Assata Shakur Speaks - Hands Off Assata - Let's Get Free - Revolutionary - Pan-Africanism - Black On Purpose - Liberation - Forum - On The Shoulders Of Our Freedom Fighters

41st & Central Trailer - BPP

G1deon — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:36:07 GMT

2 HOUR DOCUMENTARY "41ST & CENTRAL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE LOS ANGELES BLACK PANTHERS! STARRING ROLAND & RONALD FREEMAN, WAYNE PHARR, JEFFREY EVERETT, ELAINE BROWN, ERICKA HUGGINS, BENARD PARKS, & MANY MORE!

Celebrate Thirty Years of Freedom for Assata Shakur!

Moorbey — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:49:26 GMT

In 1979, fearing that I would be murdered in prison and knowing that I would never receive any justice, I was liberated from prison, aided by committed comrades who understood the depths of the injustices in my case and who were also extremely fearful for my life.
-Assata Shakur

Thirty years ago today three individuals signed in as visitors to see Assata Shakur, who was at that time a prisoner of war, framed by the United States government as part of its vendetta against the Black Liberation Movement.

Only thing was, these �visitors� had other plans� they managed to smuggle in guns, took some guards hostage and managed to break Assata out of jail. Comrades were waiting in a car not far away, and they all made it away.

One of the finest operations ever carried out by "our side" in North America, if you ask me�

None of the guards were harmed, and despite a massive FBI manhunt Shakur managed to disappear without a trace. It was five years later � in 1984 � that Assata made a public statement, letting us know that she was living in Cuba, working on a masters degree in political science, writing her autobiography, and raising her daughter.

As it states in Assata's short biography in Let Freedom Ring:

In May 1973, while Assata and two companions were traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike, state police spotted and identified them as people they believed to be members of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, and proceeded to ambush them. When the smoke cleared, one police officer and one of Assata�s companions, Zayd Shakur, lay dead. Assata, shot with her hands in the air and dragged from the car, lay wounded. Only belatedly taken to the hospital, Assata was then chained to her bed, tortured, and questioned while injured. In fact, she never received adequate medical attention even though she had a broken clavicle and a paralyzed arm. Nonetheless, she was quickly jailed, prosecuted, and incarcerated over the next few years for the series of trumped up cases. In five separate trials, and with majority-white juries, where charges were not dismissed due to lack of evidence, she was repeatedly found not guilty of charges ranging from bank robbery to murder. As the manager of one bank said at trial, �She is just not the one who robbed my bank.� In the final trial in 1977, where she was charged with the Turnpike killings, she was found guilty by an all-white jury. This, even though forensic evidence taken that day showed that she had not fired a weapon. She was sentenced to life plus 33 years in prison. (Sundiata Acoli was tried separately, convicted of killing the policeman, and sentenced to life plus 30 years.)

Sadly, several comrades - Marilyn Buck, Mutulu Shakur and Sekou Odinga and Silvia Baraldini � were arrested in the years following Assata's liberation, and charged with having participated in the action (amongst other things). All but Baraldini remain behind bars today. Black Liberation Army martyr Kuwasi Balagoon � who died of AIDS while in prison in 1986 � was also said to have been a member of the Black Liberation Army unit that participated in the action.

For years the US government has had a bounty on Assata's head - $150,000 for the forcible return of this remarkable woman, this "twentieth century escaped slave". In May of 2005 the federal government upped the bounty, now offering one million dollars for anyone who might kidnap and her and return her to her to the US plantation. All of which, it must be said, is as much about the broader trend towards repression within the United States and that country's war of attrition against Cuba as it is about Assata herself.

As Assata herself has explained:

I am a 20th-century escaped slave. Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression, racism, and violence that dominate the U.S. government�s policy toward people of color. I am an ex-political prisoner, and I have been living in exile in Cuba since 1984.

I have been a political activist most of my life, and although the U.S. government has done everything in its power to criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I ever been one. In the 1960s, I participated in various struggles: the Black liberation movement, the student rights movement, and the movement to end the war in Vietnam. I joined the Black Panther Party. By 1969 the Black Panther Party had become the number one organization targeted by the fbi�s cointelpro program. Because the Black Panther Party demanded the total liberation of Black people, J. Edgar Hoover called it the �greatest threat to the internal security of the country� and vowed to destroy it and its leaders and activists.

For more information about Assata Shakur � including information about ordering her autobiography Assata � please visit the Assata Shakur Page on the Kersplebedeb Site.

For more information about Kuwasi Balagoon, including information about the incredible book A Soldier�s Story, check out the Kuwasi Balagoon Memorial Page.

For more information about political prisoners and prisoners of war in the United States, check out the Kersplebedeb PP/POW Page.

Assata, Kuwasi Balagoon: A Soldier's Story, and Let Freedom Ring are all available from leftwingbooks.net:

Emory Douglas: The Angola 3, the Prison-Industrial Complex, and Solitary

Moorbey — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:47:56 GMT

Emory Douglas: The Angola 3, the Prison-Industrial Complex, and Solitary

A video chat with Emory Douglas

http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2009/10/26/emory-a3.wmv

By Angola 3 News

Emory Douglas first served as the art director for the Black Panther Party’s newspaper, and later served as Minister of Culture until 1980. Throughout these years, Douglas’ iconic artwork was published in the BPP newspaper and beyond. His artwork is featured in the new book entitled “Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas.” For more information about Douglas, please visit:

http://www.itsabout timebpp.com/ Emory_Art/ Emory_Art_ index.html

Douglas was interviewed in San Francisco by Angola 3 News in October 2009. This is the first segment of our interview to be released. In this segment, Douglas speaks about the Angola 3, the prison-industrial complex, and abolishing solitary confinement.

37 years ago in Louisiana, 3 young black men were silenced for trying to expose continued segregation, systematic corruption, and horrific abuse in the biggest prison in the US, an 18,000-acre former slave plantation called Angola. In 1972 and 1973 prison officials charged Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox, and Robert King with murders they did not commit and threw them into 6x9 ft. cells in solitary confinement, for over 36 years. Robert was freed in 2001, but Herman and Albert remain behind bars.
Three court cases are now pending. Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace are both appealing to have their convictions overturned. On October 9, 2009, the State Supreme Court denied Wallace's writ, so he will now be filing a habeus petition in Federal Court.
The joint federal civil rights lawsuit of Woodfox, Wallace, and Robert King, arguing that their time in solitary confinement is “cruel and unusual punishment,” will go to trial any month in Baton Rouge, at the U.S. Middle District Court.

Angola 3 Fact Sheet

� In the early 1970’s, while in various jails waiting to begin serving prison terms for robberies they were convicted of separately committing, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace were exposed to – and became committed to upholding – the principles of the Black Panther Party.

� When they arrived at the Louisiana State Prison at Angola, they found that it lived up to its reputation as one of the bloodiest and most brutal penitentiaries in the United States, with drugs, gambling, stabbings and rapes routine matters of daily occurrence.

� Since one of the most basic of the Black Panther Party principles called for the practice of improving life in one’s community, Woodfox and Wallace requested of the national organization that they be granted permission to establish the first BPP chapter inside prison.

� Officially recognized as a Black Panther Party chapter, Woodfox, Wallace and a few other brave souls began organizing the prisoners at Angola to stop all prisoner-to- prisoner violence, even the rapes of new prisoners that had become an expected part of life at the prison among a population most of whom were scheduled to die in the institution.

