Chuck Turner sent to jail

Turner addresses supporters before heading to jail. WW photo: Liz Green

For decades, Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner has been a leading progressive activist on issues affecting the African-American communities in Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan, Mass. He has supported working people’s struggles for decent jobs and against employment discrimination, fought against resegregation of the Boston public schools, and been in the forefront of the movements to oppose U.S. wars abroad and to demand funding for community needs, not the Pentagon.

Turner was the target of an FBI sting operation and racist federal prosecution. He was falsely convicted of corruption — of accepting a $1,000 bribe. In January, federal Judge Douglas P. Woodlock sentenced Turner, who is 70 years old, to a stiff three-year prison term, denying him a stay while his appeal is pending, or any leniency. Turner began serving his sentence on March 25.

Turner wrote a letter to his supporters, which appeared in the Bay State Banner. In it he says, “It seems inconceivable that after 46 years of service to my people and my community, I am about to spend three years in a federal lockup. However, as the song says, ‘Keep your eyes on the prize.’” He asks everyone not to “let the defeats in the struggle for justice distract,” and says that it’s most important to “stand up and fight back whenever you see injustice.”

Turner says that although the government aimed to “break our spirit, they can’t break mine.” He reiterates that he cannot be silenced, that “while this system can put my body in jail, my spirit and voice remain free.”

Check for updates at www.SupportChuckTurner.com. Write to Chuck Turner, Hazelwood Penitentiary, P.O. Box 2000, Bruceton Mills, WV 26525.