Jamaal Bowman once honored cop killer on classroom 'wall of honor'

US Rep. Jamaal Bowman is standing by his decision as a middle school principal to include the image of a fugitive convicted cop killer on a “Wall of Honor.”

The New York Democrat said he refused to denounce his actions in a heated defense during a Third Precinct Community Council meeting last week in Yonkers, N.Y.

“The Democrat member of Congress’ ‘Squad’ was recently questioned about honoring Joanne Chesimard aka Assata Shakur — a black militant on the FBI Most Wanted list who was convicted with two others in the execution-style slaying of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973 before she escaped jail and fled to Cuba,” according to the New York Post.

Bowman was asked by Democrat Marty Dolan – who is challenging him in this year’s primary – if it had been a mistake “to teach the children in your school that a cop killer should be on ‘The Wall of Heroes.’”

“My school included black and Latino students,” Bowman shot back. “We tried to teach as much of our black and Latino history as possible — the good, the bad and the ugly.”

The left-wing lawmaker, who represents New York’s 16th congressional district, was then asked if he would denounce the move now.

“I will refuse to denounce,” Bowman said. “I’m answering the question the way I want to answer it. We, our kids in my school learned the history of a people off the walls — and many other people and so, that’s what we did. Period.”

“What did [Assata Shakur] accomplish that would put her in the same realm as Thomas Jefferson?” one woman reportedly asked Bowman.

“You can have critiques of this person but there are critiques of many American heroes that we have,” the Democrat replied, defending Chesimard as a member of the Black Panther Party.

Bowman’s “Wall of Honor” was featured during his stint as principal of Cornerstone Academy for Social Action.

According to the Huffington Post:

In addition to hip-hop icons like Chuck D, CASA’s “Wall of Honor” featured an array of Black, Latino, and Asian politicians, activists and artists featured in curriculums around the country: Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Sonia Sotomayor, Mahatma Gandhi, Langston Hughes.

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But the wall also included former U.S. Rep Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), an antisemite and conspiracy theorist; the late Black militant Mutulu Shakur, who served a lengthy prison sentence for armed robbery; and Assata Shakur, a Black militant convicted of murdering a New Jersey state trooper, who broke out of prison and now lives in Cuba.

Bowman discussed the display in a 2014 video uploaded to YouTube where he read from a description of the wall, “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 faced criticism for honoring the convicted cop killer, among others, and his campaign even defended his decision after a HuffPost piece earlier this month.

“It is correct that many leaders in the Black liberation movement … have complicated biographies,” Bowman spokeswoman Sarah Iddrissu told the outlet.

“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,” she added. “Suppressing the education of Black history only serves to enable violence against Black people.”

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Frieda Powers

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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.

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