� As the prisoner-to- prisoner violence did, in fact, decrease greatly, the money made by the guards and administration through the wide-spread vice and corruption decreased, as well, much to their displeasure. Additionally, with the prisoners organizing in their own best interests, the administration no longer felt it was in control.

� On April 17, 1972, a young White guard was brutally stabbed to death while most of the prisoners were at breakfast. Almost immediately, Woodfox and Wallace were placed in solitary confinement and within days, a viciously brutal serial rapist doing a life sentence claimed that he had seen the two men stab the guard to death.

� Despite the fact that there was no other evidence whatsoever that Woodfox and Wallace had committed the crime, despite the fact that a bloody shoeprint and bloody fingerprint at the scene did not belong to either of them, and despite the fact that given their locations, it would have been impossible for them to commit the murder, they were ultimately convicted of the crime (based only on the testimony of the rapist who was subsequently released from prison, though he was never originally supposed to be paroled).

� In the fall of 1972, Robert King, also exposed to and espousing the Black Panther Party principles after he was incarcerated, was also brought to Angola to serve a sentence for robbery. Upon arrival, he was immediately placed in solitary confinement for “investigation related to the murder,” despite the fact that he was not even in the institution at the time it was committed. King, together with Woodfox and Wallace, then, became known as “The Angola 3.”

� In 1998, Albert Woodfox’ conviction was overturned, but a new grand jury, chaired by the former wife of a former warden at Angola (a woman who had written a book about the prison in which she repeated a number of lies about Woodfox, including that he was a convicted rapist, which he is not) determined that he should be re-tried. The new trial was held in Amite, Louisiana, the home town of the murdered guard. Despite the fact that there was no new evidence and the supposed eye-witness was dead (which meant that he could not be cross-examined) , Woodfox was found guilty once more using only the written transcript of the “witness’” testimony from the original trial.

� In 2001, after Robert King had spent 29 years in solitary confinement, his conviction for the murder of another prisoner was overturned and King was released. One week later, he held a press conference at the institution, saying, “I may be free of Angola, but Angola will never be free of me.” And he has worked tirelessly around the world ever since in the effort to free his two brothers yet inside.

� In July of 2008, Woodfox’ conviction was yet again overturned, but the State appealed the decision and blocked Woodfox ability to post bond and be released, so he is still incarcerated and still in solitary confinement. The Appellate Court heard the case in March of 2009 and is expected to release its ruling momentarily.

� International human rights organization Amnesty International has called for the immediate release of both Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace. But Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, calling Woodfox “the most dangerous man on the planet,” has vowed to take the case personally all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary. And Angola Warden Burl Cain was quoted in the Washington Post as saying, “Albert Woodfox is still into Black Pantherism and he belongs in solitary confinement whether he did anything or not.”

Angola 3 News is an official project of the National Coalition to Free the Angola 3.

Our main website is: www.angola3news.com

Please visit our other websites too:

www.angola3.org

www.a3grassroots.org

www.kingsfreelines.com

www.hermanshouse.org

Agela Davis to speak on social justice, women's rights

Moorbey — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:02:53 GMT

Activist Agela Davis to speak on social justice, women's rights
By Kimberly Johnson
Posted: 10/19/09, 3:00 AM EST

Angela Davis was taken into custody when a gun, allegedly registered in her name, was used in a fatal shooting of a California Superior Court judge Aug. 7, 1970.

Davis was put on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, the third woman in history to be on it. She was arrested and charged with and tried for murder, kidnapping and conspiracy. Davis spent 16 months in prison before being acquitted of all charges.

Ever since her time spent in prison, Davis has committed her life to seeking social justice.

"Angela Davis stood up against all the power of the government and survived," said Bill Cole, African American studies professor and department chair in a news release. "Her courage and strength was a beacon of light."

Davis, a feminism scholar and civil rights activist, will hold a lecture Monday night, "Feminist Methods of Contemporary Quests for Social Justice," at the Life Sciences Complex Auditorium. She will talk about her work, life and civil rights in the future.

She is currently in her second year of a three-year professorship with Syracuse University's department of women's and gender studies.

Davis has lectured in countries around the world, as well as in multiple states in the U.S. Her main topic is the attainment of social justice, namely for women. Her topics range from the need to suppress nationalism and her opposition of the prison system to the advancement of women of color and equal rights.

Davis is known for her activism during the civil rights movement, her association with the Black Panther Party, her membership with the Communist Party and her candidacy as Vice President for the United States under the Community Party ticket.

"Angela Davis is a revolutionary scholar-activist whose legacy spans several generations," said Chandra Mohanty, a women's and gender studies professor and department chair in a news release. "Her work on behalf of racial, class and gender equality, LGBT rights and prison abolition has redefined the possibilities of social and economic justice."

Nyasha Boldon, a junior political science major, said she believes that what sets Davis apart from other activists is how she recognizes the importance of both race and gender in the attainment of social justice.

"Angela Davis emerged during a time when women, particularly women of color, had little voice in the public sector," Boldon said.

Boldon said that Davis has inspired many young people like her to push for a more just society for women and minorities.

"Just because something is right does not mean it will automatically be recognized by society. However, if you believe that something is not right or does not equal justice, it is important to speak up and defend what you believe to be right," Boldon said.

Angela Davis is a professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a focus on the History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies. She is the founder of Critical Resistance, a prison industrial complex abolition organization. Davis has authored five books including "Women, Race and Class" and "Angela Davis: An Autobiography." She is set to release her sixth book in February.

Kjohns07@syr.edu

Kathleen Cleaver: High Priestess of Peoples Struggle

Moorbey — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:54:49 GMT

Kathleen Cleaver: High Priestess of Peoples Struggle

When the African people can say, in their plain language, that �no matter how hot the water from the well, it will not cook your rice, � they express with staggering simplicity a basic principle not only of physics but also of political science.�

-Amilcar Cabral

The Black Panther Party [BPP], from its very beginning in the struggle against racial and economic oppression, believed in the �basic principle not only of physics but also of political science.� The BPP may now be physically gone, but it is by no means forgotten; for its legacy lives on to this day even as the struggle for economic and social justice continues unabated.

To be sure, there would have been no viable Black Panther Party without the leadership, brilliance, and tenacity of the women who were an integral part of the Black Panther Party. Immediately the names of Assata Shakur, Tarika Lewis, Afeni Shakur, and Ericka Huggins, to name but a very few, come readily to mind. These �sister� / women Black Panthers were, in their own extraordinarily important ways, the backbone and female political giants of the Black Panther Party. If indeed any one Black Panther Party sister embodied the genius, strength, leadership, tenaciousness, and revolutionary beauty of the women of the Black Panther Party collectively, she must assuredly be Kathleen Cleaver.

The Black Panther Party was founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in October of 1966, in Oakland, California. Thus, the month of October is Black Panther Party History Month, but I reiterate that without the invaluable rank and file, and national leadership of women, there would have been no viable Black Panther Party.

