Prison Radio
Mumia Abu-Jamal

For her people, this tiny, fiery, coffee colored woman was a legend. Welfare mother, welfare activist, militant Chairwoman of the Philadelphia chapter of Welfare Rights Organization, and then with her hard work and iron will, Roxanne Jones fought for and was elected the first black woman in Pennsylvania’s 300 year provincial and legislative history to be elected state senator. She wore her senatorial role as she did any other honor and leadership role in a life rich with community activism on behalf of the poor, with ease and grace. 

I knew her with loving memory from my teenage years, when she would come to my mother’s house, collect me, and we, with some of her girlfriends, would hang out and talk about the dreams and rages poor folks talked about. To 10’s of 1000’s of North Philadelphian’s, she wasn’t the Senator, but not out of any lack of respect for a political office. She was Roxanne, as familiar as an older sister, an aunt, a member of the family, of the heart, esteemed because she was loved and loved because she loved her people. 

Who were her people? North Philadelphian’s, poor folks, people on welfare, people on the margins of life. I was one of her people. I hadn’t seen her in years. But what does that seeing have to do with feeling? She fought for the poorest and the poor loves her fiercely and returned her to Office as a matter of course, from November 1984 onwards. 

This dark South Carolina born beauty died on May 19, 1996 several days after her 68th birthday, reportedly of a heart attack. Although, those who knew her believed this strong, passionate, principled woman died from a broken heart; a heart shattered by the brutal series of bills that recently passed in her Senate chamber, that savaged the poor by cutting medical assistance to an estimated 250,000 people, signed into law by a governor, Thomas Ridge, bent on waging a war on the poor. 

For Roxanne, now the senator from the third legislative district from Philadelphia, the plight of the poor wasn’t academic or intellectual. It was as personal as one’s heart and as she spent her young adult life as a mother on welfare, an attack on them was an attack on her. Ultimately, this committed, able, principled and caring senator was just one vote among 50, and therefore unable to successfully parry this last and deadly blow. As they tossed the poor and ailing aside for crass political advantage, so she felt tossed and lost. 

After the shock waves of her death reached across Pennsylvania, and prominent politicians weighed in with words of praise, her staff issued a pointed news release. Governor Tom Ridge was not welcome at her funeral. P.S., don’t even send flowers. Roxanne, still real. From death row, this is Munia Abu-Jamal.

These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.