Who is Cornel West, the American activist running for Justice For All Party in the US Election 2024?

Cornel West, a lifelong activist for economic and racial justice and an academic, is running for president with the Justice for All party. On Tuesday, he will run alongside Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

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Dr. West will not appear on the ballot in enough states to win unless he receives enough write-in votes in states where he is not formally listed. He will be officially listed as a candidate in 15 states, which together account for a total of 139 electoral college votes. In the Democratic primaries of 2016 and 2020, West endorsed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Cornell West’s early life

The presidential candidate, born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1953, is the son of Irene Rayshell, a dedicated teacher and school administrator, and Clifton Louis West Jr., a general contractor for the US Defense Department. He hails from a family with a strong oratory tradition; his grandfather, Clifton L. West, served as a pastor of the Tulsa Metropolitan Baptist Church.

During his upbringing in Northern California, he was influenced by the intense racial politics of the time, particularly the rise of the Black Panther Party. He completed his high school education at John F. Kennedy High School in Sacramento, where he spent much of his formative years. Following graduation, he attended Harvard College, where he cultivated a strong interest in philosophy. West continued his academic pursuits at Princeton University, earning both a master’s degree and a PhD in philosophy. Notably, he became the first Black student to earn a PhD in philosophy from that Ivy League institution. Throughout his studies, he engaged deeply with the philosophical figures who inspired the political thought of the Black Panthers, including Karl Marx and W.E.B. Du Bois, among others.

Religion has always been seminal to Dr. West’s political project, which is true for many Black liberationists. When Black people were enslaved in the United States, faith and religion bound people together and became a place for community, a tradition West continues to keep as a part of his political philosophy. West is a prolific writer who has published over a dozen books on justice, with a particular focus on racial justice, including Race Matters, The Future of the Race, and Black Prophetic Fire.

Cornell West’s run for US President

West campaign has focused on justice issues, including race, health, environmental politics, and human rights. His presidential run has been turbulent, jumping from party to party until settling on an independent run with the Justice for All party.

One of the ‘pillars’ of the campaign is Black Maternal Justice, which calls attention to the unjustifiable threat Black women face when pregnant. In the United States, the maternal mortality rate of Black women was nearly three times as high as the rate of white women. These shocking disparities are really talked about, and West aimed to change that with his campaign. “This policy is an acknowledgment of the grave injustices faced by Black mothers in the United States, who endure disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality and morbidity,” reads West’s campaign website, where he presents a few actions his adminstration would take if elected. Some of the measures include increased public funding for maternal health services that are “tailored to the needs of Black women” and cultural competency and implicit bias training for medical professionals who often don’t realize that their bias is hurting and threatening the lives of their patients.

Other issues the campaign has focused on include elder and child justice and the protection of the rights of children and the elderly, global justice and anti-imperialism, and immigration justice.

Candidates like West known that they are not going to win, but their canidadcies aim to raise awarness and inform the electorate that another type of politics exists.