WHY WE OBSERVE BLACK AUGUST ?
1966 thru about 1976 were a very different time in America…The Civil rights movement had shifted to a different level. Black activists like the members of the Black Panther Party were identifying and communicating with revolutionary and anti colonial movements all over the world ….the revolution we spoke of by then was not just about what was happening in America. The Black Panther Party and a small number of related groups were considered “the greatest threat to the internal security of the United States”. And the Panthers and other organizations talking about not just “civil rights” But support for the raging anti colonial wars in Africa and Asia, became specific targets for the FBI and the CIA as well. Many members were incarcerated..mostly awaiting trial on often ” trumped up” charges…Not only were members of the Panthers in countless prisons all over the country….many of them had begun to organize in the prisons. Probably the most well known “prison Panther” was the great George Jackson In 1970 he was one of three prisoners dubbed the “Soledad Brothers”. They were charged with the murder at Soledad Prison of corrections officer John V. Mills, allegedly in retaliation for the shooting deaths of three black inmates by a white prison guard several days prior. Also in 1970, Jackson published Soledad Brother, a collection of his letters that comprised a combination autobiography and manifesto addressed primarily to an African-American audience, but which was embraced by radicals around the world. The book was a bestseller and earned Jackson international fame.. On August 7, 1970, a heavily armed 17-year-old named Jonathan P. Jackson staged a courtroom takeover and hostage situation at the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California. His goal was to force the state to free the Soledad Brothers, a group of Black prisoners that included his older brother, George Jackson. Jackson walked into a courtroom where Judge Harold Haley was presiding over a prisoner’s trial. He opened a bag, pulled out guns, and armed local prisoner James McClain along with inmate witnesses Ruchell Magee and William A. Christmas.The group took Judge Haley, prosecutor Gary Thomas, and three female jurors hostage.They moved to a van outside to escape with their hostages.Police and security guards shot at the van as it tried to leave. Four people died in the gunfire: Jonathan Jackson, Judge Haley, James McClain, and William A. Christmas.Prosecutor Gary Thomas and prisoner Ruchell Magee were badly hurt. Thomas was left paralyzed. Activist Angela Davis later faced charges because she legally owned the guns used in the attack, but a jury eventually found her not guilty.The date is remembered today by activists as part of the roots of “Black August”. That culture of Black Revolutionaries communicated and closely allied with revolutionaries and anti=colonial armies for all practical purposes does not exist much anymore. I spent most of 1971 in West Africa …Angola and Guinea Bissau, both countries colonies of Portugal and in a bloody struggle for independence . I got to meet South Africans and meet members of some of the Allied movements like “SWAPO” The South West Africa People’s Organisation officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia. And “Frelimo”, short for Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Mozambique Liberation Front)..ZANLA (Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army) mainly because members of these anti-colonial armies often trained each other. Some of the most dangerous people l ever met were South Africans who could no longer set foot in their own country…there were other people from other struggles…but eventually this lead me to Lebanon ….where you could meet “freedom fighters from all over the world in 1970-71. I got to meet Palestinians for the first time there as well as members of the “Pathet Lao” ….the liberation army of Laos…and of course that lead to meeting members of the “National Liberation Front of Vietnam”….the Viet Cong…..the very people half the guys I went to elementary school with had been dragged off to fight in a nasty war. All these people in all these different movements talked to each other ….all the time….Many people called it a “golden age” of revolutionaries That time is over now …but the spirit of worldwide struggle for freedom, justice and equality lives…it lives through those of us who were there and are still alive and fighting …and the spirit of struggle lives too through the generations that have listened ….and people who believe …In BLACK AUGUST we remember the worldwide struggle, and pay tribute to the fighters. And push the agenda of change….
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