Category Archives: american history
My Root Article On This Week’s African Summit……..
A New, French, BPP Graphic Novel!
And I say “new” because this is the first BPP (kinda) graphic novel, as far as I know. Always great to combine interests. 😉
Panthers in the Hole: French Angola 3 Book Illustrates US Prison Crisis
–An interview with Nicolas Krameyer of Amnesty International France
Amnesty International France and La Boîte à Bulles have published a 128-page French language graphic novel entitled Panthers in the Hole. The book’s co-authors David Cénou and Bruno Cénou present with visual art what Amnesty France describes as “la tragique histoire des Trois d’Angola” (the tragic story of the Angola 3).
Robert H. King, Herman Wallace, and Albert Woodfox are the trio of Black Panther political prisoners known collectively as the Angola 3. On October 1, 2013 Herman Wallace was dramatically released from prison after 41 years in solitary confinement. At the time of his release, he had been fighting terminal liver cancer for several months. Three days later, on Oct. 4, Herman was surrounded by loved ones as he passed on at a friend’s house in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Albert Woodfox remains in solitary confinement to this day and with only temporary respite from routine body cavity searches pending an upcoming ruling by the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. On April 17, 2014, marking 42 years since Albert Woodfox was first placed in solitary, Amnesty International renewed its call for his immediate release (view Amnesty’s statement and essay) and today continues their online campaign (sign the petition here).
Robert King spent 29 years in continuous solitary confinement until his conviction was overturned and he was released from Louisiana’s infamous Angola State Prison in 2001. Himself the subject of a recent Canadian film, King spoke in Paris, France this past May at an event celebrating the release of Panthers in the Hole and has traveled Europe many times while on earlier speaking tours.To further discuss the release of Panthers in the Hole and Amnesty France’s broader support for Albert Woodfox and the Angola 3, we interviewed Nicolas Krameyer, who is head of the Individuals at Risk / Human Rights Defenders Program for Amnesty International France. A sample of images from Panthers in the Hole are featured throughout the interview.
(PHOTO: Robert King at the Panthers in the Hole book launch in Paris, France organized by Amnesty France. A photo of Albert Woodfox is projected on the screen.) Angola 3 News:
Can you please tell us about your recent work related to the Angola 3?
Nicolas Krameyer: Amnesty France has made the Angola 3 (A3) a priority campaign.
We included Albert and Herman’s case as part of our biggest annual event, known as Write for Rights in December 2012. In just a few weeks, at least 50,000 supporters signed the petition for an end to their solitary confinement.
We also organized a solidarity campaign where activists sent Herman and Albert messages of support. The letter-writers quickly received very strong and moving answers from Herman and Albert, which we then shared among other activists.
A few months later, we invited Robert King for a two-week speaking tour in France and Brussels, which gave national media coverage to the A3 and the widespread use of solitary confinement in the USA. Both the A3 case and the issue of solitary confinement were totally unknown to the general public. Even the partners and institutions with whom we normally work on human rights activism were not familiar with these issues.
A3N: What do you think are the main reasons for the French public’s interest?
NK: Beside the widespread publicity, I think there are 3 key factors that explain why so many people feel now concerned about the Angola 3 case:
(1) The monstrous nature of the case. There are very few examples in the world of such a blatant human rights violation for such a long period of time: more than 4 decades!
(2) The audience could follow the different steps of the clear campaign of vengeance lead by the local Louisiana authorities, like when the prosecutor appealed Albert’s third overturned conviction, or in October 2013 when the State authorities did their most to impede Herman’s release despite his health. That clearly angered people here in France, and one indicator of this was that journalists were publishing articles every time something new happened, which is quite rare.
(3) Lastly, this has been made possible because of Robert’s presence and strength, which he clearly communicated to all types of audiences, from the media to French officials and activists.
A3N: Overall, how do you think Amnesty France’s A3 and anti-solitary campaigning has impacted France?
