."
r 23, 1 1· Aug t 21, 1871
en h w
w ted
70 from g tation. He pent th n t
elev y in pri on, eight and half of them
in olitary c nfin nt. In hi twenty ightb
y ar, h w charged with th murder of a
guard in Soled d Prison.
Shortly r hi indictm nt for this murd r,
thi boo of hi letters w publi bed in th
United St t . (Bantam Boo ) Later, it wa
al 0 publi h d in England, France, Germany,
Italy d Sweden. Georg Jac on was ac
claimed throughout the world .. as the most pow
erful and eloqu nt Black writersince Malcolm
X. H became a symbol for the struggle of all
oppr ed people. The example of his extra
ordinary courage, integrity and humanity made
him a h ro to Blacks and whites ali e.
On August 21, 1971, two days before the
opening of hi trial, he was killed inside San
Quentin Pri on. Pri on authorities tate that he
was shot by a tower guard- during an escape
attempt as he ran from the pri on's maximum
securi ty section wi th a gun in his hand and
"If I leave here alive, I'll/eave nothing
behind. They'll never count me among the
broken men, but 1 can't say that I'm
normal either. I've been hungry too long,
1 've gotten angry too many times. I've
. been '&ri 10 and in fred 00 nmny �.
They've pushed m over the line from
which there can be no retreat. I know uuu
they will nat be satisfied until they've
pushed me out of this existence' altogether.
I've been the victim of so many racist
attacks that I could never relax again ... l
can still smile sometimes, but by the lime
this thing is over I may not be a nice per
son. And I just lit my eventy-seventh
cigarette of this twenty-one hour day. I'm
going to lay down for two or three hours,
perhaps I'll sleep ...
ra d for a tw nty foot wall. Georg's ord
ter hi. broth r Jonathan' d ath . m hi
own b t puaph: \.J
"He wa free for a while. I guess that's
more than most of u can expect. "
Although in at lea tone s nse, George was
al ways free. At no point did he ever accept
anyone's right to imprison him. He continued
to defy his jailers up to the very end with every
single fibre of his being.
George Jackson's letters are a galvanic out
pouring of passion, grief, outrage, and defi
ance. It is as if all the fierce longi ngs and
suppressed rage of the e ad found
complete and absolute expre sion in Jackson's
5' by 8' cell. .
His letters to his mother are full of the ten
derest concern. His letters to his father are the
chronicle of a long and bitter emotional and
ideological struggle between two men. They
sum up the tragic gap tween the generations
of Martin Luther King and the new Black
militants ... " "
. This shit i tarting to thicken. Six in Georgia two
10 Jackson, ha-d hats, counterdernonstratlons, much like
. Germany in the thirties. That thing in Georgia and the
one in Jackson were like turkey shoots. We die alto
gether too easy. Each one of those' brothers has fathers,
blood brothers, sisters, 'and mamas. But it's safe to
assume that no positive response will be made, no eye-
. for-eye reprisal. Something very wrong has swcp .. over
us. We've grown S:1 accustomed to seeing murder done
to us that no one tal.es it seriously anymore. We've crown
numb, immune to the pain. Charles Evers and the �ntire
world knows who killed Medgar Evers the murderer is
still walking the streets. . . • '
Perhaps I houldn't even recognize people like Whit
ney Young except as enemies, but the shit that they sling
around does fall on some of us and consequently must
be counterpoised. He has now gone on record as think-
ing that we "should arm ourselves, but trictly for
defense only." But then he goes on to contradict himself
by commenting that if we used arms it would be like
suicide. His words: "a beer can against a tank." Well,
how docs one defend himself from an attacl er without
at some point launching a counterauack=-especially
when guns are the choice of weapons! . . .
There is aIJ element of cowardice, great ignorance,
and perhaps even treachery in blacks of his general type.
And I agree with Eldridge and Malcolm, we are not
protecting unity when we refrain from attacking them.
Actually it's the reverse that's true. We can never have
unity as long as we have these idiots among us to con
fuse and frighten the people. It's not possible for any
one to still think that Western mechanized warfare is
absolute, not after the experiences of the third world
_ since World War II. The French had tanks in Algeria,
the U.S. had them in Cuba. Everything, I mean every
trick and gadget in the manual of Western arms, has
been thrown at the VC and they have thrown them
back, twisted and ruined; and they have written books
and pamphlets telling us how we could do the same.
It's obvious that fighting ultimately depends upon men,
not gadgets. So I must conclude that those who stand
between us and the pig , who protect the marketplace,
are either cowards or traitors. Probably both. . .. .
One way of [ndirectly detecting the traitor is to draw
him out regardi our enemies' enemies. Young and all
the rest of those running dogs attack the while left.
Young attacked the Chicago Seven and the other whites
of the left who want to' help us destroy fascism. So did
LeRoi Jones on national TV in the company of An
thony Imperiale, a white racist KKKer, and a lot of
high police officials. So what's hapening with a guy
who ays he is for us but not against the government?
