“Even on death row, he is still thinking about others!”
Cornel West at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia December 9 speaks in support of Mumia Abu Jamal.
Archive for the ‘Mumia Abu-Jamal’ Category
Cornel West on Mumia: His spirit has not been broken! Free him!
Posted by Mike E on December 11, 2011
Posted in African American, anti-racist action, civil liberties, Mumia Abu-Jamal, prison | 1 Comment »
Mumia Abu-Jamal no longer facing execution
Posted by onehundredflowers on December 7, 2011
This was originally posted on NewsOne.
MUMIA SPARED! No Death Penalty For Mumia Abu-Jamal
Written by Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — Prosecutors have called off their 30-year battle to put former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal to death in the killing of a white police officer, putting to an end the racially charged case that became a major battleground in the fight over the death penalty.
Flanked by the police Officer Daniel Faulkner’s widow, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced his decision Wednesday.
“There’s never been any doubt in my mind that Mumia Abu-Jamal shot and killed Officer Faulkner. I believe that the appropriate sentence was handed down by a jury of his peers in 1982,” said Williams, who is black. “While Abu-Jamal will no longer be facing the death penalty, he will remain behind bars for the rest of his life, and that is where he belongs.”
Abu-Jamal was convicted of fatally shooting Faulkner on Dec. 9, 1981. He was sentenced to death after his trial the following year.
Abu-Jamal, who has been incarcerated in a western Pennsylvania prison, has garnered worldwide support from those who believe he was the victim of a biased justice system.
The conviction was upheld through years of legal appeals. But a federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing after ruling the instructions given to the jury were potentially misleading.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to weigh in on the case in October. That forced prosecutors to decide if they wanted to again pursue the death penalty through a new sentencing hearing or accept a life sentence.
Posted in >> analysis of news, African American, Black Panthers, civil liberties, death penalty, Mumia Abu-Jamal, police, political prisoners, politics, prison, racism, repression | 2 Comments »
Supreme Court: Overturning of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s death sentence stands
Posted by Mike E on October 14, 2011
United States Supreme Court Rejects Appeal from Philadelphia DA’s Office
(New York, NY) — Today( 11th October) the United States Supreme Court rejected a request from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office to overturn the most recent federal appeals court decision declaring Mumia Abu-Jamal’s death sentence unconstitutional. The Court’s decision brings to an end nearly thirty years of litigation over the fairness of the sentencing hearing that resulted in Mr. Abu-Jamal’s being condemned to death. Mr. Abu-Jamal will be automatically sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole unless the District Attorney elects to seek another death sentence from a new jury.
The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) and Professor Judith Ritter of Widener Law School represent Mr. Abu-Jamal in the appeal of his conviction and death sentence for the 1981 murder of a police officer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Supreme Court’s decision marks the fourth time that the federal courts have found that Mr. Abu-Jamal’s sentencing jury was misled about the constitutionally mandated process for considering evidence supporting a life sentence.
Posted in Mumia Abu-Jamal | 1 Comment »
Clark Kissinger: New Development in the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Posted by Mike E on May 5, 2011
Mumia Abu-Jamal
The overturning of Mumia’s death sentence is obviously a startling and important change. And it is not obvious at all what this will mean. We are sharing here an analysis of C. Clark Kissinger who played such an important role in the movement to save Mumia’s life in the 1990s. This piece first appeared in Revolution newspaper.
Posting this piece here on Kasama does not represent an endorsement of the specific analysis. For Kasama’s coverage of Mumia’s writings and frame up.
* * * * * * *
by C. Clark Kissinger
A three-judge panel of the federal 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned the death sentence of Mumia Abu-Jamal—for the second time and this time unanimously. Previously, in 2008, this same court had ruled 2-1 that the death sentence on Mumia had been obtained by unconstitutional misleading instructions to the jury. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned that finding and sent it back to the 3rd Circuit for reconsideration. But the 3rd Circuit has again ruled that the instructions used to get a death sentence voted on Mumia were blatantly and unconstitutionally illegal.
Posted in African American, anti-racist action, civil liberties, death penalty, Mumia Abu-Jamal, racism, repression | 8 Comments »
Mumia Abu-Jamal: Ruling creates new obstacle to execution
Posted by Mike E on April 27, 2011
“The Third Circuit’s ruling, if left standing, requires Philadelphia prosecutors to call for a whole new sentencing hearing if they want to try and reinstate the death penalty.
