For Comrade George JacksonSeptember 23, 1941 August 21, 1971

I am an extremist. I call for extreme measures to solve extreme problems.without self-determination, I am extremely displeased.International capi-talism cannot be destroyed without the extremes of struggleI think in terms of long struggle, but to me that struggle means action that changes things step by step.no chance of ever turning back.

May his example guide us in unity and struggle.

I heard a loud noise in the heavens, and the Spirit instantly appeared to me and said the Serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of man, and that I should take it on and fight against the Serpent, for the time was fast approaching, when the first should be last and the last should be first.

- Nat Turner

Black August A month of meaning, of repression and radical resistance,

of injustice and divine justice.- Mumia Abu-Jamal

Greetings Sisters, Brothers, Comrades!

This orientation package is a basic reference and resource guide to Black August. Within it you will find an outline of the profound significance of this month in the struggle for Black/New Afrikan self-determination and independence. Black August is a month that has shaped our liberation struggle un-like any other. Black August is a month of Action; repressive action and Revolutionary action. Action that has elevated and transformed our consciousness of ourselves as a self-determining people. Black August is a month of Freedom Fighters. Sisters and Brothers like Dutty Boukman, Gabriel Prosser, Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, Jonathan Jackson, George Jackson, and Khatari Gaulden; Warriors who told no lies and claimed no easy victories!

Black August is a month of Struggle - a struggle very much alive today. The condition of theNew Afrikan masses is worse now than it was 30 or 40 years ago. Over 1,000,000 New Afrikans are now held in concentration camps (prisons) throughout the united prison states. Over 2 million more are either on probation, parole, or some other form of state supervision - and the numbers are growing! New Afrikan people now comprise the largest AIDS infected population in north america. Add to that the struggle against environmetal racism, the prison industrial complex, police terror and occupation of our communities, and the continual struggle for decent food, clothes, shelter, health care, and edu-cation and you see clearly that our struggle for self-determination is very much alive today. WE got a struggle to wage and plenty of work to do to win it!

We honor our ancestors and our fallen freedom fighters by knowing this history, passing it on, and ob-serving the principles outlined in its commemoration. Please read this material diligently and carefully. Share it with your family, friends and comrades, and inspire them with this knowledge to continue the struggle. Victory is certain, only if we make it certain.

Tell No Lies. Claim No Easy Victories!Kali Akuno

For the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement(510) 433-0115

MXGMOakland1@hotmail.com

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement

Mission Statement

The Malcolm Grassroots Movement is an organization of Afrikans in america/New Afrikans whose mission is to defend the human rights of our people and promote self-determination in our community/colonized nation. We understand that the collective institution of white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism have been at the root of our peoples oppression. We understand that without community control and without the power to determine our own lives, we will continue to fall victim to genocide. Therefore, we seek to heighten our con-sciousness about self-determination and national independence as a human right and a solution to our colonization. While organizing around our principles of unity, we are building a network of Black/New Afrikan freedom fighters com-mitted to the protracted struggle for the liberation of the New Afrikan nation By Any Means Necessary!

Principles of Unity1. We promote Self-Determination and must organize for the liberation of the Afrikan nation, held

colonized in the united states. 2. We actively support and struggle to defend the Human Rights of Afrikan people in the united states

and around the world.3. We oppose Genocide or the acceptable and calculated killing of our people by individuals, insti-

tutions or organizations of the united states government, through lynching, disease, police terror and any other means.

4. We actively struggle to End Sexist Oppression. We oppose any form of oppression that limits women from reaching their fullest potential, as manifested in our cultural, economic, political and social institutions practices and beliefs. We actively oppose those beliefs, ideas, terms, etc. that limit the human worth of women and contribute to violations against women.

5. We demand the release of Afrikans who have been imprisoned by united states prisons because they are committed freedom fighters seeking the liberation of our people. These brothers and sisters are Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War and should be recognized as such.

6. We demand Reparations, or repayment for four hundred years of slavery, colonialism and oppression of our people in the united states of america.

Free the Land!!

August 1619 Virginia ColonyArrival of the first Afrikans to the English North American Colonies

The terrible transformation from Afrikan to New Arikan begins with a Dutch man-o-war ship delivering 20 or more Afrikan prisoners of war (aka slaves and so-called indentured servants in this case) robbed from a Spanish slave ship to the newly established English colony in exchange for food. Thus begins the birth of the New Afrikan people and the New Afrikan Independence Movement.

August 21, 1791The Great Haitian Revolution Begins

In 1791, revolt broke out in the French Caribbean colony of St. Domingue, which was located on the western third of the island of Hispaniola (the eastern two-thirds was owned by Spain and called Santo Domingo). One of the wealthiest colonies in the Americas, St. Domingue produced half of all the sugar and coffee exported to europe and the united states. It owed its wealth to the work of Afrikan prisoners of war (slaves).

