Free Angela and All Political Prisoners Page #6

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the image of three black men

walking into a silent courtroom

in the city of Salinas

with chains around their waists,

chains under their crotch,

their hands chained,

while their only crime was having attempted

to organize the human beings

inside the Soledad Prison.

They were the ones who were singled out

to serve as examples to any

and everyone in this country

who dares stands up for the truth.

So, what connected these three men,

and what gave rise to the Soledad

Brothers' case, is that a white guard

was killed in Soledad

by being thrown from an upper tier.

George Jackson, John Clutchette

and Fleeta Drumgo

were very prominent

in the prison reform movement

and were basically singled out

and accused of killing this prison guard.

These individuals,

while they may have been incarcerated

for crimes,

now they have become persecuted

because of their political belief.

I hope the people on this campus realize...

What Angela Davis does is

become a primary spokesman

for a quest to free political prisoners.

We have to start fighting back.

Those three brothers in Soledad Prison

are fighting back.

They'd all been convicted

of relatively minor property crimes.

One of them had been accused

of stealing a television set.

George had been accused of stealing $70.

He had been in solitary confinement

for seven years.

He'd been in prison for 11,

and seven of those years

had been in solitary confinement.

Once he got into prison,

he was a strong-willed,

rebellious personality

who continued to defy authorities.

And then he also found his voice as a writer.

And he studied and he became radicalized.

And, I think, once he emerged

as someone who could

articulate revolutionary ideas,

people gravitated to that kind of leadership.

Look...

One of the most important elements of

guerrilla warfare is to maintain secrecy.

I've killed nobody until, you know,

it's been proven.

And they'll never be able

to prove anything like that.

Most people I knew

thought George Jackson was a hero.

The fact that he may have also been

a criminal was glossed over.

I first saw him

at a hearing.

We may have mouthed some words,

but it was, of course, illegal to

communicate with prisoners in the court.

I was, you know, drawn by

a kind of tenderness

that I did not expect to find in prisoners.

He was a beautiful writer,

a powerful writer, passionate writer.

And I eventually felt very much

seduced by that.

Brother George Jackson,

one of the Soledad Brothers,

has been in prison for 10 years

since he was 18 years old

on a second degree robbery charge.

One of the things that we really have

to talk about and come to grips with

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