“That would require the impaneling of a whole new jury, to hear and consider evidence regarding mitigating circumstances and aggravating circumstances in the case, and then to decide for either execution of life-without-possibility of parole–the only two options legally available.
“Abu-Jamal has exhausted his avenues of appeal of his conviction, absent new evidence in the case.”
We have received this important news. This article comes to us from Land, a long-time activist in the struggle to free Mumia. There are different interpretations of what this means. Reuters wrote: “PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that high profile death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal should get a new sentencing hearing.”
3rd Circuit Appeal Ruling Favoring Abu-Jamal Smacks Down US Supreme Court
by Linn Washington Jr.
The federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, in a stunning smack at the U.S. Supreme Court, has issued a ruling upholding its earlier decision backing a new sentencing hearing in the controversial case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the convicted killer of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.
Posted in African American, anti-racist action, Mumia Abu-Jamal, racism | Leave a Comment »
Learning from Weinglass: Uniting People Around a Revolutionary
Posted by Mike E on March 26, 2011
by Mike Ely
Leonard Weinglass died this week — and we have all lost a friend and champion. Kasama has posted an obituary that gives a sense of his life’s work defending revolutionary people from repression and death. We salute him. Here I would like to talk about one important and brilliant episode of his life.
I want to speak about Leonard’s special role in imagining and then building a vibrant and living mass movement to free Mumia Abu-Jamal during the 1990s. It was a rare bright spot that put revolutionary politics on the map publicly over the last few decades — and intersected in many ways with other efforts to build revolutionary currents and promote revolutionary politics.
Leonard was not just a lawyer in this case (masterly fighting through a hostile Pennsylvania legal system to free his client from execution). But he played a creatively brilliant role as one of the key figures who created a broad mass movement to free a Black revolutionary who had been convicted of killing a white Philadelphia cop. This is a remarkable achievement, he accomplished together with a core of other key people: Mumia himself (of course, with his charismatic intelligence and his ability to represent and communicate), Pam Africa (of Mumia’s MOVE family), and Clark Kissinger (who was always gifted at combining his own Maoist politics with broad unities).
Posted in Mike Ely, MOVE, Mumia Abu-Jamal, organizing, political prisoners, repression | 18 Comments »
Leonard Weinglass, Courageous Defender of Revolutionaries
Posted by onehundredflowers on March 25, 2011
This comes from The Chicago Tribune.
“He wasn’t drawn to making money. He was drawn to defending justice,” [Daniel] Ellsberg said. “He felt in many cases he was representing one person standing against the state.”
Weinglass, attorney in radicals’ cases, dies in NY
Leonard Weinglass was a modern-day Clarence Darrow, an attorney who defended people for their politics not their alleged crimes, friends said.
His clients included Black Panthers, radicals, a cop-killer who sparked crusades against the death penalty, the Chicago Seven in the 1960s and the so-called Cuban Five in recent years.
Weinglass died Wednesday in New York City. He was 77 and had pancreatic cancer.
“I always considered Lenny the modern-day Clarence Darrow,” said Michael Krinsky, a partner at Rabinowittz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky and Lieberman, where Weinglass worked. “He was a lawyer who devoted himself to defending people, usually for political reasons. I think one of the reasons he was so effective with juries is they saw his decency and sincerity.”
In 1968, Weinglass was part of the defense team representing the Chicago Seven, accused of various crimes stemming from violence at the Democratic National Convention.
“I thought then that Len was the best trial attorney I ever met,” said Tom Hayden, one of the defendants. “We roomed together during the trial and he taught me to be his sort-of assistant counsel. I think everybody in the courtroom came to realize what an extraordinary lawyer he was.”
Posted in African American, civil liberties, MOVE, Mumia Abu-Jamal, politics | Tagged: Cuban 5, Kathy Boudin, Leonard Weinglass | 2 Comments »
Mumia Abu-Jamal: Enemy of the State
Posted by Mike E on December 9, 2010
Today is December 9. On this day, in 1981, revolutionary journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal was seized by Philadelphia police and railroaded to Death Row, starting a great struggle that has still not ended — neither in his death, nor in the arrival of justice.
