OPINION: The National Black Radical Organizing Conference: Carrying on tradition

As time draws near, I can’t help but be filled with an overwhelming sense of excitement and anxiety. Today is Thursday, May 29th, the night before the National Black Radical Organizing Conference (NBROC), and I am with Too Black creating nametages so the other team members can complete them tomorrow. Thank God for the internet and the ability to contact others on short notice. The butterflies mount as the night continues, partly due to the pressure of organizing the conference and hoping that it goes off without too much of a hitch.

The other crucial part is realizing we are walking in the footsteps of Black revolutionaries who came before us. That realization comes with its own sense of duress that could cause one to fall into the trap of comparison. Asking, albeit unfairly, how do I measure up to these towering figures that came before me. However, while engaging in the logistics of this conference, one barely has the time to be burdened by intrusive thoughts. A job has to be completed, and we cannot afford to let our uncertainties plague our minds or blind us to our objectives. So, with my coughs and sneezes, I prepare for tomorrow, keeping my DayQuil and hand sanitizer close.

We’ve never organized a conference before, but given our collective talents, skills, and experience, we were more than willing to take on the challenge. Before delving into the 2025 NBROC, we must first understand why a conference of this magnitude is so significant, especially in Indiana. That would require us to dive into some Indiana history and understand the backdrop against which the conference emerges.

Building on the past

Back in March of 1972, ten thousand Black people descended upon Gary, IN to attend the National Black Political Convention (NBPC). It was here where they discussed, debated, and theorized on many issues that we are still encountering today. From the rise in inflation to state repression, Black people who attended the convention were, similar to us, striving to investigate, interpret, and resolve the complicated world in which they lived. Out of that labor derived a National Black Agenda, one that would later be abandoned with only a few aspects remaining intact. Now, five decades later, the NBROC is yet another attempt to grapple with the same issues the NBPC dealt with. However, we now have the advantage of 20/20 hindsight and a hardline political stance developed from understanding that past. While our numbers are smaller than that of the NBPC, we are more focused and grounded in our political ideology. As organizer and co-founder of the Black Alliance for Peace, Ajamu Baraka, stated “this is not a place for liberals.” 

The 53 year gap between the two events speaks to the political landscape of the state of Indiana and the country as a whole. The absence of a radical/revolutionary ideology in Black political consciousness can be felt throughout Black America. Now, Black people are more concerned with thriving in capitalism rather than its eradication. Chants calling for “Black Power!” or “All power to the people!” have been replaced with rhetoric favorable to “Black business” and the “Black dollar.” Indiana, like many flyover states, became ground zero for this kind of ideology.

Self-determination is an essential component of our fight if we are to control our political destinies and combat the State. The NBROC stands is an example of Black/African/New Afrikan people taking matters into their own hands without the approval of liberal-led organizations. We must have clearcut objectives in place if we are to bring any of this to fruition, objectives emphasized in the three plenaries on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Each plenary posed a question: Friday, “What Time Is It?”; Saturday, “What Is To Be Done?”; and Sunday, “Is There An Electoral Strategy That Is Left of the Democrats?” Each alluded to a grave concern that must be thoroughly interrogated if we are to make progress. All oppressions are expressions of the State which come in the form of capitalism, imperialism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. They can only be opposed through study, organization, and a clear ideology to rally behind. None of this is new to the Black Radical Tradition. We are just bringing it back to the forefront which, one may argue, is the ultimate objective of the conference. The Black Left is more than an ideological framework. It transcends the realms of intelligentsia to become, quite literally, a way of life.

What the conference was like: My perspective

It’s one thing to read about the Black Left but to witness it in motion is another phenomenon entirely. Once you stroll into the doors of the Theological Seminary of Butler University, a group of Black women greet you. Their warm and inviting expressions from behind the registration table fill you with ease as they browse their laptops for your information. When your name is found, they hand you a name tag then direct you to where to go next. Past the registration desk, down a long hallway, you see a motley group of organizers hailing from various parts of the country conversing with one another. Conversations range from politics, history, and dialectics to music, sports, and their favorite tv shows. Many attendees from the conference are delegates of the sponsor organizations: The Black Alliance for Peace, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Black Men Build, Community Movement Builders, Cooperation Jackson, and National Black Liberation Movement. They pass out fliers, newspapers, and brochures, literature that gives the attendees insight on the services each organization provides.

Friday is a simple day filled with check-ins, a meet-and-greet where hors d’oeuvres are served, a welcome ceremony, and an opening plenary. However, Saturday is not so simple. This day is filled with a plenary, two workshop breakout sessions, a film screening, lunch, dinner, and live entertainment to close out the night. The first workshop session is from 11:30am-1:00pm and the other is from 2:30pm-4:00pm. Every breakout session has six workshops, each led by a sponsor organization of the conference. Topics covered in these breakout sessions range from building cooperatives and land trusts to dismantling the settler colonial logics of patriarchy. Other workshops address ending police militarization, building self-defense networks, constructing grassroots media, organizing Black working class power, and many other subjects. One only needs to read the title of these workshops to realize that we are not creating curricula that are concerned with the average or trivial. We are not centering business, cryptocurrency, or home ownership, nor are we packaging it as a pathway toward liberation.

