William Strickland, Civil Rights and Black Power activist, passes at 87

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For more than 60 years, Strickland dedicated his life to advancing civil rights, human rights, and political power for communities throughout the African Diaspora. He had extensive activity and communication with activists in the United States, the Caribbean—particularly Cuba—and the African continent.

Like many of his generation, Strickland’s entrance to the Civil Rights Movement came through his involvement with the NAACP Youth Council as a high school student in the early 1950s. Growing up in Roxbury, he became acquainted with Malcolm Little through his older cousin Leslie Edman, a friend of Malcolm’s who also served time with him in Charlestown State Prison.

At the invitation of Mississippi-based civil rights organizer Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, Strickland also went south to support the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party with its challenge to the Democratic National Convention in 1964. That December, Strickland helped organize a Harlem rally in support of the MFDP challenge and fostered a historic introduction between Malcolm and Mrs. Hamer. It was a contribution that Strickland remained proud of throughout his years.

In 1973, Strickland joined the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he taught political science for 40 years and served as the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Papers and where he combined his razor-sharp intellect, personal reflections on the Movement, and caustic humor to create transformative learning experiences for his students, within and beyond the classroom.

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