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<h1 class="reader-title">Black History: 'Lest we forget' by
Safiya Bukhari <br>
</h1>
February 25, 2020</div>
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<p><i><span>In honor of Black History Month we republish
here a commemorative article by revolutionary leader
Safiya Bukhari, first published in 1981 in </span></i><a
href="http://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC513_scans/Safiya_Bukhari/513.Safiya.lest.we.forget.pdf"><i><span>pamphlet</span></i></a><i><span>
form. Bukhari was a member of the Black Panther
Party and the Black Liberation Army. She was a
political prisoner from 1975 until 1983 minus two
months when she escaped to seek medical treatment
denied to her by prison authorities. </span></i></p>
<p><i><span>Among other roles she served as vice-president
of the Republic of New Afrika, co-founder and
co-chairperson of the New York Free Mumia Coalition
and the National Jericho Movement for U.S. Political
Prisoners and Prisoners of War. Dubbed a “Lioness
for Liberation” by Mumia Abu Jamal and a “legendary
figure” by Angela Davis, Bukhari’s autobiographical
“The War Before: The True Life Story of Becoming a
Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison &
Fighting for Those Left Behind” remains </span></i><a
href="https://www.feministpress.org/books-n-z/the-war-before"><i><span>essential
reading</span></i></a><i><span>. </span></i></p>
<p><b>Black Seeds Introduction</b></p>
<p><span>Constantly people of color are confronted with
the reality that death is our ever-present companion.
We’ve had to live with the the conditions that make us
more prone to high blood-pressure, diabetes, high
infant mortality, strokes, heart attacks, etc., for so
long that we see these things as part of our heritage.
It has become commonplace to hear that someone known
to us or related to us was killed in an argument,
gambling, or trying to take someone off. Even more
commonplace is our spending our lives in the living
death of prison.</span></p>
<p><span>We’re not shocked or surprised by this. In fact
we’ve become complacent with this as the status quo.
We’ve begun to plod along, waiting for our number to
come up. On a very real level we are the walking dead:
people without a future and with an extremely chaotic
past. We have been aimlessly wandering through life,
purposeless, directionless–slaves to other peoples
whims, ideas, and desires. </span></p>
<p><span>Through history, voices rose out of and above the
quagmire and declared themselves men and women. HUman
beings with souls, who wanted to know how it felt to
be free and live outside the shadow of death. Cinque,
Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser, Harriet Tubman, Denmark
Vesey–men and women who lived and died to the tune of
“Oh freedom, Oh freedom, Oh freedom in my heart.
Before I’d be a slave I’ll be buried in my grave and
go home to my Lord and be free.”</span></p>
<p><span>There is no equivocation when we recall those
heroes. Why? Because it’s safe to remember them. They
are far removed from our day and time, so we can glory
in their battles and victories vicariously with no
threat to us. </span></p>
<p><span>While we are busy recanting the glory of our long
dead heroes, new heroes are going forth into battled
to carry our struggle for dignity, freedom,
independence, and humanity one step closer to reality
in the spirit of Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die”:</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span>If we must die, let it not be like hogs</span></p>
<p><span>Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot</span></p>
<p><span>While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,</span></p>
<p><span>Making their mock at our accursed lot.</span></p>
<p><span>If we must die, O let us nobly die,</span></p>
<p><span>So that our precious blood may not be shed</span></p>
<p><span>In vain; then even the monsters we defy</span></p>
<p><span>Shall be constrained to honor us through dead!</span></p>
<p><span>O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe!</span></p>
<p><span>Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,</span></p>
<p><span>And for their thousand blows deal one
deathblow!</span></p>
<p><span>What though before us lies the open grave?</span></p>
<p><span>Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly
pack,</span></p>
<p><span>Pressed to the wall dying, but fighting back!</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>The past thirty years have seen some doors crack
