Wendell Paris
Wendell Paris
EJL Fellows 2020
Movement for Black Lives November 27 2019.
Electoral Justice League Fellows 2020.
Asa R. Rogers-Shaw Fort Lauderdale, Bianca Avery Dallas, Jewel Butler Detroit, Aaron Jamal Bryant NC, Gicola Lane Nashville, Wendell Paris, MS and AL, Alonzo Waheed Chicago, DeVohn Phillips NC Lola Levesque Phoenix, Enyer Robles-Martinez FL, Florence Alexander MI, Arekia Bennett Jackson MS.
Plenaries
Jackson Rising Conference was held in Jackson, Mississippi May 2-4, 2014.
Opening plenary: John Zippert, Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Ed Whitfield, Kali Akuno.
When the hundreds of registered participants poured into the huge hall Friday evening and saw it filling up, one could sense the excitement and rising spirit of solidarity amidst diversity. The opening plenary keynote speakers included Jessica Gordon-Nembhard of the US Solidarity Economy Network (SEN), Wendell Paris of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives (FSC) Land Assistance fund, Cornelius Blanding, Special Projects Director of the FSC, Ed Whitfield of the Southern Grassroots Economies Project based in North Carolina, and Kali Akuno of Jackson’s MXGM.
Gordon-Nembhard started off. A professor at John Jay College in New York, she recently published Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice, a groundbreaking study on the topic.
Wendell Paris who, as a young SNCC worker was mentored by Fannie Lou Hamer, said: “Land is the basis for revolution and it is important for us to hold on to our land base." He described the workings of the Panola Land Buyers Association in Sumpter County Alabama. “Freedom isn’t free. In the training to run coops successfully, you learn more than growing cucumbers. You learn organizing and administration, the training ground for taking political offices.”
At different times during introductions, or even in the remarks of speakers, the chant, ‘Free the Land!’ would rise from the participants, accompanied by raised fists. This came from the RNA tradition, referring to an older battle cry of self-determination for the Black areas of the Deep South. It clearly still had resonance, and was often followed with ‘By Any Means Necessary!’