For all the struggles, failures, and successes of African American organizations like the NAACP, the MLK Center for Non Violent Social Change, or persons like Jesse Jackson, Dexter Scott King, and others, I’m not aware of any active involvement by them in pursuing the truth about Ray Robinson and his murder at WK2.
The Rev. Ralph Abernathy made the statement at WK2 to Means, Banks, and others on 3-8-73 that ” I will do everything in my power to cause the White House to intercede and cause the Secretary of The Interior to reopen negotiations.”
Dick Gregory stood with Marlon Brando in front of the court house at Cedar Rapids, Iowa on 7-8-76-but who stands now for Ray, his widow, and his orphaned children?
Here you have a person who was active, committed, and known in the lodestone that was the civil rights movement-yet seemingly has been all but forgotten and ignored, while other cases from as far back as the fifties and sixties have been pursued.
Ray Robinson was murdered for being an unrepentent black man who wouldn’t kiss the various AIM “massa’s” asses -that is not only a criminal act but a violation of his rights, and I fail to see any difference in that he wasn’t lynched, hung from a tree, or dragged behind an automobile somewhere in the South.
If members of King’s own family in their interest and pursuit of justice can announce that they did not believe James Earl Ray was their fathers killer and in turn become advocates for him, surely those in leadership can make an effort to bring justice and closure to Robinson’s family-he deserves something more than laying in an unmarked grave as the victim of a group of xenophobic petty thugs. There is a dearth of modern day heroes and I would think Ray fills the bill.
Whatever legacy the NAACP creates will forever be lessened by their apparent failure to actively pursue and address the issue of Ray Robinson.
I think it was only natural for Ray that in recognizing a familiar misery the nations faced he went to WK2 with the best of intentions, and a sincere desire to assist-I also think that in very short order he saw through the charade that was the AIM leadership, witnessed the looting and pillaging, spoke out about it, showed his disdain, and that set the stage for his murder.
After all who was this “uppity nigger” to challenge or disrespect such great “warriors”, such revered “medicine men”, such “freedom figthers”?
One of the definitions in looking up the word nigger is “a person of ANY race or origin regarded as contemptible, inferior, ignorant, etc.” I’d say the only “niggers” based on their contemptible, inferior, and ignorant actions present at wk2 were the AIM leadership.
Ray Robinson was anything but a “nigger”, above all other things he was a good and decent man-his history verifies that, maybe some day people will understand that being a man has nothing to do with ethnicity.
My advice to the AIM brotherhood? Tighten up those sphincters boys, the man’s going to be coming round sooner or later.
One should not forget that in promoting the ravaging and destruction of wk2 as a “liberation” holiday it is in effect also a celebration of every wrong committed there-every abuse, and every murder-whether it be Ray’s, Annie’s in the aftermath, or those in unknown graves-hell of thing that, and speaks volumes about any who either promote or celebrate that event.
Some may be excused for doing so due to a lack of knowledge, or understanding concerning the truth, others most assuredly cannot, and view it only as another opportunity to get some air time.
I find it not only a profound mystery, but a grave disservice to Ray, to his family, and black people in general, that in searching the net you are hard pressed to find any advocacy for him other than in sites like IWJ and NFIC-and yet the net is inundated with AIM and those too familiar “leaders” spinning their tales, promoting themselves, and denying everything but the incontestable fact that the sun does rise and set. They may get around to that though, or take credit for it.
One thing for sure though-neither AIM or the NAACP is leading the charge-understandable for the one-a pity for the other. I never knew Ray, but with some it isn’t necessary to have known them personally to know the kind of individual they were.
There are songs to be found about Annie on the net, how about one for Ray? How about some justice for Ray and his family-he is no less a victim, and no less deserving.
http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=9&Itemid=66
http://www.jfamr.org/naet.html
Rezinate's Blog 
Thank you, Rezinate, for addressing this issue, on the anniversary of the murder and assassination of MLK. Ray Robinson believed in social change, not only for African Americans, but for all people who were victims of oppression. AIMsters treated him like Nazis having rounded up a Jewish person in their midst, barking commands, not allowing him to finish his breakfast, and demanded him to jump to their every command, including taking up arms for their cause, which he refused to do. This is what he was killed for; his voice for justice, and advocacy groups and organizations have never stepped up to the plate in support of him. Shame on them for their pathetic apathy.
Perry Ray Robinson Jr. was an activist before activism was even in. He was part of the Montreal to Guantanamo Bay march led by Barbara Deming in the 1960s and from which the book “Prisons That Could Not Hold” was published by the University of Georgia Press in 1995 noting both his, and Crazy Al Cooper’s time spent in jail in Albany, Georgia because white and black people were not suppose to be walking around together, certainly not in Georgia in the 1960s. I would like Dennis Banks, Carter Camp, Leonard Crow Dog, Harry David Hill (Mr. X) and Stan Holder, AIM/Wounded Knee 73 Security/Leaders who apparently felt dissed by the “uppity nigger” to understand that repatriation of remains is not just a one-way avenue — no matter what the circumstances. And if, as Peltier spokesman, Silent Bear (Mark Holtzman) says, he heard it was an “accident” then why the fear over repatriation — and why was he even buried in Wounded Knee by Floyd Westerman’s younger brother, Christ, if that was the case? I have a hard time fathoming how anybody, would want to bury a Black man under any circumstances at Wounded Knee, South Dakota unless they thought that would somehow bring some credibility to the accusations that White people and the U.S. government are some of the most insensitive human beings around…. unless of course…. several fingers are pointing back.
Forty three years is a long time-I suspect if MLK were alive today he
would have had something to say about all this Anakis. An appropriate
comparison-Nazi’s-one I’ve used often myself-not a nickels worth of
difference between them.
Some good information Paul, and not commonly known-an “accident”, “he
was never there”, “he was there but just kind of disappeared”, “he was shot
but don’t know what happened after that”-“never spoke to Cheryl, don’t know
who that lady is”-not verbatim, paraphrased, and doesn’t do justice to the
real comments.
We pray and offer daily for there to be and end to all this-for the nations
to be freed of the burden and scourge these “warriors” have been. They have
been a destructive force rivalled by few.
It is good to speak of this.
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Happened upon this..thanks for it being here..I met Ray Robinson’s daughter in DC in 1998 0r ’99 at a Peltier rally. We sat on the grass and talked for a long time..and I learned the story of her dad. I was appalled then that the family had never been given a word of real information..and I suppose that this is still the case? Prayers will be said for the family..and for all involved…….
Hotke-I’m not privy to any information given to Ray’s family-but I do know in
the twelve or so years you date your experience from more has come to light.
It is a case that should have been resolved years ago, and the apparent lack of
advocacy as mentioned above remains a mystery to me.
I believe that more indictments will be forthcoming in the aftermath of Graham’s
conviction, and that there will be further revelations regarding Ray’s murder. It’s
well established in various statements credited to witnesses at the event that he was
shot, to then say no one knows what happened to him after that, or to suggest that
as a wounded man he just walked off, abandoned his wife and children, and has
never been seen or heard from by anyone is not only ludicrous, but typical of the
AIM tales.
I would encourage you to visit the Indigenous Women for Justice and the News From
Indian Country sites for information regarding both Ray and Annie-I would also
encourage you to speak of these things when an opportunity presents itself, for all
we know it could create a “butterfly effect”, and in it’s passage resonate with the
right person in the right place to produce something positive.
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