On the night of August 21st, Afrikan maroons and prisoners of war (slaves) in the northern plain of Cape Francois started the revolt that grew into the Haitian Revolution for National Independence, achieved in 1804. Haiti was the first New Afrikan Republic in the so-called Americas.

The event that started the revolt was a Petwo Voodoo service. On the evening of August 14th Dutty Bouk-man, a practitioner of Petwo Voodoo, held a service at Bois Caiman. A woman at the service was possessed by Ogoun, the Voodoo warrior spirit. She sacrificed a black pig, and speaking the voice of the spirit, named those who were to lead the Afrikans revolt and seek a stark justice from their white oppressors. The woman named Boukman, Jean-Francois, Biassou and Jeannot as the leaders of the uprising. It was some time later before Toussaint, Henry Christophe, Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Andre Rigaud took their places as the leading gen-erals who brought The Haitian Revolution to its final triumph.

Word spread rapidly of this historic and prophetic religious service and the maroons and prisoners of war (slaves) readied themselves for a major assault on the whites. This uprising began on the evening of August 21st. The whole northern plain surrounding Cape Francois was laid to flames. Plantation owners were mur-dered and their bodies mounted on poles to lead the Afrikans. More than a thousand whites had been killed. Afrikans across the land hurried to the banner of the revolt. The masses of northern Afrikans laid siege to Cape Francois itself. The revolution had begun and would never turn back. On January 1, 1804, President Jean Jacques Dessalines proclaimed the free republic of Haiti - deriving the name from and indigenous Arawak/taino word meaning a higher place.

August 21, 1831Nat Turners Rebellion

Jerusalem, Virginia

I heard a loud noise in the heavens, and the Spirit instantly appeared to me and said the Serpent was loos-ened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and that I should take it on and fight against the Serpent, for the time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should be first... And by signs in the heavens that it would make known to me when I should commence the great work, and until the first sign appeared I should conceal it from the knowledge of men; and on the appearance of the sign... I should arise and prepare myself and slay my enemies with their own weapons.

In 1831, Nat Turners Rebellion broke out near Jerusalem, Virginia. Turner, born on October 2, 1800, in South-hampton County, Virginia, the week before Gabriel Prosser was hanged, saw religious visions from an early age and preached to other prisoners of war (slaves). In August of 1831, God sanctioned him to strike back against the white oppressors. Turners rebellion started with seven men and grew to between 40 50 rebels. The rebellion lasted over 36-hours. At least 57 white slave owners were killed. Close to 1,000 Virginia and federal military troops were called out, and at least 100 innocent Afrikans were killed. Over 50 suspected rebels were caught immediately, but Turner remained at large for almost two months. Nat Turner was finally captured, tried and killed. Nat Turners rebellion was one of the largest and most influential acts of war in the New Afri-kan Independence Movement.

August 1851General Harriet Tubman, aka Moses,

begins her Freedom Raids

Go down Moses, way down in Egypt land, tell ole Pharoah, Let My People Go.- Go Down Moses, New Afrikan spiritual about Harriet Tubman.

Harriet Tubman is perhaps the most well-known of all the Underground Rail-roads conductors. During a ten-year span she made 19 trips into the South and es cort ed over 300 slaves to freedom. And, as she once proudly pointed out to Frederick Douglass, in all of her journeys she never lost a single passen-ger.

Tubman was born Araminta Ross (she changed her fi rst name to Harriet, after her mother; around 1844 she married a free black named John Tubman and took his last name) a prisoner of war (slave) in Marylands Dorchester County around 1820.

In 1849 Harriet escaped slavery. She followed the North Star by night, making her way to Pennsylvania and soon after to Philadelphia. In August 1851 Tubman began liberating Afrikan prisoners of war from the South. She returned to the South again and again. She devised clever tech niques that helped make her forays successful, including using the masters horse and buggy for the fi rst leg of the journey; leaving on a Saturday night, since runaway notices couldnt be placed in newspapers until Monday morn ing; turning about and heading south if she encountered possible slave hunt ers; and carrying a drug to use on a baby if its crying might put the fugitives in danger. Tub-man even carried a gun which she used to threaten the fugitives if they became too tired or decided to turn back, telling them, Youll be free or die.

During the Civil War Harriet Tubman worked for the Union as a cook, a nurse, and even a spy. After the war she settled in Auburn, New York, where she would spend the rest of her long life. She died in 1913.

