A leftist radical prepares to replace the late Elijah Cummings.

Last week, Kweisi Mfume -- who served as a Democratic member of Congress from 1987-96, and as president of the NAACP from 1996-2004 -- defeated 23 opponents in a special primary to determine who will represent the Democratic Party in the upcoming general election on April 28, when the voters in Maryland’s Seventh Congressional District will pick someone to serve out the remaining months of the late Elijah Cummings’ uncompleted term in the House of Representatives. In his acceptance speech, Mfume dedicated his victory to the memory of his longtime friend, Mr. Cummings: “This is for him. This is for him!”



In light of the fact that the population of District Seven is overwhelmingly Democratic, Mfume’s victory in the general election is all but assured. And that triumph will represent the closing of a circle: Cummings filled Mfume’s vacated congressional seat when Mfume resigned from the House in 1996, and now Mfume, nearly a quarter-century later, has come back to succeed Mr. Cummings in that very same seat. Embracing a political orientation that he describes as “very, very progressive,” Mfume is prepared to promote the same leftist policies that Rep. Cummings advanced for 23 years – policies that helped turn Maryland’s Seventh District into a high-crime, high-poverty basket case.

During his first go-round in the U.S. House, Mfume was a highly prominent member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), where he served a stint as chairman. A highly noteworthy tidbit about the CBC is the close relationship it has long had with the legendary Jew-hater Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI). In September 1993, Mfume, in his role as CBC chairman, proudly announced that his Caucus was entering into a “sacred covenant” with Farrakhan’s NOI, meaning that the two organizations would consult with one another on legislative issues and political strategies.



In the years since then, CBC and NOI have further cemented the bonds of their friendship and political alliance on many occasions. For example:

For a full decade, from 1995 through 2005, Keith Ellison, who would eventually join the CBC after his election to Congress in 2006, worked actively on behalf of Farrakhan and NOI – not only by participating in the Million Man March and other NOI rallies, but also by defending Farrakhan in articles which he wrote under pseudonyms like Keith Hakim and Keith X Ellison.

In August 2002, Farrakhan, as a “special guest” of CBC members John Conyers and Earl Hilliard, spoke at the CBC's 32nd annual legislative conference, where, according to the NOI publication The Final Call, he “held capacity audiences spellbound.” Farrakhan also “attended the CBC banquet at the conclusion of the convention and was mobbed by celebrities, supporters and members of Congress,” The Final Call added.

On July 20, 2005, nearly all of the CBC's 43 members attended a CBC meeting on Capitol Hill where Final Call photographer Kenneth Muhammad took a group photo of Farrakhan surrounded by approximately 20 of those members. One of those in attendance was John Lewis, who described himself as “a strong supporter” of Farrakhan and stated: “I’m glad that Minister Farrakhan and his contingency were received with open arms by the Congressional Black Caucus.”

In January 2006, Farrakhan met with several CBC members in New Orleans and said to them: “Tell me how I can be of service.”

At an event in 2011, CBC member James Clyburn shared a stage with Farrakhan, who discussed the NOI book The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, which purports to provide “irrefutable evidence that the most prominent of the Jewish pilgrim fathers [sic] used kidnapped Black Africans disproportionately more than any other ethnic or religious group in New World history.” After Farrakhan had finished speaking, Clyburn said: “I want to thank Minister Farrakhan for offering up a number of precepts that we ought to adhere to.” When some Jewish organizations subsequently scolded Clyburn for having appeared at an event with Farrakhan, the congressman told The Final Call that he was “not bothered in the least bit” by the criticisms.

In 2013, CBC members Keith Ellison and Gregory Meeks joined Farrakhan in attending a meeting convened by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Among the topics of discussion was the nuclear deal which the Obama Administration was in the midst of negotiating with Tehran.

In May 2013 in Detroit, CBC member John Conyers attended an event where Farrakhan made a number of crude references to “Satanic Jews” and the “synagogue of Satan.”

Five months later, Farrakhan was invited to a Detroit event honoring Conyers for his 50 years of service in Congress.

In his annual Savior’s Day address in February 2014, Farrakhan publicly recognized Conyers for his efforts to help “move black people forward.”

Two months after that, Farrakhan and Conyers greeted each other warmly at a Chicago conference on slave reparations, where they both served as guest speakers.

In October 2015, CBC member Danny Davis was a guest speaker at a “Justice or Else” rally keynoted by Farrakhan -- an event lamenting the “widespread death, rising racism, mob attacks,... police brutality,... economic deprivation and stark poverty” afflicting the African American community. Said Davis to the crowd: “I want to commend and congratulate minister Louis Farrakhan for his visionary leadership.”

In February 2018, the Daily Caller contacted the 21 CBC members who had been part of the Caucus ever since its aforementioned July 2005 meeting with Farrakhan, and asked each of them if they would be willing to publicly denounce the NOI leader for the racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric that had long been his hallmark. Not a single one agreed to issue any comment toward that end.

In February 2018 as well, CBC member Danny Davis lauded Farrakhan as “an outstanding human being who commands a following of individuals who are learned and articulate, and [who] plays a big role in the lives of thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people.”

The following month, Davis again praised Farrakhan, saying: “He does outstanding things for, especially for blacks who are unsure about themselves, people who’ve been in prison.”

And now Kweisi Mfume prepares for his imminent return to the House of Representatives, where he will once again join the Farrakhan-loving Congressional Black Caucus and regain the lofty legislative platform from which he can promote the same brand of corrosive, destructive governance that the voters in Maryland’s Seventh District have been choosing for decades.

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Photo from Wikimedia Commons