By Ayesha K. Mustafaa,
Special to Mississippi Link,
The organization, Mississippi For A Just World (M4JW), with its partners Black With No Chaser and Tougaloo College, presented its second installment in the lecture series “Voices for a Just World.”
The organization’s first sponsored lecture was held at Tougaloo in Woodworth Chapel Oct. 29, 2025, with a presentation by Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, renown scholar, author and civil rights advocate.
Its New Year, 2026 event started with the blockbuster appearance of Dr. Angela Y. Davis Jan. 28 – about a 10-year span from her first appearance at the HBCU in 2015 – both times gracing the historic Woodworth Chapel, creating the backdrop that exudes “history is made and preserved here.”
Prof. Jacorius Liner, of the Tougaloo Political Science Department, welcomed everyone with a quote from France Fannon “not a prisoner to history,” notable at the institution that has the mantra “Where History Meets The Future.”
He emphasized that while “Tougaloo was born in the aftermath of colonial dominance…, it couldn’t defeat us. Reconstruction couldn’t malign us. Jim Crow couldn’t dismay us. Segregation couldn’t silence us. Neo colonialism couldn’t erode our purpose.”
In the arousing opening by M4JW, executive director and co-founder Candance Abdul-Tawwab, the central theme for the series was noted as “Freedom is a Constant Struggle” and examining how freedom struggles in the Deep South are connected to a global movement for human rights and dignity in Palestine, the Sudan, the Congo, Haiti and on….
She emphasized, “It is a constant struggle,” then giving the roll call of civil rights veterans historically and locally: Medgar Evers, Unita Blackwell, Hollis Watkins Muhammad, Fanny Lou Hammer, Vernon Dahmer, the reverent Ida B. Wells…, and others.
Abdul-Tawwab referred to Davis as “a symbol of radical love, radical perseverance, radical brilliances, radical resilience and radical commitment to humanity….”
Present was Co-founder of M4JW a businessman and philanthropist, Emad Al-Turk, a Palestinian American who was educated in Mississippi, and has lived here with his wife Karen for over 50 years. Al-Turk, over the past three years, has witnessed at least 17 members of his Palestinian family killed in Gaza, among the recorded 63,000 genocide victims.
The overflow audience required that the Chapel doors be closed as the evening presentation turned to Dr. Angela Y. Davis. She was introduced by Tougaloo Senior Political Science /Pre-Law Minor student Sydney Armstrong.
He noted the times we are living in as “our country is devolving,” which made it more imperative to hear from someone like Davis who has lived through times like these in the past.
The moderator was Dr. Ebony Lumumba, assistant professor of English at Jackson State University and former First Lady of Jackson.
Davis received an audience shout out of HAPPY BIRTHDAY, impressing upon us that she is now 82 years old. Still the beauty with a distinguishing hairstyle, that is now shining white, her audience was a mix of students who were introduced to her for the first time, while others experienced the nostalgia of growing up with her activism on the hearts and minds and front pages of our everyday lives.
Her autobiography is titled: Freedom Is A Constant Struggle. She is a founding member of Critical Resistance, a national organization dedicated to the dismantling of the prison industrial complex.
During her first visit to Tougaloo in 2015, Davis explained how the U.S. government wanted her to get two (2) death sentences. Back then, she said, “They wanted to kill me two times.” This time around, her presence was reflective, almost a sense of “resolve.”
She talked about being born in Birmingham, Alabama, about knowing two of the little black girls who were killed in the Birmingham Church bombing in 1963 that occurred on a Sunday morning when they were attending Sunday School.
She recalled that Birmingham used to be called “Johannesburg of the South.” That is when she first learned about the importance of solidarity with South Africa. “If we were going to succeed in moving forward in the struggle against racism, we also had to stand up for workers’ rights,” she said.
Davis said growing up in Birmingham was the “best possible place …,” for experiencing the struggles. She spoke about her mother, Sallye Davis, who told her, “… this is not the way things are supposed to be… One day they will change and you will be a part of that change.” Davis said you must also have a “vibrant movement for gender justice.”
“Freedom is a practice; it is not a destination,” Davis said, as she reflected on the struggle of Palestinians and the MS4JW being an organization started in the struggle of Justice for Palestine and rapidly expanded to Mississippians for a Just World.
When you “achieve freedom,” she reflected, “… what do you do? Do you just stop? The Palestinians have taught us how important it is to engage fully in the practice of freedom. And that practice is a continual practice.”
Culminating the program, a Special Presentation was made to Davis by the Tougaloo Student Government Association represented by Morgan Stanley, its 93rd President. Closing remarks for the evening were given by Atty. Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Chief Legal Counsel and Strategist for MS4JW.
For their next event and more organizational information, contact info@msjw.org and visit www.MississippiForAJustWorld.org
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