Amongst the bustling of the conference weekend, one could spot the organizers of the event swaying between tabling, public speaking, facilitating workshops, and running miscellaneous errands. Standing amongst the multitude with a 6 foot 3 slender built frame and a full-bread was poet, educator, author, and organizer, Too Black. He is the on-the-ground coordinator which meant that he was the main point of contact for all coordinators of the conference. Upon observing him, you quickly learn that even while frantically moving about the crowd, he maintains a calm and stoic demeanor. Not necessarily cold and disconnected but controlled and focused. As the on-the-ground coordinator, he is the one calling the shots, making the split-decisions, and guiding the flow of the conference.

Another organizer that can be seen moving about is Randolph, a shorter and stocky built gentleman who swaggers about smoothly through the halls with a jovial smile. He is the transportation coordinator which means he was responsible for ensuring that the buses and vans were arriving and leaving on time. Looking around, you gain a sense that every organization seemingly moves as their own self-sufficient unit–disseminating information, facilitating workshops, and supplying representatives as their own public speakers for the plenaries. 

Each organizer at this conference moves with a sense of purpose and urgency that is undoubtedly reflective of their ideology, an ideology steeped within the Black Radical Tradition which calls into question the oppression endured by Black and other oppressed people. This tradition not only critiques capitalism, imperialism, white supremacy, and patriarchy, but also requires one to be disciplined and diligent. These qualities are embodied by organizers like Erica Caines, Kamau Franklin, Josh Ingram, and many others. Every move and decision made by these organizers brims with a poised confidence. Yet, the confidence never bleed into arrogance. Actually, it was quite the opposite. They maintained a hopeful and buoyant presence that flooded the atmosphere. A hope that can only be grasped and truly understood by a group like this. Witnessing a mass of Black radicals and their comrades conversing and debating with one another is electrifying. One cannot but get swept up in the sheer gravity of the moment..

One of the many highlights of the conference comes in the form of two recorded calls by profound writer and political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal. The first recording is played on Saturday and the other on Sunday during the plenaries. Listening to this living legend espouse his wisdom in his signature smooth velvety tone is enthralling. Yet, hearing Mumia is also a chilling reminder of the ways in which the State marks our radicals for death. Not necessarily a physical death–even though that’s always on the menu–but a spiritual one.

Unfortunately, Black people have a frightening and yet intimate relationship with death. Too often, Black people succumb to the violence of this system relegating them to poverty, prison, or the cemetery, all deaths in their respects. However, every so often, a figure emerges from those conditions to lend a sharp and scathing critique this state-funded torture. Mumia exists amongst a long tradition of Black radicals who refuse to succumb to this system.

Sunday is the closing plenary where the panelists discussed whether or not there should be an electoral strategy amongst the radical ideology. The conversation focuses on electoral strategies at the local level and how to approach them from a principled stance.

An action-packed ending

As the conference comes to an end, the organizers from the Pendleton 2 Defense Committee host a rally for the conference attendees. The rally takes place in Anderson, IN, the place where political prisoners, Christopher “Naeem” Trotter and John “Balagoon” Cole, were sentenced. I decide to drive to the rally, but a bus was provided for those who need a ride. On the way there, I can’t help but wonder, given the increased expressions of fascism, if we will be confronted with resistance.

As I arrive in Anderson, I see a sizable crowd forming at the Government Center downtown. Attendees from the conference are now putting theory into practice by engaging in protest on behalf of the Pendleton 2. Attendees from the conference are holding up signs, banners, and participating in chants requesting for the freedom of these political prisoners. Pendleton 2 Defense Committee members take turns speaking on the megaphone highlighting the case as well as the progress they’ve made in the community. There is a section in the rally where men who were incarcerated with the P2 speak about their experiences as well. Individuals like “Big R” Robinson and other formerly incarcerated men give poignant accounts of the 1985 prison uprising.  The stories from these men could move the most hardened person to tears while simultaneously lighting a fire inside you. Local Indiana organizers Jok and Too Black retell the events of the 1985 uprising and the ongoing case of the P2. Other committee members like Maya, Mat Davis, and I speak about the achievements of the committee and fire up the crowd with chants. 

All in all, one couldn’t help but bask in the brilliance of organizing a conference that bleeds into a rally. Not to mention, that having an event that centers political prisoners is a powerful way to close the weekend. The Rally to Free the Pendleton 2 is a culmination of everything the NBROC represents, a living breathing example of radical praxis in motion. As Black radicals, we must always keep in mind that revolution is not a one-time occurrence, but rather an ongoing struggle for liberation.

This was truly an event I'll remember for the rest of my life.

Conference Content

Relive the National Black Radical Organizing Conference with these videos from Black Liberation Media.