NK: Previously, solitary confinement was not really considered a big human rights issue, except for some rare experts or USA specialists here. Guantanamo and death penalty continue to be the two main public topics in regards to human rights violations known in France. The A3 and Robert King gave a face to that common practice of cruel and inhumane treatment in the USA.
Even if we can’t go into details here, we know that probably for first time, French and EU governments officially raised this issue with their US counterparts.
A3N: Can you tell us more about the new graphic novel, entitled Panthers in the Hole? How has it been received since being released in May?
NK: The comic book gives the local historical context leading up to the A3’s horrific situation. The historic racism and the political context of the 60’s and 70’s is very present in the book. In short, the content is a mix between Robert’s autobiography and the documentary film In the Land of the Free. However, the authors have also read and researched a lot about Angola prison and the different trial transcripts of the three men.
Visually, I really like how the authors recreated the atmosphere of the 60’s, which gives a special strength to the book. It is a bit as if In the Land of the Free had been covering the past 50 years of the story. Importantly, it also moves a different audience that is not necessarily familiar with human rights issues.
So far, 2 months later, sales have been strong and feedback received from the editor suggests the book has been well received.
A3N: With over 2.4 million prisoners, today, the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Do you think the crisis of mass incarceration relates to the widespread practice of solitary confinement in US prisons, especially considering that solitary confinement has been shown to increase recidivism rates?
NK: Amnesty does not take a position on the incarceration rate a nation has. However, the widespread and routine use of long term solitary confinement in the US is not only contrary to international human rights law, as a clear form of inhumane treatment that amounts to torture. It also does contribute to recidivism because it greatly hinders the possibility for a rehabilitation process when the detainee comes out.
In short, it is not only morally wrong, it is clearly inefficient, and also very expensive.A3N: As African American leader Malcolm X was developing his internationalist and anti-capitalist politics in the months leading up to his February 1965 assassination, he spoke about the need to shift from a focus on ‘civil rights’ to one of ‘human rights.’ He announced further that he would be seeking assistance from the United Nations to rectify the human rights abuses being committed by the US government against the African American community. How can international pressure influence a country as powerful as the US, who has openly violated human rights laws and treaties like at the infamous Guantanamo Bay and Bagram prisons that Amnesty International has criticized (http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/security-and-human-rights/guantanamo) ?
NK: I would say that the US’ power within the international community presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the international community, or as Robert King would say, the international court of public opinion.
It is a challenge because many nations don’t want to confront the US on human rights issues. This is true even, and sometimes especially with ‘friends’ and traditional allies like EU countries. It is a shame how EU countries can adopt a double discourse on human rights that varies depending on the nation they have dialogue with. This is despite the fact that as friends and allies of the US, they definitely could use their influence more effectively than other countries.
It is an opportunity because in order to maintain its power, the US needs not only to engage the rest of the world on military or economic levels, but also on what is called “soft power.” This means that for the US to still be considered a leading country, it has also to be recognized for the human rights record they have.
Being isolated on human rights issues or other international issues, being regularly criticized within the intergovernmental bodies or in the international media, is not beneficial to the US as a nation, even if the US media or public opinion does not talk so much about these issues. That’s what happens in a way regarding the death penalty. Being one of the biggest executioners, with only very authoritarian regimes doing the same, is not good for the US image.
A3N: Shifting focus to France, what types of human rights violations are you currently focusing on within your own country? How widespread are human rights violations in the French criminal justice system? To what extent is prolonged solitary confinement used in France?
NK: The main human rights violations that we as Amnesty oppose are not in the criminal justice system, although it is clearly not perfect: from what I know from other expert NGOs on the matter, prison conditions in France are a real shame and are regularly criticized by international bodies such as the European Court on human rights.
Impunity for excessive violence or abuses committed by police officers is also a great matter of concern in France.
However, the main issues we as Amnesty have to tackle right now in France, and more generally in Europe, are the rights of migrants. Today in Europe, borders are clearly more important than people’s lives and this policy results in massive human rights violations, including right to life, with migrants dying in the Mediterranean Sea or being held in inhumane detention centers just for trying to escape the problems in their country and for wanting a better life.
