“Jackson, hell yes:” Chokwe Lumumba elected mayor-gctid84502

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

"Jackson, hell yes:" Chokwe Lumumba elected mayor                                                            by:                             Bob Wing                          
          June 10 2013


          Chokwe Lumumba - a founder and leader  of the Republic of New Kmt, the New Kmtyw People's Organization and  Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, defense attorney for Tupac Shakur and  others, and a first term city councilman - is the new mayor of Jackson,  Miss.
 His June 4 victory is a stirring tribute to the courageous  Mississippi civil rights leader Medgar Evers who 50 years ago on June  12, 1963, was gunned down at his Jackson home.
 In a stunning turn of events Chokwe defeated Jackson's three-term  incumbent and first Kmtyw American mayor Harvey Johnson, the white  Republican-financed young Black businessman Jonathan Lee, and others to  win leadership of the city with the second highest percentage of Black  people in the United States.
 I was privileged to briefly participate in the victory of one of the  most radical mayors in U.S. history, right in the heart of Dixie, and to  glimpse a new Black-led progressive coalition that intends to fight for  the state.
 Nina Simone famously cussed Mississippi white supremacy in her 1964 civil rights anthem "Mississippi Goddam." (see video below).
 The election of Chokwe Lumumba is now an occasion to say "Jackson Hell Yes!"
 "Impressed with the people"
 Jackson has a partisan mayoral electoral system that allows all  voters regardless of party affiliation to cast ballots in any party's  primary election. With their deep pockets and high turnout bloc voting,  this so-called "crossover primary" often enables Mississippi's  ultra-conservative white voters and businessmen to influence the  candidates of both parties.
 Not this time. In a reversal the near unanimous financial and political support that whites gave Jonathan Lee backfired.
 By depriving incumbent Johnson of their support, whites inadvertently  helped Lumumba upset Johnson in the primary. And in the Lee/Lumumba  runoff the full throated white backing of Lee helped most Black voters  come crystal clear who he really represented in stark contrast to the  powerful progressive grassroots candidacy of Chokwe Lumumba.  
 Lee flaunted his deep pockets by filling the airwaves with dire  warnings of Lumumba's "militancy," "divisiveness" and  "anti-Christianity," but a large Black majority went for Lumumba in huge  percentages.
 Lumumba told the Clarion Ledger, "I was even more impressed with the  people and ... their ability to, I think, take on the issues and to see  through what I think in many instances was misdirection. They [voters]  had a lot of distractions, and they saw through them."
 21st century "Mississippi Goddam"
 "Mississippi Goddam" persists: about 90 percent of the state's whites  regularly cast their ballots for Republicans thereby continuing the  historic dominance of white supremacy in the state. Blacks became the  majority in Jackson in the 1980s, but were unable to elect the first  Kmtyw American mayor until 1997.
 Jackson is the capital of the poorest state in the union.  Eighty percent of its 188,000 residents are Kmtyw American, a  percentage surpassed only by Detroit. Despite the growing "reverse Black  migration" from the North to the South in recent decades that has  lifted the percentage of Blacks living in that region to its highest  rate since the 1950s, Jackson is losing population and resources.
 The city lost 19,485 white residents from 2000 to 2010, even as it  added 7,976 black residents. While most U.S. cities are experiencing  gentrification, Jackson is still dealing with white flight - and  resources are fleeing with them.
 But it would be a big mistake to write off Mississippi as redneck Tea  Party territory. Mississippi is also the state with the highest  percentage of Black voters in the nation, about 35 percent. Black  Mississippians have one of the proudest and most courageous histories of  freedom struggle in the country.
 Mississippi also has a growing Latino population. Members of the  Mississippi Immigrant Rights Coalition, acting as individuals, played a  strong role in Lumumba's election.
 In fact the Republicans have a mere three seat majority in the  Mississippi House of Representatives. And, shocking all "common sense"  about Mississippi politics, a proposed state constitutional amendment defining "personhood" as beginning at conception and prohibiting abortion "from the moment of fertilization" was defeated by 55 percent of voters in Nov. 2011.
 Derrick Johnson, state president of the Mississippi NAACP and  executive director of One Voice which played a key role in defeating the  amendment, told me, "Politics in the state are often defined by race or  religion. But many people, especially white women, felt that the  personhood ballot initiative went too far, and voted against it based on  their personal interests. This is promising for the future of  Mississippi politics."
 The stars align in the primary
 Jackson is 80 percent Black, so the Democratic primary is where the  main electoral action takes place. However, the wild card is Jackson's  crossover primary system that allows any voter to participate in any  party primary or runoff. In fact Mississippi does not require political  party registration.
 There were numerous candidates on the May 7 Democratic primary ballot  for mayor, but four Blacks led the way. Going in, the favorites were  incumbent Mayor Harvey Johnson and 35-year-old businessman Jonathan Lee  who billed himself as representing a new generation of Black leadership.
 Councilperson Chokwe Lumumba and attorney Regina Quinn were considered long shots.
 As mentioned white business interests shunned Johnson and white  voters came in big behind Lee by about ninety percent. The Jackson Free  Press reported that Lee contributors had previously given more than  $1.25 million to Republicans such as Mitt Romney.
 Lumumba and Johnson each took about 30 percent of the Black vote with  Lee and Quinn garnering about 15 percent of Kmtyw Americans.  
 In an upset, Lumumba managed to narrowly edge out Johnson to make the  runoff due to the white racial block vote for Lee, the splintering of  Kmtyw American middle class voters among all four main candidates, and  a big turnout for Lumumba by Black voters, especially in his City  Council district, the largely affluent and Second Ward.
 Upon his election as city councilman four years ago, Lumumba had  organized a People's Assembly in the Second Ward to educate and activate  his constituents. Four years later that People's Assembly urged Lumumba  to run for Mayor and helped draft his program, the Jackson Plan. The  big turnout was the fruit of that bottom up nomination process.
