From [HERE] In March 2023, Regions Bank notified the black nonprofit African People’s Education and Defense Fund (APEDF) that the bank was “exiting” their 20-year relationship, closing accounts, withdrawing lines of credit and canceling mortgage loans.

This assault on the ability of African people to build economic self-reliance was the latest in a series of actions revealing government and corporate cooperation targeting the black community programs of the Uhuru (Freedom) Movement including its popular Women’s Health Center, Black Power Vanguard Basketball Court, “One Africa! One Nation!” Marketplaces, Gary Brooks Community Garden, Uhuru Jiko Commercial Kitchens and Bakery Cafe, Akwaaba Hall events venues, Black Power 96 radio station, Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles stores, Uhuru Foods & Pies and Uhuru House black community centers.

Facebook has blocked the ability for supporters to crowdfund for Uhuru programs through their personal pages. GoFundMe froze over $9,000 in donations for the Hands Off Uhuru! Legal Defense Fund for more than three months until the group’s lawyers took legal action to get the funds released. The Stripe payment processing company also blocked contributions to the group for a period of time.

On February 14, 2023 the Pinellas County Commission revoked $36,801 in funding that had been previously approved for WBPU 96.3 FM black community radio station in St. Petersburg, Florida after expressing political opposition to its association with the black power Uhuru Movement.

These economic sanctions have come on the heels of a series of violent government-initiated attacks on the Uhuru Movement that began in earnest with the July 29, 2022 militarized FBI raid on seven Uhuru properties and includes two acts of arson, one arrest and interrogation, censorship in the removal of a change.org petition and a U.S. state department announcement of a $10 million reward for information that could tie Uhuru leaders to Russian government interference in U.S. elections and public opinion influencing.

Ona Zené Yeshitela, Board President of APEDF, says “Our organization has built over 50 economic institutions, financed through our own fundraising work and the donations of thousands of people. These banks don’t want black people to be able to feed, clothe and house ourselves. They do not want money circulating in the black community.”

Omali Yeshitela is founder of the Uhuru Movement and Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party. He is considered the primary target of the FBI raids and threatened indictments on charges of serving as a pawn of the Russian government. A 1960s field organizer registering voters with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the 81-year-old Yeshitela has fought for Black Power for over 50 years. [MORE]