Court Denies Damages for Oscar Grant's Father

Federal Jury Denies Damages For Oscar Grant’s Incarcerated FatherReported by Andrew Scot Bolsinger

Oscar Grant Jr., father of the man who was shot and killed by a Bay Area Rapid Transit officer in the first hours of New Years Day 2009 in Oakland, Calif., was denied damages by a federal jury on Thursday.

The jury found that the father—who had been in prison all of his son’s life—failed to show he had a close familial relationship with his son and failed to prove the officer intentionally harmed his son for reasons “unrelated to legitimate law-enforcement objectives,” according to recent reports.

Grant III was shοt in the back and killed, while laying on the ground in a crowded BART station, by transit police officer Johannes Mehserle. The final day of Grant III’s life was portrayed in the independent, award-winning film Fruitvale Station.

The incident was captured on numerous cellphone video cameras by other train passengers, prompting protests and riots and outraging much of the nation.

Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in a 2010 criminal trial, and was released from a Los Angeles County jail in June 2011 after receiving credit for time served.

A year after the incident, BART reached a civil settlement with those closely connected to Grant III and the incident. Grant III’s young daughter, Tatiana, received $1.5 millon and his mother Wanda another $1.3 million in settlements. BART also awarded $175,000 to each of Grant III’s five friends who were with Grant when he was shot. BART did not settle with Grant Jr., whose case went to trial in June.

“The man was killed in cold blood: No ifs, ands or buts about it,”  Grant Jr., said during his testimony, according to the Oakland Tribune. “I don’t care how they say it, it was not an accident.

“They took the most precious thing in the world to me—my only child,” said Grant Jr., 50.

The jury was aware that Grant Jr. was serving time in Solano state prison, but was not told any details of his criminal record—nor the details of Grant III’s own arrests and convictions before his death, according to published reports.

As described by the local newspaper’s coverage of the story, the spectators in the courtroom could hear Grant Jr.’s leg shackles as he walked to and from the witness stand dressed in a gray suit, blue shirt, and multicolored tie.

Grant Jr. told the jury he filed the lawsuit out of a respect for his son. He said he wants to help take care of his granddaughter Tatiana and he wants the chance to pay restitution for his own crimes.

“I’ve already paid for my crime, I’d like to give back to the community,” said Grant Jr., who according to a trial brief filed by his lawyer expects to be paroled in the next couple years after four prior denials by the state parole board.

During cross examination about the depth of his relationship with his son, Grant Jr. grew combative, according to the Tribune. Grant Jr. could not answer questions about whether his son played high school sports, whether he knew his granddaughter’s birthday, his son’s friends’ names, or whether Grant III had a job.

“What does my prison record have to do with your officer killing my son, shooting my son in the back?” Grant Jr. said during the trial.

Grant Jr. said Grant III last visited him in prison in 2002, and he last spoke to his son three days before his Jan. 1, 2009 death.

The jury deliberated a day before choosing to deny Grant Jr.’s claim that Mehserle’s intentional shooting of his son deprived him of a previous existing relationship that involved deep attachments and commitments to one another, and the sharing of special community of thoughts, experiences and beliefs, according to published reports.

Source

Andrew Scot Bolsinger won more than two dozen press awards during his journalism career. He is a freelance writer, author and operateswww.criminalu.co, which is focused on prison reform. He can reached at Andrew.Bolsinger@gmail.comand can be followed

John Coltrane - Giant steps full jazz album

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue - 1959 (Complete Album)

John Coltrane Blue Train Full Album

K. Michelle - Can't Raise A Man (Official Music Video)

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - AudioBook

James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass July Fourth Speech

"The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro"

Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too Ñ great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory....

...Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart."

But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common.ÑThe rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."

Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!" To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing there identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America.is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery Ñ the great sin and shame of America! "I will not equivocate; I will not excuse"; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.

But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, "It is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, an denounce less; would you persuade more, and rebuke less; your cause would be much more likely to succeed." But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!

For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!

Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? How should I look to-day, in the presence of Amercans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.

What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their mastcrs? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.

What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for such argument is passed.

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival....


...Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened," and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from "the Declaration of Independence," the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated. -- Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are distinctly heard on the other.

