About the President
About Dr. Ron Daniels
Biographical Brief
Veteran social and political activist Dr. Ron Daniels was an independent candidate for President of the United States in 1992. He served as Executive Director of the National Rainbow Coalition in 1987 and Southern Regional Coordinator and Deputy Campaign Manager for the Jesse Jackson for President Campaign in 1988. A scholar-activist who has taught History, Political Science and Pan African Studies/Black Studies at Youngstown State University, Hiram College, Cornell University and Kent State University, he was a Visiting Associate Professor of Black Studies at The College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio in 1994. He holds a B.A. in History from Youngstown State University, an M.A. in Political Science from the Rockefeller School of Public Affairs in Albany, New York and a Doctor of Philosophy in Africana Studies from the Union Institute and University in Cincinnati. He currently serves as Distinguished Lecturer at York College, City University of New York.
Listed in Who’s Who in Black America, Dr. Daniels has been a leading figure in some of the most significant social and political movements over the last five decades, including Freedom Inc. in Youngstown, Ohio; the African Liberation Day Support Committee, which spawned African Liberation Day (ALD); the National Black Political Assembly (NBPA); National Black Independent Political Party (NBIPP); and the African American Progressive Action Network (AAPAN) which spearheaded the drive to declare May 19, the birthday of Malcolm X, a National African American Day of Commemoration in 1990. Dr. Daniels was the prime mover behind and Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee for the National State of the Race Conference which was held in Baltimore, MD, in November of 1994 — one of the most significant gatherings of community based leaders, scholar-activists, civil rights and human rights leaders and opinion makers of the decade. Subsequently, he served on the Board of Directors of the African American Institute for Research and Empowerment (AAIFRE), the continuations mechanism of the National State of the Race Conference. From 1992 – 1998, Dr. Daniels was National Chairperson of the Campaign for a New Tomorrow (CNT), a Black and people of color led multi-racial independent political organization. In 1998 CNT merged with a number of progressive constituencies in the greater New York City area to form the Unity Party. Dr. Daniels played a key role in the formation of the National African American Leadership Summit (NAALS), and he was a member of the Executive Council of the National Organizing Committee of the historic Million Man March and Day of Absence in 1995 and the Millions More Movement in 2005.
In June of 1995, Dr. Daniels led an African American fact finding and support delegation/mission to Haiti. As a result of the visit, the Haiti Support Project (HSP) was created to mobilize ongoing political and material support for the struggle for democracy and development in Haiti. To date HSP has mobilized more than $5,000,000 in various forms of humanitarian assistance, developmental aid and investment for a broad range of community based organizations, projects and socially responsible economic/business enterprises in Haiti. In 2004, under the auspices of HSP’s Cruising Into History Initiative, Dr. Daniels helped to mobilize 500 African Americans, Haitian Americans and friends of Haiti for a Caribbean Pilgrimage to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the Haitian Revolution which produced the first Black Republic in this hemisphere. Since that time, working in collaboration with the Local Development Committee of Milot and the Destination Haiti Foundation, HSP has launched the Model City Initiative to transform Milot into a Mecca for cultural-historical tourism. As part of the Model City Initiative, HSP leads annual Pilgrimages to Milot to visit the magnificent Citadel and Sans Souci Palace.
In 2005 HSP convened two high level Symposia on the Future of Democracy and Development in Haiti
to promote justice and reconciliation and explore the prospects for a government of national unity in the wake of the ouster of President Jean Bertrand Aristide. HSP convenes regular briefings on Haiti and Dr. Daniels is often called on to Moderate the Haiti Issues Forum at the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference. Dr. Daniels has traveled to Haiti more than 60 times in the past seventeen years and is frequently in demand for media interviews and as a panelist at conferences. After devastating earthquake which struck Haiti in January of 2010, HSP established the Haiti Relief Fund to provide assistance to a range of grassroots organizations. HSP has emerged as the leading African American organization working to build a constituency for Haiti in the U.S.
