SPELMAN COLLEGE, ATLANTA
People of color and the judicial system
By
Dianne Mathiowetz
Atlanta
"Over the last 30 years, the number of Americans behind bars
has soared from less than 300,000 to nearly 2 million. Less
well-known, however, is that the massive prison build-up has
been financed at the expense of public education."
With these words, Sheretha Bell and Gina Loring--officers of
Delta Sigma Theta sorority, Eta Kappa chapter on Atlanta's
Spelman College campus--opened a program called "Americans of
Color and the Judicial System--A National Crisis."
"The majority of federal and state prisoners, nearly 70
percent of whom are Black or Latino and most of whom come from
the inner cities, are housed in non-metro white America. Though
federal statistics show that 74 percent of the drug-using
population is white, 94 percent of those convicted of
drug-related charges are Black or Latino," Bell told the
audience.
Panelists for this significant meeting included Elaine
Brown, former Black Panther Party leader and currently an
activist with Mothers Advocating Juvenile Justice; Reid
Jenkins, representing the Atlanta Leonard Peltier Support
Group; Monica Moorehead, a national coordinator of Millions for
Mumia and 1996 Workers World Party presidential candidate; and
Gus Smith, whose daughter Kemba Smith is a Hampton University
student sentenced to 24-and-a-half years in federal prison for
drug conspiracy charges.
Each of the 250 students who entered the auditorium for the
event received a copy of a letter from death-row political
prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. He urged those attending historically
Black colleges to study the Black liberation movement of the
1960s and to forge their own contribution to revolutionary
change.
Each speaker echoed Abu-Jamal's call for members of the
audience to become active in the ongoing fight against racism
and oppression.
Strategic role of Black colleges
"The southern Black colleges and universities have played an
historically important role in advancing the struggle for
equality and liberation of Black people and other oppressed
people from racism, and they must resume that strategic role
today," said Moorehead.
"The sit-ins at segregated lunch counters began at North
Carolina ATT with just four students--but that movement grew
throughout the South and led to the formation of important
groups like SNCC and the Black Panther Party."
Pointing to the role Abu-Jamal has played in uniting the
fight-back movement, Moorehead said, "The struggle is the best
way to learn about different races and nationalities. It's in
supporting each other that we can overcome the divisions that
the system creates among us."
Moorehead called on the students of Spelman, Morehouse,
Clark and other colleges to establish Mumia solidarity groups
to fight for important issues relevant to the Black
community.
Elaine Brown focused on the vicious trend of prosecuting
children--particularly Black youth--as adults. She compared the
period of slavery in the United States with today's imprisoned
labor force.
Brown explained that mandatory sentencing for teenagers and
young adults provides big business with the cheapest possible
workers. These workers can't quit and are restrained from
organizing by armed guards.
Reid Jenkins concisely related the history of the case of
Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier. Peltier is serving
consecutive life sentences for the deaths of two FBI agents
despite what supporters worldwide point to as a clearcut
government frame-up.
Jenkins urged students to participate in a whole series of
activities in Washington in November designed to dramatically
raise Peltier's case.
`Supporting each other'
Gus Smith, who is campaigning tirelessly for his daughter'
case and for an end to mandatory sentences for drug offenses,
showed a video clip produced by BET on Kemba's story. The
audience was shocked to learn that although Kemba Smith never
used or sold drugs, her relationship with an abusive
boyfriend--a drug dealer--landed her in prison for
24-and-a-half years without parole.
Many of the students heeded the panelists' message to
"organize, organize, organize." More than 100 signed up to be
kept informed of activities about Mumia Abu-Jamal. Students
took every copy of a letter to President Clinton calling upon
him to release Kemba Smith. Fact sheets on Leonard Peltier
seemed to fly off the literature table.
Another potentially significant outcome of the meeting was
that the Deltas at Spelman pledged to send a letter to all
their chapters across the country urging them to take up the
issues of political prisoners such as Mumia Abu-Jamal and
Leonard Peltier and the growth of the prison-industrial
complex.
The program was filmed by the People's Video Network.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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