for Blacks and other people of color in America. These
changes didn’t occur in a vacuum. They were political
moves in an attempt to undermine the rising tide of
Black unrest and our demands for civil and human
rights. No concrete changes in the very real condition
of Black people occured. We’re still at the bottom of
the totem pole.</span></p>
<p><span>With the advent of the twentieth century the
Black man in American began to take a decided shift
away from quiet acquiescence to our plight. We had
begun, in massive numbers, to say, “No More.” Our
leaders–Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, Martin Luther
King Jr., and Malcolm X–articulated the determination
of our people to wait no longer for the realization of
people of African descent as human beings in the eyes
of mankind.</span></p>
<p><span>The twentieth century became the time to take a
stand. Four hundred years of racist oppression and
economic exploitation were enough. Not one more
century. Not one more generation without a collective,
organized resistance. “Either.or” became the battle
cry. America was put on notice: the choice is the
ballot or the bullet! </span></p>
<p><span>Realizing that no concessions would be gained
without a fight, brothers and sisters determined to
lay down their very lives, if it became necessary, to
achieve our freedom. The following is a chronicle of
those unsung heroes who have given the only thing that
was theirs to give–</span><i><span>their lives</span></i><span>!</span></p>
<p><span>A People’s War of Liberation is like the points
of a starfish. When a soldier (guerilla) dies, another
grows and takes his or her place in the struggle, or
in the body of the army.</span></p>
<p><span>Here are some of those fallen:</span></p>
<p><b>Arthur Morris. </b><span>Member of the Southern
California chapter, Los Angeles Branch, of the Black
Panther Party. Arthur was the first member of the
Black Panther Party to die in the struggle for Black
liberation. ASSASSINATED March 1968.</span></p>
<p><b>Bobby James Hutton. </b><span>Affectionately known
as Lil’ Bobby Hutton, born April 25, 1950. He was the
first person to join the Black Panther Party. He
joined when he was sixteen when the Party was founded
in 1966. He served as finance coordinator. He was one
of the Panthers arrested on May 2, 1967, at the
Sacramento legislature protest where Bobby Seale read
the Party’s position on self-defense for oppressed
people (Executive Mandate No.1). Bobby was murdered
two days after the assassination of Martin Luther King
Jr., by dozens of Oakland police. He was unarmed, but
with utmost courage, sacrificed his life so others
might live. ASSASSINATED April 6, 1968. </span></p>
<p><b>Steve Bartholomew, </b><span>twenty-one; </span><b>Robert
Lawrence, </b><span>twenty-two; and </span><b>Tommy
Lewis</b><span>, eighteen. They were riding in a car
when they noticed they were being followed by a Los
Angeles police squad car. They stopped at a gas
station so that any incident could be witnessed. The
squad car stopped also. As Steve was getting out of
the car a volley of police gunfire killed him
instantly. The Panthers returned fire and Robert was
killed. Tommy died later at a Los Angeles Central
Receiving Hospital from peritonitis (severe intestinal
inflammation) caused by stomach wounds and loss of
blood. ASSASSINATED August 25, 1968. </span></p>
<p><b>Nathaniel Clark. </b><span>Member of the Los
Angeles Branch of the Black Panther Party and a
student at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Killed as he slept. ASSASSINATED September 12, 1968. </span></p>
<p><b>Welton Armstead. </b><span>Member of the Seattle,
Washington Branch of the Black Panther Party and a
student at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Killed as he slept. ASSASSINATED October 15, 1968. </span></p>
<p><b>Sidney Miller. </b><span>Twenty-two days after the
Seattle police murdered Welton Armstead, a white
Seattle businessman murdered Sidney Miller, twenty-one
years old. He was shot point blank in the head as he
was leaving a west Seattle grocery store. The owner
said he “thought” Sidney was about to rob the store.
ASSASSINATED November 7, 1968.</span></p>
<p><b>Frank Diggs. </b><span>Los Angeles chapter, Black
Panther Party, forty years old. Frank was shot to
death and left in an alley on the outskirts of Los
Angeles by unknown assailants. ASSASSINATED December
30, 1968.</span></p>
<p><b>Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter. </b><span>Came from the
streets of LA, where he was “the Mayor of the Ghetto.”
