Akinyele Umoja, PhD, MA

Akinyele Umoja is a scholar-activist and Professor of Africana Studies at Georgia State University (GSU). He currently teaches  a course on Reparations and guides students in research for local and national reparations efforts.

Akinyele obtained a Ph.D from Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia and a MA, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.

Professor Umoja is the author of the award-winning book, We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance and the Mississippi Freedom Movement. He also co-edited another prizewinning publication, the two-volume Black Power Encyclopedia (Greenwood Press, 2018).  His scholarship is featured in several journals and anthologies, and contributed to several documentaries, including the PBS Frontline “American Reckoning” and BET’s “American Gangster” on Dr. Mutulu Shakur.

He  is a Board member of the National Council of Black Studies and serves  on the Advisory Board of the Journal the Black Scholar. Professor Umoja has lectured on the topic of reparations at academic, community and in international venues.   

Professor Umoja is a co-founder of the New Afrikan Peoples Organization and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement