MPR’s Tim Nelson profiles Nekima Levy-Pounds, a local civil rights activist who is a candidate in the Minneapolis mayor’s race. Levy-Pounds gained prominence as a Black Life Matters spokesperson and a leader in numerous public protests.
MPR’s Tim Nelson profiles Nekima Levy-Pounds, a local civil rights activist who is a candidate in the Minneapolis mayor’s race. Levy-Pounds gained prominence as a Black Life Matters spokesperson and a leader in numerous public protests.
SPEAKER: Voters in Minneapolis will see 16 candidates for mayor on the ballot next month. All this week, we've been introducing you to some of the leading contenders for Minneapolis mayor. Today, Tim Nelson profiles civil rights activist and attorney Nekima Levy-Pounds.
TIM NELSON: Nekima Levy-Pounds is 41, was born in Mississippi, and grew up in Los Angeles. But a full scholarship to the prestigious Brooks school outside Boston helped set her on a path to become a prominent civil rights attorney and activist. She came to Minnesota to be a Saint Thomas law professor, and she founded a legal clinic there.
Levy-Pounds gained prominence as a spokesperson for a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mall of America and also led a shutdown of Interstate 94 following the police shooting of Jamar Clark in 2015. Levy-Pounds has campaigned on a platform of economic fairness, raising the minimum wage, reducing environmental inequities, criminal justice reform, and maintaining affordable housing. She concedes she doesn't have the government experience of some of her rivals but says her own experience as an activist and attorney is equally valuable.
NEKIMA LEVY-POUNDS: I know what I've gone through. I know what I've endured. I know my strength and my resolve and my ability to stand up for and fight for what's right. I think having that type of perspective is vitally important when people are bringing issues to the table, being able to weigh what they're saying against what's happening, and then engaging in problem solving to figure out what is the best way forward.
TIM NELSON: And she says she thinks she can win the support of the White community to put racial justice higher yet on the city's agenda.
NEKIMA LEVY-POUNDS: Given the high levels of diversity in the city, I am a person who can help represent the interests and the voices of folks who have been on the margins, whose perspectives have not been adequately factored into the city's equity agenda, if there even is one. Beyond that, there are so many people who are part of the majority culture who are fed up with the status quo. And they have compassion. So how about we get those folks engaged in helping to create what Dr. King referred to as the beloved community?
TIM NELSON: Levy-pounds would be the second Black woman to lead the city, following two-term mayor Sharon Sayles Belton. Tim Nelson, Minnesota Public Radio News, Minneapolis.
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