Join us, here at Kasama, in honoring this revolutionary and rededicating ourselves to the freedom for Mumia and all political prisoners.
by Mike Ely
“They don’t just want my death, they want my silence.”
Mumia Abu-Jamal [1]
From Panther to Voice of the Voiceless
On August 8, 1978, Mayor Frank Rizzo was in a combative mood at a special afternoon press conference in Philadelphia’s City Hall. Just hours before, Rizzo’s police had staged a massive raid on the home of the radical MOVE organization on Powelton Avenue. After attacking the house with intense gunfire, tear gas and a flood of water, police arrested the MOVE members and publicly beat Delbert Africa as he surrendered.
At City Hall, Rizzo was blunt with the press: he expected them to close ranks in support of police actions. Then, from the crowded pack of reporters, a young Black journalist spoke out in the resonant tones of a radio broadcaster. He raised pointed questions about the official police story Rizzo had just laid out.
Mayor Rizzo exploded in fury and spat out a thinly veiled threat: “They believe what you write, and what you say, and it’s got to stop. And one day–and I hope it’s in my career–that you’re going to have to be held responsible and accountable for what you do.” [2]
The journalist who challenged Rizzo that day was Mumia Abu-Jamal. He had spent a decade exposing the racism of Philadelphia’s police and legal system.
Posted in Mumia Abu-Jamal | 1 Comment »
Mumia Abu-Jamal: Some Who Feel No Reason For Thanksgiving
Posted by Mike E on November 26, 2010
Posted in genocide, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Native people, Thanksgiving | Leave a Comment »
Mumia Abu-Jamal Speaking Live at Brixton, London
Posted by Mike E on August 30, 2010
Posted in Mumia Abu-Jamal | 1 Comment »
Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Matter of the Mosque
Posted by Mike E on August 29, 2010
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
In Manhattan, the controversy over the placement of a mosque (or Islamic house of worship) just a few mere blocks from what is now known as ‘Ground Zero’ — the site of the New York plane strikes on 9/11, rages on.
Sides have been assembled, and arguments have been hurled like mental Molotov cocktails on both sides of the fray.
The argument, no matter how resolved, shows us how empty is the Constitution, which has an express provision protecting free religious practice.
What an argument for those who claim fealty to the Constitution!
For a right that can’t be practiced is no right at all.
One is reminded of how the Constitution ‘protected’ the rights of Blacks after the Reconstruction Amendments to the Constitution were passed from 1865 to 1870. It looked fine on paper, but over a hundred years later they had no reality in the lives of millions of Blacks, who couldn’t vote, couldn’t sit on juries, serve in public office, or who lived in segregated housing.
The ‘rights’ existed on paper, but such rights being practiced offended the sensibilities of southern whites.
Sound familiar?
Posted in >> analysis of news, Mumia Abu-Jamal, war on terror | 3 Comments »
The Passing of a Legend: Abbey Lincoln
Posted by Mike E on August 24, 2010
Abbey Lincoln
Thanks to Land for proposing this piece.
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
In the long chain of musical creativity that characterizes Black American music (and increasingly, American music), jazz played a pivotal role.
Although it is now the stuff of college radio, and concerts for the well heeled, middle class intelligentsia, there was a time when it was a radical, and indeed, a revolutionary music, carrying within it the seeds of rebellion and protest.
Among the artists who personified these attributes were the drummer and composer, Max Roach (1924 -2007) and his beautiful, talented wife, jazz singer, Abbey Lincoln.
The power of their performance can be seen in the radicalization of Black revolutionary nationalist, Muhammad Ahmed (fka) Max Stanford, Jr.) who, in his work, We will Return in the Whirlwind: Black Radical Organizations: 1960-1975),explains the potential political impacts of the works of Roach, Lincoln and other jazz artists in the late ’50′s:
Posted in jazz, Mumia Abu-Jamal, music | Tagged: Abbey Lincoln | 7 Comments »
The Police Bombing of MOVE: 25 Years Later
Posted by onehundredflowers on May 13, 2010
This was originally posted in phillytrib.com.
Commission blamed top officials’ actions
Written by Larry Miller Tribune Staff Writer
Twenty-five years ago the second violent confrontation between Philadelphia police and the back-to-nature group known as MOVE ended with five children and six adults dead.
