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  • George Jackson (L) and demonstrators in Ferguson (R).

    George Jackson (L) and demonstrators in Ferguson (R). | Photo: Reuters

Published 16 August 2016
Opinion
Jackson was acclaimed internationally as the most powerful and eloquent Black writer to emerge in years. He became a symbol of the struggle of all oppressed people.

August 21 will mark the 45th anniversary of the execution of George Jackson. Many of the strategies and tactics that he and his fellow comrades employed in the late 60s and early 70s were used by prisoners at Pelican Bay, Corcoran and other California prisons in the recent uprisings in California prisons.

ANALYSIS:
A Relentless Will to Win: George Jackson and African Resistance

Jackson was an African convict who became an activist, Marxist, author, a member of the Black Panther Party and co-founder of the Black Guerrilla Family prison organization. He achieved global fame as one of the "Soledad Brothers" before his execution by prison guards in San Quentin Prison. Jackson, his younger brother Jonathan Jackson and Khatari Gaulden are central to understanding Black August.

Jackson was an African born in America who became a Field Marshal of the Black Panther Party while in prison, where he spent the last 12 years of his life. His book of published letters, "Soledad Brother," became an instant classic.

Gaulden became the leader inside San Quentin after George Jackson was killed on August 21, 1971. Louisiana-born Gaulden was himself assassinated in 1978. The hit on Gaulden was the spark that led to the Black August prairie fire.

On August 7, 1970, Jackson’s 17-year-old brother Jonathan burst into a Marin County courtroom with automatic weapons, freed three San Quentin prisoners and took Judge Harold Haley hostage to demand freedom for the three Soledad Brothers. However, Haley, William Christmas, James McClain and Jonathan Jackson were killed as they attempted to drive away from the courthouse.

The case made international headlines. The state claimed that Judge Haley was hit by fire discharged from a shotgun inside the vehicle during the incident. The weapon was said to have been attached by wiring, tape, and/or a strap of some sort, and/or held beneath his chin. The shotgun was traced back to Angela Davis.

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Gary Thomas, at that time a prosecutor, later a judge, was also taken hostage and paralyzed by a police bullet during the incident. He testified in a subsequent proceeding that "The sawed-off shotgun was being held under Judge Haley's chin by Ruchell Magee. The shotgun went off. It was as if it was in slow motion—all outward features of his face moving away." Some accounts of the incident report that Judge Haley's head was taken almost completely off as a result of the blast.

Louisiana-born Ruchell “Cinque” Magee, the sole survivor among the group who revolted at the court, was convicted for Haley's kidnapping and murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, which he is serving to this day in Corcoran. Now 76 years old, he has lost numerous bids for parole.

Kiilu Nyasha who has covered the prison movement pointed out, “Ruchell C. Magee arrived in Los Angeles, California in 1963, and wasn't in town for six months before he and a cousin, Leroy, were arrested on the improbable charges of kidnap and robbery, after a fight with a man over a woman and a $10 bag of marijuana. Magee, in a slam-dunk 'trial,' was swiftly convicted and swifter still sentenced to life.

Magee, politicized in those years, took the name of the African freedom fighter, Cinque, who, with his fellow captives seized control of the slave ship, the Amistad, and tried to sail back to Africa. Like his ancient namesake, Cinque would also fight for his freedom from legalized slavery, and for seven long years he filed writ after writ, learning what he calls 'guerrilla law,' honing it as a tool for liberation of himself and his fellow captives. But California courts, which could care less about the alleged 'rights' of a young Black man like Magee, dismissed his petitions willy-nilly,” Nyasha added.

One year later on August 21, 1971, three days before he was to go on trial, George was gunned down in the prison yard at San Quentin in what officials described as an escape attempt. On the day Jackson was murdered, this writer saw grown, macho men break down and cry tears bigger than cantaloupes. Jackson influenced a larger number of Africans-in-America and progressive-thinking whites than can be imagined.

