Written by: 
Mona Duffel Jones
Director of Communications and Marketing
August 22, 2013

(New Orleans) Dillard University’s class of 2017 will begin the 2013-14 academic year with a visit from Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., president and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus, minister and nationally known leader in engaging youth in the electoral process.

The Hip Hop Caucus is known for its mobilization efforts in registering tens of thousands of young people to vote. In 2008, the group set a record by registering 32,000 people in one day in 16 cities across the country. 

Yearwood founded the Hip Hop Caucus in 2004 as a means of demonstrating the power of the Hip Hop Community and to get the attention of government in Washington, D.C.  as well as throughout the nation.  The group has been actively involved in a number of social justice issues.  Most notably, after Hurricane Katrina Rev. Yearwood led a coalition of national and grassroots organizations to advocate for the rights of Katrina survivors in regards to housing, education and employment.

He has collaborated on a myriad of activist projects with widely known individuals and populr artists such as Russell Simmons, Dr. Benjamin Chavis, Jay Z, P. Diddy, and Keyshia Cole, amont others. Rev. Yearwood’s dvocacy initiatives include environmental campaigns, a 2007 pro-peace  tour, “Make Hip-Hop Not War,” and the “Vote or Die!” campaign, to name a few.

Yearwood has been recognized as one of the 100 most powerful African American by Ebony Magazine, and one of the 10 Game Changers in the Green movement by Huffington Post. He was also named to the Source Magazine’s Power 30, Utne Magazine’s 50 Visionaries changing the world, and the Root 100 Young Achievers and Pacesetters.

Born is Shreveport, Louisiana, Yearwood’s family is from Trinidad and Tobago. He is a graduate of Howard University School of Divinity and the University of the District of Columbia (UDC). Rev. Yearwood taught Social Justice at Georgetown University prior to his work as a civil rights activist.

Click here to see photos on Dillard University's new Flicker page.