Urgent Housing Fund Appeal for Freedom Fighter!
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Narrative Note: This crowd funder is not only a call to support our elder, which we are urgently called to do, but in telling the story of Baba Kwazi Nkrumah, we hold humility, deep respect and acknowledgment that his life's journey reads like a history book and should serve as a catalyst to ignite and unite all of the lives that he has touched. May our walk be as dignified as his example. Please be generous.
- Iyatunde Folayan
Origin Story
Our very own, Los Angeles-based, 69-year-old, Black Elder and Freedom Fighter Baba Kwazi Nkrumah, requires our collective financial support at this time. After fighting for racial, environmental and labor justice for 61 years, Baba Kwazi is at risk of losing his home. Please support and spread the word. With this fundraising effort, we intend for the community to come together and pour into Baba Kwazi as Baba Kwazi has poured into us for decades.
Baba Kwazi has spent a lifetime as a tireless labor organizer and Human Rights advocate. At the tender age of eight years old, Baba Kwazi and his mother were arrested for civil disobedience in opposing downtown Milwaukee department store segregation policies; they continued to engage in civil disobedience in Milwaukee from 1962-1966.
Long History of Freedom Fighting
Baba Kwazi learned more about his political pedigree when caring for an ill grandmother. She shared that when the Black historical giant WEB Dubois and Marcus Garvey were having political differences, his grandfather, a committed advocate for Black advancement, was one of those brokering a mediation between them as president of the NAACP in Milwaukee at that time. His grandfather, Edgar R. Thomas, had enough political clout to bring Marcus Garvey to a mass rally at the biggest facility for public events in Milwaukee. The seeds of diplomacy and coalition building were deeply rooted in Baba Kwazi's family history.
Baba Kwazi's grandfather was one of the first presidents of the NAACP in Milwaukee and his mother, Dr. Anna Lois Thomas Standard, was the first Black woman to be certified to practice medicine in the state of Wisconsin. He comes from a legacy of dedication and service to the community, his mother was a politically active physician who was admired statewide by Black women. She would take young Kwazi door to door to talk to neighbors about changing racist policies in the city of Milwaukee in the 60s. This was the training that prepared him to organize, engage and lead many social and political campaigns in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, MD areas. Kwazi met Dr. King twice in his life, his mother regularly raised money for King including for the March on Washington, they could not attend because she had to see too many patients.
Baba Kwazi Nkrumah, as a young adult, participated in and built support for numerous local and national civil rights campaigns, including the 1963 March On Washington, Mississippi Freedom Summer and Dr. Martin Luther King's 1968 Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C.
He shared that in high school he organized a network of Black Student Unions throughout the DC public school district to demand they teach Black history in the schools; an issue that is still a point of struggle today.
He attended Howard University for several years, and while his mother, father and grandfather were all doctors and all Howard University Alumni, Kwazi’s focus was on the freedom movement, he left school to organize with tenants and general community organizers in DC. Baba Kwazi remarked that the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s (SNCC) organizing work on voter registration throughout the south compelled many students like himself at the time to question every institution's commitment to liberation and prioritize building power with the people and not aspire to just be professionals.
Perhaps one of his most crowning achievements as an activist was as head of the Steelworkers Unemployment Assistance Fund where he fought to raise $14 million to aid unemployed Maryland steelworkers to assist in medical care, back payment on house in arrears, legal assistance, and car repossession - during the economic downturn spurred on by the devastating Reagan era layoffs, a fund later modeled and copied by neighboring states.
Highlights from Baba Kwazi's Los Angeles History
In 1992, spurred to action by the Rodney King uprisings, the prevalence of gang warfare and the drive-by shootings of Black youth, he decided to move to LA to contribute to the support of Black youth. Baba Kwazi did support work for Michael Zinzun and the Coalition Against Police Abuse. He also did support work for numerous other community-based groups that were organizing against gang warfare and drugs.
Another one of his first actions in California was to organize a walk from South Central to Tahachapee prison for the now-deceased, political prisoner at the time, Geronimo Pratt.
Labor History
Kwazi Nkrumah unionized (UPTE) University Professional and Technical Employees on the campus of UCLA in the 1990s. Hired by SEIU to organize part-time employees in the city of Commerce and he worked to unionize them. In his position as Southern California coordinator for the American Federation of Teachers on the UC campuses including UC Santa Barbara, and UC-Irvine, Baba Kwazi led efforts to unionize nontenured faculty on the five southern California campuses as well as librarians.
