Presidential candidate, Cornel West, has just announced his vice-presidential running mate. Her name is Melina Abdullah, a Pan-Africanist.Independent presidential candidate Cornel West has named Melina Abdullah as his 2024 running mate.
West announced Abdullah, the co-founder of the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter, as his pick during an interview with The Tavis Smiley Show on Wednesday.
This is the first self-described all-black presidential ticket in American history. It is the first to ever have a Muslim. Both hold PhDs. pic.twitter.com/SNeTyLeQPw
— Chad Michael (@ChadxMichael) April 10, 2024
Abdullah remains the "matriarch" of the current Black Lives Matter movement in Los Angeles.
“I wanted someone whose heart, mind, and soul is committed to the empowerment of poor and working people,” West said during the radio program. She has a record of deep commitment and investment in ensuring poor and working people are at the center of her vision.”
The Hill reports, "Abdullah is a professor at California State University in Los Angeles and formerly chaired the Pan-African Studies department. Like West, she is a noted scholar and racial justice advocate."
Abdullah also appeared on the show.
“I was not expecting the phone call I got last week,” Abdullah said. “It was the furthest thing from my mind.”
“Immediately my heart just soared. I haven’t felt that kind of life-giving energy since the last child I had,” Abdullah continued. “My soul and my spirit and it felt as though God was speaking to me said ‘yes’ immediately.”
West was originally running under the liberal People’s Party before joining the Green Party — eventually leaving that party as well, and running as an independent. He is a Socialist who is best known for his activism on race and social justice. He was also a surrogate for Bernie Sanders' campaign in 2016.
West is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary. He was previously a professor at Harvard University and professor emeritus at Princeton University.
After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, he said that they "gave white Americans a glimpse of what it means to be a black person in the United States," feeling "unsafe, unprotected, subject to random violence, and hatred for who they are."
He was arrested twice while protesting the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