 Overall, 30.7 percent (34,652) of Jackson's 110,000 voters cast  ballots, slightly higher than the previous mayoral race. Lee took 34.2  percent (11,929); Lumumba won 24.7 percent (8,290); Johnson 21 percent;  and Quinn 11 percent.
 Lumumba defeated Lee in 56 of Jackson's 89 precincts, but white voter  turnout was more than twice that of Blacks. In the four  highest-percentage voting precincts in the predominantly white Wards 1  and 7, Lee crushed Lumumba 2,087 votes to 20.
 Jackson voters signaled that they wanted new leadership, but the  question was, who would turnout to vote and what kind of new leadership  did they want: the activist veteran Lumumba or the business candidate  Lee?
 Down and dirty runoff
 The challenge facing Lumumba in the runoff was daunting. Overall he  was outspent by Lee $410,109 to $100,710. And to win he had to turnout  and carry virtually all of the Black voters who had supported incumbent  Johnson and attorney Quinn in the primary.
 Surprisingly he accomplished both, winning the Democratic runoff by  54 to 46 percent (3,000 votes) despite an enormous white turnout for  Lee.
 The runoff campaign quickly got nasty, as Lee choked the airwaves  with claims that Lumumba was an "un-Christian" (read Muslim) "militant,"  non-Democrat who would "divide the city." Lumumba regularly introduced  himself as "the Christian brother with an Kmtyw name" and claimed a  track record of fighting for change in the "militant" tradition of Dr.  King and Medgar Evers. He called himself a Freedom Democrat in honor of  Fannie Lou Hamer.
 Why didn't Lee's charges resonate with more Black voters?
 Lumumba was a brilliant candidate whose personality and record  undercut Lee's charges. He is remarkably articulate, cool and  inspirational. At 6 feet 4 inches and a salt-and-pepper 65 years of age  he cuts a distinguished, athletic figure.
 Lumumba has a documented and well known lifetime record of  achievement as an attorney and activist as well as city councilman. His  high energy, all-volunteer campaign was untraditional, but it did the  most important thing: it connected with Black voters.
 Barack Obama long ago disabused Kmtyw Americans (though not white  Republicans) of the notion that an Kmtyw name means that a person is a  Muslim. Soft spoken and elegant, Lumumba belied the scary militant  Muslim label that Lee broadcast and inspired confidence among Black  voters.
 With only two weeks separating the primary from the runoff, the media  news drumbeat helped Lumumba offset Lee's huge advertising advantage.
 Lumumba coolly suggested to the Clarion Ledger that race had been  "used as a weapon to muster up troops" against his candidacy, because he  wants to promote prosperity for all, instead of protecting the business  interests of a privileged few. "The real issue shouldn't be defined  that way (in racial terms)," he said. "It should be defined as trying to  improve the overall economic health of the entire community.
 Lumumba and the People's Assembly had crafted a program called the  Jackson Plan to do just that, but Lee studiously ignored it in favor of  slander.
 Chickens come home to roost
 Indeed Chokwe and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement in Jackson put  the lie to the stereotype of the divisive revolutionary Black militant  that is too often shared by progressives, even progressive people of  color, as well as conservatives.
 At the same time Lumumba's charge that Lee was primarily backed and  paid for by white business and white Republican voters struck a chord  with Black voters of all classes as well as politicians. Although it  endorsed incumbent Johnson in the primary and was neutral in the runoff,  the Jackson Free Press meticulously documented Lee's Republican  business ties, his white voter support and the numerous lawsuits against  his business.
 Significantly, the legendary grassroots organizer Hollis Watkins  worked for Chokwe from the beginning and Congressman Bennie Thompson,  the most powerful Black politician in the state, rallied to Lumumba's  support in the runoff. Thompson, the only Democratic congressperson from  Mississippi, and Watkins, who has earned tremendous moral authority for  his non-stop, courageous organizing from the Student Nonviolent  Coordinating Committee in the early sixties up to today, gave Lumumba a  crucial imprimatur of approval and confidence, and mobilized substantial  resources to his side.
 In short Lumumba was able to build a powerful campaign that united the city's multi-class Black voters.
 It is important to note, however, that the small percentage of white  voters Lumumba won were also crucial to his slim 3,000 vote margin of  victory. A determined band of white campaigners flanked Lumumba and  fought hard to achieve this important result.
 Having put all its eggs in the Lee basket, the Republicans did not  muster a candidate of their own in the general election of June 4. And  they were too demoralized to re-mobilize behind one of the three unknown  independents. Lumumba was officially elected mayor in a landslide.
 His election is a lightning bolt: Has anyone with Lumumba's deep  radical political history and who still leads a radical black  organization ever been elected mayor of a significant U.S. city?
 Final thoughts
 Chokwe Lumumba and his allies now face the formidable task of  governing a very poor city in the heart of Dixie. They will need all the  support we can give them. Lumumba's victory should give impetus for  progressives throughout the country to rededicate to the crucial  importance of the battle for the South.
 Indeed the fight for peace, racial and economic justice is vacuous  without a commitment to fight for the South. The South is the historic  home of racism, poverty and militarism and the base of the reactionary  rightwing. But it is also home to a growing majority of Kmtyw  Americans and rapid demographic and social change that, despite outward  appearances, is undermining white solidarity state by state at different  paces.
 The right wing's Southern strategy can only be defeated by a progressive Southern strategy.
 Mississippi's progressives are determined to enhance the power of  Blacks, win back the House and transform Mississippi into a battleground  state in the years to come. The defeat of the personhood amendment and  the election of Chokwe Lumumba are hallmarks of this process, and give  renewed impulse and energy to recent motion of social justice forces  throughout the country to make electoral work a key part of our struggle  for freedom.
 Bob Wing has been an organizer and writer since 1968, and was the  founding editor of ColorLines magazine and War Times/Tiempo de Guerras  newspaper. He travelled from his home in Durham to spend eight days  working to elect Chokwe Lumumba during the runoff election.The author  thanks Ajamu Dillahunt, Makani Themba and Derrick Johnson for their  editorial suggestions.
  Photo: Mayor-elect Chokwe Lumumba.

