Chokwe Antar Lumumba (born March 29, 1983) is an American attorney, activist, and politician serving as the 53rd mayor of

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the Capital city, capital of and the List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, Mississippi, ...

, the 7th consecutive

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

to hold the position. He was first elected in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

. In the primary, Lumumba soundly won the Democratic nomination, defeating both incumbent mayor

Tony Yarber Tony Tarzell Yarber (born April 16, 1978) is an American pastor, educator and politician in Jackson, Mississippi. He was elected as Mayor of Jackson in April 2014 from special election following the death in office of Chokwe Lumumba. A native of J ...

and State Senator John Horhn. Lumumba went on to win the general election in a landslide. He is a self-described

progressive Progressive may refer to: Politics * Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform ** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context * Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...

and

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

. Lumumba has also referred to himself as a political revolutionary. He is the son of former mayor and

Black nationalist Black nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that black people are a race (human categorization), race, and which seeks to develop and maintain a black racial and national identity. Black natio ...

activist

Chokwe Lumumba Chokwe Lumumba (; August 2, 1947 – February 25, 2014) was an American attorney, activist, and politician, who was affiliated with the black nationalist organization Republic of New Afrika and served as its second vice president. He served as a ...

, who served briefly as mayor of Jackson before his death in 2014.

Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi

Lumumba was elected mayor in June 2017 with 93% of the vote. The Nation commented that "Lumumba lit up the left press with his promise—delivered later that month in a speech at the People's Summit in Chicago—to make Jackson 'the most radical city on the planet.'” In the summer of 2018, Lumumba attended

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...

's "Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative." The City of Jackson noted that the Initiative was created by Bloomberg to train leaders to "manage the complexities of running a city, and to have opportunities to learn from one another." Four months later, in November 2018, Bloomberg gave the City of Jackson $1 million to create art spotlighting

food insecurity Food security speaks to the availability of food in a country (or geography) and the ability of individuals within that country (geography) to access, afford, and source adequate foodstuffs. According to the United Nations' Committee on World F ...

. Lumumba won reelection in

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

with almost seventy percent of the vote.

Jackson Zoo crisis

In April 2018, when the

Jackson Zoo The Jackson Zoo is a zoo that was established in 1919 in Jackson, Mississippi and exhibits over 120 species and approximately 250 individual animals, providing the public the opportunity to observe and study wildlife from around the world and regi ...

announced plans to consider moving from its current West Jackson location, Lumumba joined Working Together Jackson, the Zoo Area Progressive Partnership, Rosemont Missionary Baptist Church and other community groups, in an effort to prevent the zoo from moving. He described the proposed plan as disingenuous and disrespectful. A city investigation discovered that the Jackson Zoological Society had mismanaged funds and failed to pay $6 million in water bills. The mayor took direct control of the zoo and approved $200,000 to renovate it. The zoo reopened in August 2020 under city control.

National politics

In February 2020, Lumumba endorsed

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...

in the

2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the 3,979 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention held on August 17–20 to determine the party's nominee for president in the 2020 Unit ...

. Bernie Sanders likewise endorsed Lumumba for reelection in 2021. July 29, 2021, it was announced via

Nina Turner Nina Hudson Turner ( Hudson; born December 7, 1967) is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she was a Cleveland City Council member from 2006 to 2008 and a member of the Ohio Senate from 2008 until 2014. Turner was the Democ ...

's social media that Mayor Lumumba had endorsed her in Ohio's 11th Congressional District 2021 Special Election, the seat which was left empty when representative

Marcia Fudge Marcia Louise Fudge (born October 29, 1952) is an American attorney and politician serving as the 18th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, United States secretary of housing and urban development since 2021. A member of the D ...

was selected by President Joe Biden for

HUD Secretary The United States secretary of housing and urban development (or HUD secretary) is the head of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, a member of the President of the United States, president's United States Cabinet, Cabi ...

. The race garnered nationwide attention as it split the Democratic Party between its progressive and moderate wings.

Personal life

Lumumba has two children with his wife, Ebony. His wife is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of English, Foreign Languages, and Speech Communication at

Jackson State University Jackson State University (Jackson State or JSU) is a public historically black research university in Jackson, Mississippi. It is one of the largest HBCUs in the United States and the fourth largest university in Mississippi in terms of studen ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lumumba, Chokwe Antar 1983 births African-American mayors in Mississippi American socialists Living people Mayors of Jackson, Mississippi Mississippi Democrats Mississippi lawyers Texas Southern University alumni Tuskegee University alumni Mississippi socialists 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people