Charles Barron

In 1969, when he was 18 years old, Barron was recruited to the Harlem branch of the Black Panther Party by a member named Mark Holder.[6][7] Barron distributed newspapers for the party, and developed an interest in politics. He studied the Third World independence movement and the ideas of African leaders as Kwame Nkrumah (president of Ghana) and Ahmed Sékou Touré (president of Guinea). Barron became increasingly critical of U.S. foreign policy. He opposed the Duvaliers in Haiti, Pinochet in Chile, Marcos in the Philippines, Pahlavi of Iran, and Somoza of Nicaragua. He recalled in 2010, "It was strange, because everybody I was against, America was for."[6]

In 1979, Barron joined the National Black United Front (NBUF), and was the founding chairperson of its Harlem Chapter. In 1982, as head of the Harlem Chapter, Barron was arrested with Preston Wilcox from the Institute of African Research because they, with roughly 12 to 20 other protesters, attempted to "forcibly remove" Robert Morris, a white historian, from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Morris had been appointed chief archivist of the center. The members of the group were charged with harassment and criminal trespassing.[8]

Shortly after the incident, Barron was appointed chief of staff to the Reverend Herbert Daughtry, chairperson of the NBUF and minister at Brooklyn's House of the Lord Church. In 1983, Barron moved to East New York, where he and his wife founded the Dynamics of Leadership Company. He spoke at many organizations and schools, including Harvard and Yale, teaching principles of negotiation, team-building, emotional intelligence, and leadership.[9] From 1982 to 1987, Barron served as secretary general of the African Peoples Christian Organization (APCO). He traveled across the United States visiting college campuses, churches, prisons and communities "organizing around international, national and local issues."[10]

On December 21, 1987, Barron participated in a "day of outrage" to protest racism in the New York City Police Department and local courts. The protest involved blocking traffic during the evening rush hour, including eastbound traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, as well as stopping subway trains in several stations. More than 70 protesters were arrested; most were charged with obstruction of government administration and disorderly conduct. Among the few who actually stood on the subway tracks included Barron, Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Benjamin Chavis, Rev. Timothy Mitchell, Assemblyman Roger Greene, and lawyer C. Vernon Mason, who were additionally charged with criminal trespass. All were held overnight in jail, which elicited further claims of racial bias.[11][12] Sharpton, Mitchell and Barron were convicted in February 1990, with Mitchell and Barron being jailed for 45 days.[13] Barron spent another 25 days in jail, with Sharpton, for a protest related to the Tawana Brawley rape allegations.[14]

In 1988, Barron published two children's books: Up You Mighty People, You Can Accomplish What You Will and Look For Me in the Whirlwind, written about the life of Marcus Garvey.

One successful accomplishment of Barron and his allies was preventing the construction by the city of a wood-burning incinerator in the neighborhood.[15] In 1996, Barron and community groups also fought the building of a natural gas generator.[16] Barron said his opposition to the incinerator is what catapulted him into electoral politics.[17]

On February 3, 2011, Barron was among hundreds of angry parents and students who protested loudly during a hearing closing 12 schools classified as failing.[59] On March 3, Barron celebrated with supporters as they learned that one of their protests had been successful, and that PS 114 in Canarsie would remain open.[60][61][62]

On February 3, 2011, the city council discussed allowing a Walmart into Brooklyn, with East New York one of the neighborhoods being considered by Walmart. Barron called Walmart a "roving plantation" and said "There are no slaves in East New York. We will not be your slave workers."[63][64]

In November 2011, Barron said that he opposed same sex marriage,[65] but at a June 2012 debate declined to state a position on the issue.[66] Earlier in 2010, while running for governor, Barron stated that he was a strong supporter of civil unions, adding, "I voted positively on all legislation in the City Council regarding civil union and gay rights. I believe homosexuals deserve equal protection under the law, like everyone else."[67]

When asked in 2011 about the argument that the fight for same-sex marriage is the modern-day equivalent of the civil rights struggle, Barron answered, "I don't consider it the civil-rights issue of our time. Comparing it to our struggle when we were stolen from Africa, enslaved, murdered, raped, hung, lynched. I'm not even going to give it the same breath as our movement in this country."[65]

A leader of the Viva Palestina-USA group, Barron in July 2009 joined 200 other participants, mostly U.S. citizens, as the George Galloway led Viva Palestina relief convoy penetrated the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza. The convoy brought more than $1 million in medical equipment and supplies to Gaza's one and a half million inhabitants.[68][69] The U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the U.S. Viva Palestina group, but the group stated that it would adhere to U.S. law and not provide Hamas assistance, instead delivering its aid to nongovernmental organizations.[70]

In July 2009, Barron stated that the Gaza Strip section of the Palestinian Territories was "a virtual death camp, the same kind of conditions the Nazis imposed on the Jews."[4] 11 months later he stated, "There's too many children and women and innocent men of Gaza dying because you're isolating them and not allowing anything in. It's like having a concentration death camp. It's horrible, and the whole world is and should be outraged."[71]

In November 2011, after the end of the Libyan civil war, Barron voiced support for Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi, stating "Out there, they don't know that Qaddafi was our brother." [Barron] also rejected claims of Gaddafi's brutality, stating "People say 'Didn't he kill all those people?' I say, 'I don't know anything. The man was a freedom fighter.'"[72]

