I called to interview Jaribu Hill at 6pm on a Friday. The initial plan was to talk for a few minutes, I would ask a couple basic questions and we would tie up any loose ends after the 3-day weekend. I figured the whole thing would take less than an hour. This was further reinforced after Jaribu told me that her day had been filled with back-to-back meetings, and waiting on line for the second dose of the COVID vaccine. Despite her warnings that she may be less energetic than usual, we wound up talking for nearly two hours. Jaribu expertly laid out story after story, building energy and exuding passion as she went. She provided vivid details and expertly connected art, legal and movement history together while firmly critiquing those who do not have our best interest at heart. Our call demonstrated why Jaribu has been such a successful movement lawyer and cultural organizer for so many years. As she puts it, it comes down to: “A love for our people and a profound hatred for the systems of oppression.”
Jaribu attributes her gift as an orator and lawyer, in part, to her father, a Baptist preacher from Mississippi and her mother, a multi-talented artist, singer and teacher. Although she came to the legal field later in life, Jaribu has always been a passionate advocate for the liberation of Black people. In her first line of work, as a singer, she performed alongside striking workers and was a fixture in movement based cultural work. She toured internationally, doing festivals to raise political consciousness and push people into movement. Eventually, her passion for organizing against oppressive systems took her to CUNY law school.
While at CUNY, she found a community of lawyers and legal workers who hoped to become ‘lawyers for the people’. While she shared her classmates' interest in impacting change abroad in Haiti, Cuba and elsewhere, she challenged her peers on their reluctance to address violence perpetrated by their own government at home. Specifically, she questioned why there was so little conversation about confronting the subsistence of Black folks in the US South. This effort led her to start the Mississippi Project, a program which has brought groups of CUNY students to Mississippi to expand access to legal services for nearly three decades. Jaribu still coordinates the program and uses the students' time in the South to push their thinking on systems of oppression within the United States and globally.
Today, Jaribu is a full time advocate and community activist, with the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights (the Center), an organization she founded in 1996. The Center provides legal representation and organizing support for low-wage, non-union workers in the Mississippi Delta and other parts of the state. In cases against large corporations and other unscrupulous employers and landlords, Jaribu strives to decenter the law and foreground the needs of the people. She sees the role of the revolutionary lawyer as a partner: A comrade in struggle and one who is looking to the people, not the law, to tell us what the outcome should be. She challenges those who have become pacified by individual success or piecemeal change to find the courage to be a loving, revolutionary advocate.
Throughout her career, Jaribu has demonstrated a deep and boundless love for Black people. When asked what keeps her going, Jaribu mentioned two things: Family, especially her three incredible grandchildren and all those whom she has been privileged to stand with in their fight for dignity, safety and human rights. According to Jaribu, it is this work that has sustained and inspired her. Jaribu’s story is a shining example of what is possible when our work is grounded in a deep and revolutionary love.