Lennox Yearwood

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Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr
Born	October 14, 1969 Shreveport, Louisiana
Education	University of the District of Columbia Howard University
Occupation	Minister / Activist
Religious beliefs	Christian

Lennox Yearwood, Jr., is a minister, community activist, and one of the most influential people in Hip Hop political life.

He currently serves as President of the Hip Hop Caucus in Washington, D.C. The Hip Hop Caucus is a national, nonprofit, nonpartisan, organization that engages young people in urban communities in elections, policy making and service projects.^[1] Rev. Yearwood was a co-creator of the 2004 campaign "Vote or Die" with Sean "Diddy" Combs. He was also the Political and Grassroots Director for Russell Simmons' Hip Hop Summit Action Network in 2003 and 2004, and a Senior Consultant to Jay-Z's Voice Your Choice. In 2008, he created the "Respect My Vote!" a voter registration and engagement campaign with T.I. and Keyshia Cole.^[2]

Rev. Yearwood has appeared on CNN, BET Tonight, Al Jazeera, PBS, Fox, MTV, BBC, C-Span, and Hardball with Chris Mathews and featured in the Washington Post, The New York Times and VIBE.^[3]

Contents 1 Early Life and Education 2 Early Activism 3 Hip Hop Caucus 4 External links 5 References

[edit] Early Life and Education

Rev. Yearwood, was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. He earned his undergraduate degree from University of the District of Columbia in 1998 and was awarded a M.Div. degree from Howard University in May 2002. He was the Student Government President at both schools.

[edit] Early Activism

Rev. Yearwood works with celebrities and athletes to engage them in projects that transform communities. He was a co-creator of the 2004 campaign "Vote or Die" with Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. He was also the Political and Grassroots Director for Russell Simmons in 2003 and 2004, and a Senior Consultant to Jay Z's “Voice Your Choice” campaign. Rev. Yearwood was the National Grassroots and Political Director for the Russell Simmons’ Hip Hop Summit Action Network, and was a Senior Consultant for P. Diddy’s Citizen Change, and Jay Z’s Voice Your Choice, where he provided a national template for engaging the Hip-Hop generation in community-building dialogues. During the 2004 Presidential election, Rev. Yearwood created, along with Russell Simmons and Jonathan Lewis, the first ever Hip Hop Team Vote Bus Tour, to ensure that young people were challenging the established political order in a most profound and substantive manner. He was also the founder of Hip Hop Voices, a subsidiary of Voices for Working Families (AFL-CIO).

Troop funding Vote

Rev. Yearwood and others protested the United States Senate passage of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007 on 2007-04-26. Yearwood, and thirteen other protesters, were arrested in the Hart Senate Office Building^[4]

Guantanamo Bay

Yearwood organized a hip hop concert at 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. dubbed "Shut It Down", calling for the end of what Yearwood claims to be torture at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp and for the camp's closure. The concert featured Dead Prez and several other hip hop artists. Amnesty International and the ACLU helped with the event. ^[5]

[edit] Hip Hop Caucus

The Hip Hop Caucus was founded on September 11, 2004. Since its founding, it has developed a 700,000 member national database, and field teams in 48 cities across 30 states.

The Hip Hop Caucus was established on the premise that the Hip Hop Generation is uniquely qualified to combat urban poverty in the 21st Century. The birth of Hip Hop culture was a response to the very policies and practices that have sustained a persistent cycle of poverty in our communities over the past forty years. The Hip Hop community can speak to these policies and practices from a position of expertise and an understanding of the profound urgency for change.

Through Hip Hop culture, celebrities, cultural media, technology, and grassroots organizing, we reach young people of color from low-income communities, who are traditionally unengaged in the political process. Our work re-shapes how young people of color are viewed by the media, elected officials, and the public. Furthermore, because of Hip Hop’s broad appeal among many constituencies and vast influence in mainstream and global culture, we build unity across socio-economic and racial divides. Casting a positive light on Hip Hop Culture, we are able to put forth new and young leaders from urban communities – giving them a space to ‘sit at the table’, have their voices heard, and ultimately make positive change through the democratic process.

Respect My Vote!

