For the entire Keith Ellison profile, click here.
Selected highlights from the Keith Ellison profile:
… As a third-year law student in 1989-90, Ellison penned two columns for the Minnesota Daily under the name “Keith Hakim.” In the first, he made respectful reference to “Minister Louis Farrakhan” and used a tone indicating that he was an avid Nation of Islam (NOI) advocate; Ellison also defended the incendiary NOI spokesman and black supremacist Khalid Abdul Muhammad. In the second piece, Ellison demanded reparations for slavery and said that African Americans should be offered the option of settling in an all-black, geographically self-contained, separate “homeland” if they wished. In February 1990, Ellison participated in sponsoring Kwame Ture (a.k.a. Stokely Carmichael) to speak at his law school on the subject, “Zionism: Imperialism, White Supremacy or Both?” …
In October 1992 Ellison publicly came to the defense of Sharif Willis, a convicted murderer and ex-convict who was now the leader of Minneapolis’ violent Vice Lords gang….
Ellison’s working relationship with Willis came to an end in February 1995, when the latter was convicted in federal court on several counts of drug and gun-related crimes and was sent back to prison for 20 years.
In 1995 Ellison worked actively on behalf of the Nation of Islam. At a University of Minnesota rally to promote Louis Farrakhan’s highly anticipated Million Man March, Ellison appeared onstage with Khalid Abdul Muhammad, who delivered a thundering, racist diatribe….
In February 2000 Ellison gave a speech at a fundraising event sponsored by the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, on whose steering committee he previously had served. The event was a fundraiser for former Symbionese Liberation Army terrorist Kathleen Soliah after her apprehension in St. Paul for the attempted murder of Los Angeles police officers in 1975. Ellison referred to Soliah as a “black gang member” (though she is white) and a victim of government persecution. He described her as a woman who had been “fighting for freedom in the ’60s and ’70s” and called for her release. (Soliah subsequently pleaded guilty to charges in Los Angeles and to an additional murder charge in Sacramento.) Ellison also spoke favorably of cop-killers Mumia Abu Jamal and Assata Shakur.
In November 2002 Ellison was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives and was re-elected two years later….
Ellison won his congressional election on November 7, 2006…. Ellison was re-elected to his Fifth District congressional seat in 2008.
For the entire Keith Ellison profile, click here.
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