On Thursday night, Lurie Daniel Favors attended a Moms for Liberty conference on Manhattan’s upper east side. Moms For Liberty is a conservative organization that rejects school curriculum that focuses on race and ethnicity, LGBTQ rights, anti-racism and more. Incognito amongst a passionate crowd of largely white supporters, the racial justice warrior gathered intel to share on her social media pages. She highlighted panels of speakers criticizing “progressive” school programs that focused on anti-racism like Critical Race Theory (CRT), and opposing transexuality-basically naming it an identity ploy.
“We. Got. Work. To. Dooooooooo…” Favors writes.
The politically right-leaning organization has been establishing chapters across the nation with a clear mission to halt these developments in schools. They already have 15 chapters in New York State alone. Favors stood outside the meeting amongst a large group of protestors, broadcasting what was happening around her live on her Instagram page.
“It’s Daughters of the Confederacy 2024,” she says and mentions how she tried to ask a question and leaders took the mic from her.
“The reality is if you are not organizing, you’ve already lost,” she then ends the live.
Lurie is no stranger to articulate searing rants against racism, classism, sexism and homophobia-in fact she’s the queen of it. She has a way with words, and is sure to instill a hunger for justice amongst her listeners. She does this Monday through Friday live on the Lurie Daniel Favors Show on SiriusXM Urban View Channel 126 from 10 AM to 12 PM Eastern Standard Time.
The Lurie Daniel Favors Show first aired on SiriusXM radio in February of 2021 and is now entering its third year being live. The show dissects controversial issues surrounding race, gender, culture, identity, politics and the law. In 2023, the show had an extensive directory of dynamic guests ranging from United States Representative Jasmine Crockett to ex-NYPD officer turned author, Edwin Raymond. The show also features a great list of show regulars that tackle women’s health, education programs, community health, local politics and more. Each episode, Lurie kicks off by welcoming her listeners to “Black-Talk-Landia” and with a warm “Moment of Gratitude,” which is a time to reflect on what to be grateful for before tackling big topics in culture.
Lurie also lets listeners call in to the show to voice their opinions, ask questions or just make a comment. She welcomes all who are willing to learn and strive for a greater society that looks out for one another but also holds each other accountable. She’s notorious for never sugar coating, and always backs herself up with straight hard facts.
Lurie has an extensive history in social justice. This knowledge helps her to eloquently dive deep into controversial topics and elegantly humble the trollers that try to undermine her.
Raised a military child with her father in service, Lurie’s childhood was spent mostly between Washington state and Germany with some New York City sprinkled in. Her mother is of Jamaican descent and her father hails from South Carolina. She says she became sensitive to issues around class at a young age because she experienced poverty as a kid. She also comes from a family that pushed for Black power and invigorated Favors’ childhood with the works of Black cultural pillars like Public Enemy and Afrika Bambaataa tapes.
Lurie’s woke childhood catapulted her into a trailblazing career of social justice. She studied law at Penn State where she met her now husband, Brian Favors, and helped him start weekly meetings called Sankofa Circles-a program in college that allowed Black students from different organizations to come together in a common meeting space to work together and get on the same page. It grew from a gathering space to a regular meeting that brought in crowds of all types of Black people to discuss certain issues that may be difficult to talk about effectively in other spaces. Over time, Sankofa Circles grew to become a non-profit organization called Sankofa Community Empowerment, Inc. They now have Sankofa chapters in New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Houston.
After completing law school, Lurie went on to work as an attorney for the New York offices of Proskauer Rose LLP and Manatt Phelps and Phillips, LLP. She then served as a federal court law clerk for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York under the Honorable Sterling Johnson, Jr. Following this, Lurie started her own practice that focused on social justice called Daniel Favors Law PLLC.
In 1997, Favors decided to go natural with her hair. At the time, she barely saw any Black people wearing their hair natural at Penn State, and as a church girl, there were some aspects of the church she discovered that she couldn’t reconcile with.
“Just learning about the history of Christianity and the way it had been used to further white supremacy was a real thing for me,” she said. “Going natural was a part of that experience but I could not understand how I could possibly have a daughter, and not create an environment where she would feel beautiful but I didn’t feel beautiful myself with my own natural hair.”
When the Natural Hair Movement came around in the early 2000’s, there was still racism and colorism that came into play. Society was still uplifting white-looking hair and there wasn’t a positive emphasis on natural coily hair and fros. Lurie saw how this troublesome relationship society and many Black people have with natural Black hair is a reflection of what Black people have had to deal with throughout history due to systemic racism and white supremacy. This inspired her to write her book, “Afro State of Mind: Memories of a Nappy Headed Black Girl.”
“When I wrote ‘Afro State Of Mind’, it was using my experience going natural as sort of an explainer for what had happened to Black people, and so I used my story as the frame through which we can unpack Black history,” she said.
“Afro State of Mind” was published in January of 2013, and is a true coming-of-age story that many Black girls can relate to, navigating a love for their natural hair in the midst of racist beauty standards.
In 2024, Lurie wants to make sure our community is ready.
Currently, Lurie is the Executive Director of The Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College. In 2024 her team is working to build more Black political power and to “not be persuaded by representation alone, but actively engage with politics to get the resources we need.”
They are launching a new legal law student program and are looking to build infrastructure for Black independent action.
“I wish I was doing it as a luxury but we’re doing it as a necessity,” she said. “I’m looking forward to building this center as a model for what it means to have Black-led institutions that are thinking about how race is going to complicate our future, and providing solutions for that in real time.”
The Lurie Daniel Favors Show is already blazing through 2024 in full effect, and Lurie has a lot in store for listeners this year.
“I feel like Urban View is in this space where our role is to make sure that people are ready for what’s coming,” she said. “I think of the end of Reconstruction-I would imagine if they had radio back then, they would be like ‘Look, this is coming.’”
“Yes we’re going to unpack race, yes we’re going to unpack politics and the law, but all of it with a mind towards ensuring that our community has the information that they need in order to figure out how to navigate next, because if this really is the end of integration-and I do believe that it is-then we are going to have to reimagine a world that we don’t necessarily have the innate skill set to build.”
For the majority of her life, Lurie Daniel Favors has consistently strived to improve the lives of those in need and always puts on for the Black community. This is displayed on the Lurie Daniel Favors Show where she is a strong force and advocate for justice.
“I want this show to be a space where people are going to have a framework for what is happening and will be able to figure out their role in solving the issues we are going to face because they are going to be significant.”
Make sure to stay updated on the Lurie Daniel Favors Show on SiriusXM Urban View Channel 126. In February, Lurie will be hosting a Town Hall panel encompassing Black maternal health and reproductive justice. She’s gearing up for the 2024 election, and like she said, there’s a lot of work to do, so make sure to stay tuned and stay woke.