A prolific essayist and commentator, Dr. Daniels’ column Vantage Point appears in numerous Black and progressive newspapers and web sites nationwide. He has also been a featured columnist for The Black World Today and an occasional contributor to Z-Magazine and the Black Collegian. Dr. Daniels served as the Contributing Editor of Black Collegian’s 35th Anniversary Commemorative Edition in 2001. He has written editorial opinion pieces which were distributed by the Black Media Project of the Progressive Magazine. Dr. Daniels has contributed essays to several books including: “Racism: Looking Forward, Looking Backward,” in Race and Resistance, edited by Herb Boyd; “The Crisis of Police Brutality and Misconduct in America: The Causes and the Cure,” in Police Brutality, an Anthology edited by Jill Nelson; “Institutions for Black Empowerment,” in State of the Race, an Anthology edited by Dr. Jemadari Kamara and Tony Van Deer Meer; “The Rebellion in Los Angeles: The Crisis of Capitalism,” in Why L.A. Happened: Implications for the ‘92 Rebellion, edited by Haki Madhubuti; and, “The Million Man March: From Patriarchy to Partnership,” in Million Man March/Day of Absence: A Commemorative Anthology, edited by Haki Madhubuti. In 2012, Dr. Daniels joined with Herb Boyd, Dr. Maulana Karenga and Haki Madhubuti as an Editor of By Any Means Necessary: Malcolm X, Real Not Reinvented – Critical Conversations On Manning Marable’s Biography ofMalcolm X.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Daniels has lectured and conducted workshops and seminars for hundreds of colleges and universities, community based groups, civil rights organizations/human rights, women, youth and labor organizations including the National Urban League, NAACP, National Congress of Black Women, National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, Inc., National Hip Hop Political Convention, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, A. Philip Randolph Institute, Black Workers for Justice and Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. A devotee and proponent of liberation theology, he is increasingly called upon to deliver lay sermons, Black History and social justice presentations at churches and spiritual based institutions. In recent years he has made presentations at the Abyssinian Baptist Church, Riverside Church, St. Albans Congregational Church, Corona Congressional Church, St. Paul Community Baptist Church, House of the Lord Church and New York Ethical Cultural Society in the greater New York area, Emmanuel Baptist Church, Winston Salem, NC, St. Stephens Baptist Church and St. Mark United Methodist Church in Kansas City, Missouri, Allen Temple Baptist Church, Oakland, California and Tabernacle Baptist Church, Youngstown, Ohio to site a few. Dr. Daniels is a member of St. Mark A.M.E. Church in East Elmhurst, New York.
A frequent guest on national and local media outlets, Dr. Daniels has appeared on CBS News Nightwatch, BET’s Our Voices, and BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley and Ed Gordon, Tony Brown’s Journal, America’s Black Forum, Gil Noble’s Like It Is, The Maury Povich Show, Bertice Berry Show, Donahue, Now with Bill Moyers on PBS, Fox News Channel’s Hannity and Colmes. The Crier Report, The O’ Reilly Factor, The Edge with Paula Zahn, The Heartland with Bill Kasich, The Big Story with John Gibson and On the Record with Greta Van Susteren. He has also appeared on CNN’s Larry King Live, Both Sides with Jesse Jackson and Inside Politics, CNBC’s Geraldo Rivera Show, Scarborough Country on MSNBC, the CBS, ABC and NBC nightly news, Court T.V., Pacifica Broadcasting Network News and Democracy Now, NPR’s Talk of the Nation and numerous local talk shows and newscasts. Dr. Daniels hosted his own television talk show on the ABC affiliate WYTV in Youngstown, Ohio for nineteen years. In 1998 he was the host of Night Talk, which aired in more than thirty cities on the American Urban Radio Networks. He was a frequent guest on the Bev Smith Show on AURN. Most recently Dr. Daniels, also known as “The Professor,” produced and hosted Vantage Point, an issue oriented radio talk show and hosted Afternoon Drive on WWRL 1600 A.M in New York. He also hosted Night Talk, a weekly talk show on WBAI, 99.5 FM on the Pacifica Network in New York. Dr. Daniels continues to Guest Host the Morning Show on WWRL, The Warren Ballentine Show, Keeping It Real with Rev. Al Sharpton on the Radio One Network and, Make It Plain with Mark Thompson on SIRIUS/XM Satellite Radio.
Dr. Daniels has served on the Board of Directors of the Center for Democratic Renewal, Greenpeace USA and the National Jobs with Peace Campaign. He currently serves on the Board of the Nation Institute. He Daniels has served as a consultant for the Urban Training Center for Christian Mission, Episcopal Church General Convention Special Program, the Ohio Institute for Practical Politics, American Friends Service Committee’s 200 Years of the Penitentiary Project, Help Us Make A Nation (H.U.M.A.N), Advanced Campaign Technologies, Agricultural Missions, Agricultural Teams, Inc., 100% Vote/Human Serve, Citizenship Education Fund, National Economic Development and Research Center, Senior Consultant for African Resources International, and Senior Consultant for WCT Management, Inc.
From 1993-2005 Dr. Daniels served as first African American Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 as an outgrowth of the struggle against segregation in the South, CCR is committed to the creative use of the law as a positive force for social change. During his tenure as Executive Director, CCR emerged as a major force fighting against police brutality and misconduct, church burnings, hate crimes, voter disenfranchisement, environmental racism and the threats to civil liberties posed by the government’s response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.
Building on his earlier work with the National State of the Race Conferences of 1994 and 1997 and the creation of AAIFRE, in 2001 Dr. Daniels was the architect and Convener of the State of the Black World Conference (SOBWC) which drew some 2,500 to Atlanta from communities of African descent from around the world. The Atlanta Declaration issued at the conference called for the establishment of an Institute of the Black World to promote research, relevant publications, leadership training and development, community organizing/skill development training and communications/information sharing and networking. As an outgrowth of SOBWC, the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) was launched in April of 2002. IBW convened the Second State of the Black World Conference in New Orleans in 2008. Dr. Daniels envisions IBW emerging as a critical engine for empowerment of people of African descent and the oppressed in the 21st century and is devoting most of his energy to achieving that goal in what he describes as the “autumn” of his advocacy as a scholar/activist. In February of 2007, Dr. Ron Daniels was appointed the first Distinguished Lecturer at York College of the City University of New York.
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