College Professor Dr. Akil Khalfani Runs for US Congress

West Orange, NJ- The power and spirit of the African drums are being sounded for this year’s US 10th Congressional District. Incumbent establishment Democratic US Congressman Donald Payne, Jr is being challenged by a passionate West Orange, New Jersey progressive independent Democrat named Dr. Akil Khalfani. His voting line is 3D. The district consists of portions of Essex, Hudson, and Union counties, and includes the cities of Newark, West Orange, East Orange, and Orange. The district is majority African American and has been represented in Congress by Donald Payne, Jr since November 2012. Khalfani, along with many people in district 10, are extremely disappointed with their current representation in Congress. He says, “we need someone to represent us who has a progressive agenda for positive change. “I am not satisfied with the status quo” Khalfani said. “We have to step outside our comfort zones to create spaces for courageous and possibly difficult conversations about the path forward for all Americans” he continued. Khalfani now strives to put his expertise and training to use in a practical and broader fashion for the 10th district and for the American people.

Although a newcomer to the national political scene, Dr. Khalfani has a long track record of organizing marginalized communities (i.e. LBGTQ, the poor, immigrants, and the working class) for empowerment, especially Black and Latino communities, through his activism and scholarship.

Dr. Khalifani, affectionately called brother Akil in the Afrocentric movement, has used his office as the Director of Essex County College’s Africana Institute in Newark, NJ to highlight the government neglect of its most disadvantage citizens. He has been one of the leading college professors in the Unites States of America using his African centered scholarship, research, and his writings to expose the resisting inhuman ideology of white supremacy and the systematic institutionalization of racism. These racial discriminatory philosophies have contributed greatly to long standing inequalities in the African American community.

Because of his progressive work to solve problems within the human experience, Dr. Khalfani is a respected scholar, activist, and leader. He has been honored many times for his long-standing commitment to the residents of New Jersey and beyond through his leadership work dismantling racial and social inequities, improving public education, and addressing homelessness. He has been a Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies, and the Director of the Africana Institute at Essex County College for nearly 15 years. He is an active member of the West Orange Human Relations Commission. He has worked with community, political, religious and educational leaders and change agents in New Jersey for over 22 years.

Dr. Khalfani’s US campaign for congress is in line with the masses of people calling for progressive change in the United States. His campaign is calling for the following: more equitable access to healthcare in the United States, drafting legislation to produce a commission on excessive, unfair, and unjust sentencing laws and practices, ending for-profit private prisons, a multi-tiered implementation of reparations in the United States that includes free education for African Americans, create inclusive, anti-racist, and anti-discrimination policies, support healthcare for all, support for the $15 minimum wage as a beginning place for all wage earners, support the right for labor to develop and maintain unions to represent their interests, create incentives for student loan forgiveness, immigration reform for a reasonable road to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, support marriage equality regardless of one’s sexual orientation, and the Green New Deal.

He has been endorsed by Barbara King, the City of Newark African Commission; Joe Krakoviak, West Orange, NJ’s Councilman; Demand Universal Health Care; Anthony Diaz, Newark’s Black Lives Matter social justice activist, and the Movement for a People’s Party New Jersey.

However, Dr. Khalfani has won the endorsement of New Jersey’s most respected and long time human rights activist Larry Hamm of the People’s Organization for Progress. Hamm says, “POP has endorsed Dr. Khalfani because he is a freedom fighter who is active in the community and speaks out frequently on issues of concern to the people. He has been in the struggle for justice for years and he continues to fight to this day. He has stood shoulder to shoulder with the People’s Organization For Progress over the years in our protests for human and civil rights at home and abroad.”

Larry Hamm is the State Chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress (P.O.P). He has chapters in cities and towns throughout the State of New Jersey.

Although the coronavirus is preventing people from physical going to the polls, the citizens of New Jersey will vote by paper ballot.

According to the NJ Department of State’s NJ Division of Elections, “every vote by mail ballot that is postmarked on or before November 3, 2020, and that is received by November 10, 2020, at 8:00 p.m. shall be considered valid and shall be canvassed, assuming the ballot meets all other statutory requirements.”

Hotep (An Ancient African / Kemetic / EgyptIan word for Peace)!!!

-Bashir Muhammad Akinyele is a writer, History and Africana Studies teacher at Weequahic High School in Newark, NJ. He is also the co-coordinator for ASCAC's (the Association for Study of Classical African Civilizations) Study Group Chapter in Newark, NJ.(https://ascac.org/)