He became the organizer and driving force for the
Southern California chapter of the Black Panther
Party, the first chapter of the Party outside of the
Bay area. Before coming to the Party Bunchy had been a
member of the Slausons, one of the largest gangs in
LA. The sum total of his life experiences imbued
Bunchy with a revolutionary fervor and commitment,
which he expressed as follows: </span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span>Black Mother, I must confess that I still
breathe</span></p>
<p><span>Though you are not yet free….</span></p>
<p><span>For a slave of natural death who dies</span></p>
<p><span>Can’t balance out two dead flies.</span></p>
<p><span>I’d rather live without the shame</span></p>
<p><span>A bullet lodges within my brain</span></p>
<p><span>If I were not to reach my goal</span></p>
<p><span>Let bleeding cancer torment my soul.</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>Bunchy was shot from behind and killed on the
steps of UCLA while organizing and educating Black
students around self-determination and student control
of the Black student unions in preparation for
community control. Though the fingers that pulled the
trigger on Bunchy were members of Ron Karenga’s US
organization, in the final analysis, Bunchy’s death is
the responsibility of the racist American government.
ASSASSINATED January 17, 1969.</span></p>
<p><b>John Jerome Huggins. </b><span>Born in New Haven,
Connecticut. John and his wife Ericka, became members
of the Southern California chapter of the Black
Panther Party soon after it’s doors opened. Together
with Bunchy Carter, John, as deputy minister of
information, provided the leadership needed as that
chapter grew. The assassination of Bunchy and John, on
the steps of UCLA, by members of the US organization
was part of the COINTELPRO strategy to foment a war
between the Black Panther Party and the US
organization so they would kill each other off. Bunchy
and John ASSASSINATED January 17, 1969. </span></p>
<p><b>Alex Rackley. </b><span>Member of the New York
chapter, Harlem Branch, of the Black Panther Party.
Alex was killed by George Sams, a police agent who
infiltrated the Party. He was shot through the head
and heart in New Haven, Connecticut. The New Haven
Police Department also had an informer on the scene at
the Sams-engineered-and-ordered execution, but no
effort was made to prevent it. ASSASSINATED May 21,
1969. </span></p>
<p><b>John Savage. </b><span>In the aftermath of the
assassinations of unchy and John, relationships
between the Black Panther Party (BPP) and US grew
increasingly tense. On Friday, May 23, 1969, John
Savage and another Party member, Jeffrey Jennings,
were walking toward the Party office in San Diego,
California, when they met a US member named “Tambozi.”
As they walked past, Tambozi grabbed John Savage by
the shoulder, jammed a .38 automatic to the back of
his neck and pulled the trigger. John, age
twenty-four, died instantly. ASSASSINATED May 23,1969.</span></p>
<p><b>Sylvester Bell. </b><span>Less than three months
after the assassination of John Savage, US struck
again. Sylvester Bell became the fourth member of the
Black Panther Party murdered in cold blood by
Karenga’s men. Sylvestres murder came at a time when
the AL trial of US members for the assassination of
Bunchy and John had just begun–an attempt to
intimidate witnesses at the trial. Sylvester was
thirty-four years old. ASSASSINATED August 15, 1969. </span></p>
<p><b>Larry Roberson. </b><span>On the morning of July
14, 1969, Larry Roberson, twenty years old, and Grady
“Slim” Moore, members of the Chicago Branch of the
Black Panther Party, noticed police harassing a group
of elderly Black men, forcing them to line up aga
wall, and they went to investigate. An argument ensued
and without hesitation the police pulled their guns
and started shooting. Larry was critically wounded in
his stomach, thigh, and leg. (Grady Moore escaped
uninjured.)</span></p>
<p><span>Larry managed to wound two of his assailants. He
was taken to Cook County Hospital and placed under
police guard. He was harassed, threatened, and
periodically beatend. He died in the hospital. Because
Larry placed himself between the oppressor and his
people without thought for his own life, Fred Hampton
said, “Larry Roberson was too revolutionary
proletarian intoxicated to be astronomically
intimidated.” ASSASSINATED September 4, 1969.</span></p>
<p><b>Walter “Toure” Pope. </b><span>As soon as he was
released by the California Youth Authority from Tracy,
California, Walter joined the Black Panther Party.