The Underground Railroad, a vast network of people who helped fugitive prisoners of war (slaves) escape to the North and to Canada, was not run by any single organization or person. Rather, it consisted of many individuals predominently New Afrikans/Blacks but many North Americans/whites who knew only of the local efforts to aid fugitives and not of the overall operation. Still, it effectively moved hundreds of Afrikans northward each year according to one estimate, the South lost 100,000 slaves between 1810 and 1861.

The General Moses with a band of liberated Afrikans in Canada.

August 17, 1887The Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garveys Birthday.

One God, One Aim, One Destiny!

In a world of wolves one should go armed, and one of the most powerful defensive weapons within the reach of the Negroes is the practice of race first in all parts of the world.-Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Born in St. Anns Bay, Jamaica, Marcus Gavery, aka Black Moses, founded and organized the largest, and most influential mass organization in modern Afrikan and Afrikan Diasporian history, the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). At its height the UNIA had well over a million members throughout the Americas, the Ca-ribbean, Europe and Afrika.

Africa for the Africans, at home and abroad.

August 11, 1965The Watts Rebellion

First of the Long Hot Summers

On August 11th , 1965, following the beating and arrest of two Afrikans by white police officers for an alleged traffic violation in Watts, a small neighbourhood in Los Angeles, one of the largest and most impact-ful urban rebellions in united states history erupted. The rebellion was surpressed by the National Guard who regained control of Watts on August 16th, after 6 days of revolt. In that time 34 people were killed, 856 were injured and property damage was estimated at around 40 mil-lion dollars. The Watts Rebellion marked the critical turning point after the assassination of Malcolm X (el Hajj Malik el Shabazz) in the New Afrikan freedom struggle of the 1950s and 60s from civil rights to the Black Liberation Movement, Black Power, self-determination and national independence.

August 7, 1970The Marin County Courthouse

Slave Rebellion

The Real Revolutionaries have arrived!-Jonathan Jackson, the Man-Child

Jonathan James McClain, William Christmas, and Ruchell Cinque Magee.

One of the bravest and most daring liberation attempts of all time. On August 7, 1970, just a few days after George was transferred to San Quentin, his younger brother Jonathan Jackson, 17, invaded Marin County Courthouse single-handed, with a satchel full of handguns, an assault rifle and a shotgun hidden under his raincoat. Freeze, he commanded as he tossed guns to William Christmas, James Mc-Clain, and Ruchell Magee. Magee was on the witness stand testifying for McClain, on trial for assaulting a guard in the wake of a guards murder of another Black prisoner, Fred Billingsley, beaten and tear gassed to death. A jailhouse lawyer, Magee had deluged the courts with petitions for seven years contesting his illegal conviction in 63.

The courts had refused to listen, so Magee seized the hour and joined the guerrillas as they took the judge, prosecutor and three jurors hostage to a waiting van. To reporters gathering quickly outside the courthouse, Jonathan shouted, You can take our pic-tures. We are the revolutionaries!

Operating with courage and calm even their enemies had to respect, the four Black freedom fighters commandeered their hostages out of the courthouse without a hitch. The plan was to use the hostages to take over a radio station and broadcast the racist, mur-derous prison conditions and demand the immediate release of The Soledad Brothers. But before Jonathan could drive the van out of the parking lot, the San Quentin guards arrived and opened fire. When the shooting stopped, Jonathan, Christmas, McClain and the judge lay dead. Magee and the prosecutor were critically wounded, and one juror suffered a minor arm wound.

Magee survived his wounds and was tried originally with co-defendant Angela Davis. Their trials were later severed and Davis was eventually acquitted of all charges. Magee was convicted of simple kidnap and remains in prison to date 37 years with no physical assaults on his record. An incredible jailhouse lawyer, Magee has been responsible for countless prisoners being released the main reason he was kept for nearly 20 years in one lockup after another. He is currently at Corcoran State Prison, having been recently transferred from Pelican Bay, remains strong and determined to win his freedom and that of all oppressed peoples.

This was the eventful beginning of Black August.

August 21, 1971Comrade George Jackson

The Assassination

On August 21, 1971, after numerous failed attempts on his life, the State finally succeeded in assassinating George Jackson, then Field Marshall of the Black Pan-ther Party, in what was described by prison officials as an escape attempt in which Jackson allegedly smuggled a gun into San Quentin in a wig. That feat was proven impossible, and evidence subsequently suggested a setup designed by prison officials to eliminate Jackson once and for all.

However, they didnt count on losing any of their own in the process. On that fateful day, three notoriously racist prison guards and two inmate turnkeys were also killed, presumably by Jackson who was shot and killed by guards as he drew fire away from the other prisoners in the Adjustment Center (lockup) of San Quentin.

