In her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston wrote, “There are years that ask questions, and years that answer.” With continued pressure from below, 2022 will be the year that forces the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and the Philly Police Department to answer questions about why they framed imprisoned radio journalist and veteran Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal. Abu-Jamal’s attorneys have filed a PCRA petition focused entirely on the six boxes of case files that were found in a storage room of the DA’s office in late December 2018, after the case being heard before Judge Leon Tucker . . .
Political Prisoners
When I Actually Got to Hang out with Assata Shakur
Some folks actually follow celebrities from city to city with the objective of taking pictures with these well known actors, musicians, athletes, etc. You’ll never catch me doing anything like that. I’ve actually had opportunities to meet many people in those fields whose work I admire such as George Clinton, Chris Webber, Forest Whitaker, and Derek Jeter. But I passed on walking up to them because although I respect their craft, I just don’t see what they do as something deserving of that level of adulation. At least not from me. What I mean is, it’s not like Jeter, Michael . . .
Russell “Maroon” Shoatz is Free, But We Need to Free Them All
Of course there is deeply felt happiness that Shoatz will be freed for whatever time remains in his life, but no one should forget the tortures he suffered, including 22 years in solitary confinement. No one should forget the other prisoners such as Mumia Abu Jamal, Ruchell Magee, Sundiata Acoli, and Dr. Mutulu Shakur. They are the best known, but there are hundreds of people imprisoned since the days of the liberation movement. That movement was crushed in part because its most committed fighters were locked away. . . .
Don’t Ignore the 2021 Tribunal on Genocide
If it is understood that Africans in the US, a group that at no point in history have chosen to be part of the genocidal and psychopathic US empire, are under attack by that very same empire, then our right to fight for our national liberation, independence and national identity is unquestionable. . . .
Jailhouse Lawyers Speak calls for National Shut ‘Em Down Demonstrations
Jailhouse Lawyers Speak announces the call for National Abolition Demonstrations inside the prisons and Jails of America. . . .
Black August, Letter Writing and the ‘Harm Reduction’ Administration
There are four major components in the yearly commemorations of Black August: study, fast, train, and fight. People are encouraged to study the works and words of former and current political and politicized prisoners. People are encouraged to fast from sunrise to sunset. People are encouraged to train and become more physically active. People are encouraged to fight against the system. However, one of the lesser centered but equally important aspects of Black August is letter writing. Nearly a half-century ago, Gresham Sykes wrote in The Society of Captives: A Study of a Maximum Security Prison that, “life in the . . .
Black August: Fight, Study, Fast, Train
Black August is an African (Black) institution that is commemorated annually to honor the contributions of our African freedom fighters who sacrificed in order to strike blows against the U.S. capitalist empire on behalf of the African masses. . . .
In The Spirit of Abolition, Let’s Shut’em Down!
A call to action. National “Shut’em Down” demonstrations are called for August 21st and September 9th. Originally published on the Jailhouse Lawyers Speak blog. . . .