Or one who ays he' for us and against all whites
except the ones who may kick his ass? There i a great
deal of cowardice and treachery and confusion here.
The black bourgeoisie (pseudo-bourgeoisie), the right
reverends, the militant opportunist , have left us in a
quandary, rendered us impotent. How ridiculous we
mu t seem to the rest of the black world when. we beg
the government to investigate their own protective agen-
From Dacttau with love
George"
May 21,1970
Dear Angela,"
I think about you all of the time. I like thinking about
you, it gives me occasion for some of the first few really
deeply felt ear-to-ear grins. And I've had to increase the
number of my daily push-ups by half. That will make
me stronger. The contact has been good for me in a
hundred ways. .
But then my thoughts return to your enemies. They
are mine too, of course, but thinking of them as your
• enemies calls up the monster in me, the dark, terrible
things that I keep hidden in the pit, fanged, clawed,
armored-they are more awful by far when you become
involved. I've been finding and developing these things
for many year 'now, As soon as you isolate, identify,
and number your enemies I'll set these thing loose on
them. And you won't be disappointed this time. I.
promise, weet sister. This time nothing will be held
back.· ... Your enemies will bl made .humbler and
wiser men. "
J on is a young brother and he is just a little with ..
drawn, but he is intelligent and loyal. . . . He is at that
dangerous age where confusion sets in and sends
brothers either to the undertaker or to pri on. He is a
little better off than I was and than most brother hi
age. He learns fast and can distinguish the real from .the
apparent, provided someone takes the time to present it.
Tell the brothers never. to mention' hi green eyes and
skin tone. He is very sensitive about it and he_.will either
fight or withdraw. Do you under tand? You know that
some of us don't bother to be righteous with each other.
He has had a great deal of trouble the e last few years
behind that i sue. It i n't right. He is a loyal and beau
tiful blackinan-chi.1d. I love him.
• Angel Davis
I.
cies. Aren't the vild hip-shooting pigs loose among us
to protect the property rights of the people who formed
the g�>vernmen�? I've bet" sitting in here ten years
watching that kind of shit go down. It's always the same
!?lack.: J sure h 't' . t ntional. y'r not with
us, you understan. xpenence, trial and error would
�ave changed them if they ere. Who is the black work
ing.for, who docs he love when he screams "Honky"?
He would throw us into a fight where we. would be
outnumbered 1 to 14 (counting the blacks who would
\fight wi��/f?r the other side �n � �ace �ar). War on the
honky, It s Just another mystificatlon, If not an outright
mo.ve by the fascist. I don't know, I don't pretend to
claU'Voya�ce. I can't read all thoughts, and I do know
some whites that I WOUldn't count as enemies but if
all whites were my enemies would it make sense' for me
to fight them all at the same time? The blanket indict
!'1e�t.of the white race has done nothing but perplex us,
inhibit us. The theory that all whites are the immediate
�ne�y and �l �Iaeks our brothers (making them loyal)
I� sill� and indicative of a lazy mind (to be generous,
smce It could be a fascist plot). It doesn't explain the
black pig; there were six on the Hampton-Clark kill. It
doesn't explain the black paratroopers (just more pigs)
who put down the .great Detroit riot, and it doesn't
explain the pseudo-bourgeois who can be found almost
ev�rywhere in the halls of gov.ernment working for
white supremacy, fascism, and capitalism. It leaves the
average brother confused. In Detroit they just didn't
know what to do when they encountered the black para
troopers. They were �. unned when tker saw those
bl.ack. fools shooting at them that they probably. never
wIl� listen to another black voice regardless of what it's
saying.
If I were at I !'2:,'., and wanted to help revolutionize
the black community so that in a short a time. as pos
�ible it w .uld b� made ready to take up the vanguard
ill an all tie. tablishment war, I would st rt like this:
1 .. Lay my hand on some money any way I could. 2.
Quietly, without even a hint of political flavoring, 1
would have my fronts open as many skeet, trap, rifle,
and, pistol ranges as I could rent space for in and around
the black community. I would 01-- crate . these places at
cost and advertise. 3. Next door to these places (figura
tive) I would quietly, without political flavoring, open
schools that deal with the close- er combat arts
. ostensibly as community project to keep the childre�
off the streets. The real intent, of course, is. to instill the
. "atta�k as defense" idea that we los� somewhere along
the h.ne. 4. Apart from the two business ventures just
mentioned, I. would provide. myself with printing or
c pymg machines, and make the salient points of urban
guerrilla warfare, antitank warfare, and revolutionary
culture as easy to get, as close to hand, as a glass of
water.
Now that ju t-rncntioned activity would, be a ide from
the hard and eriously needed revolutionary wor dis
cussed early this morning, and the stuff you will find
in the writings I mentioned in my la t letter.
"One doe n't .wait f r all conditions' to be' right to
start the rev lution, the force of the revolution it elf
wi.ll ma the conditions right." Che said something like.
this. Write me and let me have it straight. .
Power to the People. .
1 love you, little sister.
.. George
- .