Below is an email written to the team at Google responsible for choosing the Google doodles. It is a proposal to create a Google Doodle for the Red, Black and Green on August 13, 2020 to acknowledge the 100th anniversary of the RBG aka #RBG100.
Hello,
My name is Nnamdi Azikiwe. I am the President and CEO of the Mhotep Corporation. I just read the story of Marsha P. Johnson because of her doodle. When I came to the statement on the page for her doodle that reads:
“Thank you, Marsha P. Johnson, for inspiring people everywhere to stand up for the freedom to be themselves.”
It inspired me to write and propose a Google doodle for the 100th anniversary of the Red, Black and Green on August 13, 2020.
During the 1990s I joined the organization known as the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The organization is most notable for its first President-General, Marcus Garvey. Afterwards, I studied its constitution, read the book Race First by Dr Tony Martin in addition to the Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey. Furthermore, I have read every issue of the Negro World on Microfilm and digitally that I could find.
After joining the UNIA, a friend of mine asked me to come to the school where she worked as a teacher’s aide and tell her students the history of our flag, the Red, Black and Green. Since then I have had numerous opportunities to share the history of our flag and its origins with others. August 13, 2020 will begin the 100th year since the signing of the Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World in Madison Square Garden. Declaration 39 reads:
“That the colors, Red, Black and Green, be the colors of the Negro race.”
The Signing of the declaration represented a community of people courageous enough to “stand up for the freedom to be themselves” at a time when African Americans were subject to be lynched at any moment for any reason or no reason. Reading the Declaration today is an education as to how far we have come. It also shows the potential for where we can go when we let go of limitations.
In 2011 I distributed a documentary on Youtube telling most of the history of the RBG entitled “This Flag of Mine: The First 100 Years of Red, Black and Green.” Since 2015 The Mhotep Corporation has encouraged wearing Red, Black and Green on August 13 to send a message of hope, make a statement of global unity, and demonstrate mental emancipation.
The mental emancipation aspect is particularly notable. Garvey is the source for the well known song lyric by Bob Marley “emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.” In October 1937 during a speech entitled “The Work That Has Been Done” at Menelik Hall in Sydney, Nova Scotia Garvey said, “we are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, for though others may free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is our only ruler; sovereign.” The Black Man Magazine where that statement appears was republished by the Kraus-Thomson Organization in 1975.
Simply put, I am on a mission to see people become “Emancipated From Mental Slavery.” Google recognizing the milestone of the 100th anniversary of the Red, Black and Green signifies progress has been made since the Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World was signed on August 13, 1920. That progress is real and the degree of mental emancipation Garvey prophesied is rapidly approaching.
Sincerely,
Nnamdi Azikiwe
