Maurice “Mo” Mitchell

Maurice Mitchell is a nationally-recognized social movement strategist and organizer for racial, social, and economic justice. Maurice also performed, recorded, and toured with Cipher, which is featured in the Afro-Punk documentary and performed at the first and subsequent Afropunk festivals.

Born and raised in New York to Caribbean working-class parents, Maurice began organizing as a teenager. He served as a student leader for the Long Island Student Coalition for Peace and Justice and at Howard University, after a classmate was killed by police officers, Maurice led organizing efforts against police brutality and for divestment from private prisons.

Maurice went on to work as an organizer for the Long Island Progressive Coalition, downstate organizing director for Citizen Action of NY, and Director of the NY State Civic Engagement Table. After Mike Brown was killed by police in Missouri, Maurice relocated to Ferguson to support work on the ground. Seeing the need for an anchor organization to provide strategic support and guidance to Movement for Black Lives activists, Maurice co-founded and managed Blackbird. In 2015, he was a key organizer of the Movement for Black Lives convention in Cleveland.

In 2018, Maurice took the helm of Working Families Party as National Director where he is applying his passion and experience to grow WFP into becoming America's authentic multi-racial populist party.