Kathleen Cleaver was not only the revolutionary balance to her then spouse, the dynamic, fiery, and prolific Black Panther Party Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver, she was also in fact the visual revolutionary inspiration and actuator for and to the entire Black Panther Party - women and men alike. Sister Kathleen, as a member of the national governing body of the Black Panther Party known as the Central Committee, and as Communications Secretary of the Black Panther Party nationally, provided on a national level what rank and file women Black Panther Party [BPP] members in chapters across the nation were doing on a regular and daily basis - ; she provided the implacable vision, and simultaneously a glimpse, of what the egalitarian unity and political struggle by Black women and men together might actually bring about and be.

Whereas it was the �brothers� who may initially have brought together some pieces to form the Black Panther Party [BPP], it was beyond all question, the BPP �sisters� who honed, refined, and actually made those pieces coherently work together.

In this the 21st century, it has been correctly written that Kathleen Cleaver is �a major voice in the Black Liberation movements of the 1960s and 70s, [and] continues [presently] to speak out against racism, sexism, and economic inequality.� However, perhaps just as importantly, Kathleen Cleaver has always possessed and still possesses today that critically crucial and delicate balance of knowing when to immediately cut to the political chase, and likewise when to bide her time, and with stunning and straight-forward intellectual alacrity proceed to educate, expose, and if necessary, intelligently obliterate any who dare challenge the legitimacy of the struggle in which she and her former comrades in the Black Panther Party gave [and many continue to give] so very much mentally, emotionally, and physically. This is the essence of Kathleen Cleaver: audacity, intellect, integrity, and no nonsense. This also continues to be the essence of the legacy of the Black Panther Party as a whole.

The Ten-Point Program of the Black Panther Party succinctly and clearly laid out the objectives and beliefs of the Party. Moreover, despite the ultimate physical decimation of the Black Panther Party by the end of the 20th century, the BPP Ten-Point Program remains as one of the best examples ever of a precise and forthright political platform that persons can easily understand and relate to right up to the present.

In addition to the Ten-Point Program, free breakfast, free medical, free busing, free ambulance, free shoes, and free school programs were but a few of the programs instituted by the Black Panther Party in service to Black communities throughout the United States. The activism of the Black Panther Party translated into tangibly serving the people �body and soul.�

Thus, it should come as no surprise that Kathleen Cleaver is today an author, a law professor, and a resolute political activist. Among other books to which Kathleen Cleaver has made major contributions; she has co-edited the book titled, Liberation, Imagination, and the Black Panther Party: A New Look at the Panthers and Their Legacy. It needs to be read by any and all serious students of the Black Panther Party and/or of people�s political struggle in general.

Today the genius of sister Kathleen Cleaver, as well as of other former Black Panther Party members including (Black Panther Party Legacy & Alumni curator and historian) Billy X Jennings, exiled sister Assata Shakur, Elbert �Big Man� Howard, artist extraordinaire Emory Douglas, and teacher / educator Ericka Huggins is with us still. Moreover, the determination and vision of former long time political prisoners Robert Hillary King (aka Robert King Wilkerson) and Elmer �Geronimo� Pratt are also with us still.

The revolutionary spirit of the many martyrs of the Black Panther Party, including Alprentice �Bunchy� Carter, John Huggins, Fred Hampton, Mark Clark, Bobby Hutton, Welton Armstead and so very many other women and men of the BPP continues to live on. The Black Panther Party�s casualties of the vicious U.S. federal, state and local war against it, including (but not limited to) Huey P. Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, are reminders of the enormous emotional and psychological price and carnage that have been, and continue to be, put upon any who dare stand up against the avaricious and vampiric oppressors of humankind; and should be understood in this context. The physical, emotional, amoral viciousness and fall out of the war against the Black Panther Party can, to some extent, be summarized in the despicable and illegal / unconstitutional U.S. Government program (known as COINTELPRO) to �frame, discredit, disrupt, imprison and murder� BPP activists. Real change is never brought about without severe and real human prices to be paid. There is simply no such thing as a genuine painless revolution.

Kathleen Cleaver has also been, and remains, active in legally supporting many political prisoners from the Black Panther Party, many of whom remain imprisoned today, after decades of wrongful incarceration. She has not forgotten the lessons of exile which she herself personally experienced. She has not forgotten the struggle.

There is a relatively recent television program on the Black Panther Party, which includes sister Kathleen Cleaver and others. It is extremely informative, expertly done, and well worth watching. The name of the program is: Lords of the Revolution: The Black Panthers. It was televised nationally by the VH1 channel and is only approximately one hour in length and will hold your attention to its conclusion.

As sister Kathleen and other former BPP members made crystal clear, each in their own fashion, on the above mentioned VH1 television program; over forty years ago the Black Panther Party understood that the only way to bring about real systemic �change� was through and by the people - we ourselves.

Sister Kathleen Cleaver so completely encapsulated this when she so poignantly summarized the program, Lords of the Revolution: The Black Panthers, by simply stating, �Wish we could have done better. We should have been smarter. We should have been stronger. We should have been more organized. We were up against a very, very powerful opposition. We didn�t know how powerful our government was. We were ready to change our world. We still want to change our world.� Indeed.

Thank you sister Kathleen. Thank you so very, very much.

All Power To The People.

Onward sisters and brothers! Onward!

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Resentencings in US Reignite Passions Over the Cuban Five

Moorbey — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:17:29 GMT

The Washington Post: Resentencings in U.S. Reignite Passions Over the 'Cuban Five'

Five Cuban Prisoners - Antiterroristas.cu - Cuba vs Terrorism

washingtonpost.com

William Booth 2009-10-12

Monday, October 12, 2009

HAVANA -- Throughout the Cuban countryside are hand-painted murals featuring the famous faces of the revolution, Che and Fidel, of course, but also Ren�, Antonio, Fernando, Gerardo and Ram�n -- known here as "Los Cinco," the Cuban Five, no last names necessary.

The men were confessed spies* who operated the Wasp Network in Miami during the late 1990s, where they infiltrated Cuban American exile organizations that opposed the Castro regime, including the group Brothers to the Rescue, whose two planes were shot down by Cuban fighter jets over the Florida Straits. The Five were convicted in 2001 of espionage* and conspiracy to commit murder** and received sentences ranging from 15 years to life in prison.

After years of legal appeals in the United States -- and vigorous condemnation by Cuban officials, who call the trial a farce -- three of the Cuban Five are about to be re-sentenced by a federal judge in Miami. An appeals court threw out sentences for three defendants last year, ruling their punishment too harsh because the government never proved the spies had traded in "top secret" intelligence.

The first of the three, Antonio Guerrero, is scheduled to appear Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Joan A. Lenard. In court papers filed Friday, lawyers struck a deal to recommend a 20-year term. Guerrero, 50, has been serving life at a federal maximum-security prison in Florence, Colo., where, his attorney said, he has been a model prisoner, helping other inmates earn their high school diplomas.

"He has been serving all this time, thinking that he would never get out," Leonard Weinglass said.

A sentencing hearing for the other two -- Ram�n Laba�ino and Fernando Gonz�lez -- has been postponed, as lawyers argue about whether the U.S. government must show what harm was done by the intelligence agents.

Every twist and turn regarding the Cuban Five is followed closely in Cuba, where even schoolchildren can recite details of the case, and it is unlikely that a slim reduction in Guerrero's sentence will win any applause. In Miami's Cuban exile community, some consider the intelligence agents killers. Four U.S. citizens died in the Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down. After a seven-month trial, in the emotional aftermath of the Elian Gonzalez affair, the jury deliberated only a few hours before deciding its verdict.

