Patrice Lumumba Ford is a Muslim activist and son of a former Black Panther leader who was planning a trip to volunteer in Afghani refugee camps. He was arrested in 2002 and falsely accused of attempting to travel to Afghanistan to aid the Taliban. He refused to cooperate with the government and was sentenced to eighteen years in prison (avoiding a possible life sentence) after pleading guilty to seditious conspiracy and levying war against American and allied forces.
Patrice Lumumba Ford is Ford’s birth name — he is named after Patrice Lumumba. Ford’s father, Kent Ford, had been a local leader in the Black Panther Party in the 1960s. A family friend and political activist, Kathleen Sadat commented that “Lumumba was raised by people who taught that we exist in a multicultural world and the trick is learning how to get along with other people, not to destroy them.”
He was transferred into a halfway house in 2017 pending his 2018 release.