PHILADELPHIA: The Unseated Council President: A Title Assumed, A Legacy Ignored

October 17, 2024

The Unseated Council President: A Title Assumed, A Legacy Ignored

© Ogbonna Hagins:  Philly Word Magazine and Freedmen’s Journal 2.0

In a move that’s been months in the making, I, Ogbonna Hagins, have officially declared myself the Unseated Council President of Philadelphia—an office I assumed in January of this year. It’s not that I wanted the title; it’s that someone had to step up when the seated council president, Kenyatta Johnson, decided that legislating for the American Freedmen wasn’t on his agenda.

While the Office of African and Caribbean Affairs sits comfortably in City Hall, representing recent arrivals, the descendants of the emancipated—the American Freedmen—are still waiting for their place. Apparently, everyone gets an office but us. So, I took matters into my own hands. It’s not just a symbolic act; it’s a constitutional mandate, straight from the 13th Amendment.

Now, I’m officially putting it out there. The current council may ignore the very people who fought and won the Civil War, but as the Unseated Council President, I carry the responsibility for the collective uplift of American Freedmen. Kenyatta can keep his seat, but the real work? It’s being done by the man who claimed the title, unseated yet undeterred.