The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. The fiat of the Almighty, "Let there be Light," has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen in contrast with nature. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. 'Ethiopia, shall, stretch. out her hand unto Ood." In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it:

God speed the year of jubilee
The wide world o'er!
When from their galling chains set free,
Th' oppress'd shall vilely bend the knee,
And wear the yoke of tyranny
Like brutes no more.
That year will come, and freedom's reign,
To man his plundered rights again
Restore.

God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow!
In every clime be understood,
The claims of human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good,
Not blow for blow;
That day will come all feuds to end,
And change into a faithful friend
Each foe.

God speed the hour, the glorious hour,
When none on earth
Shall exercise a lordly power,
Nor in a tyrant's presence cower;
But to all manhood's stature tower,
By equal birth!
That hour will come, to each, to all,
And from his Prison-house, to thrall
Go forth.

Until that year, day, hour, arrive,
With head, and heart, and hand I'll strive,
To break the rod, and rend the gyve,
The spoiler of his prey deprive --
So witness Heaven!
And never from my chosen post,
Whate'er the peril or the cost,
Be driven.




The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, Volume II
Pre-Civil War Decade 1850-1860
Philip S. Foner
International Publishers Co., Inc., New York, 1950

Fresno Highest Deadly Per Capita Police Shooting Rate in America, CA Lea...

Many Blacks in my home town of Fresno are more concerned with my use of the N word than police killing Blacks. See my Juneteenth speech in Fresno:

Marvin X: The subject is Dante

Marvin X spoke in Fresno for Black History Month, he returned for Juneteenth

Marvin X at Fresno CA Juneteenth: Dante is my subject today

After opening remarks, Marvin X declared his subject today is Dante. We want to talk about Dante. The whole world is concerned about Dante. President Obama has a program for Dante. The schools and prisons are having a time with Dante. The community is in terror of Dante. Dante has many issues: he wants to wear his pants hanging off his behind. Now who wants to see his funky ass, who wants to see his dirty drawers, he told the audience in his hometown in the central valley that gathered to celebrate Juneteenth. And you OGs are afraid of Dante, afraid to say a word to him. Marvin declared 99% of time he tells Dante to pull his pants up, he does so, sometimes with a smile, sometimes with a laugh. Sometimes Dante will walk pass and he will read my mind and pull up his pants, without me saying a word, eye contact worked.

They say Dante is ignut, mentally retarded, suffers attention deficient disorder, to say nothing of his full blown addiction to white supremacy. Yet Dante is a genius, he can rap for hours without missing a line, but the schools can't get him to read and write, yet he can rap endlessly.

They (and who is the mythical they?) say Dante is useless and shiftless, yet he has created hip hop culture emulated and imitated around the world. Although there are those who denounce the word Nigguh, Dante has made Nigguh a multimillion dollar word, and every body in the world, those in youth culture, call themselves Nigguh, Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese, Africans, Arabs. Everybody wants to be a Nigguh except certain Nigguhs. Marvin X was informed after his speech that some in the audience departed because of his usage of the N word. In Marvin's world, he isn't being effective if some in the audience are not provoked to leave, sometimes screaming, hollering and tearing off their clothes! Such was the reaction to his recovery classic One Day in the Life.

He said Dante is valuable commodity who is now traded on the stock exchange, similar to oil, hogs, beef and corn. He is worth $60,000 per year per inmate incarcerated. Marvin said why not send them to Harvard, it has free admission for the poor. If they go to Harvard, they can learn how be real criminals, thieves, robbers and pimps. Harvard will make them global bandits, like President Obama, who walks about checking off his kill list weekly. But Dante wants to be a petty killer, a petty pimp, who terrorizes the hood but won't cross the line to kill white people. He will beat his woman have to death because he thinks he owns her body, especially her pussy that he claims is his, but he doesn't have a pussy, Dante doesn't bleed five days a month.

Dante wants to pimp his woman, even his sister and first cousin, even his moma, yeah, he pimps on a bicycle while living at his mama's house! Dante, please go to Harvard so you can learn how to pimp like the big boys!

Nigguh wanna pimp
can you pimp a Jew
can you pimp Arabia
Africa, Latin America
can you pimp teachers
preachers politicians judges
nigguh wanna pimp
nigguh please....
can you pimp the father, son and holy ghost
nigguh wanna pimp, yeah....

