 JAMIL AL-AMIN aka “H. RAP BROWN”October 4, 1943 – November 23, 2025 |
| Dear Friends of SNCC, The family of Jamil Al-Amin aka H. Rap Brown announced his passing on Sunday, October 23, 2025 at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina. Jamil Al-Amin served as the fifth Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Before becoming SNCC Chairman, Jamil was an active member of the Howard University SNCC chapter the Nonviolent Action Group (NAG). He also worked in the 1964 Mississippi Summer Project, and organizing in Greene County, Alabama in 1965-1966. Jamil Al-Amin is the author of two books, Die Nigger Die (1969) and Revolution by the Book (1993). The SNCC family offers its condolences and love to Jamil’s wife Karima Al Amin and son Kairi. While chairman of SNCC, Jamil asserted that “violence was as American as cherry pie.” His statement referred to the thousands of Black and Brown men, women and children who were and are brutalized and killed in America without any accountability. The violent deaths of Medgar Evers, Sandra Bland, Emmitt Till, Aura Rooser, Jimmie Lee Jackson, Michelle Cusseaux, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mya Hall, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Janisha Fonville, Tamir Rice, Natasha McKenna, George Floyd and Freddie Gray are an undeniable part of America’s history. In 2025, thousands of Brown men, women and children are being swept off the streets by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and disappeared without due process. Unlike white Americans, Black and Brown people are presumed guilty and are subjected to being stopped, frisked, detained, jailed, and/or shot. After serving as SNCC Chairman, Jamil was arrested for robbery and jailed in Attica Prison from 1971 to 1976. While in prison he joined the Muslim faith and changed his name from Hubert Gerold “Rap” Brown to Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin. Since 2000, Jamil had been serving a life sentence for the accused murder of two Deputy Sheriffs in Fulton County, Georgia. Jamil’s son, Kairi, has been working for more than a decade to secure his father’s release from prison. He has continually stated that there was evidence to prove Jamil innocent of the murders. It is the hope of SNCC veterans, who over the past 65 years have engaged in the struggle to make America a less violent society for Black and Brown people, that all Americans will continue the very hard work of fighting against all forms of inequality and injustice. We must ensure that America becomes a place where all people feel safe and are not subjected to violence by federal, state or local governments, and non-state actors because of the color of their skin. |
Drums in the Global Village 