"It is impossible to overstate how big the Five are in Cuba," said Thomas Goldstein, a constitutional lawyer who has worked on the case for the Cuban government. "They are viewed as symbols of U.S. injustice, and the consensus here is they received unfair trials and were given impossibly long sentences."

When the U.S. Supreme Court declined in June to hear appeals for the Cuban Five, Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarc�n said that any future talks with the Obama administration must include a discussion about their fate.

After President Obama was elected, Cuban President Ra�l Castro said, "Let's make a gesture for a gesture," and suggested that his government would free its political prisoners and let them leave the island -- "but give us back our heroes."

"If you look at this case, you have to be appalled. The case stinks," said Wayne Smith, a former top U.S. diplomat in Havana who is now a senior fellow at Center for International Policy in Washington. "Therefore the Cuban see an advantage in raising it, and making an issue of it, and they will keep it up, because world opinion is on their side."

* Note of Editor Five Cuban Prisoners - Antiterroristas.cu - Cuba vs Terrorism This is a mistake: The Cuban Five were never accused of espionage, only three of them, Gerardo, Ram�n and Antonio, were charged with Conspiracy to Commit Espionage; and they never pleaded guilty to those crimes.

** Note of Editor Five Cuban Prisoners - Antiterroristas.cu - Cuba vs Terrorism Gerardo Hern�ndez was the only one accused of Conspiracy to commit murder and he never pleaded guilty.

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Pam Africa ON AIR at 8AM.

Moorbey — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:11:19 GMT

Pam Africa is doing a show tomorrow morning with Michael Schiffman, Linn Washington, and others at 8 AM.

This is the link to listen to it online.
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"Day of the Heroic Guerilla"

Moorbey — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:13:40 GMT

We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it.

Hasta la victoria siemp�! (Until victory always -- Struggle until victory forever!)

If you tremble indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine.

Words that do not match deeds are unimportant.

Cruel leaders are replaced only to have new leaders turn cruel!

I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, coward, you're only going to kill a man. (just before he was shot and murdered)

- Ernesto Che Guevara

Revolutionary

At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality. - Ernesto Che Guevara

Our every action is a battle cry against imperialism, and a battle hymn for the people's unity against the great enemy of mankind: the United States of America. Wherever death may surprise us, let it be welcome, provided that this, our battle cry, may have reached some receptive ear, that another hand may be extended to wield our weapons, and that other men be ready to intone our funeral dirge with the staccato singing of the machine guns and new battle cries of war and victory. - Ernesto Che Guevara

We must carry the war into every corner the enemy happens to carry it: to his home, to his centers of entertainment; a total war. It is necessary to prevent him from having a moment of peace, a quiet moment outside his barracks or even inside; we must attack him wherever he may be, make him feel like a cornered beast wherever he may move. - Ernesto Che Guevara

Why does the guerrilla fighter fight? We must come to the inevitable conclusion that the guerrilla fighter is a social reformer, that he takes up arms responding to the angry protest of the people against their oppressors, and that he fights in order to change the social system that keeps all his unarmed brothers in ignominy and misery. - Ernesto Che Guevara

The guerrilla fighter needs full help from the people of the area. This is an indispensable condition. . - Ernesto Che Guevara

Philosophical

I am not interested in dry economic socialism. We are fighting against misery, but we are also fighting against alienation. One of the fundamental objectives of Marxism is to remove interest, the factor of individual interest, and gain, from people's psychological motivations. Marx was preoccupied both with economic factors and with their repercussions on the spirit. If communism isn't interested in this too, it may be a method of distributing goods, but it will never be a revolutionary way of life. - Ernesto Che Guevara

The amount of poverty and suffering required for the emergence of a Rockefeller, and the amount of depravity that the accumulation of a fortune of such magnitude entails, are left out of the picture, and it is not always possible to make the people in general see this. - Ernesto Che Guevara

The monopoly capitalists - even while employing purely empirical methods - weave around art a complicated web which converts it into a willing tool. The superstructure of society ordains the type of art in which the artist has to be educated. Rebels are subdued by its machinery and only rare talents may create their own work. The rest become shameless hacks or are crushed. - Ernesto Che Guevara

I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves. - Ernesto Che Guevara

Where a government has come into power through some form of popular vote, fraudulent or not, and maintains at least an appearance of constitutional legality, the guerrilla outbreak cannot be promoted, since the possibilities of peaceful struggle have not yet been exhausted. - Ernesto Che Guevara

We are doing everything possible to give labor this new status of social duty and to link it on the one side with the development of a technology which will create the conditions for greater freedom, and on the other side with voluntary work based on a Marxist appreciation of the fact that man truly reaches a full human condition when he produces without being driven by the physical need to sell his labor as a commodity. Man still needs to undergo a complete spiritual rebirth in his attitude towards his work, freed from the direct pressure of his social environment, though linked to it by his new habits. That will be communism. - Ernesto Che Guevara

There is no other definition of socialism valid for us than that of the abolition of the exploitation of man by man. - Ernesto Che Guevara

Internationalism

To die under the flag of Vietnam, of Venezuela, of Guatemala, of Laos, of Guinea, of Colombia, of Bolivia, of Brazil-to name only a few scenes of today's armed struggle-would be equally glorious and desirable for an American, an Asian, an African, even a European. - Ernesto Che Guevara

Each spilt drop of blood, in any country under whose flag one has not been born, is an experience passed on to those who survive, to be added later to the liberation struggle of his own country. And each nation liberated is a phase won in the battle for the liberation of one's own country. - Ernesto Che Guevara

There are no boundaries in this struggle to the death. We cannot be indifferent to what happens anywhere in the world, for a victory by any country over imperialism is our victory; just as any country's defeat is a defeat for all of us. - Ernesto Che Guevara

Each time a country is freed, we say, it is a defeat for the world imperialist system, but we must agree that real liberation or breaking away from the imperialist system is not achieved by the mere act of proclaiming independence or winning an armed victory in a revolution. Freedom is achieved when imperialist economic domination over a people is brought to an end. - Ernesto Che Guevara

The socialist countries have the moral duty of liquidating their tacit complicity with the exploiting countries of the West. - Ernesto Che Guevara

Arms cannot be regarded as merchandise in our world. They should be delivered to the peoples asking for them for use against the common enemy without any charge at all, and in quantities determined by the need and their availability. - Ernesto Che Guevara

United Nations

We should like to see this Assembly (UN) shake itself out of complacency and move forward. We should like to see the committees begin their work and not stop at the first confrontation. Imperialism wishes to convert this meeting into a pointless oratorical tournament, instead of solving the grave problems of the world. We must prevent their doing so. This Assembly should not be remembered in the future only by the number 19, which identifies it. Our efforts are directed to prevent that. - Ernesto Che Guevara

Under the discredited flag of the United Nations, dozens of countries under the military leadership of the United States participated in this war with the massive intervention of U.S. soldiers and the use, as cannon fodder, of the South Korean population that was enrolled. - Ernesto Che Guevara

Imperialism and Neo-colonialism

Imperialism has been defeated in many partial battles. But it remains a considerable force in the world, and we cannot expect its final defeat save through effort and sacrifice on the part of all of us. - Ernesto Che Guevara

As long as imperialism exists, it will, by definition, exert its domination over other countries. Today that domination is called neocolonialism. - Ernesto Che Guevara

