Ajamu Baraka spoke with Garland Nixon about the need to oppose U.S. foreign policy in Africa and in the Middle East.

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Ajamu Sibeko Baraka (/əˈʒɑːmuː bəˈrɑːkə/ ə-ZHAH-moo bə-RAH-kə; born October 25, 1953)[2] is an American political activist.[1] In 2016, he was the Green Party nominee for Vice President of the United States on the ballot in 45[a] states and received 1,457,216 votes (1.07% of the popular vote).

Baraka currently serves as the national organizer and spokesperson for the Black Alliance for Peace.[3]

Early life

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Baraka was born in 1953 and grew up on the South Side of Chicago.[4] He served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Upon discharge, he moved to the southern United States, where he became involved in anti-segregation activism.[5]

Baraka received his BA in international studies and political science from the University of South Florida, Tampa in 1982 and his MA and PhD in political science from Clark Atlanta University in 1987.[6] Baraka has said the work of W.E.B. Du Bois was important in the formation of his black internationalist worldview, and he attended Clark Atlanta, where Du Bois had taught. Baraka became involved in the Central America solidarity movement, organizing delegations to Nicaragua in support of the Nicaraguan Revolution. He then became an Amnesty International volunteer, eventually moving up to the board of the organization.[5]

Career

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From 2004 to 2011, Baraka served as the founding executive director of the US Human Rights Network, a national network that grew to over 300 U.S.-based organizations and 1,500 individual members. Baraka has served on the boards of several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Africa Action.[7]

As the Southern Regional Director of Amnesty International USA Baraka was instrumental in developing the organization's 1998 campaign to expose human rights violations in the United States.[8] Additionally, Baraka directed Amnesty's National Program to Abolish the Death Penalty and was involved in most of their major death penalty cases.[8]

Baraka has taught political science at the university level and is currently an editor and contributing columnist for the Black Agenda Report and a writer for CounterPunch.[8]

Ajamu Baraka - Wikipedia