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Home  Political Prisoners
Some Political Prisoners - Our Heros
POLITICAL EXILES, PAST & CURRENT POLITICAL PRISONERS Below are a few biographies providing some background information on the lives and struggles of our courageous freedom fighters.
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ABDUL MAJID is a native of Queens New York and has been imprisoned for two decades. In the 1960s, he worked in the Grass Roots Advisory Council, an anti-poverty program. In the late 60s Abdul joinec the Black Panther Party and the Republic of New Afrika. Abdul was involved in many of the community-based programs of the BPP including the free health clinic, free breakfast foi children program, and efforts to decentralize the public schools and the police department. Abdul was targeted by the FBI and was charged and convicted of murder and attempted murder. He and his co-defendant, Bashir Hameec were tried three times. There first trial ended in a hung jury divided along racial lines. The second trial was declared a mistrial by the judge immediately after the jury rendered a decision that acquitted Bashir on the murder charge. At a third trial, they were eventually convicted for murder. Abdul was sentenced to 33 years to life. |
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 Political Prisoner Albert Nuh Washington |
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ASSATA SHAKUR was a political prisoner who now lives in exile in Cuba. Assata was a leader in both the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army; indeed she was called the "The Soul of the B.L.A." Because of her role in both these organizations, she was targeted by the FBI. In 1971, together with Zayd Shakur and Sundiata Acoli, Assata was driving along the New Jersey Turnpike, when the three were ambushed by state troopers. Assata was wounded, as was Sundiata, and Zayd was killed. A trooper was killed as well. Assata was convicted of murder in what was, at worst, a case of self-defense. Eight years later, she was liberated from a New Jersey prison and to this day continues to fight for the human rights and self-determination of Black people. |
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BASHIR HAMEED was born and raised in New Jersey. In 1968, Bashii Hameed joined the Black Panther Party while residing in Oakland CA. Once he returned to New Jersey, he became Deputy Chairman of the New Jersey Chapter of BPP. FBI documents obtained during the 70's reveal that during this time Bashir became a COINTELPRO target. He was charged and convicted of the murder and the attempted murder of two police officers in April 1981. This conviction came as a direct result of his political activity. Bashir Hameed and his co-defendant, Abdul Majid were tried three times. There first trial ended in a hung jury divided along racial lines, The second trial was declared a mistrial by the judge immediately after the jur> rendered a decision that acquitted Bashir on the murder charge. At a third trial, they were eventually convicted for murder. Bashir is currently serving a sentence of 25 years to life. |
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DAVID GILBERT is a North American political prisoner. The Civil Rights struggle of the 60s exposed David to the sham of US democracy and embodied the beauty of collective struggle. In 1965 he started the Vietnam Committee at Columbia University in NY and became a founding member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) there. In 1967, David authored the first SDS pamphlet on US Imperialism and participated in the Columbia Strike of 1968. After about 5 years of organizing in the above ground movement, David joined the revolutionary underground, spending a total of 10 years living clandestinely, actively resisting imperialism with arms. On October 20, 1981, he and other comrades were captured at Nyack, NY during an attempted expropriation by a unit of the Black Liberation Army working with white revolutionaries (known as the Revolutionary Armed Task Force- RATF). During the expropriation attempt, 3 officers were killed. Charged and convicted of felony murder, David is serving a 75 year (minimum) to life sentence. While in prison, David has been actively involved in the struggle against AIDS, and has remained a staunch opponent of oppression still dedicated to human liberation.
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DR. MUTULU SHAKUR In 1987 Dr. Shakur was sentenced to 60 years imprisonment for his role in the Black Liberation Movement. He was convicted on "non-specific conspiracy charges" which means, in effect, they could not determine his participation in any particular crime. While he was on the street, Dr. Shakur challenged the use of methadone as a tool of recovery for addicts. He believed in natural remedies instead and, based on those beliefs, founded the Black Acupuncture Advisory Association of North America. Many people credit Shakur with saving their lives. Dr. Shakur has worked to free political prisoners and to expose government abuses against political organizers. While in prison, he has struggled to create peace between rival gangs. Like all of our captured freedom fighters, he embodies the phrase that you can jail the revolutionary, but you can’t jail the revolution!
