B. Kwaku Duren

Male, Person

1943 –

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Who is B. Kwaku Duren?

B. Kwaku Duren is a controversial African American lawyer, educator, writer, editor, Black Panther, long-time social, political and community activist; and a former convict who now lives and practices law in South Central Los Angeles. He has run for United States Congress three times and once for Vice President of the United States. As a young man, he spent nearly five years in California prisons for armed robbery. He began reading extensively and taking college classes while incarcerated and after his parole in the fall of 1970, he founded and chaired the National Poor People’s Congress. A couple of years later, he and his younger sister, Betty Scott, along with Mary Blackburn and other community activists, founded an alternate school – the Intercommunal Youth Institute – in Long Beach, California.

In the wake of the shooting death of his sister by a California Highway Patrol officer during a routine traffic stop, Duren helped found and was a co-chair of the Coalition Against Police Abuse from 1975–77. From 1976 to 1981 he was the Coordinator of the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party. From 1979 until 1991 he worked for the Los Angeles Legal Aid Foundation, beginning as a Community Outreach Worker; later, as a paralegal and attorney; he was one of the founding members and first president of the Union of Legal Services Workers of Los Angeles.

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Born
Apr 14, 1943
Beckley
Education
  • People's College of Law

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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