Former Jackson mayor moves to surrender law license after pleading guilty in federal bribery case

Shortly after Chokwe Antar Lumumba pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge, his attorneys shepherded the former mayor of Jackson into a witness room on the fifth floor of the Thad Cochran United States Courthouse. 

As the door closed, Jaribu Hill, the founder of the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights, hugged the 43-year-old and reassured Lumumba that he was still a lawyer. 

Soon, that will no longer be the case in Mississippi. On Monday, Lumumba informed the Mississippi Supreme Court he would give up his law license after the state bar association filed a complaint against him. 

Lumumba pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery – a federal felony charge – in early July. His pleading came one week before he was expected to go on trial in a case stemming from an FBI operation that rocked Mississippi’s capital city.

In Mississippi, those convicted of most felonies cannot practice law. Lumumba did not respond to a call and text from Mississippi Today seeking comment. 

In 2024, a sweeping federal indictment alleged that Lumumba participated in a conspiracy to commit bribery along with former Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens and former Jackson City Council Member Aaron Banks. 

Prosecutors alleged that in exchange for $50,000 in campaign donations, Lumumba directed a city employee to shorten a bid deadline to benefit a pair of out-of-town developers that were working with Owens. Unknown to the local politicians, the developers were undercover FBI agents. 

Lumumba described this action as “ministerial at best,” according to court documents, thus not in line with how federal law and the courts have defined an official action a public official must take as part of a quid pro quo. 

Elected mayor in 2017, Lumumba had promised to make Jackson the “most radical city on the planet.” His overwhelming victory in the Democratic primary came after he unsuccessfully ran in a special election to succeed his late father, Chokwe Lumumba, who was elected in 2013 but died months into his term.

Mayor of Jackson was not the only vocation into which Lumumba followed his father. Chokwe Lumumba was a famed attorney who once successfully defended rapper Tupac Shakur from charges of shooting two off-duty police officers. 

Inspired by his father’s career, Lumumba decided to become a lawyer, according to a profile in the Oxford American. He was admitted to practice law in Mississippi in 2008.