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<font size=3><br>
</font><font size=4><b><u>IMPORTANT</u> <u>ANNOUNCEMENT</u>:</b>
Yesterday, in a downtown Baltimore courtroom, more than sixty people
showed up as part of the Campaign to Free Jack Johnson from political
imprisonment. Some of these supporters were homeless. Two
were disabled, one using a wheelchair and the other using crutches for a
partially amputated leg. One, a professor, came to Baltimore from
Lincoln University (from outside Philadelphia), and at least four of Jack
Johnson's supporters were comrades from the Black Panther Party.
While the overwhelming majority of these people were black and of African
descent, a few were poor or working class white people. At the end
of the day, all of these people, whether male or female, whether old or
young, gave their time or rather their firm support to liberate Jack
Johnson from prison. And their effort succeeded.<br><br>
After a great deal of work by the Nat Turner Rebellion and by former
Black Panther Rev. Annie Chambers, the people filled Courtroom 236 in
downtown Baltimore and, with the political and disciplined threat of
their presence, the Campaign to Free Jack Johnson pressured a judge to
set Brother Jack totally free from prison in eighteen months (albeit,
after the police state has imprisoned Jack Johnson on a life plus fifteen
year prison sentence for more than thirty-nine years). In other
words, while the Fraternal Order of Police wanted Jack Johnson to live
out the rest of his natural life in prison and die there, and after Jack
Johnson survived torture, a racially-bigoted and rigged trial in 1971,
and more than thirty-nine years in prison, he will finally leave prison
and rejoin the modern-day struggles of his people.<br><br>
As some of you may know, the Campaign to Free Jack Johnson sought help
from a few of Maryland's famous, wealthy, and influential black
preachers, black politicians, black lawyers, and other highly regarded
black celebrities. In earlier years, we even approached liberal
white Democrats like Governor Glendening for help. None of these
people came out. None of these blessed and privileged individuals
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=4>offered</font> their material
support. They were too busy. Quite frankly, they didn't
care. On the other hand, the poor, the disenfranchised, the
disabled, and the homeless joined working class black people and students
and filled Courtroom 236 in downtown Baltimore. This coalition of
the poor and the working class empowered itself when it came
together. For example, one or two people with jobs gave
money. College students signed petitions and participated in
educational symposiums about the case. The homeless took the lead
and recruited other poor people to join the campaign. Therefore, at
the end of the day, while the rich and the famous ignored the case of
Jack Johnson, the working class and the starving poor showed up in court
and demanded that their soldier and brother be set free.<br><br>
Because the Campaign to Free Jack Johnson received meaningful support
from working class and poor people, Jack Johnson will not die some day in
one of Maryland's wretched detention centers. Rather, after
literally surviving torture and more than thirty-nine years in prison, he
will be liberated from the American police state in eighteen
months. However, since for now he remains a political prisoner, the
struggle continues. As a result, we must fight to ensure his
unrestricted liberty. We must fight to see that, after sacrificing
so much for our people, he will see his aging mother at her home in
Chicago, and this must happen before she dies; not at her funeral.
We build today from our hard-fought success. In fact, yesterday, we
obtained a substantially reduced prison sentence for Jack Johnson.
Tomorrow, we free Black Panther Marshall Eddie Conway and the MOVE
9. Indeed, tomorrow, we free all of our political prisoners of
war. And, in the course of that struggle, we work assiduously to
liberate wrongly convicted Georgia death row inmate Troy Anthony
Davis. This we do now. This we do forever. This we do
until -- and as a material realization of -- our full and unfettered
liberation.<br><br>
On the MOVE! Power to the people! Free the land!<br><br>
Thomas Ruffin<br>
The Nat Turner Rebellion<br><br>
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<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
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<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
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