Mission
We are an educational institution serving the Black Liberation Movement, specifically building the power of Black workers, the majority of our people, for Self-Determination at the workplace and in the community. We understand and lift up the especially important role the U.S. South plays in the history of Black people, formerly enslaved in the US, the US and the Global South. It is the anchor of the US Empire through its role in finance, military and manufacturing; but its historical and continuing super-exploitation of Black, Brown and indigenous peoples also make the region its Achilles heel as well. It Must Be Organized!
Women gathered for a BWFJ’s Women’s Commission Event in 1997.
BWFJ members Saladin Muhammad and Nathanette Mayo presenting Self-Determination Awards at BWFJ’s Annual MLK Support for Labor Banquet. The banner reads “Honor Dr. King with Political Action.”
Memorial March on September 27th 1993 for 2 workers killed by scabs. Local 15015, USWA on strike in Columbiana, AL and marching with BWFJ’s Workers Want Fairness Campaign Banner.
Board of Directors
Secretary, Archives Committee
Adreonna Bennett
Adreonna Bennett is the Community Engagement Archivist at UNC Charlotte’s Atkins Library in special collections and university archives. She coordinates library events and projects centered on special collections holdings. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies from UNC Chapel Hill and a Master’s in Library Science with a concentration in archives from North Carolina Central University. Her research interests include African American history and North Carolina history.
Chairperson
Tony Menelik Van Der Meer, PhD
Tony Menelik Van Der Meer is a community activist, organizer, and teacher. He has served as president of the Boston Black Political Task Force (BPTF), and the Boston Pan African Forum (BPAF). He has also served as a local advisor to the Boston Black Lives Matter chapter. Dr. Van Der Meer has been teaching for the past 26 years at the University of Massachusetts Boston where he is a Senior Lecturer in the Africana Studies Department. He received his MS in Community Economic Development from the Graduate School of Business at New Hampshire College; and received his MA, and PhD in Leadership and Change from Antioch University. He has designed and organized several historic domestic tours to Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma, Alabama to engage students and community members in intimate and interactive exchange about the Civil Rights/Black Power Movement. On the international level, Dr. Van Der Meer has led delegations of students and community members on guided visits to Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, and Baracoa, Cuba. Dr. Van Der Meer also consults and works together with individuals, community groups, and organizations to facilitate discussions on restorative justice, understanding and undoing racism, social movements, leadership development, and change processes. Dr. Van Der Meer is the coeditor of the book State of the Race, Creating Our 21st Century: Where Do We Go From Here? (2004), Diaspora Press.
Resource Development Committee
Joseph f. Jordan
Joseph F. Jordan worked in community-based activist organizations for most of his life and early on discovered his love of, and preference for, international work based on the principles of solidarity and anti-imperialism. He is deeply interested and invested in the role that the arts and cultural expression play in peoples’ struggles for self-determination. He is a member of organizations such as the Southern Africa Support Project and the Afro-Colombian Solidarity Network, which he helped to create. Joseph Jordan has worked in higher education for the past 48 years and currently works at UNC at Chapel Hill, where he focuses on diaspora social justice movements and the cultural politics of race, identity, and artistic production in the diaspora. He currently serves on the Board of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD); the City of Durham Cultural Advisory Board; and is the founding and current Board member of Our Children’s Place – for the Children of Incarcerated Mothers. He has served on the Editorial Advisory Boards of The Black Scholar, and PALARA – Publication of the Afro-Latin American Research Association and is the immediate past Chair of the Durham Historic Preservation Commission. He has published a few things, such as: Cabral, Solidarity and the African Diaspora in the Americas); special issue of The Black Scholar: The Anti-Apartheid Movement in the 1970’s; (book chapter) in No Easy Victories: African Liberation and American Activists over a Half-Century, 1950-2000
Vice Chair, Resource Development Committee
Mary Hooks
