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- Kweisi Mfume Biography
Born: October 24, 1948
Baltimore, Maryland
African American civil rights activist, city councilman, congressman, and professor
Kweisi Mfume has been an active leader in the civil rights struggle for many decades. As a congressman, Mfume became one of the most well-known African American politicians in Washington, D.C. Believing that he could achieve more for civil rights by working for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Mfume eventually left Congress to become president of the organization.
"Things spun out of control"
Kweisi Mfume was born Frizzell Gray on October 24, 1948, in Baltimore, Maryland. His stepfather, Clifton Gray, was a truck driver, and his mother, Mary Elizabeth Gray, took odd jobs, but the family was often short of cash. Mfume was a good student who was protective of his three younger sisters. When Mfume was eleven, Clifton Gray abandoned the family. Then, when Mfume was sixteen, his mother discovered that she had cancer and soon died. He told U.S. News and World Report, "After she died of cancer, things spun out of control." Mfume quit high school during his second year and went to work to help support his sisters. At times he worked as many as three different jobs in a single week.
Mfume also began hanging out on street corners drinking with friends. As he recalled in U.S. News and World Report, "I was locked up a couple of times on suspicion of theft because I happened to be black and happened to be young. And before I knew it, I was a teenage parent, not once but twice, three times, four times, five times." Mfume's life changed on a July night in the late 1960s. He had been drinking with his friends when suddenly he began to feel strange. "People were standing around shooting craps [playing dice] and everything else, and something just came over me," he remembered in Business Week. "I said, 'I can't live like this anymore.' And I walked away." Mfume spent the rest of the night in prayer, then proceeded to earn his high-school diploma and pursue a college degree.
A new name
In an effort to connect with his African background, Mfume adopted a new name early in the 1970s. His aunt had traveled to Ghana and suggested the name when she
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Breh went on to Baltimore City Council, then Congress, then president of the NAACP
That's what the fukk I'm talking about