Only Ramona Africa and Michael Moses Ward, then known as Birdie Africa, survived.
The confrontation ended when a bomb was dropped onto the roof of the group’s residence at 6221 Osage Ave. — an effort to smoke out MOVE members, officials later said.
It ended with 61 homes destroyed in a massive conflagration as the nation and the rest of the world looked on in shock and horror.
When the flames were extinguished and the charred bodies of the deceased MOVE members were pulled from the rubble, there was a growing list of hard questions to be answered.
On the firing line were then-Mayor W. Wilson Goode, the city’s first African-American chief executive, and his senior staff: Police Commissioner Gregore Sambor, Fire Commissioner William Richmond and city Managing Director Leo Brooks.
Recent attempts to locate Sambor, Richmond and Brooks for comment failed.
After conducting interviews and gathering evidence from a wide variety of government agencies, the Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission, created to investigate the event, held five weeks of televised public hearings. Ninety-two witnesses testified before the hearings ended in early November. The commission deliberated for several months and released its findings on March 6, 1986.
That report was a sweeping indictment of the city government, and stated: “Dropping a bomb on an occupied rowhouse was unconscionable.”
Posted in >> analysis of news, Black History, MOVE, Mumia Abu-Jamal, racism | 2 Comments »
French Translation: Mumia Abu-Jamal – Ennemi d’Etat
Posted by onehundredflowers on March 8, 2010
Thanks to futur rouge for this French translation of the piece “Mumia Abu-Jamal: Enemy of The State.”
«Ils ne veulent pas seulement ma mort, ils veulent mon silence» Mumia Abu-Jamal
DES PANTHERS A LA VOIX DES SANS-VOIX
par Mike Ely
Le 8 août 1978, le maire Frank Rizzo était d’humeur combative lors d’une conférence de presse spéciale à l’Hôtel de Ville de Philadelphie. Quelques heures plus tôt, la police de Rizzo avait mené une descente massive dans la maison de l’organisation radicale MOVE dans l’Avenue Powelton. Après avoir attaqué la maison avec d’intenses coups de feu, du gaz lacrymogène et un flot d’eau, la police a arrêté les membres de MOVE et a battu publiquement Delbert Africa lorsqu’il s’est rendu.
A l’Hôtel de Ville, Rizzo a été franc avec la presse: il attendait d’eux qu’ils serrent les rangs en soutien aux actions de la police. Alors, du paquet bondé de journalistes, un jeune reporter noir s’est prononcé avec le ton sonore d’un présentateur radio. Il a soulevé des questions incisives à propos de l’histoire officielle de la police de Rizzo venait de concevoir.
Le maire Rizzo a explosé de fureur et a craché une menace à peine voilée: «Ils croient à ce que vous écrivez, et à ce que vous dites, et cela doit cesser. Et un jour – et j’espère que cela sera durant ma carrière – vous aller devoir être tenu pour responsable et redevable de ce que vous faites».
Le 9 décembre 1981, trois ans après cette conférence de presse, à l’âge de 27 ans, Mumia Abu-Jamal est tombé dans les mains de la police. On lui a tiré dessus, il a pratiquement été tué par une balle de la police, arrêté et brutalisé à plusieurs reprises en garde à vue. Et puis, dans un procès digne de Kafka ou d’Alice au pays des merveilles, il a été condamné à mort pour avoir tiré sur le policier Daniel Faulkner.
Posted in >> analysis of news, African American, Black History, Black Panthers, civil rights, death penalty, Mumia Abu-Jamal, political prisoners, prison, racism | 2 Comments »
Mumia Facing the Noose? No! Not Again!
Posted by Mike E on January 19, 2010
No one is every safe, as long as these forces remain in power. The shadow of death had seemed to pass from Mumia, and yet there it is, again. In a case crammed with injustice, in a system packed with raw racism, consideration is given at the highest level — not to Mumia’s freedom, but to his execution. Welcome to America, again. Now what are we going to do, together?
Kasama has already published a great deal of background on Mumia’s radical and journalistic activity, then his frameup and persecution. We will be publishing posts soon, analyzing this Supreme Court ruling and the road ahead.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday granted an appeal by prosecutors and set aside a ruling that invalidated the death sentence of black political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal for the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer.
His case has become a prominent cause for many death penalty opponents.