Toure, twenty years old, was singled out for constant
harassment y the Los Angeles Police department because
of his effectiveness as distribution manager of the
Black Panther Community News Service in Southern
California. In three months he increased the
circulation from fifteen hundred a week to over seven
thousand a week. Walter was brutally gunned down in
broad daylight as he left a store where he had just
dropped off some newspapers. According to eyewitness
reports, the police suddenly came upon him and opened
fire. Toure never had a chance. ASSASSINATED October
18, 1969.</span></p>
<p><b>Spurgeon Winters. </b><span>“Jake” was an honor
student in school and a revolutionist. He worked on
the Chicago chapters Breakfast Program and the free
health clinic and was part of the education cadre. He
was killed when one hundred policemen opened fire on
him and Lance Bell, who was wounded. Three policemen
were killed and seven wounded in the attack on the
deserted building where the two took refuge. Jake was
nineteen. ASSASSINATED November 13, 1969.</span></p>
<p><b>Mark Clark. </b><span>Mark was a defense captain
for the Peoria, Illinois, Branch of the BPP. He made
frequent trips to Chicago to confer with the
leadership of the Party’s chapter there in order to
help him organize in downstate Peoria. Mark made one
such trip in December of 1969 and stayed at Fred
Hampton’s apartment. Chicago police raided Fred’s
apartment on the morning of December 4, Mark was
murdered by the raiders as they crashed through the
apartment door. He was shot through the heart. Several
other occupants were wounded by indiscriminate police
gunfire. Mark Clark was twenty-two. ASSASSINATED
December 4, 1969. </span></p>
<p><b>Fred Hampton. </b><span>The name Fred Hampton has
secured a permanent place in the annals of the
people’s struggle, because, sadly enough, this was one
of the hundreds of thousands of Black deaths American
chose to publicize. A young outspoken critic of
America’s treatment of Black and poor people, Fred’s
dedication to the cause of freedom led him and others
to organize in CHicago. The organizational and
speaking abilities of Fred Hampton won for him
national attention. Political persecution of Fred
Hampton included numerous false arrests. He was
convicted of a seventy dollar ice cream truck robbery
in 1969, but community pressure forced his release.
Such persecution culminated on December 4, 1969 at
four o’clock in the morning, when a raiding party of
Chicago police invaded Fred’s apartment and shot him
several times as he slept. He was twenty-one years
old. The Black community lost a beautiful warrior for
human dignity, but Fred often said, “You can kill a
revolutionary but you can’t kill the revolution.”
ASSASSINATED December 4, 1969. </span></p>
<p><b>Sterling Jones</b><span>. Fred Hampton and Mark
Clark were only days in their graves when the Chicago
Police Department struck again. On Christmas Day,
Sterling Jones, seventeen, a member of the Illinois
chapter, respond to a knock at his family’s apartment
door. As Sterling opened the door, he was shot
directly in the face by an unknown assailant. The
bullet killed him and his assailant fled into the
night. ASSASSINATED December 25, 1969. </span></p>
<p><b>Jonathan Jackson</b><span>. On August 7, 1970, a
young Black man entered the Marin County Courthouse in
California. The events that followed came to be called
the August 7 Movement. Jonathan had walked into the
courthouse where San Quentin prison inmate James
McClain was defending himself against charges of
assaulting a prison guard. Also present were two
inmates serving as witnesses on behalf of McClain.
They were William Christmas and Ruchell Magee.
