Fallen Heroes of 2014

Hundreds of social justice advocates and organizers passed away in 2014, leaving their work behind as their legacy, but often also leaving an irreplaceable hole in their movements.

In this week’s edition of Making Contact you’ll hear about the life and work of social justice leaders, many who spent their entire lives fighting for racial and economic justice, and though they’ve passed away they inspire us to do our work today.

Black Liberation activists like Chokwe Lumumba, Darby Tillis freed from wrongful conviction and imprisonment, Yuri Kochiyama anti-imperialist supporter for political prisoners, and young George Carter who was a “rethinker” of schools in New Orleans.

On today’s edition of Making Contact we honor and revisit the lives of just a few of those fallen heroes who passed away this year.

Featuring:

• Chokwe Lumumba, former mayor of Jackson MS
• Morgan Powell, Bronx River Sankofa founder
• Charity Hicks, Detroit People’s Water Board co-founder
• Darby Tillis, death penalty opponent
• Yuri Kochiyama, civil rights activist
• Ted Gullickson, San Francisco Tenants Union director
• George Carter; Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools participant
• Leslie Feinberg, author of Stone Butch Blues
• Eddie Ellis, prison reform advocate
• Mark Naison, Fordham University African-American history professor
• Lila Cabbil, Rosa Parks Institute president emeritus
• Diane Fujino, author of Heartbeat of Struggle, the revolutionary life of Yuri Kochiyama
• Taiyo Na, author
• Randy Shaw, Tenderloin Housing Clinic executive director
• Qasim Davis, Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools project manager
• Perry Cobb, Darby Tillis’ co-defendant
• Dr. Divine Pryor, executive Director of the center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions