Local officials confirm the tragic news that longtime black nationalist organizer and attorney Chokwe Lumumba has died. Watch our interview with Lumumba just after he was elected mayor of Jackson, Mississippi last June, when he said, “we’re about to make some advances and some strides in the development of human rights and the protection of human rights that I think have not been seen in other parts of the country.”
- Chokwe Lumumba, born in Detroit and an organizer here first, shown with Cornell Squires, leader of We the People for the People several years ago.
Over the past four decades, Lumumba was been deeply involved in numerous political and legal campaigns. As an attorney, his clients included former Black Panther Assata Shakur and the late hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur. As a political organizer, Lumumba served for years as vice president of the Republic of New Afrika, an organization which advocated for “an independent predominantly black government” in the southeastern United States and reparations for slavery. He also helped found the National Black Human Rights Coalition and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.
Related
- Chokwe Lumumba: Remembering “America’s Most Revolutionary Mayor”Feb 26, 2014 | Story
- PART 2: Interview with “Spies of Mississippi” Director and Reporter Jerry MitchellFeb 25, 2014 | Web Exclusive
- Spies of Mississippi: New Film on the State-Sponsored Campaign to Defeat the Civil Rights MovementFeb 25, 2014 | Story
- Civil Rights Veteran Chokwe Lumumba Elected Mayor of Jackson, Miss., Once a Center of Racial AbusesJun 06, 2013 | Story