Mary Hooks is a Black, lesbian, feminist, abolitionist, pan-Africanist, mother, a member of Southerners on New Ground and part of the leadership and staff of the Movement 4 Black Lives. Mary joined SONG as a member in 2009 and began organizing with SONG in 2010. Mary’s commitment to Black liberation, which encompasses the liberation of LGBTQ folks, is rooted in her experiences growing up under the impacts of the War on Drugs. Her people are migrants of the Great Migration, factory workers, church folks, Black women, hustlers and addicts, dykes, studs, femmes, queens and all people fighting for the liberation of oppressed people. Mary Hooks believes that in order to reach a world that is free from fear, the safety and dignity of all people must be honored. Black people, oppressed people, and all those who are impacted by white supremacy must vision a new world, build our collective power, both locally and globally, and take action. She has been passionate about transformative organizing work that changes hearts and minds. She has been at the forefront of combatting racism, by taking on fights that impact the lives of Black and brown queer and trans people in the South, such as the work to abolish cash bail, defunding police, re-imagining public safety, and developing new organizers. When she is not ripping the eyebrows off of white supremacy and injustice, you can find Hooks plotting, scheming, and dreaming, but most of all loving on her people. “The mandate; to avenge the suffering of our ancestors, to earn the respect of future generations, and to be transformed in the service of the work. Let’s get free ya’ll!” - Mary Hooks
Zayid Muhammad
Zayid Muhammad has a radical activist profile of over 40 years! He is a proud cub of the Black Panther Party and the founding press officer of NY's Malcolm X Commemoration Committee. He was recently featured in the critically acclaimed Netflix documentary Who Killed Malcolm X? He is the organizer for NCAP or Newark Committees for Accountable Policing, and umbrella Organization for the social justice organizations represented on Newark's groundbreaking new Civilian Review Board over the Newark police Department. Most recently, he also became the Newark Strategist for Equal Justice USA playing a key role in their Community based Violence Intervention support efforts. He is an associate producer for All Policies R Local, a weekly HipHop Talk Radio Show formerly based at Rutgers University, Newark. He is a stage actor and poet working on two volumes of poetry: The Soul Poems; Offerings of Love and Rage and We Ride! Malcolm x, The Black Panther Party and Those Who Dare to Heir… Because of his fatherly bearing, young people have taken to calling him ‘Baba’ Zayed. ‘Baba’ means ‘father’ in yoruba
Treasurer, Archives Committee
Ajamu Amiri Dillahunt-Holloway
Ajamu Amiri Dillahunt-Holloway is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at Michigan State University and an Assistant Editor at Black Perspectives, the award-winning blog of the African American Intellectual History Society. Ajamu is a member of Black Workers for Justice (BWFJ), a board member with the Interreligious Foundation of Community Organizations (IFCO), and a board member with the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network. He is also a former intern with the SNCC Digital Gateway Project at Duke University. In May of 2019, Ajamu graduated from North Carolina Central University with a B.A. in History and a B.A. in Political Science. Ajamu also participated in the historic Demilitarize! Durham Palestine Coalition and is Co-Director of The Communiversity.
UE 150 Representative
Nichel Dunlap – Thompson
Nichel Dunlap-Thompson is a full-time student, owner, and founder of Production of Knowledge LLC, as well Eye of a Dove, Inc. Nichel is the Recording Secretary for the Charlotte City chapter of UE150 Public Service Workers Union as well as a Statewide Trustee. With the help of some amazing colleagues, she has participated in several press conferences, assisted in hosting a week-long organizing blitz, recruited and stayed connected to new members as well as long standing ones. All in an effort to bring awareness to the unfair labor practices in the U.S. South.
Communiversity Advisory Panel
Abdul Alkalimat
Abdul Alkalimat (PhD University of Chicago) is a scholar activist. His activist history includes SNCC, Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC), Peoples College, African Liberation Support Committee, Black Radical Congress, Black Left Unity Network. His scholarship includes Introduction to Afro-American Studies (1973), The Wall of Respect (2017), and The History of Black Studies (forthcoming 2021) Library video: http://alkalimat.org/audioviz.html#theinstitute website: http://alkalimat.org/.
