Chaka Fattah

Chaka Fattah (born Arthur Wesley Davenport; November 21, 1956) is an American politician who served as a Democratic member of the U.S. House for PA's 2nd congressional district from 1995 to 2016.

The district included portions of North Philadelphia, South Philadelphia, and West Philadelphia along with Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County.

He previously served in the Pennsylvania Senate and the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

Currently, Fattah serves as the President and CEO of Fattah Neuroscience Global Advisors, a consulting firm dedicated towards advancing brain science and health research, and Chair of the National Brain Council.

His parents divorced when he was young, and his mother soon remarried to a man she met at a national conference on black power in 1968.

Following this conference, his mother and her new husband decided to change their family name to Fattah.

They would change Arthur's name to Chaka, after a Zulu king.

His mother and stepfather's social activism strongly influenced Fattah's political development.

His adoptive father, David Fattah, and mother, Falaka Fattah (born Frances Brown, also known as "Queen Mother" Falaka Fattah), are community activists in West Philadelphia, where they are building an "urban Boys' Town" through their organization, the House of Umoja.

He has five brothers.

Fattah attended Overbrook High School and the Community College of Philadelphia.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts in business and economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

Fattah served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 192nd district from 1983 to 1988, and as a State Senator for the 7th district from 1988 to 1994.

In 1984, Fattah completed the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

In May 1986, he received his master's degree in governmental administration from the University of Pennsylvania's Fels Institute of Government.

Fattah was the recipient of numerous honors and awards including 10 honorary doctorates and the University of Pennsylvania's Fels Institute of Government Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award.

Time magazine named Fattah one of the 50 most promising leaders in the country.

In 1987, Fattah founded the Graduate Opportunity Initiative Conference, an annual three-day informational and scholarship conference which aims to significantly increase the enrollment of under-represented graduate students studying Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM fields).

The conference was designed to encourage minority students’ interest in STEM graduate and professional schools.

In 1991, State Senator Fattah decided to run for Pennsylvania's 2nd congressional district in the special election that was held after Democratic U.S. Congressman William Gray decided to resign.

On November 5, 1991, City Councilman Lucien Edward Blackwell won the election with a plurality of 39% of the vote defeating Fattah (28%), John F. White (28%), and Nadine Smith-Bulford (5%).

In 1994, Fattah decided to challenge Blackwell in the Democratic primary.

He defeated the incumbent 58%–42%.

He won the general election with 86% of the vote.

After that, he was re-elected every two years with at least 86% of the vote.

Fattah represented the 2nd district in Pennsylvania, an overwhelmingly Democratic district, in the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 2016.

Fattah endorsed Barack Obama for President in 2008.

He is the architect of the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs.

In his first years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Fattah introduced and passed into law Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), a college awareness and preparedness program.

Since its inception, more than $4 billion in federal funds have been distributed to assist 12million students in 50 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.

On July 29, 2015, Fattah and a group of associates were indicted on federal charges related to their alleged roles in a racketeering and influence peddling conspiracy.

He was convicted on 23 counts of racketeering, fraud, and other corruption charges on June 21, 2016, and resigned two days later.

On December 12, 2016, Fattah was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

He was never challenged in the Democratic primary until 2016, when he lost to Dwight E. Evans.

On August 9, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia overturned Fattah's bribery convictions.

On July 12, 2019, a Philadelphia judge sentenced Fattah to 10 years in federal prison for public corruption.

He was released from prison in the summer of 2020.

Arthur Davenport was born and raised in Philadelphia, to Russell and Frances Davenport as the fourth of six sons.

His father was a sergeant in the United States Army and his mother was an editor for the Philadelphia Tribune.