Jonathan interrupted the court proceedings, stating,
“We are revolutionary justice,” then gave weapons to
McClain, Christmas, and Magee. They all left the
courtroom. Several jurors, the prosecutor, and the
judge were also taken. Within minutes the van that
jOnathan and party had gotten into was riddled with
bullets from the guns of San Quentin guards and other
state gents, who disregarded the lives of not onl
Jonathan Jackson and the three inmates, but also those
of the jurors, judge, and prosecutor. When the
shooting ended, Jonathan Jackson lay dead, as did
William Christmas, James Mcclain and the Marin County
judge. George Jackson summed up his brothers heroic
actions in this way: “Man-child, Black man-child with
a machine gun in hand, he was free for awhile. I guess
that’s more than most of us can expect.” </span></p>
<p><b>Carl Hampton</b><span>. Brother Carl was chairman
(coordinator) of the People’s Party II, a
revolutionary organization in Houston, Texas. Carl was
the motivating force of the small organization, which
followed the example and the policies of the BPP. At
the time the Party was not oranizing in the South, so
Carl, seeing the need for a party that would serve the
people’s needs and desires, started the People’s
Party, which sold the BPP newspaper. Culminating a
series of incidents on July 28, 1970, Houston police
surrounded the Dowling Street area where the People’s
Party II office as located and attacked the entire
community. Carl was killed at two a.m. in defense of
the community.</span></p>
<p><b>Fred Bennett</b><span>. Pieces of the body of Fred
Bennett were found in April 1971, in a mountainous
region near Oakland, California. Fred had been the
coordinator of the East Oakland branch of the BPP and
had been a Party member for three years, having joined
in early 1968. Fred’s body was mutilated when the
police claimed they “found” jim. They held onto Fred’s
body without announcement for more than two months.
ASSASSINATED February 1971. </span></p>
<p><b>Ralph Featherstone </b><span>and</span><b> Che
Payne. </b><span>Killed by a car bomb outside a
Maryland courthouse where Rap brown was scheduled for
a hearing. ASSASSINATED March 9, 1970.</span></p>
<p><b>Babatunde X Omarwali</b><span>. A member of the
Illinois chapter of the BPP, Babatunde was a sining
example of our many revolutionary brothers who have
turned from being used as Black cannon fodder by the
US military to become dedicated soldiers in service to
the oppressed community as Black liberation fighters.
Babatunde joined the Party in Chicago after serving
two years in the US army, and he quickly became one of
the Party’s best organizers. In the summer of 1970, he
had just returned to Chicago from the Cairo-Carbondale
area, after organizing a National Committee to Combat
Fascism (NCCF) office there. On July 27,
twenty-six-year-old Babatunde’s remains were “found”
lying across railroad tracks in a deserted area of the
city by Chicago police. They claimed that Babatunde
had been attempting to destroy the tracks and that the
bomb went off prematurely killing him. Although
mutilated beyond recognition, the body of “Black
Panther Babatunde X Omarwali” was positively
identified by the Chicago police. They could do so
because it was the police themselves who murdered him
and laced his body on the railroad tracks.
ASSASSINATED July 27, 1970. </span></p>
<p><b>Robert Webb</b><span>. Deputy minister of defense of
the BPP. Spent years organizing coast to coast,
building the discipline and security of the Party and
community in preparation for liberation. When it
became apparent that there were corrupt forces
operating within the BPP, Robert took a stand for
principles first. That stand was to bring about his
death on March 8, 1971. </span></p>
<p><b>Sam Napier</b><span>. Circulation manager, BPP.
Lived and breathed the Black Panther newspaper. He
would constantly intone, “Circulated to educate to
liberate.” Sam was another casualty of the internal
split of the BPP. Fanon talked of the contradictions
in </span><i><span>Wretched of the Earth </span></i><span>when
he referred to colonial war and mental disorders.
Oftentimes we lose sight of who our real enemies are
and give ben to our emotional responses. In the deaths
of Robert Webb and Sam Napier, the people’s liberation
struggle lost two of it’s staunchest supporters.
Psychologically, COINTELPRO scored a bull’s eye. Sam
died April 17, 1971. </span></p>
<p><b>George Jackson</b><span>. George Jackson spent the
last eleven years of his life behind prison walls,
seven of them in solitary confinement. During his
imprisonment, George attained an extraordinary level
of revolutionary political consciousness. He was
appointed field marshal of the Black Panther Party. He
was an eloquent writer. He authored two important
books: Soledad Brother and Blood in My Eye. The latter
was completed shortly before his assassination. On
August 21, 1971, nameless guards of California’s San
Quentin prison assassinated George Jackson. They said
he was trying to escape, but the brothers inside said
that George gave his lie to save the lives of others.