Jackson’s death sent Archie Shepp, Bob Dylan and Steel Pulse into the studio to record tributes to him. He was eulogized in jazz, pop and reggae idioms. “Jazz” man Shepp released “Blues for Brother George Jackson” on his Attica Blues album.

IN DEPTH:
Black August

Dylan did a single, “George Jackson,” and the British reggae band, Steel Pulse recorded two songs, “George Jackson," a cover of Dylan’s song, and “Uncle George,” on their 1977 album "Tribute to The Martyrs." The group actually re-recorded “George Jackson” and “Uncle George” on the 2004 album "African Holocaust."

Jackson’s impact was so great that Warner Bros. studio attempted to cash in on his image by producing a film, "Brothers," starring Bernie Casey and Vonetta McGee. The soundtrack was performed by Taj Mahal. I saw the film in Memphis, Tennessee. There was only an elderly Euro-American couple and me in the theater that day. At that time, I was slippin’ into darkness—I was underground.

Who was George Jackson and why eulogize a “convict?" When Jackson was 18 years old, he was sentenced from one year to life for stealing US$70 from a gas station. He spent the next 11 years in prison, eight and a half of them in solitary confinement.

When he was 28 years old, he was charged with the murder of a guard in Soledad prison. Shortly after his indictment for this murder, his first book, "Soledad Brother," one of his personal letters, was published in England, Germany, Italy and Sweden. He was acclaimed throughout the world as the most powerful and eloquent Black writer to emerge in years. He became a symbol of the struggle of all oppressed people.

Commenting on Jackson’s writing, C.L.R. James pointed out, “The letters are in my opinion the most remarkable political documents that have appeared inside or outside the United States since the death of (Vladimir Ilyich) Lenin.”

The late Walter Rodney used to talk about how it was amazing that Jackson could develop an international consciousness from a prison cell. Rupert Lewis, who wrote the book "Walter Rodney's Intellectual and Political Thought," found an essay that Rodney had written about Jackson while he lived in Tanzania.

George Jackson continued to make news even after his death. When Stanley "Tookie" Williams was executed on December 13, 2005, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger invoked Jackson’s name as one of the reasons that the co-founder of the Crips should meet his maker. Schwarzenegger said, "The dedication of Williams' book "Life in Prison" casts significant doubt on his personal redemption.

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“This book was published in 1998, several years after Williams' claim to a redemptive experience. Specifically, the book is dedicated to 'Nelson Mandela, Angela Davis, Malcolm X, Assata Shakur, Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt, Ramona Africa, John Africa, Leonard Peltier, Dhoruba Al-Mujahid, George Jackson, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and the countless other men, women, and youths who have to endure the hellish oppression of living behind bars.' The mix of individuals on this list is curious. Most have violent pasts and some have been convicted of committing heinous murders, including the killing of law enforcement," Schwarzenegger added.

Jackson’s second book, "Blood in My Eye," was completed only days before he was killed in the alleged escape attempt from San Quentin. The book clearly showed Jackson’s global outlook. He wrote, “The commitment to total revolution must involve an analysis of both the economic motives and the psychosocial motives which perpetuate the oppressive contract. For the black partisan, national structures are quite simply nonexistent. A people without a collective consciousness that transcends national boundaries—freaks, Afro-Amerikkkans, Negroes, even Amerikkkans, without the sense of a larger community than their own group—can have no effect on history. Ultimately they will simply be eliminated from the scene.”

Kumasi and Chaka of Los Angeles and Oakland, respectively, appeared on Saturday Morning Live in Toronto and Uhuru Radio discussing Black August. Both knew George and served time in California dungeons. They represent the Black August Organizing Committee whose mission it is to attempt to help prisoners such as Ruchell McGee and countless others still languishing behind California and other prison walls in the U.S. Mumia Abu-Jamal has done several outstanding commentaries about Black August.

Norman (Otis) Richmond, aka Jalali, has written for Canadian and international publications and he currently produces the radio show Diasporic Music and writes a column, "Diasporic Music" for the Burning Spear. He can be reached at Norman.o.richmond@gmail.com.

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