In 2008, Respect My Vote!, a national voter engagement campaign, was led by the Hip Hop Caucus and spokesperson, multi-platinum, Grammy Award winning Rapper, T.I. together with other celebrities such as Keyshia Cole, T-Pain, Young Jeezy and more. The campaign successfully registered voters in 12 states and executed a 20 city Bus Tour to Get Out the Vote the month before the 2008 Presidential Election.

In 2010, Rev. Yearwood and the Hip Hop Caucus will revive the Respect My Vote! campaign to engage new and young voters in the mid-term elections.

Make Hip Hop Not War

In March and April of 2007 the Hip Hop Caucus did a sixteen city Make Hip Hop Not War National Bus Tour with Hip Hop Artists, Iraq War Veterans, youth leaders, peace and security experts, and Members of Congress. We held events, rallies and roundtables in each city and educated audiences on the costs of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and motivated young people to take action and have their voices heard.

The continuation of the Make Hip Hop Not War campaign throughout 2007 focused on calls on Congress to de-fund the War in Iraq; building awareness about the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for our communities at home; and exposing the incredible humanitarian tragedy and the plight of Iraqi Refugees in the Middle East because of the war in Iraq.

Rev. Yearwood and the Hip Hop Caucus also raised awareness and, through grassroots advocacy, promoted the closing of Guantanamo Bay and the restoration of Habeas Corpus.

Rev. Yearwood is also an important leader in the peace movement and an outspoken critic of America’s wars abroad. He was an Officer and Chaplain in the U.S. Air Force Reserve when he first spoke out against the invasion of Iraq in early 2003, and is currently a member of the Iraq Veterans Against the War.^[6] He was an Officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and led a "Make Hip Hop Not War" national tour^[7] to engage more young people in the movement for peace.

Petraeus Hearing: Yearwood was arrested by Capitol Hill police outside of a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee on 2007-09-10, and charged with disorderly conduct and assault on a police officer. According to Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, spokeswoman for the Capitol Police, Yearwood was stopped from entering the room after allegedly attempting to cut in front of people waiting to get in. “What he tried to do was jump to the front of the line. He was told he couldn’t do that,” Schneider said. “And he pretty much charged at the officers to get past them into the room, after he was told not to.”^[8]

In a press release from the Hip Hop Caucus Yearwood said that he was prevented from entering the hearing because he was wearing a button that says "I love the people of Iraq." ^[8] In the press release he called his arrest an example of “democracy while black.” ^[9] UPI reports that the video being circulated on the Internet "does not seem to show an assault."^[9]

Rev. Yearwood was treated at George Washington University Hospital "for injuries to his ankle" according to Liz Havstad, a spokeswoman for the Hip-Hop Caucus.^[9] In an interview three days later on the Democracy Now! news program, Yearwood told Amy Goodman that he asked Capitol Police if he could leave the line to do a radio interview and was told okay.^[10] In the YouTube video of the arrest, multiple people are heard agreeing that he was already in line. In the interview Yearwood claimed he had torn ligaments in his leg, and said he was on crutches.

The Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign

Rev. Yearwood is known for his activist work as the National Director of the Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign, in which he organized a coalition of national and grassroots organizations to advocate for the rights of Hurricane Katrina survivors. On September 19, 2005, David Banner joined forces with fellow artists and Rev. Yearwood for “From the Hill to Hood.” The event was held in New York City to raise money for survivors of Hurricane Katrina. ^[11] He led the first march in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in November 2005, to protest the racial profiling of survivors in the days after the storm. The march led to convictions of officers who denied basic human rights to African-American families. The following year the Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign successfully pushed back FEMA’s preemptive temporary housing evictions of Katrina Survivors, through public mobilization, two marches in Washington, DC, testimony to Congress, and a public relations campaign. This work earned the Hip Hop Caucus the prestigious 30th Annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award. ^[12]

[edit] External links

• Lennox Yearwood's Myspace Account
• Youtube video of Yearwood's September 10, 2007 arrest
• Amy Goodman's Democracy Now interview with the Reverend
• Follow Rev. Yearwood on Twitter!
• Follow Rev. Yearwood's Huffington Post Blog Entries!
• Rev. Yearwood and Bread for the World Fight Poverty and Pollution at the Same Time with a "Just and Sustainable Economy"

[edit] References