The world says goodbye to a real American hero

After weeks of hospitalization for a long term illness, poet, playwright, and author Amiri Baraka passed away today at Newark Beth Isreal Medical Center at age 79.

Born Leroi Jones in Newark, New Jersey, Baraka became the literary voice of rebellion in the 1960s and 1970s with his fearless poems and anti-establishment rhetoric that made the FBI label him as “the person that will probably emerge as the leader of the Pan-African movement of United States.”

His literature transcends generation and time, with his 1963 classic Blues People, which was the first major critique of Black music by a Black man. His 2002 poem about the 9/11 tragedy suggested that there were Jewish nationals who knew about the attack prior to its occurrence and sparked international outrage.

To his critics, he was a homophobic, anti-Semetic trouble maker who declared Dr. King’s dream “dead” and an illusion to Black America. In the 1960s following the assassination of Malcolm X and the 1967 Newark riots, Jones was arrested and photographed after being beaten bloody by authorities. These circumstances motivated the poet’s radicalization, forcing him to leave his white wife, move to Harlem, and change his name to Imamu Ameer Baraka.

His work predicated what we recognize as rap and many artists have praised the genius of Baraka in bodies of their own work.

TheSource.com sends out our condolences to his family and fans around the world. He will certainly be missed.

-Sha Be Allah(@KingPenStatus)