The name Khalid Raheem may not ring many bells, but to those who knew him, his life was one of lifelong struggle for the Black nation as a revolutionary, as a Muslim convert, and as a prisoner deeply enmeshed within Pennsylvania’s mass incarceration system. Raheem was also a skillful writer whose 2021 book, Panthers That Make Salat recounts the struggles of former members of the Black Panther Party who struggled in prison across the state from the early 1970s to the mid 1980s. They faced repression, beatings, long-term lockdowns, and onerous sunsets.
Raheem typified the deep influence of Malcolm X upon Panther and other Black revolutionary groups who embraced Islam as he did. Raheem wrote of days of rebellion, resistance; of revolutionary resistance as a Panther and also a political prisoner at Holmesburg, at Graterford State Prison, Huntington State Prison, Waymart State Prison, and back to Graterford, known in the old days as “The Farm.” As he did time for robberies, to “bring resources to revolutionary movements,” as he would say, he saw the emergence and expansion of what we now call mass incarceration. He was young and therefore receptive to the rebelliousness and passions of youth. Naturally, under prison’s inherent repression, he rebelled and rebelled constantly.
He got thrown into the hole. He got transferred to other prisons, and lastly he was transferred to Western, a penitentiary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There he met old heads from Holmesburg and Graterford. He continued to try to utilize his political teachings as a Panther and his spiritual teachings as a Muslim. He spent over a decade in the joint. He was released in 1984 and later settled in Pittsburgh, where he worked on peace initiatives among street gangs. He founded the New Afrikan Independence Party there. I didn’t know him as Raheem, but I did know him as a member of the Black United Liberation Front in Philadelphia, the BULF, led by former Panther Captain, Reggie Shell. In fact, I met him at both headquarters on Columbia Avenue when he was known as ‘Bird.’ He was as thin as a minute with a youthful face and a laugh that bounced off the walls.
That youthful face lives in memory. Khalid Raheem, revolutionary, writer, believer, and community organizer and activist, returns to the source. With love, not fear. This is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
