08/13/2023
“Any movement that doesn’t support its political prisoners is a sham movement.”
-Ojore Lutalo
BLACK AUGUST began in 1979* as a commemoration of the life, the death, and the material and spiritual contributions of several freedom fighters who were assassinated or otherwise persecuted at the hands of the racist and reactionary United States government (via the California Department of Corrections) as it worked to suppress the black liberation movement that had emerged (after about 1960) to fight against injustices within the California Penal System. These freedom fighters included, along with scores of others, George Jackson, his brother Jonathan Jackson, William Christmas, Fleeta Drumgo, W.L. Nolan, Alvin Miller, Cleveland Edwards, Khatari Gaulden, James McClain, Ruchelle Magee, John Cluchette, Lateef Allen, and Sujaa Graham. With the exception of Jonathan Jackson (the leader of the August 1970 Marin County Court House rebellion), these men served in the black liberation prison movement known as the “Black Guerrilla Family”. In this regard, these men prominently worked and in some cases sacrificed their all, including their very lives, for the people’s massive resistance against injustice. That is to say, they fought against racist bigotry, class prejudice, and oppression both inside and outside of the prison walls. To quote George Jackson, “We attempted to transform the black criminal mentality into a black revolutionary mentality. As a result, each of us has been subjected to years of the most vicious reactionary violence by the state.”
As time has passed, BLACK AUGUST, as a black consciousness commeration, outgrew its beginnings in the California prisons and became recognized nationwide as an annual celebration of the black liberation movement in its entirety. In this growth, BLACK AUGUST still encourages resistance against all manner of injustice and racist bigotry, and it calls upon us to remember all who struggled against oppression, with a particular emphasis on current political prisoners and prisoners of war.