Marvin X told of speaking with youth at the Riker's Island youth prison in New York. He asked the youth how much it cost to keep them in prison for a year. One said ten thousand, another said twenty thousand, but a guard said $60,000. And the boot camp cost more, but if one graduated, he was provided a free college education. Think Dante took advantage of it, of course not, once Dante was back in the hood with the hood rats.

As we said, Dante is really a genius, a very smart guy, so smart he outsmarts himself. Then he wants to write Marvin X for books, free of course, but Dante adds his commissary lists. Marvin X said he doesn't mind sending books but he ain't filling out no commissary requests.

He asked the audience who visits Dante, who puts money on his books? His mama and his girl, rarely does his father visit him. Actually, she mother is mother and father. Marvin X said it was so in his case growing up, but he managed to come out all right, the author of thirty books. For sure, he said, this society does not want Dante to be another Marvin X or Malcolm X, or George Jackson or Tookie Williams. Any potential persons of this type are tracked from childhood like prison prophet Mumia Abu Jamal who was tracked from the age of 14. As was noted at his 60th birthday celebration in Philly, Mumia is free (he who is free in mind is free indeed--he just needs to be released).

Marvin's talk was interrupted with music, signaling his time was up, even though he was the featured speaker and rappers had been on stage talking loud but saying nothing for an extensive amount of time. He ended by noting that there had be 28 shootings in 30 days in Fresno, but not one white man had been killed. He was later informed the people at the police booth were disturbed. There were those who went to his defense. NAACP President Pamela Young said, "We know how Marvin is, Marvin was just Marvin." A Mexican lady came to his booth afterwards to tell him how much she appreciated his remarks and that youth need to hear him but she only objected to his use of the N word. And so it is.

Let's see what happens Sunday at Berkeley's Juneteenth. Marvin X will kickoff the event at 12 noon with a reading. Berkeley Juneteenth is at Adeline and Alcatraz, south of the ASHBY BART station.

Photos by Carl Donaldson: Marvin X and Felipe Luciano (The Last Poets) at Ras Baraka Inauguration, Newark NJ

Felipe Luciano and Marvin X have been friends since the Black Arts Movement in Harlem, NY., 1968.

Marvin X escaped Newark NJ just in time before the coming hurricane. Every time I come to the East coast, shit happens: 9/11, Sandy, Ice storm, etc. Even then, the plane spent two hours on the runway during the rain, thunder and lightning on Wednesday afternoon. 

He returns home to take up Paul Cobb's (publisher of the Oakland Post News Group) offer to help him produce the Black Arts Movement festival in Oakland. In Newark, Dr. Tony Montiero and Pam Africa urged him to set up a BAM headquarters in Philly. They vowed to help him with the Philly leg of the 27 City Tour of the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra. Now we know the Mayor of 

Newark, Ras Baraka, will bring the tour to his city, In sha Allah!

Marvin X will be in Seattle WA. next Saturday, July 12, 3pm, reading and signing books at the Life Enrichment Bookstore 5023 Rainer Ave. S., hosted by Hakeem Trotter.

Photo Essay: Newark NJ Mayor Ras J. Baraka inauguration, July 1, 2014

 FYI, Amiri Baraka, Jr. is the man behind the man. He is the thinker and planner, i.e., strategist of Team Baraka.

 Holy Mother Amina Baraka

 We are the Mayor!

 Mayor David Dinkins, Mayor Sharp James, Cory Booker, now Senator

 I always said this guy is a preacher. He called on God throughout his message at swearing in.

 Watch those daughters! 

 Mary J in da house!

My friend AB would have loved to see this day. We know he was there, in the air, in the sun, in the breeze! You did this AB, you set this ship in the ocean. Better ax somebody!

Ras J. Baraka takes oath of office as Newark's Mayor

Mayor Baraka with two daughters

I was never moved by the singing of the national anthem until today when Alana Smith, a very young female, blasted into the mike outside Newark's Performing Arts Center during the inauguration of Ras J. Baraka as the new mayor. Yes, I was moved to tears, but tears of joy at the child and the event of a young man I've known since he was a child, Ras J. Baraka, son of my recently departed friend of 47 years, poet Amiri Baraka and his beautiful wife, Amina.

