BROC Conference Statement
January 2016

The Black Radical Tradition Conference, starting on Thursday, January 7, 2016, and concluding on Sunday, January 10, constituted a historic achievement of the highest order. It was a powerful congregation of leaders, activists and people fighting for social change in their communities and dedicating their lives to the liberation of humanity. Anchored in revolutionary love, the conference represented the unity within Black Philadelphia and with activists around the nation in challenging white supremacy and capitalism, and it anticipated the next stage of the Black liberation movement.

The Black Radical Organizing Collective (BROC) was responsible for organizing the conference. BROC is a revolutionary collective based in North Philadelphia, and our membership draws from the diverse progressive community of the Philadelphia area and beyond. We are a multigenerational, multiracial and multifaith organization committed to revolutionary change and transformation. We serve the people, because we truly come from the people, making us distinct from nonprofit and/or policy organizations that collaborate with the white supremacist and capitalist forces of money and power. Our members and volunteers are unpaid and we do not enjoy substantial funding, wishing to locate ourselves in the power of the people and resist co-optation by the hegemonic institutions against which we fight.

Instead, we locate ourselves in the people of Black Philadelphia and its organic institutions. BROC’s primary sponsor is the Church of the Advocate, which hosted the Black Power Conference of 1968, the Black Panther Conference of 1970, and the first ordination of women in the Episcopal Church in 1974. With the leadership of Reverend Renee McKenzie-Hayward, the Church of the Advocate continues to serve the Black Philadelphia community through social services, community programs and spiritual enrichment, continuing the legacy of its pastor, Father Paul Washington, who practiced and envisioned the theology of liberation.   

The Black Radical Tradition Conference delivered ideological clarity and centered radicalism in the movement. The conference prioritized the people who fight and struggle on the ground for social change and actively participate in movement-building and history-making. The conference invited historical leaders like Angela Davis, Pam Africa, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and Jamala Rogers and united them with youth forces like Umi Selah, Kashara White, Nyle Fort and Charlene Carruthers in shaping the future of the movement.

The conference empowered the Beloved Community in fighting for liberation, and contextualized our movement in the global struggle against capitalism, colonialism and white supremacy. Ours is an internationalist struggle that builds unity and claims progressive power in the fight against oppressive hierarchies. Approximately 2500 people attended the conference, coming from different parts of the country, impacting the nationwide movement for Black lives matter and establishing the importance of Philadelphia in the national struggle.

The Black Radical Tradition Conference anticipated the next phase of struggle in the Black liberation movement, rekindling the transformative momentum of the earliest stages of the movement. The conference inspired the people to new levels of consciousness and cemented the crucial importance of united struggle. We struggle towards revolutionary transformation and we serve the Beloved Community. Our struggle aims to reshape the future and claim power for the people. We can only move forward from here.

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Read our statement addressing the pattern of disruptions during the conference here.