[News] Chokwe Antar Lumumba Wins Jackson, Miss., Mayoral Race

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.theroot.com/jxnrising-chokwe-antar-lumumba-wins-jackson-miss-ma-1795875297?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=The_Root_twitter 



  #JXNRising: Chokwe Antar Lumumba Wins Jackson, Miss., Mayoral Race

Kirsten West Savali - June 6, 2017
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Chokwe Antar Lumumba, 34—son of the late Jackson, Miss., Mayor Chokwe 
Lumumba and community activist Nubia Lumumba—is the new mayor-elect of 
Jackson, Miss., beating Republican challenger Jason Wells in a landslide 
victory.

The Jackson Free Press reports 
<http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2017/jun/06/are-you-ready-work-lumumba-wins-mayors-race/>:

    With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Lumumba had 23,175
    votes, or 93 percent. Republican Wells had 900 votes, or 4 percent.
    Jaclyn Mask had 572 votes, or 2 percent, and Kenneth Swarts 175
    votes, or 1 percent. Lumumba will take office in July.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Lumumba said at the King Edward Hotel as 
he acknowledged his win. “If you have the best ideas, that’s what we’re 
moving with.”

Supporters shouted, “One City, One Aim, One Destiny!” as Lumumba 
declared victory.

As */The Root/* previously reported, Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber conceded 
the Democratic primary to Lumumba last month when it became clear that 
the people of Jackson had made a clear decision:

Choke Antar Lumumba would be their next mayor and continue the radical 
and transformative work that shaped his parents’ lives—and his own—and 
would lead Jackson into a revolutionary future.Still, Tuesday night 
was a long time coming.

After the elder Lumumba’s unexpected death in 2014 
<http://www.theroot.com/remembering-chokwe-lumumba-a-revolutionary-politician-1790874839#_ga=2.166790394.53664027.1496674469-1551156412.1458223470> 
after less than a year in office, his son, Chokwe Antar, announced that 
he would run to continue his father’s mission, which included amplifying 
and expanding the work of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement 
<https://mxgm.org/>, New Afrikan People’s Organization, Cooperation 
Jackson 
<http://www.cooperationjackson.org/announcementsblog/2016/8/9/jackson-rising-the-struggle-for-economic-democracy-and-self-determination-in-jackson-mississippi> 
and building upon the People’s Platform 
<https://mxgm.org/peoples-assemblys-overview-the-jackson-peoples-assembly-model/>.

The elder Lumumba—beloved organizer, attorney for Tupac and Assata 
Shakur, founder of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, leader 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, and proud “Fannie Lou Hamer” 
Democrat—was 66-years old when he unexpectedly died from heart failure.

Suspicions swirled around his death, with Nation of Islam leader 
Minister Louis Farrakhan and the National Conference of Black Lawyers 
offering to pay for an independent autopsy. Despite Hinds County, Miss., 
coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart insisting that the elder Lumumba died of 
natural causes, the county supervisor, Kenny Stokes, sparked headlines 
when he asked, “Who killed the mayor? <https://youtu.be/DHOWC44cWbM>”

Chokwe Antar Lumumba did not publicly comment on the rumors, instead 
focusing on his father’s legacy. Still, he did not hesitate to make it 
clear that he was not running on his family’s name, but on his own 
credentials and commitment to his people and the city of Jackson as a whole.

“I believe that even though my father was a great man, this journey was 
never about an individual. It is, was about the people—so the people’s 
platform and the people’s will still need to be heard. We are running on 
a platform of compassion, justice and human rights,” Lumumba told the 
Final Call in 2014 
<http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_101277.shtml>.

Lumumba may have lost that special mayoral election to replace his 
father 
<http://newsone.com/3006286/chokwe-antar-lumumba-loses-bid-for-his-fathers-jackson-ms-mayoral-seat/>to 
then Councilman Tony Yarber, but he owned the election Tuesday night 
from the very start.

Read more about Chokwe Antar Lumumba below, as previously reported by 
*/The Root/*:

    Lumumba is managing partner of Lumumba & Associates and a member of
    the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement <https://mxgm.org/>. He received
    his Bachelor of Arts degree from Tuskegee University in 2005 and
    earned his Juris Doctor degree and a certificate in sports and
    entertainment law from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas
    Southern University.

    Lumumba is a founding member of the Mississippi Human Rights
    Collective, co-organizing the “Stand Up to Take It Down” rally at
    the state Capitol to support the removal of the Confederate battle
    emblem from the Mississippi state flag. He currently serves as the
    media representative of the Coalition for Economic Justice and was
    instrumental in co-authoring “The People’s Platform
    <https://mxgm.org/peoples-assemblys-overview-the-jackson-peoples-assembly-model/>.”

Watch the new mayor-elect of Jackson, Miss., teach voters about the 
People’s Platform in this clip from 2014:

This is the revolutionary Deep South that most people don’t recognize, 
but they will soon.

Jackson is rising. Mississippi is rising.

Pay attention.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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