Jitu Weusi

Jitu Weusi (born Leslie R. Campbell; August 25, 1939 - May 22, 2013) was an American educator, education advocate, author, a community leader, writer, activist, mentor, jazz and art program promoter.

He is one of the founders of the National Black United Front, Jitu Weusi Institute for Development, and the International African Arts Festival.

Weusi was born Leslie R. Campbell in 1939 and raised in Brooklyn from a working-class family.

He was born at St. John's Hospital in Brooklyn.

He graduated from Brooklyn's P.S. 54 in 1952.

As a young child he worked at his cousin's newsstand.

He says, that from working at the newsstand he was introduced to jazz by the men that would frequent the newsstand.

His cousins took him to his first jazz concert.

While in his teens Weusi worked as a waiter at the Village Gate in New York City where he met Thelonious Monk, and Nina Simone.

He attended Brooklyn Tech High School, and Franklin Lane High School.

He received a basketball scholarship to attend Long Island University where he wrote his thesis on the history of Black Swan Records, the first African American recording company.

It was titled "The Rise and Fall of Black Swan Records."

In 1962, Weusi started working for the New York City Public schools teaching Social Studies at Bedford–Stuyvesant's Junior High School (JHS 35).

In 1967 four out of 865 principals were Black, and 12 out of 1,500 were assistant principals in New York City schools.

More than 95 percent of the students in the public schools in the Ocean-Hill-Brownsville area of Brooklyn were Black and Latino and teachers were two-thirds white.

New York City Mayor John Lindsay in the spring of 1967 did grant "community control" to Ocean Hill-Brownsville and two other New York City neighborhoods.

This was his response from White parents' complaints to busing to integrate schools.

The New York City schools that were a part of the test experiment in community control of local schools were JHS 35, I.S. 201, and JHS 271.

The project was approved by the New York City Board of Education (BOE) and supported by the Ford Foundation.

The schools had a governing board of local parents and residents.

Weusi described the community and teachers' movement as the “most underrepresented yet most impactful era of Brooklyn history.” And that the battle between, “the teachers and the community battled the Board of Education and the predominately-white United Federation of Teachers in a struggle that they hoped would finally create a structure for the empowerment of local communities.

In March 1968 he was transferred to Junior High School 271 after taking students from his class to a Malcolm X memorial program.

In the late 60s, Weusi left the New York City Department of Education, and started the Uhuru Sasa Shule private school, which means in Swahili (Freedom Now School).

It was the first Black independent private school in New York City.

The school was developed to address the need for African American students to understand their heritage and place in history.

In 1968 Weusi played a significant role along with other young educators such as; Randy Tobias, Al Vann, Oliver Patterson, Leroy Lewis, Joan Eastman, and Ola Cherry for community control of public schools during the teachers strike in the fall of 1968.

The strike pitted the United Federation of Teachers against community control of school advocates coming after the new community-controlled school board dismissed white teachers.

The United Federation of Teachers led by Albert Shanker wanted and demanded that the teachers' be reinstated.

It was a conflict between local rights and self-determination and the rights of teachers' universal rights as workers.

It was one of the largest teachers' strikes in American history.

During the 1968 strike over 500 New York City teachers went on strike.

The strike lasted for 37 days, over a million students were affected by the strike.

The strike came after controversy to integrate the public school system and community control with the school district called Ocean Hill, Brooklyn, Brownsville, Brooklyn.

Prior to the teachers' strike was the Brown v. Board decision calling for the integration of the public school systems through busing.

In New York City the effort to integration the public schools met with resistance and gridlock.

In Harlem and in Ocean Hill-Brownsville an alternative to integration and rezoning was the demand for local community boards and parent control of schools.

The festival started in 1971.

Weusi along with Aminisha Black and supporters were the founders of The East (East Cultural and Education Institution), Uhuru Sasa School (Freedom Now School), in Brooklyn for grades K through 12, the African Street Festival in Brooklyn which became the International African Arts Festival, the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium, Black News co-founder, founding member of the African American Teachers Association, and For My Sweet.

For my Sweet is a cultural events and art gallery space in Brooklyn.

In 1985, he returned to teaching for Department of Education in NYC in many different schools for three decades, retiring in 2006.