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DYLCIA PAGAN is a former Puerto Rican political prisoner, who was granted Clemency in September of 1999. Dylcia Pagán was born in New York City on October 15, 1946. She attended Brooklyn College were she majored in Cinematography and Sociology, participated in the struggle for students' rights and founded the Puerto Rican Students Union. Dylcia was captured April 4, 1980 along with other comrades, for participating in the underground wing of the Puerto Rican independence movement. She sentenced to 55 years on charges of seditious conspiracy, among others. She completed an 8-year state sentence. After years of separation, she has been reunited with her son Guillermo. Dylcia's patriotism has manifested itself in many artistic forms which include painting, ceramics, poetry and her writings. She has participated in the production of a video about her life and lives of her compañeros in the struggle. Throughout her capture, trial and incarceration she has maintained her position as an anti-colonial prisoner of war (POW) resisting the illegal U.S. occupation of her homeland. For more information please consult: - www.prisonactivist.org/pps+pows/dylcia-pagan.html
- www.wco.com/~boricua/POWS/dylcia.htm
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FRED HAMPTON, JR. the son of a panther who himself became a political prisoner was freed in September 2001, after serving nearly a decade in prison. His father, the gregarious leader of the Chicago Panthers, was assassinated while he slept next to his pregnant wife in 1969. In 1990, at the age of 20, Fred Jr. was already extremely active in the same political circles that proved to be deadly for his father. He became the President of the local National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement (NPDUM), joining their fight for the rights of African people in the United States. In March 1992, the government made two separate attempts to indict Fred on charges of murder and armed robbery. He was found not guilty of both. In May of that same year, Fred was accused of firebombing a Korean store. On May 19, 1993, Fred Hampton, Jr. is sentenced to eighteen years in prison on one count of aggravated arson. Upon his release, Fred has continued his work on behalf of oppressed people.
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 Political Prisoner George Jackson |
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GERONIMO JI JAGA PRATT was finally released in June of 1997 after being kidnapped and held captive in California prisons for 27 years despite the fact that police agencies had proof that he was innocent of the crimes for which he had been imprisoned. A decorated Vietnam Vet, Geronimo came home, joined the LA chapter of the Black Panther Party and, because of his leadership skills, was targeted by the government. In 1969 he was framed and convicted for the murder of a woman although everyone including the FBI knew he was at a Panther meeting when she was killed. The parole system never released G, despite the fact that at the time of his conviction, most murderers served average sentences of 10 years. Geronimo was released from prison through the tireless organizing that occurred around his case, and the ongoing work of his attorneys including Johnnie Cochran.
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 Political Prisoner Herman Bell |
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HERMAN FERGESON was one the founding members of Malcolm X’s Organization of Afro-American Unity. He also helped to organize the Republic of new Afrika and was a member of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM). As a member of RAM, Herman was arrested for conspiracy to assassinate Roy Wilkins of the NAACP and Whitney Young of the Urban League. Herman was sentenced to 3 and a half - 7 years, but he fled the country and surfaced in Guyana where he lived and worked for the next 19 years. In 1989 he returned to the United States where he was promptly arrested and imprisoned for seven years. Today he has been released and serves as the co-chair of the Jericho Movement, and as the chair of the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee. |
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 Political Prisoner Jalil Muntaquin |
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LAURA WHITEHORN was a former North American political prisoner who was released in 1999 after completing 15 years in prison. A long-time activist, Laura, convicted of the 1983 U.S. Capitol bombing and "conspiring to influence, change and protest policies and practices of the U.S. government," she directed AIDS education and wrote for numerous publications during her years behind bars. Since the 1970s, when she helped lead a building occupation at Harvard, Laura has been active in anti-racist and anti-war organizing, and the women's liberation movement. Along with Linda Evans, Marilyn Buck, Susan Rosenberg and others, she was convicted in the Resistance Conspiracy to attack the U.S. Capitol, the Navy War College, and other government and corporate targets. While in prison, she was active in AIDS support work and where, with the other political prisoners, she helped organize the Bay Area art show for Mumia. Laura has contributed art work in pencil, woodblock, ink, collage and mixed media to publications and art exhibitions throughout her years in prison. |
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LEONARD PELTIER is a carpenter, welder, and American Indian Movement (AIM) leader who has been a political prisoner since 1977. Prior to his incarceration, Leonard was working with different Native communities and was a community counselor. During the FBI surveillance, in 1975, that followed the 1973 AIM occupation of Wounded Knee, two federal agents were shot dead at South Dakota's Pine Ridge reservation. Peltier was convicted of their murders and sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment, despite the prosecution's misconduct and admission of false evidence, and the fact that no witnesses linked Peltier to the crime. His incarceration continues to draw international attention. He symbolizes the long history of abuse and repression that indigenous people have endured. Peltier, a member of the Anishinabe (Ojibwa) and Lakota nations, writes, paints, and organizes from behind bars. |
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MARILYN BUCK, a North American political prisoner, began her anti-racist activism as a teen in Texas, organized against the war in Vietnam, and joined SDS and S. F. Newsreel. She fought for self-determination for all people, and she aligned herself with the Black Liberation Movement. In 1973 she was convicted of purchasing two boxes of handgun ammunition and was given a ten year sentence. After serving four years in Federal prison in Alderson, West Virginia, she was granted a furlough and did not return. The following eight years she was underground. In 1985 Marilyn was recaptured and tried for breaching another wall - she was convicted of conspiracy for the successful escape of Assata Shakur from her New Jersey prison. Marilyn and her codefendants, Dr. Mutulu Shakur and Sekou Odinga were also convicted of conspiracy to commit "armed bank robbery" in support of the New Afrikan Independence struggle. In 1988 she was given another ten years in the Resistance Conspiracy case, for "conspiracy to protest and alter government policies (the invasion of Grenada, intervention in Central America) through use of violence" against government and military property. She has been in prison for 17 years, with a total sentence of 80 years.