The people of the oppressed communities of the world
know that the San Quentin prison officials carried out
a premeditated plan to silence a voice that was so
full of revolutionary humanism they could no longer
bear it. </span></p>
<p><b>Harold Russell</b><span>. The first Black Liberation
Army member to be slain. The BLA–the people’s
liberation army–boldly declared themselves to be
soldiers fighting against the oppressive regime of the
US government. Harold was killed in a shootout on
122nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in
Harlem, New York. Prior to becoming a member of the
BLA, Harold had been a member of the Brooklyn Branch
of the BPP. SLAIN IN COMBAT spring 1971.</span></p>
<p><b>Sandra Pratt</b><span>. Wife of Geronimo. Known as
Red to her comrades and friends. The death of Sandra
was especially heartfelt because of its senselessness,
beastality, and brutality. The sister was pregnant
with new lifeblood for the people’s struggle. The
reactionary forces that slew the sister mutilated her
and placed her body in a mattress cover and dumped her
in an intersection in Los Angeles. ASSASSINATED fall
1971. </span></p>
<p><b>Frank Fields</b><span>. Known to his comrades as
Heavy, a member of the Olugbala tribe of the BLA. Open
war had been declared between the US government and
the BLA. Frank was killed i one of the FBI’s
search-and-destroy missions in Florida. SLAIN IN
COMBAT December 31, 1971. </span></p>
<p><b>Ronald Carter</b><span>. The response of the
government to the BLA was to close ranks and
consolidate their fores. For the first time they
realized that every act of aggression they launched
upon the Black community would be met with an act of
revolutionary justice. He FBI launched a nationwide
manhunt for BLA soldiers and ordered them killed on
sight. Ronald was killed in one of these
confrontations in St. Louis, Missouri. SLAIN IN COMBAT
February 15, 1972. </span></p>
<p><b>Joseph Waddell</b><span>. Joseph Waddell, or
“Joe-Dell,” joined the BPP in September 1970 while in
the city jail in High Point, North Carolina. Before
going to jail, he had functioned as a community
worker. Joe-Dell was transferred to Central prison in
Raleigh, North Carolina, and because of his
revolutionary posture, he was frequently beaten by
prison guards. On June 13, 1972, twenty-one-year-old
Joseph Waddell was pronounced dead by prison
officials. They said the cause of death was a heart
attack. Joe-Dell was physically healthy before his
death and had never suffered from heart troubles
before. Prison inmates close to Joe-Dell said he was
the victim of the prison authorities, who had probably
drugged or poisoned him to induce the attack.
Joe-Dell’ internal organs were removed by prison
authorities before they released his body to his
family. </span></p>
<p><b>Anthony White</b><span>. Known affectionately and in
struggle as Kimu Olugbala. Kimu had been captured and
seriously injured in the process, but his spirit had
not been broken. While incarcerated at the infamous
Tombs (the Manhattan House of Detention for Men) in
New york he escaped to rejoin his comrades in
struggle. On Monday, January 22, 1973, Kimu was killed
in a shootout with New York police, choosing death
over slavery. SLAIN IN COMBAT January 22, 1973. </span></p>
<p><b>Woodie Greene</b><span>. Known in the struggle as
Changa Olugbala. All we need to know about Brother
Woodie is that he was a warrior in the people’s army.
