Chokwe Antar Lumumba: Being a Radical Means Getting to the Root Causes of Injustice

Chokwe Antar Lumumba: Being a Radical Means Getting to the Root Causes of Injustice

The mayor of Jackson is building a “dignity economy” to lift up Mississippi’s biggest city.

John Nichols
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

Jackson, Mississippi, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba has a vision that distinguishes him from most elected officials in the United States, even from most progressive elected officials. He is not afraid of the world “radical,” in fact he relishes discussions about what it means to go to the root of challenging issues, to identify the sources of injustice, and to address them.

Mayor Lumumba comes from an activist family: His father, Chokwe Lumumba, was a legendary figure in Jackson and nationally, a brilliant lawyer, and organizer with the Republic of New Afrika and other groups on behalf of communities that have been let down by both major parties. The senior Lumumba warned against imagining that answers would come from distant political figures. He believed in building from the grassroots up. Eventually, he was elected mayor of Jackson in 2013, a victory that drew national attention because of what it said about the opening up of American politics, especially in the South. He was described as America’s most revolutionary mayor.

When he died, less than a year after taking office, his son ran to replace him, and lost. That defeat did not dissuade Chokwe Antar Lumumba, he kept speaking up, organizing, and campaigning.

In 2017, running on a people’s platform and an agenda of social justice and economic democracy, he won the mayoralty by a landslide, taking 94 percent of the general election vote. He promised to make Jackson the most radical city on the planet. As mayor, he has stood up to Donald Trump, and he has taken on national issues, but his primary focus has been on the grassroots work of delivering services, people-powered budgeting, and community empowerment. Chokwe Antar Lumumba, the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, is our guest this week on Next Left.

SHOW NOTES

Mayor-elect Lumumba: Jackson ‘to be the most radical city on the planet’, Clarion Ledger, Anna Wolfe

Mass ICE Raids in Mississippi After Workers Fought for Better Conditions Leave Kids Without Parents, Democracy Now!

Is This the Most Radical Mayor in America? The Nation, D.D. Guttenplan

Why Fixing Potholes Is Key to This Mayor’s Radical Political Agenda, The Nation, Greg Kaufmann

After Immigration Raids In Mississippi, Mayor of Jackson Calls On Churches To Become Safe Havens, WBUR

“Misty Blue,” Dorothy Moore

Support independent journalism that does not fall in line

Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding approval rating were abundantly clear: untrammeled corruption and personal enrichment to the tune of billions of dollars during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided only by his own derelict sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets. 

Now an undeclared, unauthorized, unpopular, and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran has spread like wildfire through the region and into Europe. A new “forever war”—with an ever-increasing likelihood of American troops on the ground—may very well be upon us.  

As we’ve seen over and over, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory rationales for the attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are under threat from noncitizens on voter rolls. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war. 

In these dark times, independent journalism is uniquely able to uncover the falsehoods that threaten our republic—and civilians around the world—and shine a bright light on the truth. 

The Nation’s experienced team of writers, editors, and fact-checkers understands the scale of what we’re up against and the urgency with which we have to act. That’s why we’re publishing critical reporting and analysis of the war on Iran, ICE violence at home, new forms of voter suppression emerging in the courts, and much more. 

But this journalism is possible only with your support.

This March, The Nation needs to raise $50,000 to ensure that we have the resources for reporting and analysis that sets the record straight and empowers people of conscience to organize. Will you donate today?

John Nichols John Nichols is the executive editor of The Nation. He previously served as the magazine’s national affairs correspondent and Washington correspondent. Nichols has written, cowritten, or edited over a dozen books on topics ranging from histories of American socialism and the Democratic Party to analyses of US and global media systems. His latest, cowritten with Senator Bernie Sanders, is the New York Times bestseller It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism.


Ad Policy
x