Another key focus of ours relates to the discrimination faced by marginalized groups like Muslims and above all, rights of Roma communities.
A3N: As activists, we can often learn important lessons from other communities’ struggles for justice around the world. Based upon your work and victories in France, what is your advice for human rights activists in the US who are working around prison issues?
NK: It is a very hard question, but I would recommend inviting activists and specialists from other countries and other contexts to share their best practices and experiences with US activists. This helps to see the common aspects of the fight and what worked well. It also helps to identify what is specific to your own local context and what therefore has to be addressed specifically in your community.
A3N: Any closing thoughts?
NK: Free Albert!
–Angola 3 News is a project of the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3. Our website is www.angola3news.com where we provide the latest news about the Angola 3. We are also creating our own media projects, which spotlight the issues central to the story of the Angola 3, like racism, repression, prisons, human rights, solitary confinement as torture, and more.
“And Who Disguised As Clark Kent,”……!
WOW! “Batman,” “Superman” and “Wonder Woman,” all on the same night! GREAT!
The “redface” in the last 10 seconds….*SIGH*
Yep, I Read The Archie-Dies Issue…..
…….and, hands-down, one of the best Archie stories EVER. (Yep, even better than “Archie Marries…!”) Both parts were quite powerful. It’s sad when a final issue is so GREATER than almost the whole series, but not this time. Archie’s character was 73.
First A Female Thor, And Now A Black Captain America?
The cool-ass Falcon is now Cap?
No, no, NO!
Marvel should use the REAL Black Captain America, from “TRUTH!”
See that “Double V” on that shield?!? TOO BLACK, TOO STRONG! LOL! 🙂
Marvel could also use the one from THE CREW–Josiah X, a.k.a. Justice!
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Talking about the new, female Thor, I was telling a friend just this morning about the top five things mainstream superhero comic creators do to spur media coverage and sales:
1) kill them
2) change their powers/costume
3) Change their identity (new, younger male)
4) ” ” (make them female)
5) ” ” (make them Black or Latino)
Ten years from now, it’ll be like it never happened. 🙂
James Baldwin On Being An American Writer
I’m in McKeldin Library right now, thumbing through its bound set of Freedomways magazine. I find where Augusta Strong wrote the article, “Notes on James Baldwin,” for the Spring 1962 issue. (Augusta Strong was listed in the contributor’s page as “a former English teacher and newspaper reporter who is a frequent contributor to Freedomways.”) She cites a Baldwin New York Times essay or interview:
“……to be an American writer today means mounting an underdog attack on all that Americans believe themselves to hold sacred…..it means fighting an astute and agile guerilla warfare with that American complacency which so inadequately masks American panic.” Furthermore, he says, the writer must “dismiss any hopes of winning a popularity contest,” and he adds, “….one must take it upon one’s self the right to be entirely wrong ….and accept penalties, for penalties there will certainly be.”
Congrats, Don Cheadle! Go For It! Take All The Miles You Can!
He made it, with a little extra!
*Whew!* That Was Close! LOL!
That aborted Time Warner-News Corp. merger would not only have created a ridiculously large world media conglomerate, it would have ALMOST merged Marvel and DC movies! *Gulp* NOT IN FAVOR OF THAT! 😡
Some Notes From The OAAU Event That Didn’t Make The Root Article
I thought I would type up some of this before I erase this cassette tape.
I did some slight editing. It was a little difficult to hear in that former ballroom, so there were some sound issues that impacted this.
Earl Grant (interview):
I’m surprised to be here (LAUGHS) to begin with. Because we were out there with Malcolm. Tomorrow was not guaranteed. We were living from day-to-day, sometimes from hour-to-hour. And I’m happy that people have not forgotten him.
