35 Facts About Omali Yeshitela

Omali Yeshitela was born on Joseph Waller on October 9,1941 and is an American political activist and author.

Omali Yeshitela is a co-founder and current chairman of the African People's Socialist Party which leads the Uhuru Movement.

In September 2024 Omali Yeshitela was convicted in US federal court of conspiring to act as an agent of the Russian government.

Omali Yeshitela conspired with Aleksandr Ionov, a Russian agent taking directions from the FSB to spread pro-Russian propaganda in the United States.

In December 2024, Omali Yeshitela was sentenced to three years' probation and 300 hours of community service.

Omali Yeshitela was raised in a community formerly known as the Gas Plant District, an African community on the South Side of St Petersburg.

Omali Yeshitela attended Jordan Elementary School, Sixteenth Street Junior High School, and Gibbs High School as a youth.

Yeshitela belongs to what historian Donna Murch calls "the Black Power Generation", black working-class activists who came of age between the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till and the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X Yeshitela is less than two months younger than Till and was 13 years old when the 14-year-old Till was lynched in Drew, Mississippi on August 28,1955.

Omali Yeshitela has noted that the lynching of Till impacted his worldview, and the worldview of Black People in the United States.

That is when Omali Yeshitela decided to leave school and join the United States Army.

Omali Yeshitela has noted that it was in Germany where he began to learn about imperialism.

In Fort Benning, Georgia, Omali Yeshitela was accused of attempting to hold the hand of a white woman at a snack bar because he refused to drop money in her hand.

Omali Yeshitela returned to St Petersburg, Florida, following his discharge from the US Army in 1963.

Omali Yeshitela worked in many fields such as manual labor in a carpet sales and installation warehouse, and as a "copy boy", a proofreader and an apprentice printer for the St Petersburg Times.

Omali Yeshitela became involved with other college students who organized against the Jim Crow policies in St Petersburg, Florida.

Omali Yeshitela attended meetings and participated in some actions led by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People but did not agree with their tactics and objectives.

Omali Yeshitela explored the Nation of Islam because of his love for Malcolm X but did not choose to join them.

Omali Yeshitela became associated with the Congress of Racial Equality.

Omali Yeshitela was an organizer for a voter registration and education project in African communities of North Florida.

Omali Yeshitela participated in the Civil Rights Movement in his youth during the 1950s and 1960s as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, an influential organization.

In 1966, Omali Yeshitela organized the first membership-based SNCC chapter.

Omali Yeshitela notes that one issue they had been concerned with was a $50 million federal grant to the city of St Petersburg, which the city government had chosen to "beautify" downtown St Petersburg.

Omali Yeshitela had intervened into radical thought with his differentiation between colonialism and racism.

Omali Yeshitela spoke of the exploitative insurance that the African working class had to endure in St Petersburg, Florida.

Omali Yeshitela was sentenced to five years in state prison for the mural incident.

Omali Yeshitela created JOMO while he was incarcerated, serving time for the December 1966 mural incident.

The Burning Spear was first produced by the Junta of Militant Organizations, the organization that Omali Yeshitela formed in 1968.

Omali Yeshitela has described The Burning Spear as a dual and contending power institution.

Omali Yeshitela co-founded the African People's Socialist Party in May 1972 through the fusion of three Florida-based organizations: the Junta of Militant Organizations, based in St Petersburg, Florida, led by Omali Yeshitela, the Black Rights Fighters based in Ft.

Omali Yeshitela stated early on that the mission of the APSP was to "complete the Black Revolution of the Sixties", describing a period of defeat resulting from the counterinsurgency war enacted by the US government against the Black Power movement of the 1960s.

Omali Yeshitela writes that the goal of the African People's Socialist Party was:.

Omali Yeshitela moved to Oakland, California, in 1981, living and working there.

Omali Yeshitela served on St Petersburg Mayor David Fischer's Challenge 2001 Steering Committee and on the St Petersburg Housing Authority's Hope VI Advisory Committee, two projects dedicated to attracting jobs and investment to South St Petersburg.

Omali Yeshitela has chaired the political action committee of the Coalition of African American Leadership, made up of a number of black churches and civil rights groups in the area, and served on the board of radio station WMNF community radio.

Omali Yeshitela has self-published several books and pamphlets with the African People's Socialist Party's Burning Spear Uhuru Publications:.