The Black Radical Congress (BRC) is an organization founded in 1998 in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. It is a grassroots network of individuals and organizations of

African descent Black is a racial classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin and often additional phenotypical ...

focused on advocating for broad progressive

social justice Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...

racial equality Racial equality is when people of all Race (human categorization), races and Ethnic group, ethnicities are treated in an egalitarian/equal manner. Racial equality occurs when institutions give individuals legal, moral, and Civil and political r ...

and

economic justice Economic justice is a component of social justice and welfare economics. It is a set of moral and ethical principles for building economic institutions, where the ultimate goal is to create an opportunity for each person to establish a sufficie ...

goals within the United States.

History

At the organizing congress in

in June 1998, 2,000 people participated in creating the organization.Black Radical Congress
,

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

social justice wiki, accessed 2 January 2007 However, their first mission predates the organizing congress, having been publicly endorsed and published by a number of high-profile black scholars and activists on 16 March 1998. On 17 April 1999, the BRC ratified a "freedom agenda" listing 15 objectives dealing with racial and economic justice in the United States. The National Council of the BRC adopted a

mission statement A mission statement is a short statement of why an organization exists, what its overall goal is, the goal of its operations: what kind of product or service it provides, its primary customers or market, and its geographical region of operation ...

on 26 September 1999 in East St. Louis,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. The opening paragraph states:

The purpose of the Black Radical Congress (BRC) is to promote dialogue among African American activists and scholars on the left; to discuss critical issues on the national and international scene that pertain to the Black community; to explore new strategies and directions for progressive political, social and cultural movements; and to renew the Black radical movement through increased unified action.

The complete mission statemen

discusses approaches to radical democratic methods involving conferences, forums and publications. "Principles of unity" were also adopted, stating that the BRC was established as a "center without walls" focusing on "transformative politics that focuses on the conditions of Black working and poor people." A national organizing conference was convened in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

in 2000, and other conferences have taken place in subsequent years.

Organization

The BRC has both individual and organizational memberships. It is headed by a National Congress. Each year, the BRC chooses a different "theme" to focus its work on; past themes have included anti-militarism and the prison-industrial complex. The BRC has at least two caucuses, subgroups within the organization, the labor and

working-class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

caucus and the Pat Parker

Queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

Caucus. The BRC has local chapters in Washington, D.C.; the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

;

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

;

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

;

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

; New York City;

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

;

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Principles

Race and racial justice

The BRC states: "Black is not necessarily a color or hue, but encompasses all peoples of African descent."Forging a Black Liberation Agenda for the 21st Century
", accessed 2 January 2007 Their work is focused on racial justice as well as broader social and economic justice as it intersects with the politics of race and racial oppression.

Radical politics

"Radical means getting to the root causes of society's injustices and working for root-level, fundamental change. Radicalism is an honored tradition in Black political history." The BRC has many ties to the Communist Party, USA, although the Congress does not explicitly identify itself as

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

Endorsers

A number of high-profile black scholars and activists endorsed the creation of the BRC on 16 March 1998:Black Radical Congress Mission," accessed 2 January 2007
/ref> * Marlene Archer (National Co-chair, National Conference of Black Lawyers) * Amina Baraka ( Communist Party, USA) *

Amiri Baraka Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism. He was the author of numerous b ...

(''Unity & Struggle'' newspaper) * Debbie Bell ( Communist Party, USA) * Angela Y. Davis (Professor, University of California at Santa Cruz) * Johanna Fernandez ( International Socialist Organization) * Bill Fletcher, Jr. (Labor activist and writer, Washington, D.C.,

Democratic Socialists of America The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a political organization in the United States and the country's largest Socialism, socialist organization. Sitting on the Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left of the politic ...

) * Lewis Gordon (

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

) * Robin D. G. Kelley (

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

) * Marian Kramer ( National Welfare Rights Union) * Julianne Malveaux * Manning Marable * Barbara Ransby, African American Women in Defense of Ourselves (1991

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

Ad), writer and historian * Sonia Sanchez (poet) * Joe Sims ( Communist Party, USA) * Yicki Smith ( Feminist Action Network) * Jarvis Tyner ( Communist Party, USA) *

Cornel West Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, theologian, political activist, politician, social critic, and public intellectual. West was an independent candidate in the 2024 United States presidential election and is an ou ...

(

)

External links

Black Radical Congress website

Publications

* Special issue of

The Black Scholar ''The Black Scholar'' (''TBS'') is a journal founded in California, in 1969, by Robert Chrisman, Nathan Hare, and Allan Ross. It is the third oldest Black studies journal in the US, after the NAACP’s ''The Crisis'' (founded in 1910) and the ' ...

, on "The Black Radical Congress", vol 28, #3/4 (1998), contains BRC Principles of Unity, Summary of Workshop Sessions, reports and commentaries by Herb Boyd, John Woodford, Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, Jennifer Hamer and Helen Neville, Carl Dix, Clarence Lang *
From Conference to Organization: The Challenges of Building the Black Radical Congress
, by Jamala Rogers *
Global Apartheid and America's New Racial Domain
, by Manning Marable *
Rosa Parks: A Woman of Substance
, by

Eric Foner Eric Foner (; born February 7, 1943) is an American historian. He writes extensively on American political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African American biography, the American Civil War, Reconstr ...

, discussing the life and death of

Rosa Parks Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American civil rights activist. She is best known for her refusal to move from her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, in defiance of Jim Crow laws, which sparke ...

*
The Left and the Millions More Movement
, by

*
We Charge Genocide
, by Jamala Rogers, discussing

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

*
The terrorist named Hurricane Katrina
, by Bill Fletcher, Jr., discussing

*
Whither the Struggle Against Racism
, by Rose Brewer, discussing the World Social Forum in

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in 2005 *
Contemporary Police Brutality and Misconduct
press release, undated *

press release, undated *

, press release, 25 April 2001 *

, press release, 12 April 2001 *

, press release, 1 December 2000 *

, press release, 28 February 2000

References

{{authority control Organizations established in 1998 1998 establishments in Illinois African-American leftism African-American organizations Black Power Identity politics in the United States Community organizations Democratic socialist organizations in the United States Social democratic organizations in the United States Social justice organizations Socialism in Illinois