After Ras was administered the oath of office, he proceeded with the inaugural address. After giving the eulogy at his father's funeral in January, we knew his speech would be powerful, for he is a poet in his own right, although he revealed he is as much a preacher as poet with his call and response cadences. He began with the mantra of his campaign, WE ARE MAYOR, and went on to delineate the social economic issues facing the city of his birth. He listed economic disparity, educational inequities, violence and incarceration as issues he must address. Mayor Baraka repeatedly called upon God to help him and the people of Newark, but declared he was a fearless radical who will call a spade a spade.

He told how he was in his mother's womb when Martin Luther King, Jr. dropped by their house. He was three years old when the Newark rebellion took place: his father was beaten bloody and mother terrorized. This was his socialization, his rites of passage into the political world of Newark--and America. His mother, poet Amina Baraka, grandmother and three daughters sat behind him on stage, along with former elected officials, including Governor Richard J. Codey, New York Mayor David Dinkins and Newark Mayor Sharp James.

Embattled Temple University Professor, Dr. Tony Montiero at the event. "I don't think much of political statements. We'll wait to see how events play out on the ground."

photo Marvin X

Newark's perennial  radical Baba Zayid 

photo Marvin X

Philadelphia's Harriet Tubman, Pam Africa

photo Marvin X

Radicals present included poets Sonia Sanchez, Haki Madhubuti, Marvin X, Dr. Tony Montiero of Temple University, Philadelphia; Pam Africa of the Committee to Save Mumia Abu Jamal, New York senior Black producer, Woody King and Baba Zayid of the New Black Panther Party.

The following notes from the Mayor were printed in the official inaugural program:
...Today, we take our oaths of office and our greatest duty will be to serve each and every one of you with professionalism, efficiency and effectiveness. We are committed to listening and leading, to answering and acting and to be compassionate and caring.

...We seek a Newark of safe streets, strong schools, a clean environment and abundant prosperity. We are proud of how our City stands at the center of our regional economy, a focus for development and increasingly, a destination for entertainment and the arts....

We have families to support, children to teach, homes to build, neighborhoods to strengthen and jobs to create. Together we will do so. Together we will overcome all challenges and adversities. Together we will build Newark's greatest days.

And so it is, on a hot day in Newark, the child of radical parents took the reins of power. In an act of political self diminishment and people's empowerment, he said repeatedly, We are the Mayor!

 Art by Emory

Da Mayor and poet Marvin X

Campaign to Bring Mumia Abu Jamal Home

Jun 30 at 12:17 PM

EMAJ Colleagues –

Mumia continues to send out commentaries from prison, this one, immediately below, on current journalists’ coverage of developments in Iraq.

Then below Mumia’s image, see the latest Minutes from Organizers in the Campaign to Bring Mumia home.

Mumia is at work, we are at work.

Keep on everyone,

EMAJ
___________________

MUMIA’S LATEST RADIO ESSAY FROM “IMPRISONED NATION” –

ENTITLED: “Lessons Unlearned from History – Re: Journalists and Iraq”  

 

The Campaign to Bring Mumia Home

Minutes of Coordinating Committee Meeting

June 14, 2014, 2:25 - 5:25PM

Philadelphia, Church of the Advocate

I. April 24 - 26th Report Back (NY, Philly, Mexico, France, Germany)                             *See Agenda Handout

II. Goals for 2014 - 2015:  Convictions Review Unit, FOP, Mainstreaming Mumia's Innocence, Palm cards, Petitions            

Convictions Review Unit Announcement

·         D.A. of Philadelphia, Seth Williams, announced the opening of the Convictions Review Unit (CRU)

·         CRU provides opportunity to have Mumia's case brought back into the court with standard for new evidence being lowered

·         Continue building a movement locally, nationally, internationally that will put pressure on D.A.'s office to open Mumia's case

·         The representation body who presents the case of Mumia to D.A.'s office "has to be carefully chosen, so that they can't say no"

·         Important to develop a narrative campaign (innocence narrative of Mumia)

·         Strategy needs developing on how to pressure LDF to act                                                                                                             Proposals: 1.) Writing a letter to LDF which states the significance of                       CRU and states the argument for Mumia's innocence.           

