We will invite you to an orientation for the project on Zoom Sunday August 2nd at 1pm CT.
We look forward to working with you on this critical new black community-led institution that is bringing food, health, meaningful employment, uplifting African culture and economic self-determination to the Northside.
The architect of the Black Power Blueprint, Ona Zené Yeshitela is proud to announce the grand opening of Uhuru Bakery & Café, Saturday, August 15, 2026 at noon at 3719 W. Florissant Ave. in north St. Louis. This beautiful new institution of African economic power and self-determination brings to life another powerful victory of the Black Power Blueprint!
The Black Power Blueprint is a unique, all-encompassing array of programs that are transforming the conditions of the African community by bringing food, health, housing, dynamic African culture and economic self-reliance to a community the city of St. Louis deliberately defunded, bulldozed and “left to rot” for decades.
The opening of Uhuru Bakery & Cafe (UBC), led by African People’s Education and Defense Fund (APEDF) President Ona Zené Yeshitela, implements the Uhuru Movement’s three-pronged strategy to end food apartheid that has devastated the health and life expectancy of our black communities for decades. Along with the Shamba La Uhuru Freedom Farm at 3901 W. Florissant Ave., the One Africa! One Nation! Farmers Market, now a project of the African National Women’s Organization, the Uhuru Bakery & Cafe continues the transformation of the West Florissant corridor into what our community calls “the Uhuru District.”
These institutions bring food security, a new healthy environment, beautiful living African culture and economic self-determination to the African community. These dual power programs defy and contend with the city’s deliberate neglect and gentrification plan to push us out by withholding our own tax dollars and federal resources allocated for this area.
The city is using the catastrophic May 16, 2025 tornado as a push-out strategy, refusing to release funds for black homeowners to renovate their houses, resulting in thousands more African residents displaced from the northside. This is in addition to the 30,000 who have been forced out in the past decade. The city’s strategy is to sell our homes to developers in service of the National Geo-Spacial Intelligence Agency (NGA), aka the “Pentagon of the West.”
The Grand Opening celebration will feature speakers and soulful African culture including keynote presentations from African People’s Socialist Party Chairman Omali Yeshitela, President Ona Zené Yeshitela, poet Makeda Baraka and much more. The program will recognize and appreciate all the contractors, donors, pie buyers, neighbors and businesses who signed petitions and wrote letters in support of Uhuru Bakery and spoke out in public hearings in an outpouring of community support. This is YOUR institution and YOU fought for it and WE WON!
The Grand Opening will also feature a celebration of raising Marcus Garvey’s red, black and green flags at all the Black Power Blueprint institutions along West Florissant Avenue, as well as a history museum tent that shows what this once thriving community looked like decades ago when it was a renowned and flourishing black business and residential community.
The Grand Opening is on the weekend of the 139th birthday of Marcus Garvey. Garvey led the largest organization for African freedom and self-determination in history with over 11 million members and supporters worldwide in the early 1910s. This was a movement for African self-reliance, self-government and institution-building including factories, stores, a newspaper, recording studios, community meeting halls and even a steamship line.
Garvey initiated the red, black and green flag and worked for “Africa for Africans, those at home and those abroad.” The Uhuru Movement under the leadership of Chairman Omali Yeshitela carries on the legacy of Garvey in the 21st Century, calling on all Africans everywhere to build our own institutions, control our own economy and fight for the total liberation of African people!
We encourage YOU and everyone to come out to support the Uhuru Bakery & Cafe Grand Opening and be an active participant in the growth of this historic institution of African power and self-determination and the transformation of our community in our own hands!
The Reparations Investment Company (RIC), a new project of the Black Power Blueprint, is renovating some of the thousands of abandoned and deteriorating buildings that scar North St. Louis. Through renovation and reconstruction, RIC is creating affordable, quality housing that strengthens and stabilizes our community.
Proceeds from the sale of the RIC homes go directly to our community to fund programs of the Black Power Blueprint; the impact of each property renovation will be exponential.
RIC hires skilled Black and Indigenous contractors, creating employment and keeping money circulating within our community. We welcome the participation of volunteers of many skill levels and walks of life to contribute to this project.
APEDF President Ona Zené Yeshitela has called on the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, an organization of white people who work under the leadership of the Uhuru Movement, to build the Reparations Investment Company to voluntarily contribute to an infusion of resources into North St. Louis.
RIC is building a reparations-centered network of investors, donors, contractors, skilled laborers, and volunteers who contribute to sustainable, black community-driven real estate acquisition, renovation, and development that generates lasting social impact for the whole community.
