Akinyele Umoja will be the featured speaker at the 33rd Anniversary Celebration of the Organization for Black Struggle and its youth component, the Youth Council for Positive Development.
The dinner program is Saturday, January 26 at 4 pm and will be held at the Gateway Classic Foundation, 2012 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive.
As a scholar-activist, Umoja has been active over 40 years in the Black liberation struggle and New Afrikan Independence Movement. Umoja is a founding member of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) and the New Afrikan Peoples Organization (NAPO).
He is currently chair of the Department of African-American Studies at Georgia State University where he teaches courses on the history of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements and other Black political and social movements. His book, We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance and the Mississippi Freedom Movement, will be published this spring.
Umoja will speak to the theme “Black Empowerment and Participation: No to Repression and Plantation Politics!” The theme centers on the obstacles facing African Americans as we fight for inclusion and equity in a hostile period in history. African-Americans are facing all types of repression from police violence to mass incarceration. St. Louis’ unique brand of racism in politics is one of the critical barriers to economic justice and political parity.
The anniversary celebration is open to the public. For tickets or souvenir ad information, call 314.367.5959. Tickets and ads can be purchased via the OBS website at www.obs-onthemove.org.
