By TaRessa Stovall

A group of 60 prominent leaders has released a statement (PDF) condemning the Cuban regime of Raul Castro for harassing and cracking down on an emerging civil rights movement in the small, controversial Caribbean nation.

This represents a significant change of view.

“Traditionally, African Americans have sided with the Castro regime and condemned the United States’ policies, which explicitly work to topple the Cuban government. Yet this landmark statement by prominent African Americans condemns the growing persecution waged by the Cuban government against Afro-Cuban movements,” states a November 30 news release (PDF) issued by the Ad Hoc Committee for Racial and Human Justice.

The statement, Acting on Our Conscience: A Declaration of African-American Support for the Civil Rights Struggle in Cuba, focuses on “the unjust imprisonment by Cuban authorities of Dr. Darsi Ferrer, an internationally-known Afro-Cuban civil rights leader and courageous man who, for 17 days has endured a hunger strike and placed his life at risk to draw attention to the conditions of racism and racial discrimination in Cuba that has hitherto been ignored.”

While the U.S. State Department estimates that Afro-Cubans are 62 percent of the Cuban population, experts say the truth is closer to 70 percent. “Afro-Cubans are experiencing strong and growing instances of racism on the island, with their 25-odd civil rights movements reporting a wide range of discriminatory practices in hiring, promotion and access to Cuba’s socialized medicine and educational system,” the news release states.

Black Cuban youth complain of aggressive racial profiling by police, around 70 percent of Afro-Cubans are reportedly unemployed, and black Cuban civil rights activists say the island’s jail population is some 85 percent black.

Widespread and influential support for the cause is evidenced by the powerful and diverse group of leaders in academia he arts and media who signed the statement, including:

• Ruby Davis Dee, Actress and 2007 Academy Award Nominee
• Dr. Kathleen Neal Cleaver, Esq, Professor, Emory University
• Dr. Cornel West, Professor, Princeton University
• Dr. Marta Moreno Vega, President, The Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute
• Dr. Ron Walter, Professor Emeritus of Government and Politics, University of Maryland College Park
• Randy Weston, Musician/Composer
• Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., Pastor Emeritus, Trinity United Church of Christ
• Dr. Julianne Malveaux, President, Bennett College for Women
• Guy Johnson, Author
• Edward S. Spriggs, Former Executive Director of Hammonds House Galleries and Resource Center
• Susan Taylor, President, National CARES Mentoring Movement; Editor Emerita, Essence magazine
• Lori Robinson, Editor, VidaAfroLatina.com
• Dr. Conrad Worrill, President, National Black United Front
• Marie Brown, Literary Agent
• Honorable Congresswoman Carrie Meek (Ret)
• Dr. Ollie Johnson, Professor, Wayne State University
• Melvin Van Peebles, Film Director

“We know first-hand the experiences and consequences of denying civil freedoms on the basis of race,” the statement said. “For that reason, we are even more obligated to voice our opinion on what is happening to our Cuban brethren.”

TaRessa Stovall is Managing Editor of TheDefendersOnline.