Lamont Lilly (born 1979) is an American writer, political activist, and community organizer based in Durham, North Carolina.
During his sophomore year of college he worked at a store at Northgate Mall, and while there he allowed a friend to use his employee discount.
[7] In 2010, Lilly traveled to Colombia in South America as a human rights delegate with Witness for Peace, advocating for displaced Indigenous and Afro-Colombian people.
[9] Lilly has participated in several protests in the United States, including the 2015 Baltimore protests after the police murder of Freddie Gray,[10] to the Days of Grace actions in Charleston, SC in the wake of the racist massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church;[11][12] Lilly has been present and involved at numerous instances of civil unrest related to racial discrimination, recording his perspective as an activist-journalist in the Black Lives Matter movement.
[16][17][18][19] Lilly has helped to lead demonstrations in Boston,[20] Chicago,[citation needed] Cleveland,[21] Los Angeles,[22] Milwaukee,[23][24] New York City,[25] Oakland,[26] Philadelphia,[27] and San Diego.
He attributes much of his political development to Monica Moorehead,[35][36][37] Pam Africa, Mark Anthony Neal, and Mumia Abu-Jamal.
He has also credited the writings of Thomas Sankara, Lucille Clifton, Amiri Baraka, Henry Dumas, Sonia Sanchez, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Kwame Nkrumah with influencing his political beliefs.