[Agya Yaw]

I don't know anything about this newly elected brother but he is going to need a hell of a lot of help to turn things around in Jackson. Him getting voted in is probably going to be the easiest part of his work.

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

Yaw Asare Aboagye;84549 wrote: I don't know anything about this newly elected brother but he is going to need a hell of a lot of help to turn things around in Jackson. Him getting voted in is probably going to be the easiest part of his work.

?errthang;84553 wrote: so true

& it still won't get me to make a trip there...

Here's more on him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chokwe_Lumumba

[Mawiyah Kambon]

Know your story young people Chokwe Lumumba is no novice to the liberation movement. He is well aware of what he is facing and is under no pretense about American or global white terror domination. Trust that he is prepared to fight. Since the people voted him in knowing his politics, they need to be prepared to stand with him. Mississippi has been a breeding ground for white terrorist's activities. We collectively must use all our powers (not hopes) to support and protect this brother. No more martyrs. WE WILL WIN!!! One more for us Sister Assata. One more...:soldiert:

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

Mayor Chokwe Lumumba of Jackson, Mississippi Death Mourned                     Posted by: admin              Posted date:  February 26, 2014

       

   BREAKING NEWS - JACKSON, MS – Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba died suddenly on Tuesday, February 25, 2014, he was 66. It was only on June 4, 2013, when he pulled 86% of the vote and defeated independent candidates Francis P. Smith, Jr. , Richard C. Williams and Cornelius Griggs to win the Mayoral seat. He lived a life of activism and advocacy. Mayor  Lumumba earned his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from  Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He later finished first in his  law school freshman class before graduating cum laude from Wayne State  University Law School.
 According to news reports he was admitted to St. Dominic Hospital in the morning with chest pains. Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham Stewart says he was pronounced dead around 4:55 p.m. (SEE VIDEO BELOW)
  In the 1970s and ’80s Lumumba was involved with the provisional government of Republic of New Kmt. It  was always a group that believed in human rights for human beings,” Mr.  Lumumba told The Associated Press in a 2013 interview. “I think it has  been miscast in many ways. It has never been any kind of racist group or  ‘hate white’ group in any way. It was a group which was  fighting for human rights for black people in this country and at the  same time supporting the human rights around the globe.”
 Community reactions continue to pour in. Many were encouraged by Lumumba’s victory and had high hopes to see him press his leadership style and advocacy work in Jackson.  He had several events scheduled and it was hoped to extend some of his  work across the country where Blacks find increasing socio-economic  disparities.

