Askia M. Touré

Askia Muhammad Touré (Roland Snellings) (born October 13, 1938 in Raleigh, North Carolina) is an African-American poet, essayist, political editor, and leading voice of the Black Arts Movement.

He served in the United States Air Force from 1956 to 1959. He took art classes at the Dayton Art Institute. He moved to New York City and joined the Art Students League, and the Umbra poets. He participated in the Fulton Art Fair in Brooklyn, in 1961 and 1962, and the Black Arts Movement. In 1961, he protested the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, at the United Nations, with Amiri Baraka, Calvin Hicks, Aishah Rahman, Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, Alex Prempe, Mae Mallory, and Maya Angelou.

In 1962, he became an illustrator for Umbra magazine, a staff member with The Liberator magazine and a contributor to Freedomways. He was a part of the Atlanta staff of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and joined the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) in the Spring of 1964. In 1965, he founded Afro World, and organized the Harlem Uptown Youth Conference. He also participated in the rise of the Black Panther Party and helped write SNCC's 1966 "Black Power Position Paper."

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