The Feb. 25 passing of Jackson, Miss., Mayor Chokwe Lumumba shocked many of his close comrades as circumstances about his death still remain unclear.
At a recent Battlefield Park, Miss., event, Hinds County Supervisor Kenny Stokes made a surprising announcement: “We gonna ask a question: Who killed the mayor? So many of us feel, throughout the city of Jackson, that the mayor was murdered,” said Stokes. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I’m not going to try to say it in a way where the people feel, you know, that we should have said it in another way.
“First they say it’s not a heart attack and not a stroke—then what was it? You don’t just die like that and you’re healthy. I believe that someone killed him. Now I can’t prove it, but I’m going to say it. That’s how I feel in my heart, and a lot of other people feel he was killed.”
Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart insists that Lumumba, who previously battled cancer, died of natural causes at 4:55 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at St. Dominic’s Hospital.
At the recent Saviours’ Day, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan offered support in investigating the progressive politician’s passing.
“Chokwe, I’ve known him for nearly 40 years. His funeral will be on the 8th of this month, and he died under circumstances that we don’t know what it was,” Farrakhan said. “He became the mayor of Jackson, Miss., and any of you who know Mississippi and know Jackson … a Black man being mayor and trying to do right by all the people is not a mayor that those people want.
“He was in the hospital, he was on the phone doing mayoral business, he was laughing, he was in good spirits … and within a few hours, he was dead. I was so happy to learn that they are getting an independent pathologist because medical examiners … we can’t trust them when our babies are dead, and they make it seem as if it were under ‘natural circumstances.’
“They lie to protect the government. We have to have our own independent pathologists and whatnot to look after us, so I understand they’re trying to raise the money. I told them, ‘Don’t even waste time; call me.’ I will give you whatever it takes to get our own forensic specialist to go in and make sure that our brother died under the right circumstances.”
Speculation has been swirling that he suffered a similar fate as his namesake, Patrice Lumumba, due to his uncompromising advocacy for reparations and self-determination for the Black community.
A special election to replace Lumumba has been scheduled for April 8.