On Saturday, March 21, 2026 from 1-5 pm, the Maryland Pan Afrikan Cooperative Coalition (MPACC) will hold our first Pan Afrikan Community Town Hall Meeting of 2026. The location will be the Temple of New African Thought (TNAT), 5525 Harford Road in East Baltimore. We are grateful to Dr. Dennis Ausar Winkler, founder and proprietor of TNAT, for his continued generosity and embrace of the Pan Afrikan Community in Baltimore.
The title of the session is “Strategy 2: Building the Unified Way Forward”, meant as a follow-up to the previous “Strategy” Town Hall that was held August 30 and was meant to prepare us for practical planning by asking the question “What do we do when America ‘quits’ on us?” The March 21 Town Hall will discuss several challenges we face in Maryland right now, the efforts being launched to respond to those crises, and how we might handle them more effectively by dealing with them together through a standing Pan Afrikan Cooperative Coalition instead of from the “silos” that too many of our organizers and activists are still operating from.
Among the crises facing our community in Maryland are the following (and this is not the full list):
- The Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys still faces the nonrenewal of its charter and closing by the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners at the end of the current school year. (See our related articles from December and January, here and here.) The school’s organizers, led by Mr. Edwin Avent of the Five Smooth Stones Foundation, have stated that the school made improvements since their effectiveness was reviewed three years ago, but the scores on this year’s assessment were surprisingly lower. Others have alleged that the school’s financial instability resulted in large part from the Board’s requirement that the school utilize a disproportionate amount of its budget for items unrelated to the school’s actual operation, and that limits were placed on the school’s allowed enrollment that prevented it from being able to amass sufficient funds through tuition and matching funds to operate effectively. In short, they allege that the Board hamstrung the school’s ability to sustain its operations, and then rayed them more harshly despite improvements made. An event scheduled for March 26 at the school, located at 2525 Kirk Avenue in Baltimore, will highlight many of their concerns in greater detail and serve to rally public support. Several dozen Black Men from the Baltimore area, many of them community activists known to city residents, have already produced short (1 minute) videos voicing support for the school and urging people to attend the March 26 event. The crisis faced by the school presents yet another example of how the education of our children is not only key to our community’s survival, but is also under regular challenge and, some would say, attack from the powers that be.
- The Terra Cafe, owned and operated by Terence “Chef T” Dickson, suffered tremendous damage from the recent winter storms, causing flooding which rendered the main building uninhabitable. Chef T has produced several videos on Facebook showing the damage to his establishment. He has also put out a call for support, and has held several “Fish Fry” fundraisers outside the restaurant in a backyard area he has dubbed The Jerk Garden, which was able to escape most of the damage from the winter storms. This presents an example of how difficult it can be for Black businesses to survive and thrive, and their need of support from our community.
- Seniors who depend on the Waxter Center in downtown Baltimore may soon be without an important resource for fellowship and community-based programs. This is because the City of Baltimore, having determined that the Waxter Center, located at 1000 Cathedral Street, suffered from HVAC and other structural problems that would require at least a temporary closure and possible demolition. A town hall meeting at the center several weeks ago saw City officials attempting to explain the issue to local seniors who depend on the center and who were understandably upset about losing this resource. How will our Elders find equivalent services and opportunities for fellowship? This, as well as efforts to revitalize the Maryland Council of Elders which had been founded in December 2017, represents an important focus for our work on behalf of our seniors. The Seniors Advocacy Network, founded by Mother Marcia Bowyer-Barron of the Maryland Council of Elders, is working to organize seniors on the grassroots level at senior centers in Baltimore City.
- From an article on the current crisis facing venerated Baltimore area actress and dancer Maria Broom in the Afro, Supporting a Baltimore treasure: Help Baltimore actress and dancer rebuild,
- As Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seems to be withdrawing from Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota (See our article here), they are at the same time purchasing land and warehouses across the United States, often at extreme markups, apparently to put them to use as mass detention centers as they expand their tyranny to other states. The Baltimore County Council voted to prohibit the sale of any County property to ICE, but ICE has already purchased a warehouse in Hagerstown (Washington County) and have been attempting to obtain buildings in Baltimore City. Clearly, despite the retreat they are now beating in Minnesota, ICE is not finished with their draconian program under acting director Todd Lyons and Homeland Security director Markwayne Mullin, who replaced the recently-fired Kristi “ICE Barbie” Noem. This clearly represents a continuing threat to communities in Maryland, particularly those of Afrikan descent, as we are often “mistaken” for Haitian and Afrikan immigrants who are unfairly targeted for harassment, arrest and abuse.
