Melina Abdullah (born Melina Rachel Reimann on September 18, 1972) is an American academic and civic leader. She is the former chair of the department of Pan-African Studies at

California State University, Los Angeles California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public university in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degrees, 122 master's degrees, ...

, and a co-founder of the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

chapter of

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police br ...

. She is also a supporter of the

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white s ...

designated hate group, Nation of Islam.

Early life and education

Melina Rachel Reimann was born on September 18, 1972, at

East Oakland, Oakland, California East Oakland is a geographical region of Oakland, California, United States, that stretches between Lake Merritt in the northwest and San Leandro in the southeast. As the southeastern portion of the city, East Oakland takes up the largest port ...

, U.S. Her father, John Reimann, was "a union organizer and self-proclaimed

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...

." Her mother is Linda Fowler Blackston and she was raised by Oji "Baba" Blackston. Her paternal grandfather was

Günter Reimann Hans Steinicke (November 13, 1904 – February 5, 2005), better known by his pen-name Günter Reimann, was a German-born economist and writer. He was noted as founder and editor of ''International Reports'', a New York-based weekly publicatio ...

(born Hans Steinicke), a German-Jewish Marxist economist and member of the Communist Party of Germany who opposed

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

and the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. She graduated from

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

, where she earned a bachelor's of arts (B.A.) degree in African American Studies. She subsequently earned a master's degree (M.A.) and doctoral degree (PhD.) in political science from the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

. Reimann changed her surname to Abdullah due to her marriage to filmmaker Phaylen Abdullah and kept the name after their divorce.

Activism

Abdullah is a self-described " womanist scholar-activist". She has said that her academic roles are connected with her activist role in fighting for liberating those who have been exploited many times. She serves on several boards, including Black Community, Clergy and Labor Alliance (BCCLA), Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA-CAN), and Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE).

Career

Abdullah is a tenured professor and served as chair of the department of Pan-African Studies at

. She was interviewed in ''

13th In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave pl ...

'', a 2016 documentary about

mass incarceration Incarceration in the United States is a primary form of punishment and rehabilitation for the commission of felony and other offenses. The United States has the largest prison population in the world, and the highest per-capita incarceratio ...

in the United States. Abdullah has served on the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission since 2014. She is a co-founder of the

chapter in Los Angeles, California, and regularly writes articles for the ''LA Progressive''. Abdullah was arrested on suspicion of battery against a police officer, following an incident in which she allegedly grabbed the officer’s arm during the arrest of protester Sheila Hines-Brim at an LAPD police commission hearing. Hines-Brim allegedly threw an unknown powdery substance at Los Angeles Police Chief

Charlie Beck Charles Lloyd Beck (born June 27, 1953) is a retired police officer, formerly serving as the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and subsequently as the Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. A veteran of the department ...

, which she claimed were the cremated ashes of her niece Wakiesha Wilson (who died in LAPD custody in 2016). Abdullah was charged with misdemeanor battery, as well as seven other counts: these charges included interfering with a public business establishment and the lawful business of the Police Commission during separate incidents in 2017. The criminal charges against Abdullah were eventually dismissed. The city later agreed to pay Wilson’s family nearly $300,000 to settle a lawsuit they filed over her death. During the Sunday debate by ABC7 for the

2022 Los Angeles mayoral election The 2022 Los Angeles mayoral election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the mayor of Los Angeles, California. A top-two primary was held on June 7, 2022. Candidates could win the election outright by receiving more than 50% of the vote, b ...

, police removed Melina Abdullah, at Cal State LA as well as other protesters from the room as they did not have a tickets to the event.

Controversy

Abdullah is a supporter of

Louis Farrakhan Louis Farrakhan (; born Louis Eugene Walcott, May 11, 1933) is an American religious leader, Black supremacy, black supremacist, Racism, anti-white and Antisemitism, antisemitic Conspiracy theory, conspiracy theorist, and former singer who hea ...

and the Nation of Islam, and has previously partnered with Farrakhan. The Nation of Islam has been categorized as a hate group by the

for its anti-white, antisemitic, and anti-LGBT rhetoric. Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam have been extensively condemned by the Anti-Defamation League, which combats antisemitism.

Personal life

Abdullah resides in Mid-City, Los Angeles. She has three children.

References

External links

Black Community, Clergy and Labor Alliance (BCCLA)

Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA-CAN)

Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE)

LA Progressive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdullah, Melina 1972 births Living people Activists from Oakland, California People from Crenshaw, Los Angeles Howard University alumni University of Southern California alumni California State University, Los Angeles faculty African-American women academics African-American academics 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century American academics Black Lives Matter people Activists from Los Angeles American Trotskyists American women academics American people of German-Jewish descent 21st-century American women