Omali Yeshitela
| Omali Yeshitela | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Joseph Waller 1941 |
| Occupation | Political activist |
| Political party | African People's Socialist Party-USA |
| Movement | The Uhuru Movement |
| Spouse(s) | Ona Zene Yeshitela |
| Website | http://apspuhuru.org |
Omali Yeshitela (born Joseph Waller) is the founder of the Uhuru Movement, an African Internationalist organization based in St. Petersburg, Florida with members throughout the world.
Born in St. Petersburg, Florida, Yeshitela participated in the Civil Rights Movement in his youth during the 1950s and 1960s as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. At the height of the Civil Rights Movement in St. Petersburg, Waller was jailed for in 1966, when he tore a mural displayed at City Hall which depicted black musicians serenading white partygoers, a scene Waller termed a degrading caricature of African Americans. However, Herman Goldner, the mayor of St. Petersburg at the time and a civil rights advocate himself, rejected Waller's claim. "I find nothing offensive in the portrayal of strolling troubadours and picnickers at Pass-a-Grille Beach. ... I think you know that I, personally, am not a racist. I think ... that all of our minority groups must mature to the point where self-consciousness is not a motivating factor for complaints."
Waller spent two and a half years in jail and prison. After Waller's release, he was stripped of his right to vote for decades until Governor Jeb Bush and three members of the Florida Cabinet restored Waller's voting rights in 2000.
In his civic activism in his native St. Petersburg, Yeshitela has stressed his view that political and economic development will bring and end to the oppression of African communities throughout the world. He moved to Oakland, California in 1981, living and working there.
Yeshitela served on St. Petersburg Mayor David Fischer's Challenge 2001 Steering Committee and on the St. Petersburg Housing Authority's Hope VI Advisory Committee, two projects dedicated to attracting jobs and investment to South St. Petersburg. He has also chaired the political action committee of the Coalition of African American Leadership, made up of a number of black churches and civil rights groups in the area, and served on the board of radio station WMNF community radio. Along with eight other candidates, Yeshitela made a run for mayorship in February 2001. Although he did not make it to the runoff, he won every African-American and mixed precinct but one in the entire city.
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