The+House+of+Umoja

Falaka and David Fattah have been an inspiration to the City of Philadelphia and people around the nation and the world for the past fifty years. They’ve been given awards many times for their amazing actions in Philadelphia; from helping out the community to taking in gang members and raising them into proud men. They thought it was important for the gang members to know their true African history and heritage, and what they were capable of doing for themselves and the world. The Fattahs achieved their goals by stopping gang violence in Philadelphia. Even now they are still activists and trying to make Philadelphia a safe environment for children. Queen Mother Falaka Fattah was a journalist who was originally named FrankeeDavenport. She wrote about the realness of Black people’s issues. In 1967 she wrote an article called “Hungry Children in Mississippi”. At that same time, when she was on Otis Reading’s bus publicizing his tour, the KKK stopped the bus. Thinking that Frankee Davenport was a man, they told all the men to get off the bus and take out their ID’s. The KKK was upset with the article Frankee Davenport wrote about poverty in Mississippi because they thought it was controversial. No one was hurt because they never thought that Frankee could be a woman’s name. When the bus started going, Frankee Davenport was really relieved because they couldn’t identify her and didn’t know that she was a woman. One year later, Frankee Davenport attended the third Black Power Conference in North Philadelphia, hosted by the Black People’s Unity Movement. The conference was about gaining power, control and respect, and focusing on Black awareness. The purpose of the conference was to unify Black Power movements from around the country. People came from all over to support the Black Power Conference, which gave an opportunity to enlighten Black minds. Dr. Walter Palmer and Father Paul Washington coordinated the 5,000 Black people at the conference into special workshops. Frankee Davenport was on the Communications Committee. The Committee decided that their purpose was to show a new image of Black people, because white reporters weren’t showing them as they really were. The committee asked Frankee Davenport to be the director of its 72 members. They decided to create the Umoja Magazine, which truthfully tells stories about African Americans. Every week the Communications Committee met at Frankee Davenport’s house to work on Umoja Magazine. The House of Umoja started as a publishing company to publish the magazine, which shows the realness of Black people’s lives. They needed money for the magazine, so they started the Black Arts festival at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church. Frankee Davenport asked for assistance for Umoja Magazine, and a student activist from Temple, David Waters, volunteered. David Waters started coming over to Frankee’s house frequently to help edit the magazine. One day he gave Frankee an article to edit, and went out to get coffee. She turned over a few pages, and then she found a blank page and it said “I love you-will you marry me?”. Then she wrote “Yes” in red editing pen. They started a new life together with Frankee’s six sons. After they were married they wanted to make sure they didn’t have slave names, so they changed their names to David and Falaka Fattah. The House of Umoja expanded after Falaka Fattah asked David Fattah to go out and do research on gang wars. People were sending letters to the Fattahs about gang violence. David hung out at bars, pool halls and funerals so he could find out about gangs. He started to realize how young and vulnerable gang members were. David and Falaka Fattah believed that Black males were an endangered species. When David went to talk to one of the gangs, he found out that Falaka’s son Robin was in a gang. He told Falaka, and she knew that she had to do something about it. She decided to invite Robin’s gang to live with them so they would stop killing, have more respect for other people and themselves, and have a second chance at life. In 1969 Falaka and David Fattah started bringing in other gang members into the House of Umoja. The Fattahs focused on changing the values of young Black men in gangs by teaching them about African history so that they could have a sense of who they were and the greatness they had within them. The Moon Gang was the most well known gang at the time. They had over 500 gang members and their territory was West Philadelphia. The House of Umoja was in their territory so they had a strong bond with them, and the Fattahs decided to make them the second gang they invited into their house. Then the Fattahs bought an entire block on Frazier Street in West Philadelphia. They called it Boys Town. It was designed to help adolescents in gangs. They decided to teach gang members about their heritage, and how they were capable of doing great things for themselves and the world. Boys Town was an inspiration and high value landmark for gang members and African Americans across Philadelphia. David Fattah wanted to show the boys at the House of Umoja that even though they were looked at as violent and irresponsible, they could do anything they put their minds to. He wanted to get them into the political process, and to get involved with accessing their right to vote. It was difficult to help get the boys enthusiastic about wanting to vote, especially because of the way they were looked at, and because there were few Black people running for office. David Fattah wanted the boys to see that some things aren’t what they seem and that they should fight for what they wanted through politics and the Constitution. Gang members learned from the Fattahs that they could work, through meetings and the political process, to figure out how they could make the community a better place. On January 1st, 1974, the House of Umoja had a twelve hour Gang Summit, where thirty two gangs signed the Imani pledge, which stated that they would stop gang violence. Their slogan was “No gang war in ‘74”. After the summit, gang related deaths went down from 45 people in 1973 to 5 people in 1979. Although the amount of killings went down, the gang members were still harassed by the police. The gang members decided to select a candidate to run for office so that the police harassment would stop. Even though their candidate didn’t win, a lot of what they did was effective and it showed them how to take