Facing Race: A National Conference in St. Louis, MO — November 20-22, 2024

Lumumba Akinwole-Bandele

Senior Community Organizer | Legal Defense and Educational Fund

Lumumba Akinwole-Bandele is the Senior Community Organizer in LDF’s Criminal Justice Project. He is a community organizer and educator from Central Brooklyn. From 1994 – 1998 Lumumba served as programming coordinator at the Franklin H. Williams Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCC). During his tenure at CCC, he also co-found Azabache, an organizers training conference and workshop series for young activists. All the while as a Black Studies Major at City College of NY/CUNY, he went on to receive his Masters in Human Service from Lincoln University in 1998. As a member and organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Mr. Akinwole-Bandele helped establish its campaign to counter police abuse and misconduct. He also co-founded the world renowned Black August Hip Hop Project. Black August raises awareness and support for political prisoners in the United States. From 2002 to 2007 Lumumba served as a counselor and lecturer at Medgar Evers College/CUNY. Lumumba currently serves as an adjunct lecturer teaching Community Organizing at Lehman College/CUNY.


Presentations from Facing Race 2014

Multiply and Mobilize: Resisting Divide and Conquer Tactics in Multiracial Work

The act of dividing potential allies and communities who could come together to rise up is one of the oldest and most infuriatingly effective tricks in the book. In this workshop, movement activists and elders will join us to tell the stories of historic (and current) moments of successful resistance to efforts to divide our movements for social justice. Together we will examine these moments to lift up lessons, tools, and strategies we can use as organizers and community members to build resilience against these efforts and to increase our capacity to grow and maintain strong and unified multiracial movements.

Speakers: Kiran Nigam, Jenna Peters-Golden, Rinku Sen, Manuel Pastor, Lumumba Akinwole-Bandele, Linda Sarsour