Black Power Blueprint challenges the City’s long term plan to push our community out of our homes
Through decades of deliberate city government policies, St. Louis has let the once-thriving African community deteriorate as part of a plan to displace our people and gentrify the northside.
Nine months after the May 16th tornado, the City has refused to support thousands of Black homeowners in North St. Louis whose homes were damaged—while directing resources to white neighborhoods on the southside and downtown.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, a massive 2,000‑acre U.S. military intelligence site less than 2 miles from the Uhuru House, is driving the gentrification of our community. The City is using the devastation from the May 16 tornado as an opportunity to take our property and push our community out.
Black Power Blueprint Programs are constructing a new world for our community today
APEDF President Ona launched the Black Power Blueprint to revitalize, beautify, and defend North St. Louis in the face of the City’s ongoing efforts to displace our community through gentrification.
For nearly a decade, the Black Power Blueprint has been transforming the northside, acquiring properties and developing them into beautiful and uplifting self-reliance programs, such as the Uhuru House, The One Africa! One Nation! Farmers Market, the Gary Brooks Black Power Community Garden, the Black Power Vanguards Community Basketball Court.
The BIG REVEAL is coming this Spring …
Black Power Blueprint is launching:
Shamba La Uhuru Freedom Farm, Uhuru Bakery & Cafe, Buy Black Power Store, African Independence Workforce Program and improvements to Black Power Vanguard Basketball Court .
Click for a video update:
The Black Power Blueprint is leading the Reparations Investment Company along with all the other growing Black Power Blueprint Programs to revitalize our community, transform our conditions and create the world we all want to live in.
Camille, who is now the N2U Volunteer Coordinator for RIC, says:
“I believe protesting and disagreeing with the system is important, but for me actions will speak louder than words ever will. The RIC allows me to work materially against colonial and oppressive systems and give power back to people from whom it was stolen.”
Eliedh Construction
We want to send our special thank you to Eliedh Construction! We have partnered with this growing family business for over 3 years. They are a fixture of the ever expanding Black Power Blueprint development process that is transforming every aspect of life in our community. We appreciate all your tremendous work and help to make housing available in our community once again!
Join Us for Upcoming Events & Programs!
JOB OPENINGS: Help Grow Shamba La Uhuru Freedom Farm!
Now hiring a Master Gardener and Assistant Gardener. To apply and for more information click here.
Every Sunday, 3-5pm CT Black Power Community Rally Talk about and take action on the most pressing issues for our people in the wake of the tornado and the City’s ongoing disdain and neglect of our people. We need housing, health, food, and economic self-reliance. Join us at the Uhuru House, 4101 W. Florissant Ave, St Louis, MO or watch and participate online on YouTube @TheBurningSpear.
Saturday 2/28/26, 4pm-6pm EST The Turn Up Meet + Greet with Black Power 96 Radio DJs, artists and volunteers. Black Power 96 Radio, 1245 18th Ave S, St Petersburg, FL . RSVP to attend in person or get a link. To join online, click HERE
Friday 4/17/26- Sunday 4/19/26 APSP International Plenary Conference 2026 This Time ‘Til it’s Won! Power in Our Own Hands! It’s not just Trump, it’s the whole damn system! Click HERE for more info
Black Power Blueprint purchased the first parcel of land at a sheriff’s sale in 2022 at 3901 W. Florissant, then acquired two adjacent lots—one along W. Florissant and one on Linton Avenue—combining all three into a single one-third-acre site. This land is now home to Shamba La Uhuru – Freedom Farm!
Custom Foodscapes created the design for the farm. Click the Map of Shamba la Uhuru to watch their video tour.
Before – click to view video
After.
DJM Environmental Solutions completed the lot grading and soil testing.
In early 2026, we will finish developing the site, plant it in the Spring and bring healthy food to North St. Louis, a longtime food desert. Taking back the POWER to end food apartheid in North St. Louis!
Shamba la Uhuru Freedom Farm will feature twenty-two 25-foot raised vegetable beds, a fruit orchard, berry patches, flowers, pollinator and herb gardens, Three Sisters and children’s gardens, free-range chickens, a large stage, a pavilion with picnic tables and native shade trees, a farm stand, and more.
We are transforming three abandoned properties into an urban farm and green space adjacent to the Black Power Vanguards Basketball Court, and near several other Black Power Blueprint programs revitalizing the devastated W. Florissant Corridor—bringing life back to a once-bustling Black community!
Shamba la Uhuru will beautify and transform our urban landscape, expand access to healthy food, and create a vibrant gathering place—uniting our community in the work of building power and self-determination.
Shamba la Uhuru is a community-driven program that will employ skilled farmers, train volunteers, and empower our neighbors to establish their own gardens.