He was a brother. Above all else he was a brother. And he was honest with us. He never lied to us. Whatever he said, he meant, and whatever he meant, he said. And the best thing you can have going for yourself, I’ve learned, is honesty. You can depend on people; you know exactly what they are going to do.
**********
A. Peter Bailey (interview):
He spent much of the time–the OAAU was launched was on June 28th, exactly 50 years ago today–from that time, from June up until the next three or four months, he spent much of that time travelling, pushing that OAAU agenda. To the point that he actually got something that most people are totally unaware of, the African countries, the heads of state, when he went to the OAU [Organization of African Unity] conference in July 1964 in Cairo. He issued a statement outlining his plan, and the African heads of state issued a resolution condemning racial discrimination in the United States. That was unheard of….None had done it before, and none had done it since…. And when you put that in the context of the time when this country was involved in a major propaganda war. [The United States] could tell the U.N. to kiss my behind. But even to have to discuss the possibility of this country being taken before the U.N. Commission of Human Rights–J. Edgar Hoover did not like that.
They had him followed around Africa. They tried to set up situations were he was not greeted [by the African leaders]. I mean, he was treated like he was a foreign minister to black folks to the world. That’s how he was treated. He was invited as an observer (not a participant) to the OAU conference. And of course, he could hold press conferences, he could distribute documents. So they were giving him recognition. And, of course, the foreign minister of Tanzania, later in December, spoke at an OAAU rally. And in December 1964, when the U.N. was having the debate about the U.S., Belgium and England invading the Congo, two African ambassadors–from Ghana and Guinea–basically said, “If you have the right to military intervention, then we have the right to intervene in Mississippi to protect Black people who are being killed.” I’m paraphrasing. But that was unheard of.
I’ve read about 40 pages of the diary [on microfilm]. I thought it was phenomenal. It spells clearly what he was doing and how he was being recognized by governments abroad….And this really caused an uproar. When you read that diary, and see all those people he was meeting and talking to having conferences with and being greeting by, it was serious. It was serious, man. And it only makes sense when you put it [in the context of] that period, 1955 to 1965, when he was basically under siege, that was the height of the so-called Cold War. That was the height of the Civil Rights Movement. And Brother Malcolm understood the propaganda thing. This country only moved under international pressure. President Eisenhower said he couldn’t do anything about Little Rock. Then, one day, somebody showed him a copy of Pravda, and Little Rock was all over the front page. So the next day, he nationalized the Arkansas National Guard. President Kennedy said he couldn’t do anything about what was happening in Alabama and Birmingham and all those places. Until word got out that Black folks were talking about defending themselves. And the next thing you know, he federalized the Alabama National Guard. So Brother Malcolm understood the necessities of propaganda to compel the federal government to do something. He understood that.
Brother Malcolm was killed by a collaboration between some of the elements of the Nation of Islam and the FBI. So anybody who says anything else doesn’t know what’s going on.
Martin Luther King’s movement did a very important thing: it eliminated legal white supremacy. It did nothing else. Nothing else. Now, eliminating legal white supremacy is very important. And even that, Brother Malcolm played a role as an alternative! Clarence Jones, King’s attorney, who kind of played a liaison role between Brother Malcolm and Dr. King, told me a funny story. Clarence said that Brother Malcolm told him to tell Martin, “Look, I know that every now and then you have to attack me, I understand that.” When Clarence told Martin, Martin laughed, and [joked], “Malcolm is the devil!” I didn’t find this out until years later, but there was a movement going afoot to have these two brothers meet….Now, whether or not they would become homeboys, I don’t know, but I think they would have developed a working relationship.
[Brother Malcolm] succeeded in putting the Movement on the international level. He succeeded in raising the consciousness of people like myself, that 50 years later we still have that kind of consciousness. He succeeded in causing this government to do some things that it probably wouldn’t have done otherwise. Just the little bit of time that he was around! He got people talking internationally! He made me understand the psychological manifestations of the white supremacy were as nearly as devastating as the physical manifestations……Brother Malcolm talked consistently about how these people went after our minds. And they have been very successful. So he made people like myself see that movies, television, books, songs, all of that stuff, is part of the psychological attack….