He was a young man who’d once been bound and gagged
and caged in the white man’s zoos (jails), and had
vowed never to return. He was slain in the same
shootout that same the death of Kimu. SLAIN IN COMBATE
January 22, 1973. </span></p>
<p><b>Mark Essex</b><span>. Mark became involved in the
struggle for Black liberation while still within the
US military apparatus. He served as a dental
technician in the navy. Upon his release his first
stop was at the Harlem office of the BPP. he wanted to
learn as much as possible to take home with him to
Emporia. Kansas. Mark died valiantly holding off enemy
forces in Louisiana. SLAIN IN COMBAT spring 1973. </span></p>
<p><b>Zayd Malik Shakur</b><span>. Known as Dedane
Olugbala, Zayd was the minister of information of the
New York Black Panther Party. He spent months and
years educating the people to what must be done to
secure our freedom and liberation. On May 2, Zayd died
the way he lived–in combat, resisting the forces of
oppression. He was skilled in a shootout on the New
Jersey Turnpike, in which Assata Shakur and Sundiata
Acoli were captured. Zayd was a soldier in the
people’s liberation army. SLAIN IN COMBAT May 2,
1973. </span></p>
<p><b>Twymon Myers</b><span>. “The elusive Twymon Myers”
is what he came to be known as–to the oppressors. To
the people he was friend, comrade, and defender.
Twymon was no superstar; he just did what had to be
done and faded into the night. He cared about
everyone, especially the children. He believed that
the only way to achieve freedom was to be willing to
fight and die for it. If it wasn’t worth fighting for,
it wasn’t worth having and you didn’t really want it.
On November 14, 1973, a combined force of New York
police and FBI agents surrounded Twymon on a Bronx
street and opened fire. Eight bullets riddled his
body. As he lay dead a police officer stood over him
and shot him again in the head. The police rallied in
front of the Forty-fourth precinct in celebration.
Twymon Myers was a warrior we can all be proud of.
SLAIN IN COMBAT November 14, 1973. </span></p>
<p><b>Alfred Butler</b><span>. Known in struggle as
Kombozi Amistad. Became a member of the BPP in his
youth and functioned out of the New Rochelle, New
York, office. Kombozi later transferred to the West
Coast from whence he went underground to carry the
struggle to the next level–the armed struggle–as a
member of the BLA. It was in his capacity as a soldier
in this formation that he was SLAIN IN COMBAT in
Norfolk, Virginia, January 25, 1975. </span></p>
<p><b>Timothy Adams</b><span>. Known to his comrades in
arms, friends, and family as Red. Red was critically
wounded in a battle with the enemy after attempting to
liberate fellow comrades from the infamous Tombs in
1973. For many years he was confined to a wheelchair
as a result of these wounds, but his spirit was
undaunted. Even though his death came years after the
battle, it was directly related. His life, his
struggle to overcome, and his death, were a source of
inspiration to us all. </span></p>
<p><b>Melvin Kearney</b><span>. Known in struggle as Rema
Olugbala, he was a member of the BLA. Rema was killed
in a courageous attempt to escape from the Brooklyn
House of Detention, when the rope he was climbing down
broke. He was twenty-two years old. Even against the
overwhelming odds posed by prison officials, Rema
never lost his combative spirit. DIED IN COMBAT May
25, 1976. </span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><b>To Martyr Rema Olugbala, BLA</b></p>
<p><span>I make love at a fraction of an inch</span></p>
<p><span>Outside my window bars</span></p>
<p><span>I make love with freedom</span></p>
<p><span>And she invites me to be with her</span></p>
<p><span>And she’s right outside my window bars</span></p>
<p><span>My love is great</span></p>
<p><span>I cherish her</span></p>
<p><span>And she’s right outside my window bars</span></p>
<p><span>I dance with death</span></p>
<p><span>But y mind is set..</span></p>
<p><span>FREEDOM!</span></p>
<p><span>We’re going to get it on a fraction of an inch</span></p>
<p><span>Outside my window bars</span></p>
<p><span>I love you, freedom</span></p>
<p><span>I dance with death.</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><b>John Clark</b><span>. Andaliwa was a thirty-year-old
Back revolutionary who gave his life in an attempt to
escape to freedom. He died in a shootout between
prisoners and guards inside Trenton state prison in
New Jersey. In that shootout, three guards were
injured. John carried on the struggle behind the
walls. SLAIN IN COMBAT January 19, 1976. </span></p>
<p><b>Mtayari Shabaka Sundiata (Samuel Smith)</b><span>.
