| Viola Plummer stands strong for community self-determination |
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| by Amadi Ajamu | |
| Wednesday, 11 July 2007 | |
 These strong leaders in Brooklyn – attorney Roger Wareham, New York City Councilman Charles Barron, a former Black Panther, and Viola Plummer – are an inspiration to all who demand the right to community self-determination. At the risk of her job, Viola Plummer, chief of staff for Councilman Barron and chair of the December 12th Movement, is determined to rename a street in memory of Sonny Abubadika Carson. Carson was a Black Nationalist who led the struggle for community control of schools in the 1960s, co-founded Medgar Evers College and the December 12th Movement and formed the Committee to Honor Black Heroes, which had streets and schools named after Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey and Harriet Tubman, and he physically stopped the trucks which were about to destroy the area which became known as the African Burial Ground in downtown Manhattan. Wareham maintained that “Speaker Quinn has no authority, according to the New York City Charter or the Rules of the Council, to fire Ms. Plummer.” Wareham has charged Speaker Quinn with abuse of power, racial discrimination, violation of the First Amendment and violation of due process. Plummer is demanding $1,000,000 in damages. He made clear that “All of these issues will be addressed at trial.” What began as a routine street name change has snowballed into an historic saga in race relations in New York City. Two years ago the Black Men’s Movement, a constituent part of the December 12th Movement, which is chaired by Ms. Plummer, began a campaign to rename Gates Avenue to honor political activist and Black nationalist, Sonny Abubadika Carson. After obtaining thousands of signatures from community residents, business owners and churches, the organizers submitted their work to the Community Board, which approved it 39-1. The Board forwarded it to Councilman Albert Vann, who approved it and submitted it to the full NYC Council. The issue came to the attention of Council Speaker Quinn in April. Quinn then began a media assault on Sonny Carson and vowed to take his name out of the package of over 50 street name changes awaiting approval. Never before in the history of the New York City Council has an individual name been singled out for elimination. Although she had never met him personally, Quinn said that Carson was “divisive and anti-white.” Viola Plummer, on the other hand, had known and worked with Sonny for almost 50 years in the streets of Brooklyn and across NYC, fighting for the human rights of Black people.  Sonny Abubadika Carson Had all the Caucus members stood together, they would have won with 26 votes. One abstainer, Councilman Leroy Comrie, was deemed particularly offensive because he had agreed, in a previous BLAC meeting, to vote for the street name change. Later, news reports surfaced regarding remarks made by Viola Plummer after the contentious council meeting on the plaza outside of City Hall. She was said to have called for the assassination of Comrie’s political career. Comrie may be in the running for the office of Queens Borough president in 2009. After Quinn’s many calls, via the media, for an apology were unanswered, Quinn issued her suspension/ termination letter to Plummer. On Friday, outside of the U.S. District Court, Councilman Charles Barron declared, “Viola Plummer was hired by me and will continue to work for me. Tell Quinn to get the police, because we’re coming in.” Given the magnitude of Speaker Quinn’s apparently illegal and unprecedented attempt to fire a council member’s staff, the silence of the other council members is deafening. Amadi Ajamu can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
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