Former East Coast Black Panther and now San Francisco resident Kiilu
Nyasha has done more than anyone I am aware of, to keep the memory of
George Jackson and his assassination in August 1971, alive. She has also
been the leading fighter for the freedom of Ruchell McGee, one of the
many black political prisoners who have fallen through the movement's
memory holes.
Each year, before she was kicked off the air in the mass purge of,
ironically, August, 1995, at KPFA, Kiilu did a memorial program on Black
August and continued doing so for Free Radio Berkeley. She has also been
the most important "independent" activist working on the case of Mumia
Abu-Jamal, all this while confined to a wheelchair due to a debilitating
muscular skeletal disease. Her next project will be this year's
celebration of Black August at the Alice Arts Center in Oakland on
August 18, and Kathleen Cleaver will be flying out from the East Coast
to speak.
Jeff Blankfort
Radman sent:
>
> >From: kiilu
> >Sent: Friday, July 21, 2000 8:33 PM
> >BLACK AUGUST 2000: A Story of African Freedom Fighters
> >
> >by Kiilu Nyasha
> >
> >Black August is a month of great significance for Africans throughout
> >the diaspora, but particularly here in the U.S. where it originated.
> >"August," as Mumia Abu-Jamal noted, "is a month of meaning, of
> >repression and radical resistance, of injustice and divine justice;
> >of repression and righteous rebellion; of individual and collective
> >efforts to free the slaves and break the chains that bind us.".
> >
> >On this 21st anniversary of Black August, first organized to honor
> >our fallen freedom fighters, Jonathan and George Jackson, Khatari
> >Gaulden, James McClain, William Christmas, and the sole survivor
> >of the August 7, 1970 Courthouse Slave Rebellion, Ruchell Cinque
> >Magee, it is still a time to embrace the principles of unity,
> >self-sacrifice, political education, physical fitness and/or training
> >in martial arts, resistance, and spiritual renewal..
> >
> >The concept, Black August, grew out of the need to expose to the
> >light of day the glorious and heroic deeds of those Afrikan women
> >and men who recognized and struggled against the injustices heaped
> >upon people of color on a daily basis in America.
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