In a brief order, the Supreme Court sent the case back to a U.S. appeals court based in Philadelphia for further consideration in view of the high court’s recent decision in an Ohio case that had raised similar issues.
The Supreme Court in the Ohio case unanimously reinstated the death sentence of a neo-Nazi convicted of murdering three men. The court’s action, which was not a ruling on the merits of the case, could lead to Abu-Jamal’s death sentence being reinstated, too.
The appeals court had ruled that Abu-Jamal, 55, deserved a new sentencing hearing because of flawed jury instructions.
Abu-Jamal, a former member of the Black Panthers militant group, was convicted and sentenced to death in 1982 for murdering white Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in an early morning confrontation on December 9, 1981.
Posted in African American, anti-racist action, capitalism, civil liberties, death penalty, Mumia Abu-Jamal, police, political prisoners, prison, racism, supreme court | 4 Comments »
Mumia Abu-Jamal: Of Pirates & Piracy
Posted by Mike E on April 22, 2009
Column written April 13, 2009
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
In the news of late is the piracy drama off Africa’s horn — the eastern coast of Somalia.
All of a sudden, piracy is a problem, one needing military, if not global solutions.
Every petty politician is bum-rushing the mike, to spout off on how pirates are “thugs”, “criminals”, or the latest Western curse, ” terrorists”.
Such pronouncements almost always leave me cold, or, at best, ambivalent, for behind these events lie a history that cries out for clarity and perspective.
If piracy is a crime when individuals do it, what is it when states do it?
Who can deny that America was stolen and swindled from the Indians? Or that millions of people were stolen from Africa to work for them for centuries?
Is that piracy– or just plain policy?
Piracy did occur in the 17th and 18th centuries, and this was either cases of conflict between colonial powers (where British ‘privateers’, for example, would target and steal from Spanish ships), or simply in pursuit of profits.
The Somali state has been absent for a generation, and as such, what is today’s piracy but making a living, albeit a dangerous one?
When Ethiopia was armed and egged on to invade Somalia several years ago by the Bush administration, was that state piracy?
When the U.S. invaded and occupied Iraq in 2003, removed it’s government, imposed its puppets, bombed its people, and ran a third of its population into exile, based on lies–was this piracy of one nation against another–or ‘national security?’
Pirates are retail; nations are wholesale.
Who are the ‘thugs’, the ‘criminals’, the real pirates?
To my knowledge, no band of pirates has ever stolen a nation.
Guess who has?
–(c) ’09 maj
(c) ’09 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Posted in African American, genocide, lynching, military, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Native people, pirates, racism, war on terror | 5 Comments »
Mumia Abu-Jamal: In America, Injustice is No Surprise
Posted by Mike E on April 7, 2009
Mumia speaks out about the terrible ruling by the Supreme Court denying his appeal for a new trial. This April 6 interview appeared on Prison Radio. The interview can also be heard in MP3 audio.
Noelle Hanrahan Prison Radio: Mumia, what’s your reaction?
Mumia Abu-Jamal: Well all I know is, you know, what Christina told me. So there’s nothing. There’s nothing to read. There is no order, other than my name is on a list of Cert denied.
Noelle Hanrahan: That’s right.
Mumia Abu-Jamal: So we don’t know anything. And you know, if it is the Batson issue, then it just shows you that precedent means nothing, that the law is politics by other means and that the constitution means nothing. That a fair jury means nothing.
Noelle Hanrahan: You said when I just first talked to you something about that it’s another day and how many days?
Mumia Abu-Jamal: Another day? Three decades.
Noelle Hanrahan: When did you stop being surprised?
Mumia Abu-Jamal: When I was at pretrial hearing before Judge Sabo,and he denied the motion. I knew then that he wasn’t working with the constitution. It did surprise me, and it really shocked me because, I’d read the cases. I knew what the law was. I knew what the law books said the law was. I learned then that they’re not going by that kind of law, and apparently they’re not going by that kind of law now. If you read Batson and you read my case then it’s almost as if you’re in two different universes. And in fact you are. You are.
Posted in African American, anti-racist action, Mumia Abu-Jamal, political prisoners, revolution, supreme court | Leave a Comment »
Supreme Court Denies Mumia New Trial
Posted by onehundredflowers on April 6, 2009
This story originally appeared at newser.com.
