ST LOUIS, MO.–At the recently held National Black Political Leadership Conference, two black presidential candidates, Dr. Willie Wilson and Ms. Sedinam Kinamo Christin Moyowasifza Curry were the featured luncheon speakers at this gathering of national, state and local political, spiritual and community leaders from across the country.
This historic conference was convened by the Universal African Peoples Organization (UAPO) headed by long time human rights activists and founders, Zaki Baruti and Safiyah Chauvin. This two day event was held Friday, October 30 and Saturday, October 31 at Greater St. Mark Family Church, St. Louis, MO.
The speakers and presenters of the various workshops held at the conference included Congressman William Lacy Clay Jr,; Malik Zulu Shabazz, President/Black Lawyers for Justice, Washington DC; Omali Yeshitela, Chairman, African People’s Socialist Party, St. Petersburg, FL;
Donnie Bradford, One Million Conscious Black Voters and Contributors, Jackson, TN; Nana Remel Moore, Coming Together Stark County, Canton, OH; Naimah Latif, popular radio talk host and author, Chicago, IL; Bill Goodin, community activist, Baltimore, MD; Martin Casey, Fuller Products Executive, Chicago, IL: Monique Sigh Bey, talk show host, Kansas City, KS; Lionel Nixon, media specialist, Chicago, IL;
Cherry Montgomery, Friends of the African Union, Chicago IL: Missouri State Senator Jamila Nasheed; Rev. Tommie Pierson, MO State Representative and candidate for Lt. Governor of Missouri; State Representatives Kim Gardner and Rochelle Gray, Mayor Patrick Green, Normandy, MO; Mayor Yolanda Fountaine Henderson, Jennings, Mo;
Wesley Bell, Ferguson, MO city councilman; Minister Donald Muhammad, Mosque 28; Rev. Clyde Crumpton, Cote Brilliante Presbyterian Church; Rev. Elston McCowan, Star Grace MB Church and Minister Lee Izac, African Hebrew Israelite community.
Other local St. Louis community leaders who conducted workshops included Michael McPhearson, Veterans for Peace/Don't Shoot Coalition; Marlon Lee, Urban League; Jesse Todd, 18th ward committeeman: Tory Russell, Don't Shoot Coalition; Mike Hassell, Chosen for Change; Anthony Bell, 3rd committeeman;
Adolphus Pruitt, NAACP St. Louis Chapter; Yaphett El Amin, Director/ MOKAN; Regina Dennis Nana, Development Anthropologist; James Steward, New African Paradigm Study Group; Benita Tops, Real Estate Investment Specialist; Eddie Hasan, Congress of Racial Equality; Stefan Bradley, Director of African Studies/St. Louis University; Reynaldo Anderson, Professor/Harris Stowe University; Angela McCall, Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE); and Attorneys Randall Cahill, McArthur Moten and Eric Vickers.
Multi-million dollar businessman, Dr. Willie Wilson, who hails from Chicago, IL was the keynote luncheon speaker on Friday. During his presentation, he outlined his vision and platform for this country, as well as how the major Democratic Party operatives have systematically prevented him from being part of their debates and forums.
Many of the delegates were shocked by his revelations and pledged to make his candidacy known throughout the communities of America and to challenge the Democratic Party for their exclusionary policy toward their only black presidential candidate. Attending the workshops were members of the general public.
On Saturday, Ms. Sedinam Kinamo Chritin Moyowasifza-Curry, a Los Angeles, CA resident who is seeking the Green Party presidential nomination engaged the lunch time audience by seeking their input as to what they saw as the most important social issues that should be addressed by the 2016 presidential candidates. She also served on several of the powerful workshops held at the conference.
The purpose of the conference was to address the concept of "proportionate political representation." This concept simply means that whatever percentage of the population of this country that we are as a people on the national, state and local levels of government, then we should have that percentage of political representation/power.
However, it was pointed out that today, 2015 this is not the case. Black people are 13% of the U.S. population, yet we are only 2-3% of the estimated 511,000 publicly elected officeholders and there are no black governors out of a total of 50 and only two black U.S. senators out of a total 100.
In response to these startling figures, the conference delegates agreed with the UAPO strategy of seeking black men and women willing to become candidates in the upcoming 2016 national elections for the 34 U.S. senate seats and 11 governors positions that will be up for election. Quoting Zaki Baruti "The most progressive political movement of the 21st century is "proportionate political representation."
Also, the conference endorsed the proposal of Malik Zulu Shabazz for a National Blackout (only spend money with black-owned businesses starting with the upcoming Black Thursday holiday season and up until the new year).and to create a movement to support a national chain of black-owned products.
Finally, all of the delegates left the conference energized and committed to support a call for a National Black Political Convention for the last weekend in March 2016. There will be a series of organizing public meetings prior to the convention.
A special thanks to the UAPO central committee members Queen Ziah, Amari Sneferu, Gwen Cogshell, Robin Norman, Rev Elston McCowan, Safiyah Chauvin and all of the supportive UAPO general membership.
For more information call (314) 477-4629 or visit www.uapo.org.
