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Pinellas pulls funding for Black St. Petersburg radio station affiliated with Uhurus

County commissioners approved funding for Black Power 96 in November. On Tuesday, they revoked it.

CLEARWATER — The Pinellas County Commission voted on Tuesday to revoke funding it approved last year for a radio station serving St. Petersburg’s Black communities.

The decision came days after Commissioner Chris Latvala raised concerns about the station’s association with the Uhuru Movement, the political group whose St. Petersburg headquarters were raided last year by the FBI.

The commission approved the expenditure in November, as part of its first round of small allocations to nonprofits from the American Rescue PlanAct, the federal COVID-19 relief program.

Of the more than $2 million allocated to 34 Pinellas organizations, about $36,800 went to the African People’s Education and Defense Fund, an Uhuru-affiliated nonprofit. The Fund’s application said the money would be spent on radio equipment and computers for WBPU 96.3 FM, also known as Black Power 96.

Read the full story on The Tampa Bay Times

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