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Mumia’s Appeal
(Newser) – Mumia Abu-Jamal has lost his bid for a new trial in the 1981 killing of a police officer, the AP reports. The Supreme Court said today it won’t take up Abu-Jamal’s claims that prosecutors improperly excluded blacks from the jury that convicted him of murdering a Philadelphia policeman. The case has sparked international attention over Abu-Jamal’s claims that he was victimized by a racist justice system.
A US appeals court in Philadelphia upheld Abu-Jamal’s conviction, but held his death sentence invalid. That court said it wouldn’t second-guess state court rulings rejecting Abu-Jamal’s claims of bias in the composition of the jury. The Supreme Court considered only the conviction. The state has separately asked the court to reinstate the death sentence, but the justices have not acted on that request.
Posted in >> analysis of news, Black Panthers, civil rights, cointelpro, death penalty, Mumia Abu-Jamal, police, political prisoners, supreme court | 2 Comments »
Bennett Report: Mumia Abu-Jamal faces U.S. Supreme Court, as Supporters Mobilize Globally
Posted by Mike E on December 20, 2008
Demonstration for Mumia in Philadelphia
By Hans Bennett
On Friday, December 19, 2008, death-row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal filed his appeal to the US Supreme Court, asking it to consider his case for a new guilt-phase trial. One month before, the Philadelphia District Attorney filed its separate appeal to the US Supreme Court asking to have Abu-Jamal executed without a new sentencing-phase trial.
At this critical stage in Abu-Jamal’s case, supporters organized a week of global solidarity actions that began on December 6, the day of the large protest in Philadelphia, almost 27 years after Abu-Jamal was arrested for the December 9, 1981 shooting death of white police officer Daniel Faulkner, and later convicted in a 1982 trial that Amnesty International has declared a “violation of minimum international standards that govern fair trial procedures and the use of the death penalty”.
There were solidarity actions inside the US and around the world, including Mexico, Venezuela, Germany, France, England, Switzerland. Several US events screened the new DVD video titled Fighting for Mumia’s Freedom: a report from Philadelphia.
In Philadelphia, over 200 protesters gathered outside the District Attorney’s office across the street from City Hall. Journalists for Mumia’s new video report (see below) from the demonstration features an interview with persecuted Civil Rights Lawyer Lynne Stewart, and footage of Pam Africa speaking outside the DA’s office about the newly discovered crime scene photos taken by press photographer Pedro Polakoff, and the DA’s role in hiding them from the defense. The coordinator of the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Pam Africa cited Polakoff’s statements today that he approached the DA’s office with the photos in 1981/82 and 1995, but was completely ignored by them. Subsequently, Polakoff’s photos were never seen by the 1982 jury, or by the defense. Africa presented the evidence to Philadelphia PD Civil Affairs Captain William Fisher to deliver to DA Lynne Abraham.
Report continues with video:
Posted in African American, anti-racist action, Black History, Black Panthers, capitalism, civil rights, cointelpro, conspiracy, Human rights, Mumia Abu-Jamal, political prisoners, prison, racism, revolution, supreme court, war on terror | Leave a Comment »
Mumia Abu-Jamal: False Freedom
Posted by Mike E on December 14, 2008
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
There is a certain sense in the minds of millions in the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election, that we have reached the promised land.
The imagery and oratory of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is invoked, to suggest that his Dream, as articulated in his epic “I Have a Dream” speech, has been realized.
There is a deep sense that freedom is here, as we all live in a ‘post-racial America’.
Or do we?
To be sure, we are all on the brink of history, for this has never happened before.
But there was a time, quite a while ago, when similar feelings swept the nation, and especially Black hearts, that a new day was breaking, and the old ways had fallen away, when freedom was as real as rain.
I speak of the Reconstruction era, when the nation formally extended civil rights to millions of Black men (not to women, notably) and scores of Black people took office in state and federal legislatures, beginning a wave of progressive legislation to better the abominable living conditions of millions, Black and white alike.
But Reconstruction was short-lived, due to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the betrayal of Black freedmen by the federal government, and the campaign of white terrorists against Black people and Republicans, which converged to reassert white supremacy.
Posted in >> analysis of news, African American, anti-racist action, Barack Obama, Black History, civil rights, Mumia Abu-Jamal, political prisoners, slavery | Leave a Comment »
