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During a Saturday event at Beauchamp Branch Library, Onondaga County Legislator Maurice “Mo” Brown stressed his attendance wasn’t a campaign stop during his bid for state assembly.

Instead, he discussed city, county and nationwide political and social issues — like poverty, taxing the wealthy and social services — with Syracuse University’s Africa Initiative.

“A lot of those services are managed by the county, but they’re paid for by the state. So, how we do childcare, how we disperse it, how equitable that is, is decided at the county level,” Brown said. “But how much money they have to disperse is decided by the state. It’s why I’m running for the state.”

SU professor Horace Campbell, director of the Africa Initiative, led the conversation, asking Brown about a variety of topics, including ICE’s impact on the community and gerrymandering in Onondaga County.

Brown began the discussion by explaining poverty in Syracuse and “disinvestment” in the city’s communities. He said a large percentage of Syracuse police officers and teachers work in the city, but live in the suburbs.

“We’re paying for police officers. We’re paying for teachers. This is our money, we’re putting it into these pockets,” Brown said. “And these people, they go to DeWitt, they go to Manlius, they go to Cicero, they go to their communities, and they put their tax dollars into those communities.”

Brown also voiced support for Zohran Mamdani’s investments in universal childcare and said he would like to implement it in Onondaga County.

Campbell and Brown both said gerrymandering has allowed Republicans to stay in power in Onondaga County for 50 years.

While DeWitt is the seventh largest town in Onondaga County, Brown said the town has been gerrymandered to divide the community because there is a “disproportionate amount” of Democratic representatives in DeWitt. He said this was done to benefit Republican representatives.

“(Gerrymandering) is done…on both sides. Democrats and Republicans do it,” Brown said. “I disagree with it. I just think that if you have better values, you’ll win overall. But the point of them doing that was to make sure they maintain political power.”

Campbell said the initiative wanted to host Brown because he spoke about social issues and the struggles of Black residents in Syracuse. He also referenced SU’s decision to pause admissions to its African American Studies major.

While Campbell said changes to African American studies departments are being made at schools across the country, he said SU’s program is important to New York with the state’s 2nd largest population of African descent in the United States.

“What you think can be done in Florida and what you think can be done in other parts of the country to the black people, it will be very difficult to do in New York because New York State has very conscious black people,” Campbell said.

Africa Initiative member Sierra Pleasant said the conversation with Brown taught her a lot about issues she had already been reflecting on.

“We were talking about the transportation, or lack thereof, in Syracuse. I come from a city where this transportation is much more reliable. Transportation is so important to the community, both the university and the community, it’s very much needed,” Pleasant said.

Saturday’s event is one of a few community events the Africa Initiative, housed within AAS, has revived since the COVID-19 pandemic, Campbell said. He said the project extends to students in all schools and colleges with an interest in AAS.

After two attendees asked Brown about how they could get involved in helping combat the community issues he discussed, he said there are many organizations in Syracuse looking for volunteers to help combat city issues.

“I tell people that you should find what you’re passionate about, see who’s doing that work vocally, and support them,” Brown said.

Brown will be running for the 129th district state assembly seat in the 2026 election this November, challenging sitting Democrat Bill Magnarelli.

Published on February 22, 2026 at 10:59 pm