matters into their own hands. In 1973, Russell Means, the leader of the American Indian Movement, sent a letter to Queen Mother Falaka Fattah requesting Black people to bear witness as to what the US Government was doing to the American Indians in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. He wrote to her because she was a Black journalist who told the truth. He wanted her to observe the 71 day siege by the government against the Indians at Wounded Knee, in Pine Ridge Reservation. So Falaka and David Fattah and Dr. Dwight Cambell flew to South Dakota. When they arrived they went to a café where they noticed men in uniforms. They found out they were US marshals, and asked them for directions to Wounded Knee. When they arrived at Pine Ridge Reservation, they were stopped by officials. When the officials saw Dr. Cambell’s vestments and collar they thought he was a Catholic priest. And when Falaka Fattah introduced herself as Sister Falaka Fattah, they thought she was a nun from a religious order. But David Fattah couldn’t go in. The officials saw his social security number and investigated his background. They saw in his background check that he was a radical activist and said he couldn’t go any further. But Sister Falaka persuaded them to let him pass because he was the only one who could drive, and they eventually let them go through. Once they arrived at Wounded Knee they asked the American Indians what was going on there. The Indians replied “Look at the earth”, which was scorched by gunfire. After over two months, Russell means surrendered. When the Fattahs came back from Wounded Knee they got backlash from the Black community because people thought they already had enough problems in their own community. So Falaka got invited to Father Paul Washington’s church so she could talk about Wounded Knee. Once she started the story, a whole lot of people got interested, so she decided to write an article. Five years after the siege at Wounded Knee, David Fattah helped another organization, called MOVE, with their seige. In 1978 MOVE, a religious back-to- nature group, was having trouble with police harassment. Neighbors were feeling exasperated by the MOVE family yelling through bullhorns and letting rats run around and infest their neighborhood of Powelton Village in West Philadelphia. The Move people were free spirited and they thought that every living thing should die by natural causes. The police took the neighborhood complaints too far, and started to harass MOVE. They would arrest them for the slightest mistake. David Fattah and other City fathers met with City Council to get MOVE members out of jail. Soon after, Move was invited to a farm in Virginia.. After they moved there, Move members realized they were being treated like their slave ancestors because the owners of the farm made them work for free. When they came back to Powelton Village, the problem progressed, so another place in the country was found for them. Before the Move family even moved to their new location they were accused of being terrorists and they were immediately uninvited. They stayed on Powelton Avenue and built a barricade against Mayor Frank Rizzo’s police force**//.//** His police force surrounded the barricade so that food and water could not get through. At that time, Queen Mother and gang members were having a discussion about how no one has the right to take a life. The gang members had seen on the news that police with guns were surrounding the Move House. They thought the City was starving Move to death, which is taking someone’s life. So they decided to bring the Move family food and water. When Move saw the Fattahs and the gang members coming, they moved the barricade for them. The blockade lasted three weeks. On August 8, 1978, the police force shot up the Move House. The Move people were in the basement. A police officer was killed, and nine MOVE members were arrested and were sentenced to 30 to 100 year in prison, even though there were no weapons charges. Frank Rizzo and the police force were told by the courts not to demolish the Move House because it was a crime scene. They destroyed it anyway, and now the evidence was missing. The shootout and the imprisonment of fellow Move family members led to the protesting by Move on Osage Avenue, which led to the bombing of Move headquarters. Only two Move members escaped with their lives. In 1979, Falaka and David Fattah decide to remodel Boys Town. They based the House of Umojas’ design and philosophy on the ancient city of Jenne.. Most of the knowledge the Fattahs got was from Dr. Ed Robinson’s study on the Songhai Empire. That’s where they found out about the architecture and meaning of Jenne. Jenne was located in Mali, and was part of the Songhai Empire. It was a university city that had many professors and scholars. That’s why the Fattahs based the architecture and philosophy on this beautiful African city. They also used what the Ruler of Jenne said which was “Everybody who comes to the city will leave better off than they came.” The House of Umoja used this deep idea so when gang members left Boys Town they would be better off than when they came. The House of Umaja was a member of the International Visitors Council. In 1983 the House of Umoja had its first participants in the Youth Exchange Program with Northern Irish youth. Queen Mother took in the Irish teenagers who had been stealing cars, committing burglaries, causing trouble and starting fights. Queen Mother took care of the teenagers like she took care of the gang members. She taught them how to treat other people and their community. When it was time for the Irish boys to leave, they were changed people. When they got to the airport, all of the teenagers were hugging Queen Mother and calling her ”Mom”. Everyone at the airport was staring at Queen Mother, thinking “How do you have so many Irish kids?” Queen Mother learned from that, that what she was doing in Philadelphia could work all around the world The Fattahs have had an amazing history, from taking in adolescent gang members to helping communities overcome their problems. The Fattahs’ work has followed them throughout the years. In 2014 the gang members had a reunion to celebrate following the Imani pledge for all these forty years. The Fattahs will always be legends, and will be remembered for the changes they made to Philadelphia and the world.
 * By Corah, Ade, Julius, Jalin, Amea, Linah and La’Ara, Grade 6 **