Phillip Agnew

ACTIVIST, FORMER STUDENT PRESIDENT

SENDING SMOKE SIGNALS FROM MIAMI TO D.C. TO HELP BUILD BEST VERSION OF THE WORLD

BY [ Tanasia A. REED ]

As PHILLIP AGNEW was growing up on the southside of Chicago, the unfairness, and inequalities that he witnessed sparked his zealousness for activism. “West Englewood is the neighborhood that raised me,” said Agnew, now 35. “In a lot of ways, it is my upbringing that makes me and pushes me to do the things that I’m doing right now. It was just so wrong that we weren’t able to have the things that other people were able to have and how my parents and family were treated and looked at.” For more than a decade, Agnew, a 2008 Florida A&M University graduate, has been viewed as a passionate community organizer whose commitment to fairness and justice all over the nation is recognized by many from followers to state politicians to national leaders. From student body president to senior advisor for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ campaign, Agnew continues to fight for equality for the African-American community on local, state, and national levels. Agnew’s spiritual background, he said, led him to believe in the power of people when they come together. In what was something of a mantra, he said it was FAMU that gave him the confidence to take action and ‘achieve the impossible through community leadership.’ Agnew’s nationwide activist status arose as he helped start the Student Coalition for Justice, which brought FAMU, Florida State University and Tallahassee Community College students together. According to ted.com, the coalition was “formed in response to the Martin Lee Anderson case” — a 2006 case where a 14-year-old was beaten and harshly punished to death at a juvenile detention center in Panama City, Fla.

Years later in 2012, Agnew spearheaded the launch of Dream Defenders after the murder of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old boy who was racially profiled and shot by George Zimmerman in Sanford on Feb. 26 of that year. The youthled organization started with fighting against injustices, such as Florida’s “Stand Your Ground Law,” but the organization expanded its vision to “safety and security for all,” according to the group’s website, dreamdefenders.org.

“I was among 30 to 40 other people who came together at that moment and said, ‘we want to not just march, not just protest, and go away, but to actually build an organization that’s strong,’ ” said Agnew. “[An organization] that can move and has power in the state to determine what the state looks like for future generations.”

The organization currently has six “SQUADDS” in Florida; Miami, Broward County. Orlando, Tallahassee, Gainesville, and Pensacola.

Marie Rattigan, a graduate student studying African-American history at FAMU and the lead organizer for Dream Defenders in Tallahassee, met Agnew six years ago. There is no question about how she views him — as not only her mentor, but also as a big brother she “can always count on.”

“He is like the G.O.A.T. [Greatest of all Time]. He is a man of his words, a man of organizing, a man of pushing people out of their comfort zone,” said Rattigan.

Rattigan said Agnew taught her to not only be a leader, but also a follower, to adapt the necessary skills “to lead other people in the right direction.”

“Now I’m here blossoming as a leader and trying to also mentor those who are here at FAMU,” said Rattigan.

Agnew has stepped down as executive director of the the organization, but said Dream Defenders will continue to grow as an organization, and expand to other states, which is “on the horizon.”

In February 2016, Agnew co-founded Smoke Signals Studio in Miami. The home studio served as an artistic space for the community to combine art and liberation through creativity. The studio held workshops, poetry festivals and served as a resource for anyone interested in publishing books. Agnew states that this gave members of the community a space to “speak more poetically, artistically, and artfully about the world that we want to see.”

In the spring of last year, Agnew became U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ newest senior advisor for his 2020 presidential campaign. He previously severed as the National Surrogate for the campaign until his promotion announcement on Mar. 7.

In the announcement, Sanders stated that he was excited about Phillip joining his team and named him as “one of this generation’s most critical voices on issues of race and inequity.”

Agnew’s newest project, Black Men Build, started in June 2020 and is an organization focusing on unifying Black men to heal and build communities. The organization publishes WARTIME, a digital and print publication “expressing the soul of [their] communities.” He currently serves as the organization’s co-founder.

Black Men Build is on its ninth mass meeting, which virtually brings together members of the Black community to openly discuss such issues such as Black love, health, and politics. With over 17,000 followers on Instagram, the organization continues to expand its work and promote healing from post-traumatic stress, anger, and systematic racism in a healthy way.

As a leader recognized in EBONY magazine and The Root in 2014 as one of the 100 Most Influential African Americans in the nation, Agnew said FAMU was the “breeding ground” of his success and influenced him to become the best version of himself — a passionate activist and artist. With music and writing projects in the works, he hopes to continue his work with Black Men Build, to create a better world.