[Ppnews] Black August - Mumia

[Political Prisoner News]

George Jackson, born Sept. 23, 1941, was not 
quite 30 when he was murdered at San Quentin Aug. 
21, 1971, yet his writings from prison had built 
a large and passionate following. Inside St. 
Augustine’s Church in West Oakland on the day of 
his Revolutionary Memorial Service, the first 
Black August event, were 200 Black Panthers in 
full uniform, while 8,000 people listened 
outside, perched on rooftops, hanging from 
telephone poles and filling the streets. As 
George’s body was brought out, the people raised 
their fists in the air and chanted, “Long Live George Jackson.”



<http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/black-august/>Black August

by Mumia Abu-Jamal
Written Aug. 4, 1993

“George Jackson was my hero. He set a standard 
for prisoners, political prisoners, for people. 
He showed the love, the strength, the 
revolutionary fervor that’s characteristic of any 
soldier for the people. He inspired prisoners, 
whom I later encountered, to put his ideas into 
practice. And so his spirit became a living 
thing.” – from the eulogy by Huey P. Newton, 
former Minister of Defense, Black Panther Party, 
at the Revolutionary Memorial Service for George Jackson, 1971
August, in both historic and contemporary African 
American history, is a month of meaning.
It is a month of repression:
    * August 1619 – The first group of Black 
laborers, called indentured servants, landed at Jamestown, Virginia.
    * Aug. 25, 1967 – Classified FBI memos went 
out to all bureaus nationwide with plans to 
“disrupt, misdirect, discredit or otherwise 
neutralize” Black Liberation Movement groups.
    * August 1968 – The Newark, New Jersey, Black 
Panther Party office was firebombed.
    * Aug. 25, 1968 – Los Angeles BPP members 
Steve Bartholomew, Robert Lawrence and Tommy 
Lewis were murdered by the LAPD at a gas station.
    * Aug. 15, 1969 – Sylvester Bell, San Diego 
BPP, was murdered by the US organization.
    * Aug. 21, 1971 – BPP Field Marshall George 
L. Jackson was assassinated at San Quentin 
Prison, California. Three guards and two inmate 
turncoats were killed, three wounded.
August is also a month of radical resistance:
    * Aug. 22, 1831 – Nat Turner’s rebellion 
rocked Southampton County, Virginia, and the 
entire South when slaves rose up and slew their white masters.
    * Aug. 30, 1856 – John Brown led an 
anti-slavery raid on a group of Missourians at Osawatomie, Kansas.
    * Aug. 7, 1970 – Jonathan Jackson, younger 
brother of Field Marshal George, raided the Marin 
County Courthouse in California, arming and 
freeing three Black prisoners, taking the judge, 
prosecutor and several jurors hostage. All, 
except one prisoner, were killed by police fire 
that perforated the escape vehicle. Jon was 17.
And in an instance of resistance and repression:
    * Aug. 8, 1978 – After a 15-month armed 
police standoff with the Philadelphia-based 
naturalist MOVE Organization, the police raided 
MOVE, killing one of their own in police 
crossfire, and charging nine MOVE people with 
murder. The MOVE 9, in prisons across 
Pennsylvania, are serving up to 100 years each.
August – a month of injustice and divine justice, 
of repression and righteous rebellion, of 
individual and collective efforts to free the 
slaves and break the chains that bind us.
August saw slaves and the grandsons of slaves 
strike out for their God-given right to freedom, 
as well as the awesome price, the ultimate price 
always paid by those who would dare oppose the slave master’s will.
Like their spiritual grandfather, the blessed 
rebel Nat Turner, those who opposed Massa in this 
land of un-freedom met murder by the state: 
George and Jonathan Jackson, James McClain, 
William Christmas, Bobby Hutton, Steve 
Bartholomew, Robert Lawrence, Tommy Lewis, 
Sylvester Bell – all suffered the fate of Nat 
Turner, of the slave daring to fight the slave master for his freedom.
© Copyright 2009 Mumia Abu-Jamal. Read Mumia’s 
brand new book, “Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners 
Defending Prisoners v. the U.S.A.,” available 
from City Lights Publishing, 
<http://www.citylights.com/>www.citylights.com or 
(415) 362-8193. Keep updated at 
<http://www.freemumia.com>www.freemumia.com. For 
Mumia’s commentaries, 
visit<http://www.prisonradio.org/>www.prisonradio.org. 
For recent interviews with Mumia, visit 
<http://www.blockreportradio.com/>www.blockreportradio.com. 
Encourage the media to publish and broadcast 
Mumia’s commentaries and interviews. Send our 
brotha some love and light at: Mumia Abu-Jamal, 
AM 8335, SCI-Greene, 175 Progress Dr., Waynesburg PA 15370.






Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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