The slogan "We will not allow another Cuba" hides the possibility of perpetrating aggressions without fear of reprisal, such as the one carried out against the Dominican Republic or before that the massacre in Panama-and the clear warning stating that Yankee troops are ready to intervene anywhere in America where the ruling regime may be altered, thus endangering their interests. - Ernesto Che Guevara

We must bear in mind that imperialism is a world system, the last stage of capitalism-and it must be defeated in a world confrontation. The strategic end of this struggle should be the destruction of imperialism. Our share, the responsibility of the exploited and underdeveloped of the world, is to eliminate the foundations of imperialism: our oppressed nations, from where they extract capital, raw materials, technicians, and cheap labor, and to which they export new capital-instruments of domination-arms and all kinds of articles, thus submerging us in an absolute dependence. - Ernesto Che Guevara

While envisaging the destruction of imperialism, it is necessary to identify its head, which is no other than the United States of America. - Ernesto Che Guevara

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JFP Interview with Chokwe Lumumba

Im The Truth — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:59:17 GMT

The JFP Interview with Chokwe Lumumba
by Adam Lynch
September 23, 2009
Jackson Free Press in Jackson, Mississippi

Chokwe Lumumba was one child among seven in Detroit's West side public housing projects. His birth name is Edwin Taliaferro, though he abandoned what he considers his slave name in favor of his current, more nationalistic, equivalent.

He first made a name for himself as vice president and co-founder of the Republic of New Afrika in the 1970s, an organization of black nationalists that demand freedom from an oppressive American government.

Lumumba's history as a lawyer has been equally colorful. In 1976 he joined the staff of the Detroit Public Defenders Office. He set up his own law firm in 1978, dedicated to defending the oppressed. He even sued his old university for allegedly abandoning an affirmative action program for African Americans.

He has locked antlers with bar associations in Michigan and Mississippi. In Michigan he refused to give authorities information about a client, and in 2000, the Mississippi Bar Association reprimanded him for describing Hinds County Circuit Judge Swan Yerger as a racist.

In 1996, Leake County Circuit Court convicted Lumumba's client, Henry Payton, of bank robbery and arson. The Mississippi Supreme Court overturned the decision and sent the trial back to Judge Marcus Gordon for a second round.

The court found Payton guilty again, though Lumumba said Gordon was openly hostile to Payton. In 2001, Lumumba filed a motion for a new trial, based on some jurors' opinion that they had compromised due to Gordon's instructions to continue deliberating until they had a decision. At the hearing Gordon cut off Lumumba's selection of potential jurors. The judge also allowed Payton to be led to the court in chains, possibly coloring jury opinion against Payton, and he interrupted Lumumba during his opening statements.

Lumumba told Clarion-Ledger reporter Jimmie Gates that Gordon "had the judicial demeanor of a barbarian." Gordon held him in contempt for Lumumba's claim of Gordon's unfair handling of the case, which began a chain of events culminating with Lumumba being removed from the courtroom amid challenges from Lumumba that he was proud to be rid of Gordon's presence. He was jailed for three days and fined a combined $800.

In 2003 a bar complaint tribunal decided to reprimand Lumumba, though the bar appealed the tribunal's decision to the Mississippi Supreme Court, requesting a one-year suspension of the attorney. The Supreme Court agreed to a six-month suspension. The Mississippi Supreme Court reinstated Lumumba in 2007 with an 8 to 1 decision.

More recently, Lumumba represented the owners of a Jackson nightclub, the Upper Level, after the city's formerMayor Frank Melton vowed to close the business down as "a public nuisance." Hinds County Chancery Court sided with the city in 2008 and imposed expensive new requirements from the club, such as increased security, a more expensive insurance plan and better record-keeping of employees. Club owners were unable to afford the expensive new requirements, and the club remains closed to this day.

Earlier this year, Lumumba campaigned for and won a seat on the Jackson City Council, after incumbent Ward 2 Councilman Leslie McLemore decided to retire from the post. He spoke to the JFP in his office on Mill Street.

Is it true you were brought up in a Catholic school?
My father was born in Coffeeville, Kansas, but they moved to Detroit. Me and all my brothers were baptized Catholic, and my mother, that was a major move for her because she had been a Baptist all her life from Alabama. My Grandmother let her get away with it, and that's how we were raised. My Dad was like a West Indian: He was always doing three or four jobs. Not only did he have a lot of work to earn a living, but he was always volunteering with the Catholic church, which put us in a position to have major discounts for tuition at the school.

What was your first encounter with racism?
I recall going to Dearborn, Michigan. That's the place that was built for white workers. I can recall my dad with a whole car full of kids pulling into a drive-in, like a Sonic, only they didn't have Sonics at the time, and they literally let us sit there for three hours (before serving us). He was smoldering. Fortunately, my grandmother was in the car at the time, and she held him back, because he had a temper. But I also remember him getting stopped on the road. Officers said he was driving in front of them. I don't know where else he was supposed to drive�they could have gone around him. And he was almost arrested. I think what stopped him from getting arrested was the fact that there were so many kids in the car, and my mother didn't really know how to drive. I remember those experiences, and I remember police officers beating black people down in the streets. Right in the street?

I was probably about 9 or 10, coming back from the movie, and this drunk man, clearly intoxicated, was on the corner, and the police were talking to him. He wasn't really doing anything. Just drunk. And the patrolman started slapping him around. But then the Big Four pulled up. This was a Chrysler, which had two uniformed cops and two detectives in it. I figured, "Oh, they're going to stop this guy from messing with him," but that's not what happened. I literally ran home that day, because I thought I was watching a man get killed.

Then my brother was arrested, because back in those days teenagers were wearing leather jackets. It was a kind of uniform, really. He went and got him one. He had to have one, so he got one, but apparently this white lady's purse was snatched by someone who had a leather jacket like that. Of course, half the neighborhood had leather jackets like that. He wound up getting arrested, and they beat him around at the police station. He was at home at the time of the snatching.

Was there any indication of racism at the church?
My brother encountered racism in the Catholic institution because he was one of the first blacks to be at the predominantly white Catholic church. We had started out at an all-black Catholic school. The nuns there considered our school a mission school. It was in the northeast side of Detroit. To be honest with you, blacks out there lived in the projects. But the blacks in the general area, particularly the ones that went to Catholic schools, were pretty well off. This was an area outside of the projects itself, but we were still considered a mission.

It was an extremely good education. It was the roughest school I ever went to, even compared to law school. I went there for two years before we transferred to St. Theresa, and when we got there it was changing to a black school. That's when the racism came in. The nuns snatched (my brother) off the dance floor once for dancing with a white girl.

I don't suppose they did that with the white kids, too, did they?
It was the kind of racism we had to deal with. But it wasn't everywhere. The coach, for instance, wouldn't tolerate racial division. He was Jewish. He was trying to win games, I suspect, but he also seemed to have a sense of social consciousness. In my class, blacks were the strength of that class, both athletic and academic. If you messed with us, you were messing with the core success of the school, so we were treated a lot better. That wasn't necessarily so with the girls. They caught a lot of hell when their dresses were too short, or something like that. And I saw things coming up through grade school that I cannot say weren't racially motivated. I heard the word n*gger used by some of the students. �

I think the nuns resented that their school was getting black. They felt the school was going downhill, and they acted out on that by slapping some kids inappropriately and using divisive language.

