As I remember first meeting her when I was on death row, it becomes difficult to proceed. For this piece, is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
She was teaching at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, when a labor historian friend named David Demarest invited her to death row in nearby Greene County. When she accepted that invitation and walked into the death row visiting room, it was like a dark, dismal sight struck by sunburst. Dr. Johanna Fernandez had arrived shining with brilliance, beauty, intelligence, wit and power.
She grew up with three brothers and like all brothers, they fought each other frequently, just like I did with my brothers. Guess who could cool them out? Johanna could.
That youthful toughness made her stronger and allowed her to fight and struggle so well as an adult. That, in advice from her mentor Dr. Manning Marable of Colombia who gave her the words of Dr. Frantz Fanon from his masterpiece, “The Wretched of the Earth”: (quote) “Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it in relative opacity.”(unquote)
Dr. Johanna Fernandez met many missions and she fought her battles with brilliance and grace. As she had been mentored, she mentored other younger scholars in how to walk and work in those two worlds of academia and activism. So every day she put on her uniform, a black blazer and black slacks, her armor, and marched on to the struggles of this world. She touched movements all around this world in France, in England, in Puerto Rico and beyond.
She, sadly, so very young, has left us. But her brilliance and her presence will never ever be forgotten by any of us. Our beloved sister Dr. Johanna Fernandez at the young age of 55 joins the embrace of the ancestors.
With love, not fear – This is Mumia Abu-Jamal
