BOOK LAUNCH FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF POP CHAIRMAN & SENATE CANDIDATE LAWRENCE HAMM ON SATURDAY MARCH 9TH AT NEWARK PUBLIC LIBRARY

The book launch for “Lawrence Hamm: A Life In The Struggle” by Lawrence Hamm with Annette Alston will take place on Saturday, March 9, 2024, 2:00pm at the Newark Public Library, James Brown African American Room, 2nd Floor, 5 Washington Street in Newark, New Jersey.

The book is the autobiography of Lawrence Hamm, Chairman, People’s Organization For Progress and candidate for the United States Senate for New Jersey. He co-authored it with Annette Alston who has written several other books.

It chronicles Hamm’s life as a a social justice activist for more than 50 years, from the time of his first protest as a high school student in 1971 until more recent struggles against police brutality in the 21st century.

“I agreed to write this book because I thought it was important to tell the story of some of the struggles I have been involved in during the past half century and some of the lessons I have learned from them,” Hamm stated.

“This is not just my story. It is the story of many, many people with whom I have worked with side by side to try to bring about change at local, state, national, and international levels,”Hamm said.

The book explores his participation in the black power movement after his appointment at age 17 to the Newark Board of Education by the city’s first black mayor, Kenneth A. Gibson, making him the youngest school board member in the nation. It looks at the three tumultuous years he spent on the school board.

It discusses the influence of writer and activist Amiri Baraka on Hamm’s political development and struggles in which they both participated. Hamm was the youngest elected delegate to the 1972 National Black Political Convention held in Gary, Indiana, and spearheaded by Baraka.

The book talks about his role in the campus anti-apartheid movement to get Princeton to divest its stock holdings in companies doing business with the racist apartheid regime in South Africa.

It delves into the struggle to build the People’s Organization For Progress (POP), an all volunteer grassroots organization working for racial, social, and economic justice. POP will observe its 42nd anniversary this year.

POP has been active over the past 40 years around a wide range of issues affecting the black community, and working and poor people in general. POP has been especially active on the issue of police brutality.

The book examines other movements in which Hamm participated. This includes Rev Jesse Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 presidential campaign efforts in New Jersey. It will also discuss the organizing and mobilizing efforts for the Rainbow Coalition and the Million Man March in New Jersey.

It will also explore his involvement and that of POP in police brutality struggles, especially that of Earl Faison, a young black man who was killed by police in Orange, NJ. This was the only time in the state’s history where five police officers were simultaneously convicted in connection with a police brutality case.

“I owe an immense debt of gratitude to Annette Alston for this book. It would not have happened without her. She urged me to write the book and volunteered to work on it with me. She saw it through from an idea to actual publication,” Hamm said.