The neighborhood was changing, too?
Yeah, prior to those years, the realtors were working to keep blacks out, and covenants had not been stricken down, but there was no legal segregation.

In 1969, at Wayne State University, in Detroit, where you went to law school, 18 of the 24 black students in your class failed due to a discriminatory grading system. I read that you and other black students took over the law school administration building demanding reinstatement of the students and fair grading practices.
We're the first ones that I know of, that instituted a change in the grading system because of that incident. We protested and seized the building until the students were allowed back in.

There were a lot of statements at the time that you can't expect a lot from black kids, that they can't do well in these types of environments: "Law school is too much for you." There were actually teachers saying that; this was the behavior and failure they expected form black students.

Secondly, there was systematic, cultural deprivation among the failed students because some of the schools students were coming from inner-city Detroit, where the schools probably didn't teach the writing skills necessary in law school. Your writing skills mean a lot in law school. So we had the protest. Everybody got back in, and everybody but two people finished and became lawyers. Some of them became top-notch, well-respected lawyers. One of them is one of the best communication lawyers in the country. He was the one that had the lowest grade.

What were the improvements at the school that made this possible?
They were given more time to acclimate themselves to the writing style that was necessary, so they just did a whole lot better. Our problem was never that we could not understand the law once it was explained. We had the analytical prowess, but the writing necessities, which require you to write major tests on paper within a very short time, was a problem.

I've heard some JSU teachers say they have to teach skills to their freshman students that should have gotten into their heads in high school.
I'm not surprised. Inner-city schools are not all where they need to be. I think I was a little better prepared going into Wayne. When I went into college, I was confronted with a teacher who gave me Fs every time I turned around. I cursed her all kinds of ways, though it wasn't racially motivated. She wasn't satisfied with what I was putting on my paper. She told me to stop writing about roses and flowers and write about something I was really interested in. So I wrote about Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement, and I began to learn to improve. � I started changing my writing style in terms of transition words, so by the time I got to law school, I was a pretty decent writer, though law school requires plenty more than just being able to write an essay.

In the 1970s, you became vice president of the Republic of New Afrika, right?
Yeah.

I've read that the RNA formed to coordinate the efforts of activists, grass-roots groups and black nationalists. Does that sound accurate?
There were probably some grass roots involved, but Provisional Government of the Republic of Afrika is the more appropriate name. Our position was that America was showing no sensitivity toward the condition of itself or serious involvement of blacks in the body politic. You have to differentiate between the idea of racial separation and the idea of independent government. It's interesting that the U.S., which started as a government that based itself upon independence, can't make that distinction. Never was the Republic of Afrika in favor of racial separation. White people were not restricted from the organization. The argument was that black folks needed black power in state government. They had to be able to control their own state, which is not a new phenomenon. In our nation's earliest history, the slave rebels�that's the John Browns�had formed a provisional government consisting of Frederick Douglass. Later the Communist Party picked up on the idea, but right after the Civil War, we had people advocating for the migration to places like Kansas or Oklahoma to form black states, basically in reaction to racism.

But we were never about separating the races. We wanted to separate from an oppressive government. The idea, as I see it, is human rights for human beings. If you're a human being, and you're with a group of human beings who are mistreating you, then you have a right to self-determination. Yes, it did involve a lot of activism and grass roots, and was really a who's who of activists in the 1960s and the 1970s.

Was it anti-capitalist or "anti-corporatist"?
Actually, neither. There were people in it who were anti-capitalist, just as there were people in the movement who were aspiring capitalists. Neither one of them defined the movement. Most of us, I believe, learned toward socialism, which can be defined in many forms. We don't believe in the unchecked advance of individualistic capitalism. One provision of government that we most ascribed to was Ujamaa, which means cooperative economics. It comes out of Tanzania. Villages were trying to build self-contained institutions, hospitals and so forth, so they could take care of people in that community.

Does your dual participation in the Republic of New Afrika and Jackson city government say anything about the local city government?
My view is that we're still entitled to self-determination, but right now I'm in a coalition with a number of people who want to make Jackson better. I want to make it better. My view is long range, and it may have fleeting relevance at the moment that if we don't get anything done then nobody will be happy. I believe that we have to empower the population of Jackson in order to feed, clothe and house people, and give people a sense of growth and a sense of destiny. As long as black folks are on the floor economically, with big segments of unemployment and underemployment, then the whole of human society in America can't advance, because they're all economically tied together. That's where I'm at right now.

The struggle I was in was never just to go off and form some black state for black people. The idea was to change the whole body politic of North America. Our view is that when you begin to raise the bottom, you raise everybody else. So I'm very supportive of workers rights. I don't care who the worker is. I'm very supportive of the struggle against all forms of discrimination, be it sexual orientation or whatever it is.

Speaking on the pay-raise attempt this last week, do you think the administration could have actually delivered a sustainable pay raise that would not have been so painful to fund?
I voted for the pay raise because I think it should happen, because you can't have different results if you keep doing the same thing. I think, in defense of the administration and the other council members, we just got here. There's a lot of things that could happen in four years. I think Johnson was trying to say, "I need time to get my feet on the ground, and if I have time to look at things perhaps we can (make this raise possible)." If that's what he's saying, then I'll back his point. But if he's saying somehow or another he is going to do the same thing they've always been doing and squeeze out pay raises, well, it ain't gonna happen.

I've got four years to pursue some new approaches. The public sector has to put more money in peoples' hands. If they put more money in, then people will spend more. If they spend more, you create more income for the city as a whole.

Going back to the RNA�it's so damn tantalizing�in 1972 the RNA purchased land near Jackson, Miss. Is it true the land was road-blocked by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies?
Yes, they blocked it temporarily.

What was their legal justification?
They were saying, "You're trying to come in and take over Mississippi."

That was their legal argument?
No, that was their public stance. There was no legal standing.

They didn't try to claim you were stealing water from the city or anything like that?
In March of 1971, we purchased the land. The owner of the land was very much behind us. He started getting a lot of pressure from the FBI and everybody else to dump the deal. That was in March. Later on, during the roadblock, we were totally within our rights. They had set up a roadblock, headed by Lloyd Jones. We called him "Goon" Jones, because he was one of the people involved in shooting those Jackson State students (in 1970). He was with the Mississippi Highway Patrol. Jones set up a block. And we said, "Look, we come in peace, but we come prepared. And we're going to our land."

We went toward the land, and they decided to back down and open up the roadblock, and we went through.

What would've happened if they hadn't backed down?
I don't know. We had our instructions that we were going to provide for all lawful restraints, like if somebody wanted to check our license and tickets, but we weren't going to get jumped on. They certainly weren't going to do what they'd done to the Jackson State students, because if they had, we would have had to defend ourselves. What may have contributed to the peaceful conclusion was the FBI. An FBI car pulled in front of our caravan, and we stopped, and I went up to the car and asked them what the problem was. They said, "It was an accident," that they didn't mean to pull up in front of our car.

Just to get an image here, what kind of people were sitting in your vehicle? I have the image of a van filled to brimming with angry stares and people with lots of leather and guns.
It was a caravan full of people from age 2 up to 80. This was men, women and children. We had security, but these were regular people. So when the FBI stopped us and drove away that may have influenced Jones' people. We kind of felt like the Red Sea had parted. We drove onto the land and were exhilarated, feeling like we had accomplished a mission.

