Minnesota’s Black Diaspora is Organizing for Its Future
- Rebecca Gilbuena
- 20 hours ago
- 4 min read
The Black diaspora in Minnesota is vast and deeply rooted. It includes families who arrived from Somalia, Ethiopia, and Liberia; entrepreneurs from Jamaica and Nigeria; multigenerational Black Americans whose ancestors migrated north from Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana; and young people building new identities at the intersection of all those histories.
Though their migration stories differ, their lives intersect in shared neighborhoods, schools, churches, mosques, businesses, and civic spaces. This week, that interconnected community came together with urgency.
The Minnesota Black Migrant Coalition—a group of Black-led organizations—officially launched a 90-day activation campaign designed to protect Black migrants and strengthen solidarity across the state’s diverse Black population — with organizers making clear that the implications reach nationally.
The kickoff call featured coalition leaders Lulete Mola, Rod Adams and Dara Beevas and was moderated by Semhar Araia, CEO and Founder of The Diaspora Academy.
“We know that it is our home, as Black people, as people of African descent, and as Minnesotans,” Araia said. “And as Black Minnesotans, we do represent a wide range of lived experiences, but we share the most unique and beautiful journey of honoring our Blackness and our rich, diverse heritage as Minnesotans.”
She acknowledged months of fear and instability tied to Operation Metro Surge, describing an unimaginable level of fear, harm, anxiety, loss, and separation.
“This has left us with many fears, many questions, and many reasons to doubt whether we belong here,” Araia said. “But this group, this coalition, we know we belong here.”
The Intersection of Race and Migration
Lulete Mola, co-founder of the Minnesota Black Collective Foundation, said the Black Migrant Coalition emerged from a critical gap in national conversations about immigration.
“There’s a lot of conversation about immigration, rightfully so,” she said. “And what is the conversation and actions at the intersection of race and migration, which is where Black migrants exist? And so that’s how we naturally emerge.”
Mola emphasized that Minnesota’s Black presence itself is rooted in migration — whether from East Africa or the American Midwest.
“Minnesota’s Black community exists because of migration,” she said. “Black people have migration stories. And it's really important to understand our connections and our shared journeys and our shared struggles while not eliminating and celebrating that we have diverse cultures and diverse experiences.”
She also drew a direct line between present enforcement actions and historical anti-Blackness. “The surveillance, the profiling, the targeting of Black immigrants, reflects the long history of anti-Blackness in this country.”
Rejecting Division Within the Diaspora
Rod Adams, executive director of the New Justice Project, framed the coalition as a response to efforts that divide Black communities along nationality or immigration lines. Quoting Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Adams said: “I’m not African because I was born in Africa, but I am African because Africa was born in me.”
“As someone who would consider themselves a foundational Black American, I think it's extremely important that our community, regardless of where you come from — if you migrated from South Sudan or South Alabama — that in this moment, understanding that all of our communities are under attack, come together.”
He pushed back against online narratives that pit Black Americans and Black immigrants against one another.
“All of our cultures are intertwined. All of our blood is intertwined,” he said. “When the police pull you over, they don't ask you, like, ‘Hey, you Nigerian? Is you Ghanaian?’ They’re pulling you over because you’re Black.”
“What white supremacy wants is for us to be separated,” Adams added. “When one of us is under attack, one of our community is under attack, we all must fight back.”
Ubuntu and Black Futures
Speaking both as president of the African American Leadership Forum and as a Black woman reflecting personally, Dara Beevas grounded her remarks in Ubuntu, a philosophy centered on shared humanity and mutual responsibility.
“I believe in Ubuntu: I am, because we are, and we are, because I am,” she said.
She framed the coalition’s emergence as consistent with the Forum’s broader commitment to building Black civic power — from policy and data infrastructure to community-centered design and long-term systems change. But, she added, those future-building efforts lose meaning if they exclude Black migrants.
“You can’t build Black futures and draw an arbitrary line around citizenship. Blackness does not stop at the border.”
Rather than framing this moment solely as a crisis, Beevas described it as a test of whether the community will fully embrace what she called collective genius.
“When we talk about revolution, collective Black genius is the foundation for how we have always gotten more free.”
A 90-Day Activation and a Long-Term Vision
The coalition framed the next 90 days as a focused mobilization window to build momentum for 5–10 years of sustained work.
“What we’re doing here in Minnesota, centering Black people, Black migrants, is a model for how we need to think about race, migration, and democracy across the nation and across the world,” Mola said.
Organizers are asking supporters to volunteer professional skills, amplify messaging, donate, invest in Black-led institutions, and formally join the coalition. The goal is not only protection, but infrastructure.
Calls to Action
Sign the Activation Form (CallforMinnesota.org)
Volunteer skills (legal, marketing, interpretation, finance, operations, etc.)
Amplify coalition messaging
Support Black-led frontline organizations
Invest in Minnesota’s Black Ecosystem
Financial donations
Multi-year commitments
Hosting national/global convenings in Minnesota
Direct economic engagement with Black institutions
Join the Coalition
Organizations can formally engage through tiered participation.
Stay Engaged
Ongoing briefings, organizing spaces, and strategy sessions will follow.