He became a political activist and in 1995 changed his name from Gary Lee Graham to Shaka Sankofa. The name "Shaka" was chosen in honor of the South African warrior Shaka Zulu, and "Sankofa" means to go back to the past and bring to the present, according to Rev. Herbert Daughtry of New York; the name also "represented linking the current struggle against capital punishment with the historical struggle blacks have waged for freedom, justice and equality." He also co-founded a prison organization and newspaper, "The Endeavor Project", which were devoted to abolishing the death penalty. By the end of his life, he had also written a soon-to-be-published book, "The Evolution of Shaka Sankofa".