Tell me about the Brinks Case. In 1981, New York Judge Irving Ben Cooper barred you from representing Fulani Sunni Ali (Cynthia Boston) on charges arising from an armored car robbery incident. What were the grounds for Cooper's decision?
Hey, you got the name right. You're good. (Cooper) said I was a nationalist attorney and thought I might try to break Fulani out of jail. At the time I said, "I don't have to do that. All I have to do is walk her out of the front." I was a good enough lawyer to win the case, and I was, and she did walk free. Her husband was found not guilty. They never convicted anybody for (that robbery) except for Mutulu Shakur, but that was in a much later trial.

Tupac's Dad?
Tupac's step-dad. I think he was the only one convicted of robbing it. Not that he had robbed it, but that he had helped plan the robbery. Everybody in the case I worked with, all six or seven clients were found not guilty.

He got convicted for the breaking out of Assata Shakur, who was considered by many blacks in the northeast as the Harriet Tubman of the northeast. She was involved in the Black Panther's many food programs. They had accused her originally of being involved in the suppression of drug houses�they would throw the drugs down the toilet and take the weapons (to undermine police). That originally was why they were looking for her. When they arrested her, they shot her in the process, but while they were shooting her, some of her comrades shot back and an officer got killed.

You argue she never did any shooting?
Clearly it wasn't her because she was paralyzed in her arm. They took her to trial, and she got found not guilty eight different times on different charges. What she got convicted of was being an accomplice in the shooting incident with the police officer�felony murder. She was involved in the shooting, an all-white jury said. The medical testimony bore out that she didn't do it, but the all-white jury didn't care.

The New York press was just rough. In every magazine, I'd see myself as a nationalist lawyer. I had to be very careful.

You were held in contempt by the district judge for your comments to the press at the time, weren't you?What were those comments?
I didn't say it to the press. I said it to the judge. I told him he was handling the case like a racist. This wasn't Cooper. I had never been held in contempt before. The Judge, Kevin Duffy, started out the trial with an anonymous jury, sending a message that these (defendants) were dangerous people. They told them they were protecting them from the press, but The New York Times said, "bull-crap," the judge thinks these are dangerous people. A couple of jurors came in and said, "What about that article in the New York Times? Everybody in the jury room is talking about these being dangerous people."

I said, "Judge, you can't be the only one asking the jury questions. We get to ask questions, too."

"No," he said.

"Well, judge, you've got to ask the jurists, every one of them, if they've been violated by that article."

"No," he said.

"Judge, what are you going to do about it?"

"Nothing."

Was he trying to alienate you from the jury?
It was clear that he was trying to divorce us from any real contact with the jurors, and as a criminal defense lawyer, you know that you have to humanize not only yourself, but your clients. And if you can't really talk to the jurors, then you have a problem. His thing was you couldn't talk to (the jury) before the trial, and even when you got to the trial, if you had an objection, he'd put buttons under the table. You had to push either a green or red button for him to know you were objecting. Now how he was supposed to know what you were objecting to was impossible to tell.

These were the restrictions. The whole case was going to go down the tubes without a fair trial if we accepted that arrangement. So what I did was I challenged the judge at every opportunity I got�mostly when the jury wasn't there, because I wasn't trying to distance myself from the jurists. I challenged him, and challenged him, and what he did, in turn, was restrict my cross-examination, and hold me to standards he held nobody else to, and finally he was calling me the village idiot and other stuff. So, based upon his comments, I said this trial is very racist, and things of that nature.

Mind you, he didn't hold me in contempt then. He said, "We'll deal with you later." We got all the way to the end of the trial, and at the end, six months later, the judge, in my opinion, was of the attitude that he was ready to forget what I'd said. He wasn't going to say anything about our encounter. His whole thing was that Lumumba's crazy. His clients will get convicted, and they're going away for a long time, and that'll be satisfying enough for him.

That's not what happened, was it?
He had to hear them read off eight counts of "not guilty" for each one of them. I wasn't there, because the judge had let me go home to Detroit. But he didn't call me back, he just took the jury verdict, and my co-counsel said that every time someone said, "not guilty," his head would go down a little bit. By the time the got to the last "not guilty," his head was down to the desk. He then immediately said, "Where's Lumumba? He should be here. I'm holding him in contempt."

Then all the lawyers jumped up and said, "You can't hold him in contempt. You told him he could go home."

He issued a contempt order for my statement after the trial. He initially held me in contempt and sentenced me himself, but the court of appeals reversed that and cited case law saying he could not do that on his own. If he had given me some kind of consequence at the time I'd called him racist, he could've sentenced me, but since he waited for the end of the trial, that showed he did not have to take action to vindicate the authority of the court.

Your reputation preceded you. I read that you had to wait three years for your application to practice law in Mississippi to be granted. Is that unusual? What was the hold-up? What did the Bar tell you?
That was for two reasons. They used the New York thing, but that was just a hook. They basically didn't want me in because I believed in the peaceful overthrow of the U.S. government. First of all, I'm not sure that's illegal. We weren't calling for the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. We were calling for giving people in a given region the chance to vote. That's legal, certainly under international law and through U.S. law. There's nothing wrong with taking a vote and changing government. They never explained that charge, but it was my connection to the cause. They had also neglected to check to see that I had come here to represent people from St. Louis who had been beat up while driving through Jackson back when Dale Danks was mayor.

The Mississippi Bar publicly reprimanded you for speaking out against Hinds County Circuit Judge Swan Yerger after Yerger dismissed a lawsuit one of your clients brought against a white police officer. Do you still feel Yerger's dismissal was discriminatory?
No question about it. Yerger had a terrible record. (I believe) it's spurred by his racial beliefs and his conservative connection to the institutional defense of insurance companies. Every plaintiff who is black, in his view is his enemy, in my opinion. Here's his track record: I represented a case where a young man was suing Trustmark Bank, and the first case went to Yerger. (The defense) had forgotten to file an answer to the complaint. My predecessor had filed a complaint, and because they had not filed an answer to the complaint he was subject to default. Yerger wouldn't even consider it.

Second, I represented the Jackson Advocate in a case where they were suing the city of Jackson because they had awarded the Mississippi Link the right to publish the city's legal ads. Yerger refused to give it to the black-owned Jackson Advocate, which could have been reasonable, but then he took it from the Mississippi Link, which is also black-owned, and gave it to The Northside Sun. That was his resolution.

Anything else?
There were three other incidents. I can't recall everything about them. My client was suing the police department because a white police officer had come on the scene when this white couple had run him off the road and caused him to have an accident. The white police officer, according to another officer in the national guard, who was a white guy, a captain, testified that he saw the white police officer come on the scene after my client had been run off the road and went over and talked to the people who ran him off the road. It wasn't like he didn't know them, okay, but my guy was suing because the white cop refused to produce the information as to who the couple was, even though he talked to them.

We went to trial, (which ended) with a hung jury. We prepared for a retrial. Judge Graves recused himself and it got bounced around. The city attorney's office had its own problems because of the high turn-over rate of that position, so the case got delay after delay. So a new city attorney filed a motion to dismiss because of a failure to prosecute. ... Heck, the city attorney didn't really expect it to be granted, I bet. But then Yerger comes in there and says, "Dismissed."

