Ajamu Baraka

Baraka, as Jill Stein�s running mate, has focused on prison and sentencing reform, police-civilian relations and civil rights. He has called for �international oversight� of police killings of civilians, as well as a U.S. Department of Justice investigation. Baraka stirred controversy by calling President Barack Obama an �Uncle Tom president� after Obama condemned the Ferguson, Missouri, riots after Michael Brown was killed. Baraka further called Obama �a moral disaster� and one of �the worst things that has happened to African-American people� because, he said, black issues have been ignored. He has derided the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders � supporters of whom Stein has tried to court � as �media-driven pseudo-opposition.�

Baraka, 63, grew up in Chicago, received a graduate degree from Clark Atlanta University, served in the Army during the Vietnam War and has been involved in human rights issues since. A former Amnesty International volunteer, he has served on the boards of Amnesty International (USA), the Center for Constitutional Rights, Africa Action, and the Mississippi Workers� Center for Human Rights. In 1998, he was honored by the United Nations for his work to oppose the death penalty. He was a founding executive director of the U.S. Human Rights Network and coordinator of the U.S.-based Black Left Unity Network�s Committee on International Affairs.