Ashaki Binta
Ashaki Binta is a veteran organizer and freedom fighter in the Black Freedom Movement. She is a member of the Black Workers for Justice, having served in various areas of responsibility over the years including: Editor of Justice Speaks; founding organizer of the BWFJ Women’s Commission; Director of Organization; and International Director. She currently serves as National Organizer of the National Black Liberation Movement (NBLM) National Unity Initiative. e-mail: bintaorg@gmail.com
Erin Dale
Erin Dale is the executive director of The Partnership Funds and the Partnership Action Funds, a c3/c4 funder collaborative that has defined the practice of grantmaking to advance community & independent political power in 11 states. She is the former Executive Director of Blueprint NC—a collaborative of 58 progressive organizations working for a fairer, more just North Carolina. She is a founding member and the President of the Fertile Ground Food Cooperative in Southeast Raleigh and a community driven effort to start a community owned cooperative grocery store and gathering space. Erin started her journey to heal her family and community ancestral wounds in 2017 and was given the spiritual name denai sankofa in 2019. She practices southern hoodoo and apprentices as medicine carrier of the pachakuti mesa tradition. Her healing and cultural work as denai focus on holistic healing, herbs, tool making, art and alignment alchemy. Erin founded Alchemi LLC in 2020 to focus on work as a movement healer and cultural artist. Erin is most proud of her accomplishment as a mother of two sons. She has a degree in Sociology from the College of William and Mary.
James W. “Jim” Wrenn
Jim Wrenn was educated at Virginia Military Institute and Duke University. He worked forty-five years as a wage worker and labor activist at Duke University Heating Plant, Firestone Tire & Rubber Co, and Cummins Rocky Mount Engine Plant, retiring in 2019. Jim was a member and officer of Operating Engineers Local 465, Machinists Local 2541 and Carolina Auto, Aerospace & Machine Workers Union/UE Local 150. Since 2001, he has been a member of Phoenix Historical Society: African American History of Edgecombe County (NC). Jim is the author of several articles and research papers on Abner Berry, Knights of Labor in Edgecombe County (1886-1896), Tobacco Workers Leaf House organizing campaign (1946), the 1978 Rocky Mount sanitation workers strike, and the 1979 Greensboro Massacre.
Akinyele Umoja
Akinyele Umoja is an educator, scholar-activist and author. Currently, he is a professor of the Department of African-American Studies at Georgia State University. Dr. Umoja’s writing has been featured in scholarly publications including The Journal of Black Studies, New Political Science, The International Journal of Africana Studies, Black Scholar, Radical History Review, and Socialism and Democracy. He is the author of We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in The Mississippi Freedom Movement (New York University Press, 2013).
Sekia Royal
Sekia Royal is the president of UE 150, a Public Service Workers Union in NC. Sekia has served in several leadership positions including Vice President and co-chair of their national Women’s Caucus. She is also a member of the Southern Workers Assembly and Black Workers for Justice along with a host of organizations. Originally from Kansas, Sekia is the owner operator of Premier BBQ and Catering.
Sobukwe Bambaata
Sobukwe Bambaata has been involved in the Black Liberation Struggle in the Philadelphia area around the issues of political prisoners, media and political education.