Became a citizen of record in the Republic of New
Afrika in 1968. Mtayari worked among the youth in the
Ocean Hill-Brownsville section of Brooklyn. In 1970 he
was incarcerated as the result of a shootout with the
police. Upon his release, he joined the ranks of the
bA. It was in this capacity as a people’s warrior that
he was SLAIN IN COMBAT October 23, 1981. </span></p>
<p><span>To those of us who have dedicated our lives to
the liberation of Black people, who have dared to say,
“We shall have our freedom or the Earth will be
leveled by our attempts to gain it,” death is a common
occurrence. It is something we had to accept, for we
knew that in waging struggle to free ourselves from
the chains of slavery our choices were small–either to
be jailed, or assassinated–but we had nothing to lose
and everything to gain.</span></p>
<p><span>We know that where there is struggle there’s
sacrifice. The death of our comrades was a sacrifice,
for our struggle some deaths are lighter than a
feather and others are as weight as a mountain.
Everyone one of these deaths is weighty as mountains,
for these comrades not only practiced the principles
of revolutionary warfare, they taught others to do the
same. In their lives and in their deaths they said:</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span>I may–if you wish–lose my livelihood</span></p>
<p><span>I may sell my shirt and bed,</span></p>
<p><span>I may work as a stone cutter,</span></p>
<p><span>A street sweeper, a porter.</span></p>
<p><span>I may clean your stores</span></p>
<p><span>Or rummage your garbage for food.</span></p>
<p><span>I may lay down hungry</span></p>
<p><span>O enemy of the sun,</span></p>
<p><span>But</span></p>
<p><span>I shall not compromise</span></p>
<p><span>Anf to the last pulse in my veins</span></p>
<p><span>I shall resist.</span></p>
<p><span>You may take the last strip of my land,</span></p>
<p><span>Feed my youth to prison cells.</span></p>
<p><span>You may plunder my heritage</span></p>
<p><span>You may burn my books, my poems,</span></p>
<p><span>Or feed my flesh to the dogs.</span></p>
<p><span>You may spread a web of terror</span></p>
<p><span>On the roofs of my village,</span></p>
<p><span>O enemy of the sun,</span></p>
<p><span>But</span></p>
<p><span>I shall not compromise</span></p>
<p><span>And to the last pulse in my veins</span></p>
<p><span>I shall resist. </span></p>
<p><span>You may put out the light in my eyes.</span></p>
<p><span>You may deprive me of my mother’s kisses.</span></p>
<p><span>You may curse my father, my people.</span></p>
<p><span>You may distort my history,</span></p>
<p><span>Ou may deorive my children of a smile</span></p>
<p><span>And of life’s necessities.</span></p>
<p><span>You may fool my friends with a borrowed face. </span></p>
<p><span>You may build walls of hatred around me.</span></p>
<p><span>You may glue my eyes to humiliations,</span></p>
<p><span>O enemy of the sun.</span></p>
<p><span>But</span></p>
<p><span>I shall not compromise</span></p>
<p><span>And to the last pulse in my veins</span></p>
<p><span>I shall resist.</span></p>
<p><span>O enemy of the sun</span></p>
<p><span>The decorations are raised at the port</span></p>
<p><span>The ejaculations fill the air,</span></p>
<p><span>A glow in the hearts,</span></p>
<p><span>And in the horizon</span></p>
<p><span>A sail is seen</span></p>
<p><span>Challenging the wind</span></p>
<p><span>And the depths</span></p>
<p><span>It is Field Marshal Dedan Kamathi (Mau Mau)</span></p>
<p><span>Returning home</span></p>
<p><span>From the sea of loss.</span></p>
<p><span>It is the return of the sun,</span></p>
<p><span>Of my exiled ones,</span></p>
<p><span>And for her sake and his</span></p>
<p><span>I swear</span></p>
<p><span>I shall not compromise</span></p>
<p><span>And to the last pulse in my veins</span></p>
<p><span>I shall resist,</span></p>
<p><span>Resist–and resist. </span></p>
</blockquote>
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