Public defender Conrad Blackburn seemed to Harlem for heroes whereas rising up in Florida. They ranged from Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey to hip hop artists just like the Diplomats (Dipset) and Immortal Approach. Now, he hopes to be subsequent in line as his state meeting marketing campaign heats up. Final November, he registered to run as a democrat with a housing and affordability platform for Meeting District 70 in Harlem to face incumbent Jordan Wright in June’s main. However his path so far has led from humble beginnings in Florida to his activist platforms at the moment.
Blackburn, 33, was born in Miami Gardens to Jamaican immigrants and raised in Tallahassee public housing by simply his mom, an African Methodist Episcopal pastor. “We needed to scratch to get by,” he mentioned. “We lived paycheck to paycheck, and that actually radicalized me [and] motivated me to determine what induced that dichotomy.”
Too younger to vote for Barack Obama, Blackburn first engaged politically by telephone banking for the long run president. Majoring in political science and philosophy later uncovered him to Karl Marx and socialism in faculty. Out of the blue, the poverty he witnessed and skilled made extra sense. Exterior of the classroom, he joined College students for a Democratic Society, the place he rallied for Palestinian rights within the early 2010s. Regulation faculty adopted and he foresaw a profession in public curiosity work.
“As quickly as I realized precisely what being a public defender was, I used to be hooked, and I knew that was what I used to be going to do,” mentioned Blackburn. “I knew lots of people who grew up like me would have benefited from having a lawyer that really cared and would put work into their case.”
In 2018, he moved to New York Metropolis whereas finding out for the bar examination. Julia Salazar’s State Senate run impressed him to plug into the NYC Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA). However Blackburn initially saved the group at arm’s size and remained uncertain if electoral politics may successfully work in direction of Black and Brown liberation.
In the meantime, he discovered a spot in Harlem and joined the Bronx Defenders, rising to a coverage counsel position three years in the past. So Blackburn went as much as Albany to combat for change lengthy earlier than he thought of public workplace. The place normal him into a number one prison justice reform advocate and positioned him on the frontlines within the combat to protect the bail and discovery reform legal guidelines. Blackburn additionally labored on writing Native Regulation 42, town’s solitary confinement ban.
“I’ve a caseload whereas I’m doing coverage work,” mentioned Blackburn. “Each drawback that I’m seeing that’s a systemic drawback, I’m capable of suppose [if] there’s a coverage answer…by doing work as an on-the-ground public defender, I’m capable of speak about issues in a lens that different coverage councils aren’t as a result of they don’t have circumstances on a day-to-day, granular degree. I used to be capable of carry my very own purchasers’ tales and experiences into these areas.”
However his preliminary resolution to eschew large legislation for public protection meant going through financial nervousness as soon as once more. His wage was not sustainable and Blackburn risked getting priced out of Harlem. Earlier than 2020, the Bronx Defenders lengthy stood out among the many native public protection organizations as non-unionized.
Blackburn led his store’s profitable efforts to hitch the Affiliation of Authorized Help Attorneys – UAW Native 2325. Final yr, he and his colleagues fought to acquire a $68,500 wage ground, a brand new commonplace not solely on the Bronx Defenders however for the business at massive. The parents at UAW noticed much more potential in him and tapped him to run for workplace. And NYC-DSA sought different younger, charismatic candidates to grab on member Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s historic victory. Blackburn’s identify got here up due to his labor organizing.
So far as his state meeting run, NYC-DSA and the UAW have backed his marketing campaign. So did the New York Working Households Get together and New York Communities for Change, in addition to elected officers like State Senator Jabari Brisport, Assemblymember Claire Valdez, and councilmember Chi Ossé.
Right this moment, Blackburn believes electoral politics can play a key position in Black liberation and the socialist agenda after assembly many “dope Black organizers” in DSA. And whereas Eugene V. Debs may by no means make “Dip-Set Without end,” the previous presidential candidate now ranks amongst his private heroes.
“The one approach labor goes to win energy is twofold,” mentioned Blackburn. “It’s a must to have a wedding between the employees’ union and what Eugene Debs known as the ‘political union’ — that’s socialism in politics. Judges have the facility of injunction, and that’s what ended up stopping a whole lot of unions’ energy constructing prior to now, [while] right-leaning politicians [gutted] union rights.
“So the one approach we may defend union rights is by getting socialists elected into workplace. That basically solidified my view that [the] time is now to run for workplace and that DSA was my political house along with UAW.”
