Lucy Parsons Center: Tax-Exempt 501(c)(3) Doubling as Hub for Anti-U.S. & Pro-Terror Activism
A Minneapolis tax-exempt community space controlled by Freedom Road Socialist Organization leadership has become a hub for promoting designated terror groups and anti-American ideology
A radical community organization called the Lucy Parsons Center has become a platform for anti-American activism and programming that promotes members of U.S.-designated terror groups. The Lucy Parsons Center appears to be registered as a 501(c)(3) under the formal name Lucy Parsons Institute for Social Research, sharing a Minneapolis address, but is led by Director General Richard Berg, who is based in Chicago.
Leadership at the organization is drawn from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), a Marxist-Leninist group with decades of involvement in American radical politics.
Investigative analyst Stu Smith at the Manhattan Institute has documented the organizational structure. The Lucy Parsons Institute functions as FRSO’s fiscal sponsorship vehicle. Smith describes what he terms a “revolving door” of FRSO veterans controlling funding, connections, and infrastructure while recruiting younger activists.
Events Promoting U.S.-Designated Terror Organizations
On December 6, 2025, the Lucy Parsons Center hosted an event with the U.S. Palestinian Community Network featuring a “political prisoners” teach-in and letter-writing workshop.
The promotional materials for the event featured an image of Rasmea Odeh, co-founder of USPCN, deported from the United States in 2017 after concealing her criminal history. Odeh was convicted in 1970 of involvement in a 1969 supermarket bombing and held membership in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), designated by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terrorist organization.
The materials also featured Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five consecutive life sentences plus 40 years for orchestrating attacks that killed Israeli civilians during the Second Intifada. Barghouti co-founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization responsible for dozens of suicide bombings and attacks between 2000 and 2005. He also served as head of Tanzim, an armed Fatah faction responsible for numerous attacks on Israeli civilians.
In an interview with Richard Berg, USPCN leader Hatem Abudayyeh stated shortly after October 7, 2023: "I believe strongly and USPCN believes, and so many millions of people around the world believe that Israel also does not have the right to exist as a racist, white supremacist, apartheid Zionist state."
Programming Extends to Marxist-Leninist Advocacy and Pro-Authoritarian Activism
The Lucy Parsons Center provides infrastructure for promoting Marxist-Leninist ideology and authoritarian regimes. For example, it organized programming titled “Socialist Construction in Modern China,” featuring FRSO Political Secretary Mick Kelly and members who traveled to China.
In August 2025, the Lucy Parsons Center hosted “China: A Contrasting Vision for the World,” featuring Sydney Loving from the “Friends of Socialist China delegation,” presenting what organizers described as a counternarrative to U.S. media coverage.
These events function as ideological education within FRSO membership networks. Kelly has also appeared at conferences promoting the North Korean regime, advocating for “global class war.”
Shared Leadership With FRSO Personnel
Although registered as a distinct nonprofit, the Lucy Parsons Center shares key personnel with FRSO. Richard Berg serves as Director General of the Lucy Parsons Institute for Social Research, while Thomas Burke is Treasurer. Both are affiliated with FRSO, a self-described “national organization of revolutionaries fighting for socialism in the United States.” Mick Kelly, a key member of the FRSO, serves as Secretary of the Lucy Parsons Institute and has appeared at events in Minneapolis, maintaining an active presence in programming.
This structure demonstrates how veteran operatives appear to leverage separate nonprofit vehicles to provide infrastructure for ongoing radical political work while maintaining tax-exempt charitable status.
“In an interview with USPCN leader Hatem Abudayyeh shortly after October 7, 2023, Richard Berg—the Lucy Parsons Center's Director General—stated: "I believe strongly and USPCN believes, and so many millions of people around the world believe that Israel also does not have the right to exist as a racist, white supremacist, apartheid Zionist state,"
Well. Good thing then that this imaginary Israel does not exist, since the majority of Israelis are people of colour.
Unfortunately you can’t fix brains rotted away by the insidious antisemitism virus.