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MUMIA ABU JAMAL is an award winning journalist and one of the founders of the Black Panther Party chapter in Philadelphia, PA. He has struggled for the justice and human rights of people of color since he was at least 14 years old ~ the age he was when he joined the Party. In December of 1982, Mumia, who moonlighted by driving a taxi, happened upon police who were beating his brother. During the melee, a police was shot and killed and despite the fact that many people saw someone else shoot and then runaway from the scene, Mumia, in what could only be called a kangaroo court, was convicted and sentenced to death. During the summer of 1995, a death warrant was signed by Governor Tom Ridge, which sparked one of the most effective organizing efforts in defense of a political prisoner ever. As a result a stay was issued, but Mumia's life continues to hang in the balance as we all await word on his current appeal. |
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NEHANDA ABIODUN is a political exile living in Cuba. She is a veteran of the New Afrikan Independence struggle and a citizen of the Republic of New Afrika. Nehanda work as an activist began at age 10 as a tenant organizer. Later she worked with the National Black Human Rights Coalition and helped to heal addicts at the Black Acupuncture Association of North America with Dr. Mutulu Shakur. In 1982 Nehanda was indicted,™ along with Dr. Shakur and Sekou Odinga with the expropriation of a Brinks truck. She went underground and surfaced in Cuba. Nehanda is a member of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. |
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 Political Prisoner Robert S. Hayes |
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 Political Prisoner Russell Maroon Shoats |
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SAFIYAH BUKHARI was a dedicated community activist and former political prisoner. She joined the Black Panther Party in November of 1969. She and other activists formed the National Committee to Defend Political Prisoners. She later joined the Black Liberation Army (BLA). In 1974, Safiyah was subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in a case against the BLA. Safiyah refused to testify and went underground. In January 1975, she was captured, convicted and sentenced to 40 years. On December 31, 1976 Safiyah escaped from the Virginia Correctional Center for Women. She was re-captured on February 21, 1977 and returned to prison. On August 22 1983, Safiyah made parole. Since her release, she has worked on the cases of political prisoners, including the New York 3 and Mumia Abu-Jamal. She was a founder of the Jericho Amnesty Movement. By 1998 she, along with others, founded the Jericho Movement to free all political prisoners. She was also a member of the Republic of New Afrika and, at one point, was its Vice-President. In the past decade, Safiya took on Islam as her religion and found great strength in the spirituality it embodied. Safiya passed in the early hours of August 24th. She was 53 years old. Her exemplary life and spirit will be a shining light for us for decades to come.
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SEKOU ODINGA was forced into hiding in 1969 when he and twenty other Black Panther Party members were wrongly charged with criminal conspiracy in the NY Panther 21 case. Several months later, while still underground, he traveled to Algeria to establish an international chapter of the Black Panther Party. Later, Sekou became an activist in the New Afri-kan Independence Movement and a member of the Black Liberation Army. On October 23, 1981, Sekou and Mtyari Shabaka Sundiata were ambushed by the NYC police and FBI agents. The police murdered Mtyari. Sekou was eventually captured, tortured, and eventually charged with the liberation of Assata Shakur and the expropriation of money from an armored car. Sekou was convicted of two federal charges under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act and was sentence to forty years imprisonment and a $50,000 fine. He was also convicted of six state counts of attempted murder steaming form the defense of himself and Mtyari during the police attack in 1981. For this he was sentenced to concurrent life sentences. |
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 Political Prisoner Sundiata Acoli |
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TEDDY JAH HEATH was active in the black liberation and civil rights movement in the 60s. In 1968 he joined the Black Panther Party. He was a defendant in the infamous Panther 21 case were Panther leaders spent two years in prison for trumped-up charges of conspiracy. They were all eventually acquitted. On May 2, 1973 Jah was arrested again and charged with kidnapping a drug dealer. This politically motivated trail occurred amidst government orchestrated hysteria around the Black Liberation Army, of which Jah was a member. He was given a life sentence by an all-white jury for an alleged kidnapping, in which no one was injured. Teddy Jah Heath served almost thirty years and recently died of cancer. For more information, please consult the following websites: - www.prisonactivist.org/pps+pows/jah.html
- www.thejerichomovement.com
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