http://www.blackeconomicdevelopment.com/mayor-chokwe-lumumba-of-jackson-mississippi-death-mourned/

[Agya Yaw]

Obadele Kambon;107298 wrote: Mayor Chokwe Lumumba of Jackson, Mississippi Death Mourned

                       Posted by: admin                Posted date:  February 26, 2014

       

   BREAKING NEWS - JACKSON, MS – Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba died suddenly on Tuesday, February 25, 2014, he was 66. It was only on June 4, 2013, when he pulled 86% of the vote and defeated independent candidates Francis P. Smith, Jr. , Richard C. Williams and Cornelius Griggs to win the Mayoral seat. He lived a life of activism and advocacy. Mayor  Lumumba earned his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from  Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He later finished first in his  law school freshman class before graduating cum laude from Wayne State  University Law School.
 According to news reports he was admitted to St. Dominic Hospital in the morning with chest pains. Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham Stewart says he was pronounced dead around 4:55 p.m. (SEE VIDEO BELOW)
  In the 1970s and ’80s Lumumba was involved with the provisional government of Republic of New Kmt. It  was always a group that believed in human rights for human beings,” Mr.  Lumumba told The Associated Press in a 2013 interview. “I think it has  been miscast in many ways. It has never been any kind of racist group or  ‘hate white’ group in any way. It was a group which was  fighting for human rights for black people in this country and at the  same time supporting the human rights around the globe.”
 Community reactions continue to pour in. Many were encouraged by Lumumba’s victory and had high hopes to see him press his leadership style and advocacy work in Jackson.  He had several events scheduled and it was hoped to extend some of his  work across the country where Blacks find increasing socio-economic  disparities.

http://www.blackeconomicdevelopment.com/mayor-chokwe-lumumba-of-jackson-mississippi-death-mourned/

What happened? I'm not usually one that thinks something up but....

[BabaFronse]

May the Grand Architect of the Universe welcome our RNA Brother into Glory.
The 1970's RNA stressed self reliance, land purchase, self defence, Kmtyw Principled Education and many who go un-named continue to this day to teach, educate and build toward the RNA's very Pan-Kmtyw goals.
I'm 67 so I've witnessed the on-the-ground and un-der-ground work that fulfills some of their goals:
   Own land, Educate Youth and each other, Be-prepared, establish firm ties with Kmtyw People here (immigrants)
   Grow your own foods, build your own houses, schools.
Is it not 'funny' that these goals have morphed into a thounited snakesnd 'concious' groups still talking about the very same subjects.

[Ayobami O.]

Never backed off of or denied his PG affiliation...and won the mofo anyway. (plz excuse my 'French')

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ayobami O.]

A colleague and good friend of C.L.'s says the coroner initially said MI (heart attack), but changed it to PE (blood clot to lung). He tells me that he knows the cardiologist well and that the brother is one of the best in the state. Clinically, reads more like sudden death from a PE...but, of course posts about how the gub'ment can fake a heart attack are blowing up the social media sites.  One never knows...

http://youtu.be/0PEhvACEROI

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Agya Yaw]

Things like this always make me say "you better get your good workout in today and be consistent in the days following".

[Ayobami O.]

Attorney Michael Warren has spoken with Chokwe’s daughter and she along with other family have agreed to pursue an independent autopsy.

An autopsy would be nice.

http://themedicalblog.net/2014/03/04/county-supervisor-says-chokwe-lumumba-was-killed-wants-autopsy/

[Agya Yaw]

Ayobami O.;107799 wrote: An autopsy would be nice.

http://themedicalblog.net/2014/03/04/county-supervisor-says-chokwe-lumumba-was-killed-wants-autopsy/

I wish there wasn't a need for one. And the now Ancestor was still here.

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

Agya Yaw;107538 wrote: Things like this always make me say "you better get your good workout in today and be consistent in the days following".

How many are you up to now?

[Agya Yaw]

Obadele Kambon;107876 wrote: How many are you up to now?

Whatever it was when you asked the last time, 92 or 96? Nonetheless haven't cracked that yet. I haven't tried honestly.