Amiri Baraka

Amiri Baraka
Born	October 7, 1934 Newark, New Jersey, United States
Died	January 9, 2014 Newark, New Jersey, United States
Nationality	New Afrikan

Amiri Baraka (October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014) was a Statesian poet, playwright, and political activist. He participated in the civil rights and Black power movements.

Political career

Baraka participated in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and was an early leader of the black power movement. He helped organize the 1967 Newark Black Power Conference that created a political and economic agenda for Black people in the USA and founded the Congress of African People. He also helped organize the 1972 National Black Political Convention which attempted to create a nationwide Black political party. The congress adopted a resolution of support for Palestine and led Baraka to abandon electoralism.

Baraka became a communist by 1974 and founded the Revolutionary Communist League, which followed MZT. He continued to support self-determination for the Black nation. The RCL merged with the League of Revolutionary Struggle in 1980. He left the LRC in the late 1980s when it became solely dedicated to Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign.