When you deny the political prisoners of a people, then you are, in fact… denying the validity of their struggle.”
On the evening of December 9, 1981, Mumia Abu-Jamal was driving his cab when he saw a Black man being beaten by a Philadelphia police officer. Apparently, the man was initially pulled over for a moving traffic violation and commanded by police to exit his car. Brother Mumia pulled over to the curb, planning to render some possible assistance to the brother before the police beat him to death. Seconds later, Mumia is laid out on the curb, barely alive from a bullet that ripped through his abdomen. Close by, the cop that was initiating the beating lies dead from a wound from a weapon that was never recovered.
The next morning, all Philadelphia newspaper headlines read “Radical Black cop Killer” had been wounded in a shoot-out and had been captured! Today, Mumia Abu Jamaal is still in prison and considered a Conscious Black political prisoner.
I believe that Mumia Abu Jamaal was targeted because he was a leader in the Black liberation struggle. Mumia’s leadership, courage, and initiative would begin to blossom at a much earlier age than the majority of Black brothers and sisters in African villages. At the age of 13, he was badly beaten and arrested for protesting against a Philadelphia Republican Convention in support of racist Alabama Governor George Wallace.
That incident absolutely did not deter, discourage, or scare the young Mumia like many other Africans because, by the time he was 14 years old, Mumia was the co-founder and the Minister of Information for the Philadelphia Chapter of the Black Panther Party.
After solidifying his position, for the next (2) years, he would work tirelessly for our people. Eventually, Mumia would travel to New York, where he would be trained and educated on graphic art design, newspaper layout, and propaganda by the Black Panther Party’s Minister of Culture, Brother Emory Douglass.
At the age of (16), Mumia had become a target for neutralization by local government officials and the Philadelphia police department, led by racist Police Commissioner Frank Rizzo. Between 1968 and 1972, over (50) members of the Black Panther Party were murdered by police all across the country. Hundreds of Panthers were targeted, falsely accused, and sent to prison. In Black communities throughout the U.S., many Black Panther Party headquarters would also become targets to be destroyed and neutralized, and the city of Philadelphia was absolutely no exception.
In August 1970, Frank Rizzo led a police strike force to invade and exploit the Philadelphia Black Panther headquarters. Our brothers would be physically dragged into the street, forced to strip at gunpoint, and lined up naked against a wall for hours before being transported to jail.
During this time period, the Black Panther Party began to neutralize, but history would reveal that particular members could not and would not be silenced. Mumia Abu-Jamaal would strategize to a more independent form of political warfare by developing into a free-lance writer, community journalist, and radio commentator.
Mumia’s radio program was broadcast on national radio networks. Our brother was also elected President of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Association of Black Journalists in 1980. As a journalist, he continuously fought for the rights of oppressed Africans all over the U.S.
Mumia Abu-Jamaal courageously and non-apologetically spoke out against police brutality, homelessness, poverty, mis-education, economic exploitation, and many other ills that saturated the Black community. Mumia would be called “The Voice of the Voiceless.”
He became a strong supporter of the MOVE organization in the aftermath of the murderous 1978 military siege and assault on the Powelton Village home by more than (600) Philadelphia police. In 1985, the government’s vendetta against MOVE manifested in another military attack, in which a bomb was used to murder (11) MOVE members, including (5) beautiful children.
In the 1978 attack, the police were cleared for provoking the military attack, and (9) surviving MOVE members would be held for trial and convicted for the murder of a police officer.
The policeman who was killed was actually shot in the back of his head, firing at the MOVE compound. This evidence clearly concludes that he was indeed a victim of “Friendly Fire”–one of his own mistakenly shot him. Mumia became highly active during the 1979 trial against members of the MOVE organization. He used his radio show and his nationally syndicated newspaper columns to discredit the countless lies and false statements told on the stand by the Mayor, prosecutors, and police. Mumia’s interviews with the captured MOVE members would dispel the myths of the media, white critics, and neighborhood residents. Mumia’s interviews brought out the real side of MOVE–their intelligence, commitment to a just society, respect for nature, love of children, and their self-disciplined way of life. At a press conference on August 8, 1978, following the attack, Mayor Rizzo verbally attacked Mumia by saying, “They believe what you write, what you say. And it’s got to stop!” And one day, I hope it’s in my career that you’re going to have to be held accountable for what you do.” Three years later, Mumia was shot and railroaded to Death Row!
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Khabyr Hadas is the author of Oneness of the Blacks and Afrikan Struggle Inherited. He is a teacher at Harambee Institute of Science and Technology Charter School, founded by John Skeif, and a graduate of Cheyney University Khabyrhadas@gmail.com.
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