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Far-left “Squad” member Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., honored a radical Black activist and convicted murderer throughout a particular mission at a New York City middle faculty whereas serving as its principal earlier than being elected to Congress, in accordance with a YouTube video reviewed by Fox News Digital.
A 2014 video centered on Cornerstone Academy for Social Action Middle School’s (CASA) then-“Wall of Action” mission exhibits Bowman praising numerous historic Black and Latino figures being honored on the wall, together with Assata Shakur, who was convicted within the 1973 killing of a New Jersey state trooper. Bowman referred to the folks on the wall as “tremendous, tremendous figures.”
Shakur, whose actual identify is JoAnne Chesimard, was a member of the Black nationalist group Black Liberation Army and was serving a life sentence for the deadly taking pictures of the officer earlier than escaping from jail in 1979 with the assistance of Mutulu Shakur, one other radical Black activist praised by Bowman within the video. She fled to Cuba, the place she stays a needed home terrorist in the present day.
Radical Black liberation activist and convicted murderer Assata Shakur and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y. (Getty Images)
“Each and every member of the Wall of Honor has played a major role in moving our society from a bigoted, oppressive existence toward a world of freedom, justice and equality,” Bowman, who was the founder of the varsity and served as its principal till 2019, stated within the video, which was first reported on by the Huffington Post, earlier than naming numerous different less-controversial figures alongside each Shakurs, like former President Barack Obama and Booker T. Washington.
Mutulu Shakur was later convicted of armed theft and of aiding Assata Shakur in her escape from jail. He died final 12 months after being launched from jail round eight months earlier attributable to his worsening well being.
In addition to the Shakurs, who will not be associated, the wall included former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., a recognized antisemite and promoter of conspiracy theories, resembling that Jews had been accountable for the September 11 terrorist assaults.
JoAnn Chesimard, aka Assata Shakur, holding the manuscript of her autobiography with Old Havana, Cuba, within the background on October 7, 1987. (Ozier Muhammad/Newsday RM through Getty Images)
The video additionally included footage of hip hop artist Chuck D of Public Enemy, whom Bowman known as a “legendary hip hop artist and one of the pillars of the hip hop movement and hip hop culture,” visiting CASA. Chuck D has a lengthy historical past of praising infamous antisemite Louis Farrakhan on his X (previously often called Twitter) account. In 2020, he referred to a conservative declaring his Farrakhan ties as “roaches.”
In one other video from 2013 additionally talked about in HuffPost’s report, Bowman is seen discussing a career-development occasion being held on the faculty, however he has Assata’s 1988 ebook, “Assata: An Autobiography,” visibly positioned on the desk in entrance of him.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Bowman’s workplace for remark.
According to HuffPost, a spokesperson for Bowman advised the outlet, “It is correct that many leaders in the Black liberation movement, from Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X to the names listed in this story, have complicated biographies.”
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“It is completely baseless, and a rhetorical tool of the far-right, to insinuate educating students on major figures of Black American history is serving to promote hateful or divisive rhetoric or actions,” they added.
Fox News’ Stephen Sorace and Andrew Murray contributed to this report.
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