He was never able to establish an organization because he was killed before he could do so. In fact, on February 21, 1965, he said to about five of us who were back there [in the Audubon] that he was going to go to Mississippi to speak at the invitation of SNCC, but that after that he was coming back to spend the next six months building up the OAAU. And since he was an organizer, the OAAU would have been [well] organized. But he didn’t have the chance to do so. He was first trying to lay his foreign thing out–he spent six months doing that, and then he was assassinated.
It took me a while to give Dr. King the credit he deserved….But after I began to read Dr. King and read “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?”, this was not the “I Have A Dream” person who was being projected.
[Talked about Malcolm X speaking in Selma] He went to Selma to try to speak to Dr. King.
************
Earl Grant (presentation):
The day Malcolm X was assassinated, I had to go somewhere to hide. [He hid in Gordon Parks’ apartment]
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Lez Edmond, member of OAAU “brain trust” and Education Committee (presentation):
Brother Earl and I go back to when he was in the Nation….Brother Earl used to give me tapes. And I knew two people who were in the Nation, and I was very friendly with them and knew them very well. I knew Brother Earl, I knew Brother Benjamin….I met Brother Earl in the bookstore. In Mr. Michaux’s bookstore. When I first met Brother Malcolm….you know what we used to talk about? Books. People don’t realize how much that man studied….Mr. Michaux would choose the books that he thought Malcolm should be reading….How many of you know that Malcolm X could discuss Shakespeare?…..
The Thursday before he was assassinated, I was on that committee. and we discussed whether he should speak that Sunday. Herman Ferguson, who is not here [at the event] today, was on that committee. And I argued that he shouldn’t speak that day. Now, Malcolm was very democratic, something the United States is not about. He said, ” So let’s take a vote.” And the other side prevailed, and wanted him to speak. And I got very angry about that, openly. Malcolm put his arm around my shoulder and walked me over to the other end of the room. He said, “Brother, you’re very upset about that.” I said, “Yes.” I’m going to say this about Malcolm X: that brother was not afraid of anything. He looked me in the eye. He was not afraid of death, and he knew it was coming. You can believe me or not. He knew it was coming. And that’s why we still talk about him today. He was an interesting man and we need to do far more writing about him, but we need to study him moreso.
Because after he was assassinated, there was a fundraiser for him at Sidney and Juanita Poitier’s house sponsored by her. You should know people like Flo Kennedy, the lawyer. You should know all these different people. The sister that died recently, Ruby Dee. I mean, these people were stand-up people. And they lived very well…..And what they did was put some people together….and to raise money for the family. We had Dizzy Gillsespie play for us. You see, you never knew who was around Malcolm X…..
If you remember, Peter, I bought Dr. Clarke to the meeting. When we had our first meeting…..I thought Malcolm needed some knowledge from him he could use. In the original edition of “By Any Means Necessary.” There is a photo in that book. I am in that photo….
There are people who need to come forward and talk about the different things that he has contributed. Because I knew many people who knew Malcolm very well. And no one has interviewed them, because they didn’t want it to be public. Because they thought it would ruin their careers.
And again, Brother Earl, I really love you, because you [helped us] do many things. And when you were going to Ghana [right after the assassination], you came to me and gave me a lot of things and said, “I want you to take care of them, because I do not know if I’ll still be alive.” Do you remember that, Brother Earl?
Forgive me for taking up so much of your time. And I’m happy to come out today and I’m happy to share my memories. Thank you.
************
A. Peter Bailey (presentation):
I read the biography of Lena Horne. She was a strong supporter of Brother Malcolm. I read a book on Katherine Dunham. And it said how she supported him. And these people kept quiet, because they might not get some of the gigs they were getting if it came out. And he understood that……
The assassination, I hate to admit it, has accomplished its goal [to stop radical change].
