Chokwe Lumumba

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Chokwe Lumumba (2013)

Chokwe Lumumba (* 2. August 1947 as Edwin Finley Taliaferro in Detroit , Michigan ; † 25. February 2014 in Jackson , Mississippi ) was an American lawyer , politician and civil rights activist . He was a member of the Democratic Party and the Mayor of Jackson from July 1, 2013 until his death.

Life

Edwin Taliaferro was born the second of eight children of Lucien Taliaferro and his wife Priscilla in Detroit and grew up there. His family is from Kansas on his father's side and from Alabama on his mother's side ; the parents moved to Detroit during the Great Migration because of the jobs there. Taliaferro attended St. Theresa High School in Detroit, where he was intermittent student representative and captain of the football team.

The day after Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, Taliaferro took part in the occupation of a faculty building at Western Michigan University to demonstrate for black students' equal rights to study. Taliaferro studied law at Kalamazoo College until 1969 . Also in 1969 Taliaferro changed its name to Chokwe Lumumba, this name is derived from the Chokwe ethnic group living in southwest Africa and from the name of the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo , Patrice Lumumba . Lumumba was active in the so-called black nationalism and was elected second vice president of the civil rights movement Republic of New Africa in 1971 . Shortly thereafter, the "administration" of the Republic of New Africa was moved to Mississippi and Lumumba moved in March 1971 to a farm in Hinds County .

In 1975, Lumumba received a Juris Doctor degree from Wayne State University . He then worked at the Detroit Public Defenders Office and later for a law firm. In 1988 Lumumba returned to Mississippi and worked in Jackson from then on. In 2009 he was appointed to the city council elected by Jackson. On May 7, 2013, Lumumba took part in the Jackson mayoral election and received 24.26 percent of the vote in the first round of the election before incumbent Harvey Johnson Jr. , but behind his challenger Jonathan Lee, who received 34.84 percent of the vote. In the runoff election on May 21, 2013, Lumumba received 54.06 percent of the vote and was thus elected the new mayor. On July 1, 2013, he took office. During his tenure, Lumumba mainly implemented infrastructure measures.

Lumumba was married and had two sons and a daughter. His younger son Chokwe Antar Lumumba is also a lawyer, was a partner in his father's law firm for a while and has also been Mayor of Jackson since July 3, 2017.

death

Chokwe Lumumba died after only eight months in office on February 25, 2014 at St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson. The exact cause of death is unknown. Suspicions that Lumumba had been murdered shortly after his death could not be confirmed. According to official information, he died of heart failure as a result of a dragged on cold.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herbert Buchsbaum: Jackson Mourns Mayor With Militant Past Who Won Over Skeptics. The New York Times , March 9, 2014, accessed July 26, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b R. L. Nave: Profile: Chokwe Lumumba. Jackson Free Press, May 15, 2013, accessed July 26, 2019.
  3. ↑ Bob Wing: “Jackson, hell yes:” Chokwe Lumumba elected mayor. In: peoplesworld.org , June 10, 2013, accessed July 26, 2019.
  4. ↑ Siddhartha Mitter: Chokwe Lumumba, radical mayor of Jackson, Miss., Dies at 66. Al Jazeera America , February 26, 2014, accessed on July 26, 2019.
  5. ↑ Donna Ladd: Mayor Lumumba's Son Responds to Accusations that He Was Murdered. Jackson Free Press, March 3, 2014, accessed July 26, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Lumumba, Chokwe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Taliaferro, Edwin Finley (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer, civil rights activist, and politician, Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi (2013-2014)
DATE OF BIRTH August 2, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Detroit , Michigan , United States
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 2014
Place of death Jackson, Mississippi , United States