Lamont Lilly

Lamont Lilly (born 1979) is an American writer, political activist, and community organizer based in Durham, North Carolina. He is also a former vice-presidential candidate with the Workers World Party in the 2016 presidential election.

Early life and education Lamont Lilly was born in 1979 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States. In 2005 Lilly was hired by NCCU to serve the director of its African American Male Leadership Academy. He left the job in 2008.

From 2013 to 2018 Lilly was a Durham political activist, a leading member of the Durham branch of the WWP, a member of WWP's National Committee, and an early member of Black Alliance for Peace.

In 2010, Lilly traveled to Colombia in South America as a human rights delegate with Witness for Peace, advocating for displaced Indigenous and Afro-Colombian people. In 2015, he went to Syria and Lebanon in a group led by Ramsey Clark and Cynthia McKinney. In Beirut, he spoke as a Black Lives Matter representative at the International Forum for Justice Palestine. In Damascus, he met with members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Lilly has participated in several protests in the United States, including the 2015 Baltimore protests after the police murder of Freddie Gray, to the Days of Grace actions in Charleston, SC in the wake of the racist massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church; Lilly has been present and involved at numerous instances of civil unrest related to racial discrimination, recording his perspective as an activist-journalist in the Black Lives Matter movement. and was present at the 2016 Standing Rock protests. Later, he led support rallies for the arrested activists who tore down the Confederate statue in Durham in 2017. Lilly has helped to lead demonstrations in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York City, Oakland, Philadelphia, and San Diego.

Lilly has written as a guest columnist in The Durham News, The Herald-Sun, and Triangle Tribune. Marshall University, and Malcolm X College.

Community Lilly was awarded the 2015 Local Hero Citizen's Award by Indy Week for "pushing for workers' rights and police reform" and the 2017 Spectacular Magazine Man of the Year for "human rights and social justice". The Courier Newsroom named Lilly as one of their "Heroes of 2020" for his continued activism in the Movement for Black Lives. He attributes much of his political development to Monica Moorehead, Pam Africa, Mark Anthony Neal, and Mumia Abu-Jamal. He has also credited the writings of Thomas Sankara, Lucille Clifton, Amiri Baraka, Henry Dumas, Sonia Sanchez, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Kwame Nkrumah with influencing his political beliefs.

Lilly currently resides in Durham's historically African-American community, Old Hayti. He is also a member of the Alpha Kappa chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.