On September 12, 2002, Barron hosted an event at New York City Hall honoring Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, whom Barron praised as the liberator of black Africans in then-Rhodesia.[73] In 2008, he again voiced support for Mugabe, who had allegedly committed crimes and atrocities in Zimbabwe.[74] Specifically, Barron said, "In the year 2000, when he said one farm, one farmer, he was vilified", arguing that Mugabe was popular internationally only while his government "didn't take the land from the whites". He added that in South Africa, whites "still own 80 to 90 percent of the land," which is why international powers support South African leaders such Nelson Mandela. Barron stated he had seen no evidence which tied the Mugabe government to any attacks on supporters of the Zimbabwe opposition.[74]

Barron has defended Louis Farrakhan against allegations that Farrakhan is a racist.[75][76]

Barron has sided with black leaders in supporting victims of police brutality, including Amadou Diallo. He has said that crime is not the fault of the black community, but rather, is a consequence of the community's economic plight. Barron said that crime could only be reduced by economic opportunities and advancement, and without economic opportunities, "every black community is a powder keg."[77][78]

In response to the New York City Police Department (NYPD) shooting of three individuals—including the fatal shooting of a 23-year-old prospective bridegroom, Sean Bell outside of a Jamaica, Queens strip club in 2006, Barron made a number of controversial statements, including one that implied that members of Bell's community would be justified in exercising non-peaceful or violent methods in response to his death.[79] Barron has publicly stated "we don't shoot anybody, they shoot us."

Barron's name was floated with death threats on NYPD Rant, an internet forum, during 2007. Barron and the 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement called for a prompt investigation, and security detail was increased.

Barron has spoken passionately on the issue of reparations for slavery and, while on the city council, proposed creating a commission in New York City to study the effects of slavery on modern African Americans and use city funding for reparations.[80] He also introduced a bill to support restitution from companies that had benefited from past slavery.

In 2002, Barron was criticized for stating at a reparations rally,"I want to go up to the closest white person and say, 'You can't understand this, it's a black thing' and then slap him, just for my mental health."[81] Barron explained that the remark was hyperbole and not to be taken seriously.[81]

Barron believes that United States history is not accurately taught in schools, and has expressed interest in promoting African-American history throughout the New York City public school system. He has drafted legislation mandating the teaching of African-American history in required school curriculum. He has used his position as Councilman to propose renaming buildings and schools as well as decorating them with mementos of black history. He wishes to publicize black history greater, including erecting portraits of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, as important leaders in American history. Barron proposed bills to honor America's African American heritage and such individuals as Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, Frederick Douglass, Paul Robeson, and W. E. B. Du Bois. He drafted a bill that would have asked President George W. Bush to cancel all debts African nations owe the U.S.[82]

Barron has twice sought clemency for individuals he described as "political prisoners". For example, In 2002, he asked that Anthony Bottom, Albert Washington, and Herman Bell be released. Although they were convicted for killing two police officers in 1971, conflicting evidence surfaced through COINTELPRO that suggests questionable government tactics in the prosecution of the three men. The bill was hotly debated and rejected.[83] Barron asked in 2005 that Assata Shakur, a fugitive wanted by the federal government, be granted clemency for the alleged 1973 killing of a state trooper.[84]

In 2009, Barron asked that the City of New York compensate the five men wrongly accused in the Central Park Jogger case.[85][86]

Barron, appearing on the Fox network television program The O'Reilly Factor[87] in April, 2006, stated that opposition to present-day immigration involves skin color. He argued that Germans, Jews, Poles, Greeks, and Italians who immigrated to the United States during the late 19th century were welcomed because of the color of their skin. In contrast, "All of a sudden when the complexion of immigration changes, now it's 'these people'." He stated to host Bill O'Reilly that the original European immigrants had received preferential treatment: "They had enough black people here already that were skilled and couldn't get the jobs that your people [i.e., European-Americans] were able to get." Many viewers responded to the episode, upset that Barron did not concede that white immigrants were also discriminated against.[88]

Barron says he does not salute the flag or believe in the Pledge of Allegiance, stating that the pledge's assertion that there is equality and justice for all is a lie that is not true for African-Americans.[89] In 2004, he strongly objected to a move by the City Council that would begin each meeting with a voluntary Pledge.[90]

Barron has criticized crony capitalism, calling it a "deeply-rooted illness" within America. Barron wrote a scathing editorial on the $700 billion bailout package in 2008, calling it the "biggest welfare check in the history of the planet". He said it was "a contradiction of capitalism" to give money to Wall Street during a slump while it had said for years that there was "no money for the people."

At the National Summit on Gentrification in 2019, Barron discussed strategies on keeping his district Black to the exclusion of White people, boasting:

"East New York, the community has had the largest increase in the black population is in East New York 13.2%. Harlemn lost 14% of its blacks, 400% increase of whites ... I have the distinct honor to be able to come before you and say I actually lost white population in my community. I lost, They left. I didn't ask them why they left. So if you see one or two or three or four or five whites in my neighborhood they're passing through."[91]

Barron held a mortgage crisis forum in 2007 to address concerns from residents who were in danger of house foreclosure. Barron said the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007 predominantly hurt African-Americans, who were lied to by predatory business practices.[92]