FROM DEATH ROW
To brothers & sisters at historically Black
colleges
By Mumia
Abu-Jamal
Political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal wrote the following
statement on Aug. 28.
Dear younger brothers and sisters:
For far too many of you, while the sound of my name may be
somewhat familiar to you, you really have no solid idea what
I'm about, what my real history is, or even what the Black
Panthers were about. It is not truly surprising that students
in historically Black colleges really have no significant
knowledge of the Black liberation movement, or that the names
Assata Shakur, Sundiata Acoli, Huey P. Newton, Fred Hampton and
the like means virtually nothing to them.
I am reminded of a startling conversation I had with a
bright young man several years ago. Newly arrived on Death Row,
he walked up to me, "Yo, Oldhead. I heard you was down with the
Black Panthers back in the day. What was y'all, a gang or
somethin'? Whassup?"
Now , while he wasn't taught in a historically Black college
(he went to community college and Temple University) I found
his question shocking, and it showed me how fully that Black
Panther Party history has been eradicated from the common,
popular history of Black Philadelphia and Black America. I
taught him the truth using old texts from the writings of Huey
P. Newton, George Jackson and others.
There's an old saying: "The victors write history." In the
battles for Black liberation that raged in the late 1960s and
the 1970s, those that won (the state) wrote (or erased) the
history of these revolutionary times.
In the years that a new generation emerged, the forces of
white supremacy and capitalist dominance waged a relentless war
on Black America, to promote their vision of history, and to
supplant, disparage and "disappear" the revolutionary movements
of the past, to promote a more accommodationist, reformist
history.
There are still brothers being held in U.S. dungeons for
acts of resistance against the state almost 30 years ago, like
Mondo We Langa, Ed Poindexter, Russell "Maroon" Shoate,
"Cinque" Magee, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Herman "Hooks" Wallace,
Albert Wood, et al. Many have been framed for crimes they did
not commit; some were convicted in demonstrably unfair and
heavily politicized trials; all were tried for being members of
Black nationalist and African American resistance
movements.
For many of you who are reading this letter, I think it is
safe to say few know these names--names of soldiers and
warriors in the longest American war: the war against Black
America. It begs the question: How can highly educated Black
college youth not know these names? Why don't they know these
names? Why don't they know these movements?
The answer shows that this is not a mere mistake, but a
matter of design. For the men and women who built, defended and
expanded the Black Panther Party, and tried to raise the right
of revolution were young people--just like you. They wanted to
free an oppressed people, and to establish a free nation.
They are your immediate ancestors, ones you should know
about--that is, if you want to know our people's true history.
Let us begin.
Ona Move!
Revolution is the only solution!
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