Title
Honoring and recognizing
Mama Maisha, a creative and loving teacher, community leader, and cultural educator, who has nurtured social justice movements in Philadelphia, built and transformed institutions, and shared her wisdom with so many Philadelphians.
Body
WHEREAS,
Maisha Sullivan-Ongoza, or
Mama Maisha, as she is known to so many, was raised in a South Philadelphia home that was a supportive haven in the community, where there was always a strong batch of coffee, a big Sunday meal of fish and grits, and an open invitation for all those who wanted to come by; and
WHEREAS, brought up by her twice-widowed father and after her mother and step-mother passed away, by community mothers,
Mama Maisha has spent her life enriching, building, and fighting for the community that helped raise her and for countless others in Philadelphia and across the world; and
WHEREAS,
Mama Maisha entered her teens and adulthood in the 1960s, becoming active and conscious during the Black Power era of the Black Freedom Movement; and
WHEREAS,
Mama Maisha considers herself a survivor of the era, as she was surveilled by the FBI and suffered at the hands of police brutality-when she attended social justice demonstrations while pregnant, officers threatened to kick the baby out of her, and at times her husband was beaten so badly he could hardly walk; and
WHEREAS,
Mama Maisha became enmeshed in the movement, attending and organizing marches, conferences, and protests, including the first demonstration for Black Studies in the Philadelphia School District, where the police brutally beat many of the 2,000 students protesting; and
WHEREAS,
Mama Maisha met her husband, ancestor social activist, Kauli Ongoza, at an organizing meeting for the Urban Survival Training Institute, a cultural nationalist organization, and together they raised three biological children and three social children: Upaji Sullivan, Kiongoza Sullivan and Milele Sullivan, Bridgett Kinsey-Sumpter, Donald Kin...
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