Mayor Ras J. Baraka, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba of Jackson, Mississippi, Jazz and R&B Legend James Mtume, New Jersey Institute of Technology President Dr. Joel Bloom, and numerous other African-American educators, activists, and community leaders will hold a press conference on Wednesday, December 1, at 11 a.m., at NJIT to announce that the Third National Black Political Convention will be held in Newark from Thursday, April 28, 2022 to Sunday, May 1, 2022, at NJIT.
The announcement will be made in the Agile Strategy Lab of NJIT’s Central King Building, located at 355 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the city’s Central Ward.
The first National Black Political Convention (also known as the Gary Convention) was held March 10 to March 12, 1972, in Gary, Indiana. Approximately 10,000 African-Americans gathered to discuss, debate, and advocate for Black people in the United States. Part of the stated goal was to increase the number of Black elected officials, increase representation and create a Black agenda for fundamental change in the lives of Black people in the United States.
The 1972 historic gathering was primarily organized by Amiri Baraka, Sr., father of Mayor Baraka, Representative Charles Diggs, and one of the first Black mayors in the United States, Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary, Indiana. In attendance were high-profile celebrities, public figures, and entertainers of the day, including Dr. Betty Shabazz, Coretta Scott-King, James Brown, Harry Belafonte, Richard Roundtree, and many others.