Part 28: My Friend the Devil

Marvin X

As a result of the rally and a press release I sent out demanding five million dollars for the family of Melvin Black, the NAACP lawyer, Nathaniel Calley demanded a million dollars for the family, but since he was an associate of Mayor Lionel Wilson, moved to have the venue changed from Oakland to Sacramento where the case was buried until the statue of limitations almost ran out. The Melvin Black family contacted me to rev up the case so I did a PR campaign on their behalf, putting the case back in the news after Nathaniel Calley purposely buried it at the compliance of the the Mayor in a black bourgeoisie conspiracy against the grass roots people of Oakland.

But I had an agreement with Mustafa and the Black family that I would receive a commission for my efforts at getting a just compensation for the family. When they hired a new lawyer, he eventually was able to get an $800,000 law suit against the City of Oakland. The family gave me nothing for my effort although I did not pressure them for anything. Never the less when they won their suit I did not receive a thank you note or a chicken wing dinner. I did not press the issue since I saw the family was ignorant and had no sense of how to compensate someone who had helped them win a nearly million dollar law suit. If fact, Mustafa and his family hated me for helping them in their hour of need. This only showed my Mom was right when she told me to leave nigguhs alone, that they were only using my mind. Mustafa and I nearly had a shootout at his house in the projects on Union Street across the street from Acorn Projects. Eldridge had to intervene between us to stop us from violence.

This revealed to me that you simply cannot help some people because of their ignorance, envy and jealousy. They will actually hate you for helping them. But no matter the Black family had won their lawsuit after my energy and effort and that of other community brothers and sisters. They took the money and ran into their darkness. The mother bought a condo by Lake Merritt and she gave each of her children ten thousand dollars which several of them spent on Crack.

My mother said I deserved something for my efforts in their behalf but I let it go and Allah continued to bless me in ways that I didn't need anything from the Black family. As the Qur'an says, "Leave them alone in their inordinancy, blindly wandering on." And it says further, "We feed you for Allah's pleasure, we desire from you neither reward nor thanks."