What We’ve Done

Over the past 37 years D12 has been a consistent force in the streets to address attacks on the Black people. During that time we: 

• Organized boycott of abusive grocers in response to their mistreatment of Black people and established the African People’s Farmers Market in 1988. The Market provided quality fruits and vegetables at low costs and regularly held free community programs  on preventive health care, healthy diet, exercise, etc.
• Opened Sistas Place Coffee Shop in Brooklyn, whose theme is “Culture is a Weapon.” and where some of the world’s most renowned artists perform under our motif, “Jazz – A Music of the Spirit.” 
• Led campaigns to end drug sales, to stop gun violence in the community (“Stop the Killing”) and to set an example for youth of what a self-determining community entails; held training sessions for young musicians on learning how to own and control what they produce; spoken in schools, churches and at community organizations; organized young people to attend International gatherings
• Organized grassroots relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina (2005) and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti
• Gone to Federal court to force New York City to allow us to hold the Million Youth March in 1998 and 1998;
• Waged a 12 year campaign to secure financial justice (reparations) for the Central Park 5 (now the Exonerated 5).
• Formed the Freedom Party to run progressive candidates for elected office.
• Launched an “No to Ethnic Cleansing – We Ain’t Going Nowhere” anti-gentrification street campaign in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
• Held a march and rally over three decades every May 19th, in honor of the birth of Malcolm X, where stores across 125th Street in Harlem, close in a demand of respect…
• Organized groups to come together to address the threat of fascism in the U.S. 
• Raised the demand for reparations both internationally (the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa; the first CARICOM Reparations Conference), nationally (the first National Millions for Reparations Rally in Washington, DC 2002 and the filing of a Federal lawsuit demanding reparations) and locally (helping to secure the passage of the New York State Reparations Bill).
• Taken the issue of Black people’s human rights into the international arena through our International Secretariat (IS). Since 1989, the IS has been a regular participant at the United Nation’s bodies in Geneva, Switzerland and New York City.
• Petitioned the International Criminal Court in the Hague, to charge the U.S. with violations of international law.
• Ongoing fight against sanctions (unilateral coercive measures).
• Since the time of their national liberation, has stood in strong solidarity with Zimbabwe.