HUNDREDS MARCH TO SAVE
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!!
By Barbara Lee

(Editors' Note: Mumia Abu Jamal was Minister of Information for the Philadelphia Black Panthers at a very early age. At the time of his arrest in 1981, he had worked as a print and radio journalist who had aired on National Public Radio and National Black Network. He had also served as president of the Philadelphia Society of Black Journalists. He was one of very few reporters in Philadelphia willing to cover the activities of the radical Black organization MOVE, which was under heavy police repression since the mid 1970's.

One night in 1981, he was driving a taxicab in Philadelphia, as he was unable to make a living as a conventional journalist because of his controversial views. He spotted a police officer beating and arresting his brother, and went over to find out what was going on. At that point, Mumia's story diverges from that of the police. The police version is that Mumia shot police officer Daniel Faulkner twice in the head. Mumia maintains that another person in the crowd that gathered shot Faulkner. The main civilian witnesses at Mumia's trial were two prostitutes. Cynthia (Lucky) White had been arrested twice (for prostitution) in the two week period following the police shooting, and agreed to testify during her second incarceration. She changed her description of Mumia several times, describing him first as short and then tall; first without, and then with dreadlocks. A second witness, also a prostitute, said after the trial that she had been pressured by police who told her that if she testified she'd be "allowed to walk the streets, like Lucky." At his sentencing hearing, prosecutors questioned Mumia about his political views and statements with a view to establishing that Mumia had "wanted to kill a cop all his life," and should be sentenced to death. The prosecutor won a death sentence.

Mumia abu-Jamal is now facing the most serious threat of execution in his fourteen years of imprisonment, with newly elected Republican Governor Tom Ridge promising to immediately begin executions. Mumia's name is second on the list of death-row prisoners facing the electric chair.)

HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, JANUARY 17, 1995: While a Black Man sits on death row, people of different ethnic backgrounds and walks of life have gathered together in an effort to save his life. Busloads of activists converged on the state capitol of Harrisburg, Penn-sylvania to protest the incarceration and threatened execution of former Black Panther and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. It was the inauguration of Penn-sylvania's new governor, Tom Ridge and the people were determined to show the new governor that they are not going to give up hope that Mumia will be free. The massive protest took the town of Harrisburg by surprise. While the marchers headed toward the state build-ing, the police were in a state of confu-sion. One policeman radioed to his superiors that ACT-UP was among the activists present and the pigs seemed very disturbed by that.

The National Guard didn't interfere at all and the local pigs let the protesters march to a vantage point close enough to the stage so that they were able to successfully fuck with the inaugural ceremony by yelling and chanting. People on the podium kept turning to see what the commotion was all about instead of paying attention to Gov. Ridge giving his speech.

Afterwards the marchers left the scene unmolested by any of the authorities (with the exception of the many cops, undercover and otherwise, that videotaped and photographed many of the activists.) The day ended with an Ecumenical church service at a local church and an information forum with updates on Mumia's situation and discussion and planning of future events.

Some of the speakers included Safiya Bukhari Alston (Coalition to save Mumia Abu Jamal, N.Y.C.), and Jamilla Levi (Pittsburg paralegal to Jamal).

For information on Mumia contact:
International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O Box 19709
Philadelphia, PA 19143

You can write Mumia at:
Mumia Abu Jamal AM-8335
SCJ Green County
1030 E. Roy Furman
Waynesburg, PA 15370