh was out-front, for example, when he maintained security and assisted in building Resurrection City in Washington D.C., and the success of the “Poor People’s Campaign” of 1968.

When he assisted the LeMoyne-Owen Student Government in taking over the college in 1970.

When he marched from Memphis to Jackson, Miss., to support then-Ambassador Andrew Young after he was forced to resign for talking with Chairman Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

When he marched in Tupelo, Miss., after a Black man was hung after it was reported that the man had hung himself while his hands were bound behind his back.

Yahweh was essentially out-front during a plethora of demonstrations, marches, and protests throughout the years. 

“This was a man who knew no boundaries,” Smith said.

“He stood up for all injustices,” Lee added.

Said Yahweh to a reporter in 2019: “My fingerprints are all over Memphis, Atlanta, Mississippi, Jackson, Carolina, Washington, D.C.”

Min. Yahweh’s wake is Friday, April 7, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Superior Funeral Home, 460 E. McLemore. The funeral is Saturday, April 8 at 11 a.m., at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, 491 E. McLemore.  

Meeting to Discuss a Third Political Party Draws Scant Support for Now

Dr. Carnita Atwater tries to drum up support for a third political party
that she's calling The People's Party. (Photo by Wiley Henry)

MEMPHIS, TN – Candidates vying for the office of Memphis mayor, city court clerk and all 13 city council districts will stump for votes leading up to the Memphis Municipal Election on Oct. 5.

Dr. Carnita Atwater, however, is miffed with the election process and the two-party system. On March 5, she organized a “political consortium” at The Kukutanna African American History and Cultural Museum in North Memphis to discuss “the root issues of our democracy.”

Much to Atwater’s chagrin, the consortium drew a sparse crowd of 30 people to the first public meeting to discuss the mechanics of legitimizing a third political party that she’s temporarily calling “The People’s Party.” 

“I invited whites, Blacks, Jews and Hispanics. Why didn’t they come?” Atwater asked those in attendance listening intently as she expounded on the need to introduce a third party.

“My own political party did not embrace me when I ran for governor,” said Atwater, who loss the Democratic primary last year. “I learned that we have a problem in our political party. So, we have to write our own narrative.”

Atwater said the idea of launching a new political party was birthed a year ago with at least 25 founding members that she would not name. She’s keeping the names a secret for now.

Because The People’s Party is still in its infancy stage, Atwater urged anyone who is disenchanted with the two-party system to help her build the organization. She plans to have it up and running nationally within six months. 

“If you’re tired of the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the Libertarian Party, or the Green Party, come on,” she beckoned. “We’re going to embrace you. We’re going to be a political party with integrity.”

The party will also be identified by its mascot – a rooster. “Roosters are the forgotten animals, like the poor people, the LGBTQ people, the transgender people,” Atwater said. “They have thrown these people away.”

Atwater said no one political party should dictate who is important. “Our party will invest in every citizen,” she said, and stressed that PAC (Political Action Committee) money will not be accepted. 

Dorothy Cooper commended Atwater on implementing an “excellent idea.” 

“It’s outstanding – the layout. But it’s a lot of work,” said Cooper, president of the NAACP in Crittenden County, Ark., and the former mayor of Turrell, a city in Arkansas, also in Crittenden County.

“I’ve always loved a challenge,” Atwater replied.

In her take on the emergence of a new political party, Reasal Catron said accountability is very important to her. “Your word is your bond,” she added. “Politicians need to be accountable.”

A prophetess and advocate for domestic violence victims and inmates that she opines are unfairly treated in the penal system, Catron said she’s not seeing the work from politicians. 

“Don’t tell me about what you’ve done, tell me what you’re doing now,” she said.

Catron is simply disillusioned with politicians and reluctant to vote for them unless they earn her vote.

“If someone wants me to come out of my house and wants me to vote for them, I want to see change,” she said. “We need representation all over.”

Atwater said if people believe in the message espoused by politicians, “they will vote for you.” 

She pointed to the more than 56,000 votes that she amassed in the gubernatorial primary as proof that her message about homelessness, poverty, and economic disparities resonated with voters.

Ann Yates added: “People will vote if they feel like they belong.”

A longtime business owner, Yates said the two parties have forgotten about people. “They don’t go into the neighborhoods and talk to people,” she said.

Atwater said “the people” will select the candidate instead of the party. 

She loathed the number of candidates who joined this year’s Memphis mayoral race as an example that too many contenders can thwart opportunities for the best candidate to win. 

“There should be a consensus candidate,” she said.