In the early 90s, when it was discovered that the CIA trafficked drugs (crack cocaine) into Black communities all over the country, including South Central - joint conversations were held and Baba Kwazi and Deacon Alexander of the Committee of Correspondence drafted a proposal to organize against crack cocaine coming into the community to expose the role of government involvement. Baba Kwazi and Deacon Alexander formed Crack the CIA Coalition, which included Dick Gregory, Don White of the Progressive Unity Council, and Congresswoman Maxine Waters. Together, they organized a fiery city-wide demonstration attracting upwards of 6000 persons that received wide attention both locally and nationally (because of Dick Gregory traveling and popularizing this LA effort) and made a huge impact on the most vulnerable communities.
Baba Kwazi Nkrumah was elected and served on the KPFK 90.7 FM Pacifica Radio Station Board from 1996 - 2001.
Baba Kwazi founded the MLK Coalition of Greater Los Angeles which was started in 2008. The idea was to bring about a coalition of community groups that honored Dr. King's stance on opposing militarism and war which was in direct opposition to the widely celebrated LA Kingdom Day parade. The mission was to resurrect King's true legacy by centering smaller grassroots organizations that might not be able to afford the exorbitant parade fees charged by the Kingdom Day organizers, but whose work truly carried the message of Dr.King.
The MLK Coalition would be the type of formation where organizers and community groups that engage in action could transcend differences to create a united front no matter their ideology and use Dr. King's birthday to educate and share one another's work. The intention was to come together on one special day and then build support for each other's issues over the year and act in concert to get things done.
During the LA Occupy Movement in 2011, Baba Kwazi served as an advisor, mediator and political guide to the young organizers involved in that campaign.
In 2021, Kwazi led the Martin Luther King Coalition of Greater Los Angeles in a COVID-safe Freedom Ride where a series of caravans throughout the city could provide a safe alternative for people to commemorate Dr. King's birthday.
The Martin Luther King Coalition of Greater Los Angeles, supporting generations of racial justice and environmental justice organizers and human rights advocates.Baba Kwazi has played a critical role as a political mentor and guide to the young generations of Los Angeles organizers working on issues of gangs, police brutality and tenants' rights.
Baba Kwazi's home which is the focus of this fundraising campaign has been used as an organizing and fundraising base of support for local neighborhood issues, environmental causes and racial justice work.
Environmental Causes
Here is how one of his colleagues described him:
“Kwazi is a nationally respected community and labor organizer and human rights advocate. Over the years he has been a successful leader of economic justice efforts on behalf of tenants, homeowners, and working people/. He has also been a much sought-after paid organizer, advocate and representative for steel workers, health-care workers, social workers, psychologists, technical employees and the faculty and librarians on all of the five campuses of the University of California here in Southern California. In addition to his many years of organizing experience, Mr. Nkrumah is well known for his writings and presentations as a political analyst and is valued for his skills as an organizational and political consultant for numerous non-profit organizations. Kwazi has been serving as the Co-Chair of the Martin Luther King Coalition of Greater Los Angeles, a human rights organization, for the past 8 years.” He and his deceased partner, Sabina Virgo, were active in organizing the Southern California Climate Action Coalition and the broader movement to combat climate change here in Southern California for over 5 years.”
Financial Issues
Baba Kwazi's current predicament is urgent and is due to a domino effect of the tragic loss of both his mother, Dr. Anna Lois Thomas Standard in 2018 and his partner of 30 years, labor leader, global warming activist and social analyst - Sabina Virgo in 2020. After burying both his wife and mother, Baba Kwazi developed chronic health problems related to COVID-19. He suffered from isolation during the pandemic and navigated the emotional challenges of grief and loss.
Simultaneously, the government failed to compensate Baba Kwazi $40,000 worth of rent owed him as a housing provider who abided by the eviction moratorium during the pandemic. He housed a tenant that didn't pay rent for 2 1/2 years.
The funds raised will be used to pay back the mortgage and overdue bills that will keep him from losing his property.
Please contribute dollars, prayers, and well wishes and spread the word so it touches as many people as Baba Kwazi has impacted.
Here is a video of Baba Kwazi Nkrumah's interview 2021 on MLK LA Coalition
Peace and Blessings,
Iyatunde Folayan & Kruti
Organizer and beneficiary
Kwazi Nkrumah
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA
Kwazi Nkrumah
Beneficiary