This special edition of the Reparations in Action FM radio show and podcast features an interview with African People’s Socialist Party Department of Agitation and Propaganda Director, Akilé Anai.
She talks about the significance of the 25-year anniversary of the police murder of TyRon Lewis and the heroic rebellions that emerged in response to this colonial murder of an 18-year-old African in broad daylight.
The African community of St. Petersburg, FL had been politicized by 30 years of leadership from the Uhuru Movement and rose up in armed resistance to the police and colonial state after TyRon Lewis was shot to death by a white cop on October 24th, 1996 just blocks away from the Uhuru House.
The black community of St. Petersburg challenged the police with a fierce armed resistance again on November 13th of that year in what has been called the Battle of St. Pete.
The November 13th uprising came in response to over 300 armed-to-the-teeth police converging on the Uhuru House (headquarters of the African People’s Socialist Party) and attempting to set the building on fire with incendiary tear gas canisters while over 100 men, women and children were inside for a regular Wednesday night meeting of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement.
The heroic actions of the African working class put out the fire at the Uhuru House and forced an army of colonial police to retreat. Gunshots from the community forced a police helicopter and airplane out of the sky. The Battle of St. Pete was an example of serious guerrilla warfare on the part of a colonized population that ended in a decisive military and political victory for the African working class and the African Revolution. November 13th, 1996 was a serious defeat for the global system of colonial capitalism that must be upheld by revolutionaries and freedom loving people who support self-determination for the African community.
In the era of mass protest and uprisings against police terror that have followed the murder of George Floyd, it is critical that we internalize the lessons from this revolutionary victory that led to eight years of not a single African person being murdered by the police in St Petersburg.
Tune in to this first episode of a two-part series on the Battle of St. Pete and learn why this city is known as the City of African Resistance.
The Reparations in Action FM radio show and podcast airs Fridays at 3pm ET on Black Power 96.3 FM in St. Petersburg, FL and streaming online here at BlackPower96.org and on the Black Power 96 mobile app.
To ask a question, make a comment or suggestion, please email the hosts: RIA@BlackPower96.org.
