Leaders of the Organization of Liberians in Minnesota on Thursday repeatedly emphasized that a community meeting celebrating a newly approved $400,000 state allocation for the Liberian Community Center was “not a political rally,” even as underlying political tensions repeatedly surfaced throughout the gathering.
The meeting at the Liberian Community Center in Brooklyn Park was organized to explain how the state funding approved by the Minnesota Legislature earlier this year would be used to renovate and expand the center. But the event also unfolded against a backdrop of increasingly visible political rivalries within Brooklyn Park’s Liberian community and broader DFL politics in the northwest suburbs.
OLM Executive Director Kamaty Diahn stressed multiple times during the meeting that the gathering was intended to inform the community about the funding and answer questions about the project rather than serve as a campaign event.
Still, politics remained close to the surface.
At one point, Diahn attempted to invite Liberian political candidates attending the meeting — including former Brooklyn Park council member Wynfred Russell and Minnesota Senate candidate Nehemiah Garley — to offer remarks. But mistress of ceremonies Alfreda Daniels, a Liberian labor organizer with the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, interjected.
“With all due respect, no, it is time for Q&A, I have already recognized all the candidates” Daniels told Diahn, drawing attention to the sensitivity surrounding the event’s political optics.
The exchange underscored the increasingly intertwined nature of civic institutions and electoral politics inside Brooklyn Park’s Liberian community, where alliances connected to multiple local races have become more visible in recent months.
Garley is challenging Sen. Susan Pha in the DFL primary in Senate District 38. Russell, meanwhile, is seeking to unseat Rep. Huldah Momanyi Hiltsley in the House District 38A DFL primary contest after previously losing to her in 2024.
Hiltsley, who became the first Kenyan-born person elected to a legislative office in the United States when she won election in 2024, has emerged as a prominent political figure among African immigrant communities in Minnesota and is politically aligned with Brooklyn Park Mayor Hollies Winston. Russell, meanwhile, has remained politically close to Pha dating back to their years serving together on the Brooklyn Park City Council.
Brooklyn Park City Council member Shelle Page, who is currently running for mayor against Winston, was also present at the meeting after being invited by Pha to stand alongside elected and former elected officials at the start of the senator’s remarks.
The meeting was also attended by Liberia’s consul general in Minnesota, Tracy Ashley Grigsby, reflecting the growing institutional presence of Liberia in the state.
Despite the political backdrop, the centerpiece of Thursday’s gathering remained the state funding itself, which supporters described as a major milestone for one of the nation’s largest Liberian communities outside Liberia.
Pha, who attended the meeting in person, described the funding as the culmination of a yearslong effort to secure state investment for the center and detailed what she characterized as a difficult legislative fight to ensure the project remained in the final capital investment package.
The funding will support renovations and improvements to the center, including upgraded space for workforce development programming, youth services and health navigation initiatives, according to remarks made during the meeting.
Pha also used the meeting to criticize what she described as structural barriers that make it harder for immigrant and minority-led organizations to access state funding, particularly matching-fund requirements attached to many capital investment projects.
“The state has a criteria that eliminates organizations like ours,” Pha said, arguing that smaller community organizations often struggle to meet state matching requirements.
Hiltsley, the chief House author of the legislation that secured the $400,000 allocation for OLM, said in her prepared statement that she was “incredibly proud” to have helped secure the investment and described the funding as an investment in “community, culture, opportunity, and the future of families across Brooklyn Park and the northwest suburbs.”
Hiltsley did not attend after flight delays prevented her return from a convention in Canada. Diahn instead read the statement on her behalf.
Thursday’s gathering also carried historical significance for OLM itself. Among those attending were two former presidents of the organization from an earlier era before OLM formally transitioned into a nonprofit service organization.
Former OLM president Kerper Dwanyen, who took office in 2008, was credited with helping transform the organization from a mobilizing association for Liberians in Minnesota into a service-oriented nonprofit structure. Under his leadership, OLM began acquiring part of the current office building that eventually became the Liberian Community Center.
Another former president, Wilfred T. Harris, who led the organization around 2004, was recognized for helping lay the groundwork for the center during his administration. It was during Harris’ tenure that OLM successfully lobbied then-U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton for a $250,000 federal allocation tied to the community center vision.
Current OLM board chair Arthur Perkador Biah thanked the former leaders for laying the foundation that eventually led to the current center and the new state investment.
The funding marks the latest milestone in OLM’s ongoing effort to expand and strengthen the Liberian Community Center following the organization’s 2022 purchase of the Brooklyn Park building that now serves as the center’s permanent home.
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About Tom Gitaa, Editor-in-Chief
Born and raised in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa, Tom is the Founder, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Mshale which has been reporting on the news and culture of African immigrants in the United States since 1995. He has a BA in Business from Metro State University and a Public Leadership Credential from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He was the original host of Talking Drum, the signature current affairs show on the African Broadcasting Network (ABN-America), which was available nationwide in the United States via the Dish Network satellite service. On the show, he interviewed Nobel laureates such as 2004 Nobel Peace prize winner, Professor Wangari Maathai, the first woman from Africa to win the peace prize and heads of states. Tom has served and chaired various boards including Global Minnesota (formerly Minnesota International Center), the sixth largest World Affairs Council in the United States. He has previously served as the first Black President of the Board of Directors at Books for Africa. He also serves on the board of the Minnesota Multicultural Media Consortium. He has previously served two terms on the board of the United Nations Association. An avid runner, he retired from running full marathons after turning 50 and now only focuses on training for half marathons.
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