Georie Bryant
A native of Durham, Georie Bryant is a community activist who holds collaboration, equity and reciprocity very close to his ethic. As a descendent of Stagville Plantation, a chef, and farmer, Georie has roots which tie him closely to agriculture and the food industry, his work often centering around addressing injustice in the ways that Black and Brown people interact with food and food systems. Georie earned his associate's degree in the Culinary Arts, with extensive experience working in the food and hospitality industries. Having cooked everywhere from fast food to fine dining, Georie has a broad perspective of the food industry. Georie has received a certification in Sustainable agriculture and has farmed for over a decade. He is expanding into the work of ethnobotany in relation to indigenous practices. His background in Culinary Anthropology has pushed him into the world of research, where he focuses his attention on culture and political economies. That research has developed a broader knowledge base around alternative economies through the historical analysis of different indigenous cultures throughout the Global South. His work with organizations such as Island Culturez, Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective, National Black Food and Justice Alliance, SAAFON, EFOD (Equitable Food Oriented Development), the Castanea Fellowship (as a fellow) and his own company SymBodied, see him frequently working both cross-culturally and intergenerationally to better understand, and ultimately address, the problems of our communities.
Jonina Stith Wrenn
Jonina Stith Wrenn graduated from North Carolina State University with a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology and minors in Nutrition and Philosophy of Health, Medicine, and Human Value. She is currently attending UNC School of Medicine with an expected completion date of May 2027. Jonina also works as a Clinical Sitel Manager at Roche on companion diagnostic studies in the neuro therapeutic area. Jonina is a member of the Black Workers for Justice Women’s Working Group. She also volunteers with InterAct of Wake County, a safe place for women and children who have been affected by domestic violence and sexual abuse. She also volunteers regularly with Independent Animal Rescue on the cat team. Jonina intends to practice primary care medicine in North Carolina as well as work in public policy related to equitable health care.
Robin D. G. Kelley
Robin D.G. Kelley is the Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA. His books include, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original (2009); Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times (2012); Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (2002); Race Rebels: Culture Politics and the Black Working Class (1994); Yo’ Mama’s DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America (1997); and Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression (1990). He is currently completing two books, Black Bodies Swinging: An American Postmortem and The Education of Ms. Grace Halsell: An Intimate History of the American Century (both forthcoming Metropolitan Books). His essays have appeared in several anthologies and publications, including The Nation, Monthly Review, New York Times, Counterpunch, Souls, Black Music Research Journal, Callaloo, Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noir, Social Text, Metropolis, American Visions, Fashion Theory, American Historical Review, Souls, Metropolis, frieze: contemporary art and culture, and The Boston Review
Tasneem Siddiqui
Dr. Tasneem Siddiqui is an assistant professor in the Department of History, Politics, and Social Justice at Winston-Salem State University. She is a member of the Africa World Now Project Media collective, serving as the senior researcher, content contributor, production director, and associate producer for the weekly radio programs Africa World Now Project, which airs every Wednesday on WSNC 90.5 from 7-8 pm EST and AfricaNow! on WPFW 89.3 from 1-2 pm EST. In addition, she is currently working on her book, Freedom is a Place: Black Self-Determination and Land-Based Struggles in the Lowcountry and Sea Islands. Her work explores the intersections of race, gender, categories of power, spirituality, and geography and how historically marginalized peoples and communities produce systems of knowledge that informs their futurity and freedom
James R. Pope
James Pope’s research/teaching maps the intellectual traditions and philosophical continuities in African/a radical thought and cultural behavior as it relates to understanding the interaction between human rights, social movements, global African/a radicalism, and critical consciousness formation. Before Winston Salem State University, james taught various courses on African and Diasporic history, culture, and politics at Georgetown, Howard, and Virginia Commonwealth Universities. Having published chapters that explore topics ranging from race & human rights to Pan Africanism & identity, james is author of An Africana Reader: An Anthology of Sociopolitical Thought and Cultural Resistance. Other work and ideas have appeared in, but not limited to, the Journal of African American Studies; ROAR Magazine; Atlanta Blackstar; The Final Call; Poverty & Race Journal. james has appeared on RT; NPR; Pacifica Radio, to name a few. james is [co]Curator, [co]Host & Executive Producer of AfricaNow!, heard on WPFW, 89.3FM, Pacifica Radio, Washington, DC (1-2PM, EST, U.S., every Wednesday); and Creator, Host & Producer of Africa World Now Project heard on WSNC 90.5FM, NPR, Winston Salem State University (7-8PM, EST, U.S., every Wednesday).