My interpretation was that it was racist. If you go into any witness room, or conference room with attorneys sitting around and talking, if there's 10 of them, nine would say they think Yerger is either racist or so biased for insurance companies that his decision-making can not be relied upon.

Then when I made the statement, there's no telling how many attorneys walked up and agreed with me. Even old-timers, who I thought would be a part of the old boys' network, agreed with me.

There is an oppressive culture in the state courtrooms that goes beyond race. It oppresses lawyers, because they are the ones identified with trying to protect the rights of the disenfranchised. In my view, there is a lot of legitimate sentiment out here.

Just to give you a hint: When the bar, in an unprecedented move, sent an invitation to all the lawyers over the state to voice comment on my being reinstated over the Judge Gordon thing, I got 85 lawyers who said I should be reinstated and only three that said I shouldn't.

Do you still stand by your opinion on Gordon?
I think that Gordon had a very oppressive demeanor when he dealt with attorneys in the courtroom, not just clients. Since that incident, he has been much different with me. In my opinion, I get as much respect or more than just about every other attorney who comes in there. We understand each other. He understands that I'm not going to be pushed around, and I understand that there was a different way I could have said some things I said. Now, I don't take anything back from what I said in the New York case. But in Gordon's case I could have said other things that would have made the same point.

Given that, I make sure that when I approach him that I'm still zealous, but there are more ways to say things than through accusations. I've been up before Gordon a few times since with success. One of the cases I've got pending is one where he made a ruling that I appealed to the Supreme Court. We'll see how it comes out. I think he's wrong in the ruling, but at least he was civil about it. He didn't get mad at me for raising it.

But Gordon passes through a cultural prism. So do I, frankly, but his is quite different from mine. He comes from a different side of the fence and a different side of the white supremacy argument. And when I say the white supremacy argument I don't mean Klansmen who run around calling people the n-word. I mean people who really believe that white people should be in control and that black people's participation should be at the behest of that control.

Look at the way he handled the (Edger Ray) Killen case. He did give him the maximum manslaughter sentence, but he let him out on bond. My man was just there for robbery. He didn't kill anybody, and he has never been out on bond, not pre-trial, post-trial or appeal. Then here's Killen out on bond. He's 72 or 73. Chances are he was going to die before he served his sentence. The way I view it, through the cultural prism, is that that qualified as racist behavior. But as a person, I don't really have a problem with Gordon anymore. We come from two different worlds.

You said just before the run-off election that you planned to form your own political party. How's that going? And why is it necessary?
You guys saw a YouTube thing that I would have to see again, right? I have never intended to form my own political party, but I have definitely been involved with groups that have talked about it and probably will. Coming out of the New Orleans experience with Katrina, there was discussion about a Reconstruction Party, something that represented New Orleans fighting for its rebirth.

My platform proves that I'm more democratic than most anybody else up there, but let me say this, too: I'm a creature of the Movement. I have a high degree of suspicion against established parties who have been very detrimental to people. The Mississippi Democratic Party, in contrast to the national party, is somewhat unique because of Fannie Lou Hamer and the Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party. In some ways, the Mississippi Democratic Party has been reconstructed. Remember, they challenged the party by going up there to the convention and refusing to leave. By 1972, because of the challenge, the Mississippi Democratic Party has reformed into a party that requires half of its population of its party delegates to be women, and half to be black. So that probably is the most inclusive party in the country. I guess that's why most of the whites left.

That, and good ole Lyndon Johnson.
(Laughter) Now, in Mississippi, the party is, to a large extent, a black party. They have some whites in it, but it's mostly black. So, I feel I'm much more comfortable being in the Democratic Party in Mississippi over the national party. I still have some problems with the national party.

Barack Obama is the president. He's still in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are things that the national Democratic Party does that still buy into corporate control. The reason I think they're over there is because of oil. I think Obama's stuck there trying to figure a way out. I hope.

The Mississippi Democratic Party has experienced a transition that I've personally witnessed. If a decision is made that I decide to participate in, it's because we feel it's the best decision for the people. That, and the local party is likable, and I'll try to take them with me wherever I go.

You had pushed for a "Jackson First" type policy during the campaign for hiring and contracts with the city, basically privileging Jackson residents. How feasible is that?
The routes to it have been prescribed by prior council and mayoral decisions, but I don't think they always follow them. There's a minority set-aside, maybe 20 percent, but I've seen contracts with much greater involvement than 20 percent that Harvey (Johnson) has put up. Minority set-asides are great for Jackson. Secondly, with Jackson First, I'm looking at blacks, and then people who are closer by, in terms of these contracts. This doesn't mean that a guy from New York can't have a contract, but I will demand you do something to show how this is benefiting us. You can't just come in and make a lot of money. I think it will help the racial disparity and help the Jackson economy.

I'll turn the question around. If Ridgeland, Madison, Flowood, Pearl, Brandon and Clinton can do it, why can't we? I'm sure the people in this city are at least as smart as the people there, so why not.

What's the status of the Upper Level lawsuit?
The city put restrictions upon the club, with the decision of Chancery Court Judge Dewayne Thomas, that were largely unaffordable (by the club owners). I would challenge any club in the city to bear those same restrictions and be able to afford them. You'd close down 80 percent of the clubs in Jackson with those restrictions. The case is still in court. They're going back to chancery court in October, and they might work out something to get them back in business before then, but I'm not on the case anymore.

I blame the mayor at the time (Frank Melton), and the city attorney (Sarah O'Reily-Evans), and to the extent of their insistence to stand on the case, I blame them right now.

... I've heard people say there are many neighborhoods where you'd have a hard time not finding crack or marijuana or some form of drug sold out of it.

If you're looking for a little weed, the college duplexes in Belhaven are the place to go, and then there's a number of clubs on State Street where you'll sniff that familiar smell. Frank had something against the Upper Level. I won't put a rumor out there, but after his election it became a part of his demagoguery that he would close this place down, and he stuck with it. That's what led to the whole incident. Any lawyer who's touched it knows Frank was wrong, and that's why I have little sympathy for any lawyer who's still trying to defend it.

Who's handling the suit of the Upper Level manager who allegedly got beat up by people traveling with the mayor?
My office-mate Imhotep Alkebu-Lan, and attorney Sharon Gipson might still be on it. I think the suit will have an impact on getting the club reopened up, but I don't know the details, and they're trying to get that worked out.

Do you still defend your vote to delay naming the library after Charles Tisdale?
My vote was exactly right, and the Jackson Advocates' response was exactly wrong. I can understand it from an emotional point of view, but their person in charge of the paper didn't have that reaction on the day the vote was made. Hopefully, we can get beyond this and move on.

Are things smoother between you and the Advocate these days?
I don't know. I'll have to ask one of my experts.

How would you describe the city council these days, compared the council of three years ago?
We've had a magic moment in the history of the city.

We have a good group of people on the council who really care for the city. I don't mind people asking me about my background. It's nothing to be ashamed of, but we don't need to lose focus. There are certain people who will disagree with my bent. There are people in my campaign who didn't agree with me, but we need to come together to benefit everybody in this city, which benefits the whole state.

Let's make the most of the moment. Let's seize the time and do it right. I'm going to get along with everybody who wants to do that, and I'll likely battle with people who don't.

Can you see yourself running again in about four years?
I think I'll take the fifth on that.

� Jackson Free Press, Inc.