- The United States’ recent acts of imperialism overseas, which included the kidnapping and detainment of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife, similar “you’re next” threats made against Colombia and Mexico, comments concerning the annexation of Canada and Greenland, and the launching of an illegal war against Iran, have not only put American citizens in increased danger traveling abroad, but also increased the level of authoritarian behavior at home, with some speculating that a global war from the president who promised “no new wars” might provide Donald Trump with the excuse to invoke martial law that the people of Minnesota, with their principled resistance to ICE tyranny, refused to give him.
The above situations highlight struggles we face in education, business, seniors, health, the arts, domestic politics and international issues. Less than half of the issues that the Cooperative Coalition was initially developed to concern itself with, but more than enough to tax the resources and the will of any single organizer, activist or organization working alone. But those are not all of the challenges we face: spirituality, grassroots organization, legal representation, prisoner outreach and support, mass incarceration, political prisoners, revolutionary Pan Afrikanism, media access and more continue to be areas where Black voices are marginalized and must be lifted up. And there will be even more issues confronting us as the rise of artificial intelligence begins to threaten more of us in the job market and in mass surveillance.
We will certainly not have time to discuss, much less solve, all of these issues in a few hours on Saturday, March 21. But here is where we intend to start, by determining who among us is ready to move forward in our areas of concern and expertise, working together, with some practical plans, many of which will have to be formulated by us at meetings like this.
Answering Some of the Critiques about the Town Hall Process, Coalition Building and an “All Hands On Deck” Inclusive Strategy
There are those within our community who question the commitment by many grassroots and other activists to build unity among our people. They cite the vast differences in not only Afrikan consciousness but also basic knowledge of history and politics by some in our community. Black Republicans, particularly those who consider themselves MAGA Trump supporters, are often seen as enemies by revolutionary Black nationalist and Pan Afrikan organizers. (And if I’m being honest, they too often are.) Those who seem to blindly support Democrat politicians based on a “vote blue no matter who” attitude are seen as dupes and willing pawns in aiding the assimilation of Black people by a Democratic Party that not only has abjectly failed (or refused) to keep its promises to us but also has committed crimes of its own against Afrikan people of their own (the numerous Crime Bills are one example; the bombing of Libya is another). Those of us who oppose LGBTQIA+ activism on the basis that it is considered anti-Pan Afrikanist by many (Uganda and Kenya outlawed homosexuality, and some countries have in the past deemed it punishable by death) and the belief that it leads to confusion among young Black men say we should not be willing to unite with activists who either support or condone it on the grounds that they might use it as a “wedge issue” to pry our unity apart or co-opt our efforts to achieve their ends, as the Civil Rights Movement seemed to secure the rights of immigrant communities and White women more than those of the Black people who regularly laid down their lives for the cause of desegregation.
I will grant that these are important concerns. At the same time, I personally would proceed in our organizing efforts by paraphrasing Malcolm X, who had once said “I am nonviolent with those who are nonviolent with me. This is intelligent.” In this case, I would say that I will unify with those who will unify with me. Of course, we must establish some baseline Pan Afrikan principles as a starting point, put out the call for Black People to come together (this part of the effort is for Black People to work out for ourselves, to determine our voice, our plan and our leadership) to build that unity and see who responds. As a unity-building step, we must discuss our similarities and differences in ideology to see what areas we agree in, what areas we have difference in and how great those differences are. Areas of agreement present little problem as long as we are being sincere with each other and are not acting as opportunists or provocateurs, which we must also watch for. Areas of difference lead us to the next question: are they variations in approach, differences that can be discussed and consensus formed, or are they irreconcilable? First we find out (before we “F Around”), then determine who we will unite with instead of assuming from the start that unity is impossible and declaring that “I will not unify with that one“. Sis. Ertha Harris, a local community activist, likes to caution us that we must “define the ‘we'”. To me, this is that process. For the first two years, the Maryland Pan Afrikan Cooperative Coalition held monthly Zoom meetings to which over a hundred Pan Afrikan community organizers and activists were invited. While most did not attend these meetings, this did not mean that they were excluded from working with the Coalition. But those meetings did present an opportunity for a variety of activists to engage with each other in safe spaces, determine for themselves whether or not they wanted to continue to work with us (some did and some did not), and get a feel for how we wanted to move forward in this work.
