20: How a Black, Socialist City Councilman Won His Seat in the Heart of the South

South Fulton, Georgia Councilman khalid kamau prefers to be introduced simply as "Councilman khalid." He wants to dispense with the formalities, and with all the barriers that are erected between elected officials and the people they serve. The veteran activist, who is in his second year as a young councilman, thinks a lot about how to change our politics and our governance. He examines and reexamines issues and social relations at every level, starting with his lower-case name, which comes from the Yoruba tradition where the community is emphasized over the individual. Born and raised in what is now the municipality of South Fulton, he jumped at the chance to seek a council seat when the new city of almost 100,000 people held its first elections in 2017. He won a 67-33 landslide victory. But that election was not the beginning of his political journey. Councilman khalid started organizing when he was barely a teenager and he has never stopped. He's a leader of the Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America, a co-founder of the Atlanta chapter of Black Lives Matter, has been labor organizer with the Amalgamated Transit Union, and is an ardent advocate of environmental justice and LGBTQ rights. Councilman khalid believes that to make the changes that are necessary, there has to be a deep understanding of why things operate the way they do. For him, that require an examination of economic social and racial relations at every level of our politics. It also requires that big challenges be met with a big vision.

SHOW NOTES:
How the Left Can Win in the South The Nation Paul Blest
A Progressive Electoral Wave Is Sweeping the Country The Nation John Nichols
Georgia City Councilman Pens Eye-Opening Post About Needing Food Stamps Blavity Ashleigh Lakieva Atwell
Interviews for Resistance: A Democratic Socialist on Running to Transform the Democratic Party In These Times Sarah Jaffe