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News :: Prisons |
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No Place to be Reborn: The Awakening |
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by Mumia Abu-Jamal
Email: walidahi (nospam) hotmail.com (verified) |
12 Apr 2006
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Pennsylvania death row journalist Mumia Abu Jamal brings attention to the case of Hasan Shakur, a prison activist/organizer in Texas who has an execution date scheduled for April 27th. |
The name Hasan Shakur is not a familiar one.
It doesn't yet ring any bells beyond the small circle of people to whom he has pledged his loyalty, nor even to those who plan to take his very life within a month.
He was born Derrick Frazier, and his life, like that of millions of others, was one of loss, of alienation, of every day being pretty much like the day that came before.
His life was one of poverty, bordered by ignorance, bracketed by want.
While still a child, his mother, at the ripe old age of 40, succumed to the ravages of a crack cocaine addiction, and left him to ferret out life's changing puzzles in the mean streets.
His life led him to Texas, and Texas led him to the ultimate Black ghetto--Death Row.
Unless his new -found supporters can ring the bell, the State of Texas plans to lynch him on April 27, 2006!
Hasan Shakur, like so many others in Texas and across the land, came to Death Row with ease.
A false confession here; a false promise there; an incompetent 'defense' lawyer--and voila!--Death Row becomes 'home.'
What is keeping Hasan's soul alive in his new-born faith--not in a religion--but in his people.
Hasan has joined the newly-formed New Afrikan Black Panther Party-Prison Chapter, based in Amerika's prisons, and in honor of his commitment in the face of death, the NABPP has named him its Minister of Human Rights.
Hasan, through his politicalization, has devoted his life to what the NABPP calls "Pantherism," or a fidelity to the Revolution as taught and practiced by the original Black Panther Party.
Unlike other recent formations, the NABPP studies the writings of Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, George Jackson, and other founding and leading members. The works of Malcolm X are important tools for understanding and addressing the challenges of today.
This is refreshing news indeed.
For Hasan, however, prison, and worse, Death Row, was the place, not just of his nightmarish repression, and possible death, but of his rebirth, his becoming a Revolutionary, who looks at the collective interests of his people, and all oppressed Peoples of the Earth.
When a Norwegian supporter wrote a letter stained with tears after learning of his date with death, Shakur replied, "Don't you know that I will never die?"
Being part of something greater than himself; being part of a revolutionary movement; being part of an historic struggle that has lasted since (at least) 1492, Hasan Shakur sees that as this Freedom Struggle survives, so does he.
Arrested with another man for the killing of a Texas rancher's wife and son, Shakur believed what he was told by the cops, who assured him that if he "confessed" he wouldn't be given the death penalty. Hasan was later saddled with a lawyer of such incompetence that he was later disbarred.
With no physical evidence tying him to the crimes (except his unreliable confession), Shakur's supporters and comrades are trying to get a stay of execution until truly cometent lawyers can mount a defense.
In a recent message from prison entitled, "A Liberated Soul," Shakur writes:
"As for myself, if it be the plan of the Creator - I will not be around much longer. My legal appeals have taken turns for the worse, and yet, the path of liberation continues to be my vocation, carving out a path for future revolutionaries to follow and carry the torch. I despise the class oppression that is the basis of the capitalist system and the racist national oppression that goes with it. [from Hasan Shakur, "A Liberated Soul," Right On! #2: Newsletter of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party-Prison Chapter (Winter '05-'06), p. 8.
Hasan's supporters are sending letters to to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, P.O. Box 12428, Austin, TX 78711, Ph. (512) 463-2000; or Fax: (512) 463-1849. There is also an online petition at www.hasanshakur.com.
Neither Hasan Shakur, (nor Derrick Frazier) had a fair trial, or a fair chance to defend life. Support his struggle for life and dignity.
[Mumia Abu Jamal, a former Minister of Information in the Black Panther Party (BPP), is himself an innocent man on Death Row in Pennsylvania. His book WE WANT FREEDOM: A Life in the Black Panther Party, (Cambridge, MA, South End Press, 2004) tells the untold story of the lives of rank-and-file members of the BPP.] |
See also:
http://www.hasanshakur.com
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Related stories on this site:
Organizer on death row to be executed
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This work is in the public domain |