Some people have criticized these sessions as “fake Pan Africanist Town Halls”, perhaps because all of the major revolutionary Black Nationalist organizations have not fully participated and the attendance at some of the Town Hall Meetings has been rather thin. They may question the Pan Afrikan or Black Nationalist focus because some of the attendees are what they might refer to as “just regular folks”. The organizers of the Town Hall Meetings are not the big household names who are recognized across the country. We are not at the level of the National Action Network and Rev. Al Sharpton or State of the People and Joy Reid for the mainstream crowd to be energized. We are not the Nation of Islam or the Black Panther Party (the real one, not the imitators) that would inspire the revolutionaries. We are not politically connected, which might excite the modern day Black political class. We are not stars in business, which might draw the attention of the economic activists who may have little taste for what they see as empty revolutionary rhetoric. We are the “little people”, the “people on the ground” who are often ignored by the big shots and clout-chasers despite the fact that many of us, some living comfortably and others barely scraping by, in neighborhoods buried in the urban centers or rural communities that no one pays attention to, have seen many of the issues that affect us up close and have an important perspective to offer. We are primarily grassroots activists and organizers who felt we had to push to build this Coalition, quite frankly, because others were not doing it. Our lack of big names and “star power” may have caused some people to dismiss us as people who “don’t count”, are not in the company of “winners” or lack the appropriate revolutionary or political pedigree or connections to do this work. But if this effort is supposed to be for the unification of the people, then the people must be involved and brought along by the principle and strength of our example. We cannot build Unity and leave our seniors behind. We cannot build Unity and leave our youth behind. We cannot build Unity and leave the Sistas behind. We cannot build unity and leave the workers and the downtrodden behind. We cannot sacrifice the grassroots on the altar of the “revolution”, or the international connection on the altar of economics or electoral politics. We don’t build Unity from a position of exclusivity or “Too Black Exceptionalism” akin to the American Exceptionalism and arrogance that has only isolated the United States from the rest of the world. Certainly, we need to ensure that anti-Pan Afrikan ideology does not misdirect us into supporting oppressive regimes or a philosophy that seeks the fragmentation, exploitation or destruction of Afrika and her Scattered Black Children. But we cannot build the Edifice of Unity on a foundation of exclusion or intellectual elitism. Those of us who have chosen that route, secure in their self-image of being more knowledgeable, more aware and just better than everyone else, have built a reputation of going it alone, which to me is the opposite of building unity. But perhaps building real unity was never their goal. They may revel in the notion of being the only “smart one” in the room. If that is the case, fine. But then, perhaps building unity is not the discussion they wish to have.
What we do cannot be ruled by ego. It cannot be motivated by a need to denigrate others to pump ourselves up. Political activists must not attack revolutionary Pan Afrikanists as “socialists”, “communists” or “terrorists”, and they should not insult them as “fake” just because organizing the often-assimilated masses to a more Afrikan centered or even politically aware viewpoint is long, difficult, unpaid, thankless and often frustrating. Pan Afrikan organizers should likewise not denigrate political or economic activists as “Uncle Toms” (an inaccurate term anyway, since Uncle Tom was actually one of the more noble characters of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, as opposed to Sambo, the real racist stereotype) because of a perceived lack of revolutionary fire; old school civil rights activists have won numerous battles in the courts and the political arena where a more militant approach has failed. Local and international activists must learn that their struggles, though separated by hundreds of miles, are connected by the common enemies we face. In short, the time of “I Have The Answer”-ism as an effective strategy for liberation is over. Numerous historical examples, from Wilmington, North Carolina in 1898 (progressive politics overrun by White racist terrorism) to Black Wall Street in 1921 (economic success destroyed because of insufficient defense against military attack) to the Black Panthers in the 1960s-1970s (revolutionary community organizing and self-defense falling to coordinated military attack, media demonization and nationwide prosecution of leaders in the courts) have shown us that we need all Liberation strategies, working together cooperatively and in coordination, if we are to achieve the unity, liberation, sovereignty and uplift we all claim to seek for Afrikan people.
We hope to see you on Saturday, March 21 at the Temple of New African Thought, 5525 Harford Road in East Baltimore. If you can’t make that event, we invite you to stay in touch with us by emailing us at cliff@kuumbareport.com.
Peace and Power.