We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party, by Mumia

Re: We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party, by M

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Mumia Abu-Jamal

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Mumia Abu-Jamal was born April 24, 1954, in Philadelphia. At the time of his arrest there on December 9, 1981, on charges of the murder of a police officer, he was a leading broadcast journalist and president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Association of Black Journalists. Widely acclaimed for his award-winning work with NPR, Mutual Black Network, National Black Network, WUHY (now WHYY), and other stations, he was known as Philadelphia's "voice for the voiceless."

At the age of fourteen, Mumia was beaten and arrested for protesting at a presidential rally for George Wallace. In the fall of 1968, he became a founding member and Lieutenant Minister of Information of the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Panther Party. During the summer of 1970, he worked for the Party newspaper in Oakland, California, returning to Philadelphia shortly before the Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention and the city police raid of all three local offices of the Panther Party.

Throughout the following decade, Mumia's hard-hitting criticism of the Philadelphia Police Department and the Rizzo administration marked him as a journalist "to watch." His unyielding rejection of Mayor Rizzo's version of the city's 1978 siege of the MOVE organization (in the Powelton Village neighborhood of West Philadelphia) particularly incensed the establishment, and eventually cost him his broadcast job. In order to support his growing family, Mumia began to work night shifts as a cabdriver.

In the early morning hours of December 9, 1981, Mumia was critically shot and beaten by police and charged with the murder of officer Daniel Faulkner. Put on trial before Philadelphia's notorious "hanging judge," Albert Sabo, he was convicted and sentenced to death on July 3, 1982.

After years of challenges and international protests, on December 18, 2001, the US District Court overturned the death sentence, but upheld the conviction. Judge Yohn's District Court decision is being appealed to the Court of Appeals from both sides, with the prosecution objecting to the overturn of the capital sentence and Murcia's attorneys rejecting the upheld conviction. As of October 2002, Murcia's appeal is stayed (on hold) pending the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's ruling on the state appeal.

Starting with the Black Panther Party's national newspaper, Mumia has reported on the racism and inequity in our society. He added radio to his portfolio, eventually recording a series of reports from death row for NPR's All Things Considered. However, NPR, caving in to political pressure, refused to air the programs. Mumia Abu-Jamal is still fighting for his own freedom from prison, and through his powerful voice, for the freedom of all people.

Mumia Abu-Jamal is the author of Live from Death Row, All Things Censored, Death Blossoms: Reflections from a Prisoner of Conscience, and Faith of Our Fathers. His audio recordings include 175 Progress Drive and All Things Censored. His commentaries appear in periodicals throughout the world and can be heard on http://www.prisonradio.org.

KATHLEEN CLEAVER, an activist scholar, currently teaches at Emory University School of Law and Yale University's African American Studies Department. She quit college in 1966 to join the Civil Rights movement, then served as the Black Panther Party's Communications Secretary from 1967-1971. Cleaver co-edited the essay collection Liberation, Imagination and the Black Panther Party, and is at work on a forthcoming memoir Memories of Love and War.

Supporter Information

International Concerned Friends and Family of
Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 19709, Philadelphia, PA 19143 (215) 476-8812
http://www.mumla.org

The Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
298 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 (415) 255-1085
http://www.freemumia.org

Committee to Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
163 Amsterdam Avenue, Suite 115, New York, NY 10023
(212) 580-1022

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal coalition
PO Box 650, New York, NY 10009
(212) 330-8029

Refuse and Resist!
350 Madison Avenue, Suite 1166
New York, NY 10165 (212) 713-5657
www:refuseandresist.org/mumia

Critical Resistance: Beyond the Prison-Industrial Complex
National Office: 1904 Franklin Street, Suite 504
Oakland, CA 94612 (510) 444-0484
www:criticalresistance.org

www:millions4mumia.org

http://www.prisonradio.org

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