Angela Davis: Good evening, everyone. I don’t think I’m quite as quiet as Alice, but I certainly can’t match Pam’s fire [laughter]. It’s really wonderful to be here, and I thank Jeff for all of the organizing work he’s done over the years. I think Eula is still back there. Thank you Eula, Steven, and I really enjoyed listening to Judith Ritter’s remarks. Both she and I are professors, so we came with our notes [laughing]. But I wanted to say first, that this gathering feels really, really wonderful, and at the same time, I feel sad, because we shouldn’t have to keep doing this over and over and over again [applause].
Mumia should already be free, and I feel really sad every time I imagine him still behind bars. And then I visit him, and I have pretty much the same experience that Alice had. He’s in much better shape than I am in relation to his conditions, and I’m happy because there’s still people like those of us here this evening, all over the world, literally all over the world, who are not giving up, and they will continue to fight until he comes home.
So, you know, it’s been almost 40 years since Mumia was first arrested. Am I right Pam? 37 years or something, something like that? Yeah. And despite the fact that he is behind bars and he has suffered, as Pam pointed out, avoidable illnesses directly related to his incarceration, he is intellectually and spiritually as strong as ever. We heard that in his voice that opened the gathering of this evening. As a matter of fact, he is our spirit. I want to join Alice in saying that he is our strength. And if we believe that a better future is possible, it will be a future in which Mumia is free [applause].
And of course, this is a critical moment, and we need to take advantage of the of the opening — the legal opening that now exists. I did, Judith, try to read some of the addendum to the decision that Judge Leon Tucker gave, and I was really impressed by the words he used. He emphasized that quote: “To perform its high function in the best way, justice must satisfy the appearance of justice.” In other words, there is no justice when there appears to be bias. And he went on to say, “Justice is being conformable, human and divine, fair, impartial, honest and administering, coordinating and relating with others, no matter what—not most of the time—but at all times, be it at trial or on appeal.”
Now we know that, and we’ve heard Judith and Pam and others speak about this, that Judge Castille had written a letter to the governor, and I think Judith quoted from it, to send a clear and dramatic message – that the governor needed to send a dramatic message to all police killers that the death penalty in Pennsylvania actually means something. Now I have to tell you that sometimes I’m critical of the tendency to focus so myopically on the law and on the legal dimension. I had these fights with my own lawyers [laughter] when I was in jail because I insisted that the people were going to free me. It was, of course, really important what happened in the courtroom, but history would be made by those in the streets [applause].
And I’m not saying that the legal dimension of these cases is not important, but because oftentimes we tend to act as if all we have to do is to point out what is true and accurate in accordance with the law, then our job is done. We act as if the law itself has agency. We act as if we have to do nothing else but point out what the law declares, and then our job is done. We know the law says that slavery was abolished. We know the law says that we’re all equal, etc, etc, etc, but we are the only ones who can act. We’re the only ones who can demand equality. We’re the only ones who can demand justice, who can demand an end to the contemporary after- lives of slavery. We’re the only ones who can say, abolish the prison industrial complex. The law will not do that for us [applause].
So, there is this unprecedented opening in Mumia’s case, and we need to revive and reenergize the struggle for his freedom. This is the time to do everything within our power to guarantee that we can take advantage of this opening and that we can indeed bring Mumia home. We need to do this for Mumia, but we also know, and this has been emphasized throughout the evening, that Mumia never speaks only for himself, never. He always speaks out on behalf of others, on behalf of other death row prisoners, on behalf of other prisoners who have hep C, on behalf of other prisoners more broadly, on behalf of other black people, on behalf of other targets of oppression. So, when we speak out for Mumia, we also speak for Ruchell Magee, who was my co-defendant [applause], who has been in prison for 55 years. When we speak out for Mumia, we also speak for Leonard Peltier [applause], who has been behind bars for 43 years. And you know, as much as we are missing Obama today, given the current occupant of the White House, I don’t think I will ever forgive Obama for not granting clemency to Leonard before he left office [applause]. He could have freed Leonard Peltier.
And when we speak out for Mumia, we speak for Assata Shakur [applause]. Assata should be able to come home. We know that since the creation of the Black Lives Matter network and the movement founded by Patrice Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi, people have been chanting this quote from a letter that Assata wrote: “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.” You’ve heard it, right?
Audience member: Right.
Angela Davis: Those words reverberate through all of our movements. Well, I mention this because it was chanted a few days ago in a gathering, a Democratic gathering of 2020 hopefuls.
Audience member: “Are you serious?” [laugher].
Angela Davis: Well, it sparked a great deal of protest by police and their supporters. I mean, I think it’s a good thing that our struggles are seeping into official political circles. And as a matter of fact, Jet Blue had a poster of Assata that was a part of an exhibition at the terminal in JFK, and on the poster were these words: “Became the first woman to be placed on the FBI’s ’10 Most Wanted’ list [laugher] after escaping to Cuba from prison where she was serving a life sentence for the 1973 murder of a police officer.” Well, anyway, the poster also read: “Many people believe Shakur to be a political champion who was innocent of the criminal accusations against her.” Now, JetBlue had no idea. They had a bunch of posters of, I think women. It was Women’s History Month or something like that. But then, of course, they apologized. But I think it’s great that this kind of thing is happening, that the work we do is bleeding into the mainstream. And I think about all of these people and many others when I think of Mumia, because Mumia has always insisted that when we think of him, we think of others.
He has enlightened us in so many different areas, about racism, about empire, about incarceration, about Palestine. As a matter of fact, Mumia spoke out about Palestine before many people had the courage to publicly align themselves with justice for Palestine [applause]. And as a matter of fact, in 2013 he said, “Welcome to the Israeli occupation, blessed by the US government as its imperial outpost, where the lives of Palestinians are broken into 1000s of pieces daily, where everything from olive trees to water sources, everything but the sun itself is locked up, barred, caged from the people of Palestine.” Mumia understands connections. He understands that to fight against racism is also to fight against hetero-patriarchy. It is also to fight against anti-semitism. He understands the centrality of Islamophobia. And I could go on and on and on. And of course, now he’s produced a new book, which I can’t wait to read. I understand there may be copies here, the second volume of his Murder Incorporated.
Mumia deserves to be free [applause]. And I think, and we have the opportunity to bring him home. He’s known all over the world. He’s perhaps the best known prisoner in the entire world. You know, everywhere I go, people know about Mumia. I was just last week in Uruguay, and people were talking about his case. When we free Mumia, we provide a major impetus for the freedom of other political prisoners, of political prisoners in Palestine and the Basque country, Kurdish political prisoners, like Abdullah Öcalan. So, Mumia’s birthday is coming up, you know, each April 24th, we reflect especially on our obligation to free Mumia. I understand, on this April 24, there will be events all over the country. There will be teach ins, there will be rallies, there will be student walkouts. And so let us use this opportunity to amplify his story. Let us spread his story. Let us bring new people into the campaign. Let’s bring the younger generation into this campaign, because Mumia speaks for them as well. Let us bring vast numbers of people into the campaign to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal. Thank you.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio
