New petition for Albert Woodfox launched today by Amnesty International; Please sign! (tags)
Urging people to sign the new petition launched today, Jasmine Heiss of Amnesty International USA declares: "Allowing Albert his freedom is the only just and humane action the state can take after decades of holding him in cruel and inhuman conditions. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal must ensure that the state stops standing in the way of Albert's freedom. Tell the Governor: Stop wasting valuable taxpayer resources. Help ensure Albert's release without further delay. It is imperative that justice delayed does not become justice denied. Albert has endured the unthinkable. It is unconscionable to hold him for a single day longer.
Terrorism, COINTELPRO, and the Black Panthers -An interview with Angela A. Allen-Bell (tags)
In her new law journal article, “Activism Unshackled & Justice Unchained,” law professor Angela A. Allen-Bell concludes that the US government’s multi-faceted response to the BPP, primarily within the framework of the FBI’s infamous COINTELPRO, was indeed the very definition of terrorism. Bell writes that “the magnitude of the unwarranted harm done to the BPP has not yet been explored in an appropriate fashion. Much like a fugitive, it has eluded justice.” As a result, “the FBI's full-scale assault on the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s remains an open wound for the nation itself. This is more than a national tragedy; this is a human wrong.
The Black Panther Party’s Living Legacy --Touring Oakland and Berkeley w/ Billy X Jennings (tags)
Last week, the "Dismantling Racism" class from St. Catherine University in Minnesota was taken on a Black Panther History Tour in Oakland and Berkeley, California, led by Billy X Jennings from It's AboutTime BPP Alumni & Legacy. Angola 3 News came along and filmed the tour. This is part one.
Solitary Confinement on Trial --An interview with law professor Angela A. Allen-Bell (tags)
On the eve of Tuesday's Senate hearing on solitary confinement, we interview Angela A. Allen-Bell, a law professor at Southern University in Baton Rouge. The newly released issue of the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly features an article by Prof. Bell entitled "Perception Profiling & Prolonged Solitary Confinement Viewed Through the Lens of the Angola 3 Case: When Prison Officials Become Judges, Judges Become Visually Challenged and Justice Become Legally Blind.”
BTL:Amnesty International: Decades of Solitary Confinement at Louisiana’s Angola Prison Am (tags)
Interviews with Everette Thompson, southeast regional director of Amnesty USA, and Robert King, one of the Angola 3, conducted by Melinda Tuhus
Amnesty International Launches Global Angola 3 Campaign (tags)
This week Amnesty International launched a global campaign calling for US authorities to end the solitary confinement of Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox, of the Angola 3. Amnesty is calling for people around the world to contact Governor Jindal.
Visiting A Modern Day Slave Plantation --An Interview With Nancy A. Heitzeg (tags)
My interest in Angola is as both a paradigm of the Southern transformation of plantations into prisons and as a prototype for what we now call the prison industrial complex. Many old plantations in the South became prisons after the Civil War. Angela Y. Davis traces the initial rise of the penitentiary system to the abolition of slavery, writing: “in the immediate aftermath of slavery, the southern states hastened to develop a criminal justice system that could legally restrict the possibilities of freedom for the newly released slaves.”
Youngest ever British person visits longest serving men in solitary at Angola Prison. (tags)
An 11 year old from London has become the youngest ever British person to visit two prisoners in Louisiana State Prison, who are the longest serving inmates in solitary confinement. Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox have spent over 35 years held in 6ft x 9ft cells for crimes even a federal judge has overturned.
9/5 Hurricane Katrina Alert: Calls For Progressive Emergency Supports! (tags)
ActionLA Coalition and several other progressive organizations, will launch a national call for a donation drive to supports New Orleans areas progressive agencies for the humanitarian-aid efforts. Detail will coming soon and please donate generosity!
Some thoughts on fear, intimidation and Martin Luther King Jr.