Chavez urges Colombian rebels to end struggle

Poking around in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, the OAA does not appear to have been active since 2001. There were indications on various pages I found that it had tried to serve as a kind of umbrella organization for 300+ associated groups in the mid to late 90s, but it ran out of steam. Either lack of funding, and/or departure of key staff..... there was an Executive Director named Michael Franklin but I didn’t find anything of interest on him....yet.

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/6876/

from archived page, Feb. 16, 2006 (so they seem to have continued in existence beyond 2001, even though they left this website in a "period of dormancy"):

OAA DIRECTORS

MICHAEL JOHN FRANKLIN, OAA PRESIDENT

OAA President Michael Franklin is a Jamaican-born US Citizen. He is the founder of the Organization of Africans in the Americas. His passion is helping to develop and to give a voice to the Black communities of Latin America. He is an international community organizer and a development expert and planner who speaks English, Spanish and Portuguese. He has helped develop Black community organizations throughout Latin America. He obtained his Bachelor degree in economics and international studies from American University. He received a Master�s degree from Harvard University in Education, specializing in administration, planning and social policy.

ERNEST McD. SKINNER, OAA VICE-PRESIDENT

OAA Vice-President Ernest Skinner is a native of Trinidad and Tobago. He lives in Washington, D.C. USA, where he is vice-president and community development director of Citibank, F.S.B., Mid-Atlantic region. He serves on numerous boards and commissions including the Washington, D.C Chamber of Commerce, the Metro Washington Bankers Group, and the Latino Civil Rights Task Force. He holds degrees from Howard University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

JAMEELAH S. MUHAMMAD, OAA SECRETARY

OAA Secretary Jameelah Muhammad is a native of Chicago. She lives in Washington, D.C. where she teaches Spanish in the DC Public Schools. Her principal social interest is promoting the growth of the African diaspora throughout the world, focusing particularly on educating African Americans on the existence of other Blacks in Spanish-speaking America. She wrote one of the articles in the book Afro-Latin Americans Today(Pub:Minority Rights Group, London) about Blacks in Mexico. She has written other articles about Blacks and racism in Mexico, where she lived for five years. She has a Bachelors degree from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa and did graduate studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico(UNAM) in Mexico City. 1

LOL..I was just googling all of them. They have formed another organization called:

AFROAMERICA XXI

Two of the directors have donated to the Obama campaign according to donation sites. No biggie.....
but considering that this group is Chicago based and is leftist to the core, it stands to reason that Obama has crossed paths with this organization in his meteoric rise through Chicago politics.

I would just like to know why our Senators and Congresscritters on the dem side can cozy up to terrorist sympathizers without anyone saying one word?

It truly boogles my mind. They did the same thing during Reagan’s years with the Sandinistas!

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