Tatia Ash
We who believe in freedom cannot rest.” Ella Baker Tatia Ash is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in community development, organizational capacity building, and developing strategic partnerships. She has over two decades of experience and is skilled in program management, organizational and board development, and financial management
Tekla Johnson
Laura Chenwen
Laura Chenven is an adult and labor educator and community organizer. She has served as Education Director of both property services and healthcare workers’ unions. She has also served in leadership and consulting roles with labor-based programs that build training funds, apprenticeship and mentorship programs, and training for environmentally sustainable jobs. Laura continues to work as a consultant on union-based training and education. She also is a Board Member of the Mid-Hudson Anti Slavery History Project, a public history organization that conducts research and programming on the history of enslavement and abolition in New York State. Her responsibilities include working with interns on mapping sites of significance to this history, developing public talks and presentations, and working with the Oh, Freedom! Quilting Project to create community-based commemorative art with organizations in the Hudson Valley.
Timothy Hunt
Timothy Hunt is Currently employed at Rocky Mount Engine Plant as an equipment control tech and is Vice President of CAAMWU (Carolina Auto, Aerospace & Machine Workers Union), the private sector chapter of the NC Public Service Workers Union, UE Local 150. He is a member of Quankey Missionary Baptist Church. I enjoy working in the Community, Love to travel, spend time with grandkids, playing sports, working on all kinds of machines, and riding motorcycles.
Willie Brown
I work for The Great City of Durham as a (MSS) Maintenance Specialist Senior, in the Public Works Department, dealing with stormwater underground infrastructure. My philosophy is simple: Do your best each and every day. Anyone can slack, however, the best don't. Just put in the work and it will reward you, far better than accolades people can ever give you. I have a loving wife and we share 6 children and 12 grandchildren. I'm from Charlotte, N.C. when it wasn't such a big city. NASCAR was the Biggest thing going, the Charlotte Hornets still had a little sting and we still had a few rocky roads. I love to fish but that's been profitize to the point that it's not fun anymore. I still enjoy mechanics and time with my family.
The Communiversity Working Group
Director
Shafeah M’Balia
Shafeah M’Balia is a member of Black Workers for Justice, having served over the years in various capacities including, Managing Editor of Justice Speaks, a founding member of BWFJ Women’s Commission, coordinator for Eastern NC Hub. She is also a founding member of Muslims for Social Justice and Southern Regional Coordinator of the Imam Jamil Action Network. She is Co-Director of The Communiversity.
Co-Director
Ajamu Amiri Dillahunt-Holloway
Ajamu Amiri Dillahunt-Holloway is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at Michigan State University and an Assistant Editor at Black Perspectives, the award-winning blog of the African American Intellectual History Society. Ajamu is a member of Black Workers for Justice (BWFJ), a board member with the Interreligious Foundation of Community Organizations (IFCO), and a board member with the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network. He is also a former intern with the SNCC Digital Gateway Project at Duke University. In May of 2019, Ajamu graduated from North Carolina Central University with a B.A. in History and a B.A. in Political Science. Ajamu also participated in the historic Demilitarize! Durham2Palestine Coalition and is Co-Director of The Communiversity.
Administrative Organizer/Consultant
Muna Mujahid
Muna Mujahid is a Grassroots Philanthropist, Entrepreneur and Social Guru. She was the first Community Organizer for Durham Community Land Trustees and the National Community Land Trust movement. She has worked with the Working Women’s Organizing Project of SEJ, Operation Breakthrough, and The MS. Foundation’s Womens Institute. She is working on developing MUNA’s on MAIN st in Roxboro, a Cultural community space for Healers, outdoor space for small retreats, movies and live Jazz performances.