             2.) Have Mumia, high profile individuals, and                                                     organizations sign the letter       

·         Important that we understand the specifics of the cases that are opened by D.A. office in order to show the similarities between opened cases and Mumia's --> Will increase pressure on D.A. to open Mumia's case

Goals Around Convictions Review Unit

1.) Forming a representative body to present Mumia's case to CRU

2.) Ensuring NAACP strongly pursues and supports the case to the CRU

3.) Direct actions towards Seth Williams that will increase pressure for him to open Mumia's case

4.) Recruit 10 high profile people who will be our CRU ambassadors

Goals Around FOP

1.)    Develop a short FOP Document that we can easily deploy in the future when the FOP rears its head (Response Plan)

2.)    Putting a face on FOP (what FOP represents, what it does, its impacts on people’s lives)

Mainstreaming Mumia’s Innocence

1.)    Target Racial Justice News Outlets to Cover our Mumia Narrative (b/w now & Dec.)

2.)    Popularize Kenneth Freeman Story

3.)    Mumia Freedom Bus in Philly (mobile museum)

Petitions & Palm Cards

1.)    Assign a couple of people to collect and mail palm cards

2.)    Establish monthly goals of how many petitions we want signed

3.)    Modernize tradition of street outreach in NY and Philly (palm cards and petition distribution)

4.)    Add signature line to palm cards

Structure

1.)    Dues/Membership Organization: Still need more suggestions on what processes would work best four our structure

2.)    Team of 4 (David, Jackie, Jeff, & Sophia) assigned the task of proposing a structure at our next meeting

3.)    Elders Counsel can serve as consultation body for new people to learn from older, more experienced folks

4.)    Assembling team that goes through every website that has Mumia info and ensure that info is correct

5.)    Agreed that we would need the following committees:

          Finance, Outreach and New Membership, Media/Communications

Although structure is in flux -- agreed that the following committees would be formed to proceed with immediate work, volunteers signed up and point people were assigned to each:

1. FOP Document = Johanna, Rebekah

2. Media/Communications = Jackie

3. Finance = Jamila, Gabe, Betsy

4. Convictions Review Work = Lee, Johanna, Charlotte, Patrice 

5. Narrative on Innocence = Jamila, Pam

6. Outreach and Membership = Jeff, Gabe, Carlito, Kamau, Frances, Sophia, Lee

Attendees:

Shesheena

Johanna

Gabe

Sheena

Jamila

Rebekah

David

Patrice

Dr. Monteiro

Carlito

Sophia

Charlotte

Jeff

Pam

Ramona

Lee

Frances

Next Meeting, July 20^th

Time & Location TBA

Marvin X in Seattle WA, Saturday, July 12, 3pm., Life Enrichment Bookstore

The Human Earthquake will visit Seattle WA for a reading/booksigning at the Life Enrichment Bookstore, Saturday, July 12, 3pm. Marvin X has fond memories of the few months he lived in Seattle while working on his autobiography Somethin' Proper, Black Bird Press, 1998.

I was treated royally by the Seattle people, Black and White. I made a lot of money hustling Seattle's Homeless paper, $400.00 per day @ $20.00 per paper. I wish I could show the homeless brothers and sisters how to hustle in a big way. I don't make that much now selling my books. Maybe I should go back to selling the homeless paper.

When White women read my poster poem For the Women, they weeped on the street. Their reaction to my poem humbled me because it revealed the power of words, how words can move the heart. They wanted to know how a man was able to write such a poem. I told them many women had to suffer my physical, emotional and verbal abuse, especially the mothers of my children. Then too, my attitude changed when my three daughters grew into womanhood. I certainly would not allow any man to abuse them. And I saw my intellectual and spiritual consciousness expressed in my daughters as well as my sons, so I had to throw that patriarchal mentality into the dustbin of history, the notion that sons are more important than daughters. My daughters are the intellectual and spiritual match of any man! Of course, I give all praise to their mothers.

Amira, Nefertiti, Muhammida and Marvin X

We thank Seattle Wa for the invitation, especially Hakeem Trotter and the folks at Life Enrichment Bookstore, located at 5023 Rainer Ave. S, Seattle WA., 3pm.

Marvin X is still working on the 27 City Tour of the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra.
For booking, please call 510-200-4164.