Subsequently, six A/C prisoners were singled out and put on trial wearing 30 lbs of chains in Marin courthouse

for various charges of murder and assault: Fleeta Drum-go, David Johnson, Hugo L.A. Pinell (Yogi), Luis Tala-mantez, Johnny Spain, and Willie Sundiata Tate. Only one was convicted of murder, Johnny Spain. The others were either acquitted or convicted of assault. Pinell is the only one remaining in prison and has suffered prolonged torture in lockups since 1969. He is currently serving his 10th year in Pelican Bays SHU, a torture chamber if ever there was one. A true warrior, Pinell would put his life on the line to defend his fellow captives.

Black AugustSignificant Events

August 1978Khatari Gaulden murdered. Revolutionary and one of the key organizers of Black August after George Jacksons assassination. Khatari was killed in August 1978 in the prison infirmary under questionable circumstances.August 8, 1949Dr. Mutulu Shakurs BirthdayNew Afrikan Revolutionary, Acupuncturist, Political Prisoner. In 1987, Dr. Shakur was sentenced to 60 years impris-onment for an alleged conspiracy by the Black Liberation Army/New Afrikan Freedom Fighters against the united states government.August 8, 1978Raid on the MOVE Organization by the Philadelphia Police.9 MOVE members imprisoned as Prisoners of War, 1 Police killed by fellow Policeman.August 18, 1971Republic of New Afrika capital assaulted.RNA capital in Jackson, Mississippi assaulted by FBI and Jackson Police. 11 RNA members taken as Prisoners of War. August 24, 1943Russell Maroon Shoats BirthdayNew Afrikan Revolutionary Freedom Fighter, Prisoner of War.August 25, 1967COINTELPRO Proclamation agains the Black Liberation MovementFBI issues its infamous COINTELPRO proclamation against the Black Liberation Movement intructing its agents to ..disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities of black nationalist..organizations and groupings, their leadership, spokesmen, membership, and supporters...August 27, 1963W.E.B DuBois becomes an AncestorDr. W.E.B. DuBois, co-founder of the NAACP, Pan-Afrikanist, early revolutionary nationalist, and communist becomes an Ancestor in Ghana, Africa.August 28, 1955Emmett Till MurderedEmmett Louis Till, Black/New Afrikan youth murdered by white supremacists in Mississippi. This act of genocide outraged and inspired millions of New Afrikans to actively join the Civil Rights and Black Liberation Movements.

August 28, 1963The March on WashingtonLegendary Civil Rights march, highlighting the pinnacle of the Civil Rights Movement and the ushering in of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill and the 1965 Voter Rights Act.

August 30, 1948Fred Hamptons BirthdayDynamic revolutionary leader of the Chicago Black Panther Party. Initiator of the BPP Free Breakfast Program and the Rainbow Coalition. Prime target of the FBIs Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) and brutality assassinated by the FBI and the Chicago police on December 4, 1969, along with Mark Clark.

August 30, 1800Gabriel Prossers Rebellion

Inspired by the Haitian Revolution, Gabriel Prosser an Afrikan prisoner of war (slave) born in 1776 in Henrico County, Virginia, felt it was time for Afrikans held in north american to revolt. Gabriel was a skilled blacksmith and was allowed to hire himself out in Richmond and on neighboring plantations. In his travels, he met with other Afrikan prisoners of war and began hammering swords out of scythes and molding bullets. He recruited an army of conspirators from Richmond and other Virginia towns, preparing the most far-reaching slave revolt ever planned in the united states.

They chose the night of August 30, 1800 to strike. But as they waited for the appointed time, it began to rain heavily, making roads impassable. They decided to postpone the attack, but before they could carry it out, the plot was betrayed. Apprehended slaves were granted immunity for providing testimony about the conspiracy. The trial of at least 65 slaves lasted two months, with Vice President Thomas Jefferson offering advice to Virginia Governor James Monroe on how to deal with the rebels. Twenty-six rebels were executed, including Gabriel.

Rebel Statement from Solomon Prosser. My brother Gabriel was the person who influenced me to join him and others in order that (as he said) we might conquer the white people and possess ourselves of their property. I enquired how we were to effect it. He said by falling upon them (the whites) in the dead of night, at which time they would be unguarded and unsuspicious. I then enquired who was at the head of the plan. He said Jack, alias Jack Bowler. I asked him if Jack Bowler knew anything about carrying on war. He replied he did not. I then enquired who he was going to employ. He said a man from Caroline who was at the siege of Yorktown, and who was to meet him (Gabriel) at the Brook and to proceed on to Richmond, take, and then fortify it. This man from Caroline was to be commander and manager the first day, and then, after exercising the sol-diers, the command was to be resigned to Gabriel- If Richmond was taken without the loss of many men they were to continue there some time, but if they sustained any considerable loss they were to bend their course for Hanover Town or York, they were not decided to which, and continue at that place as long as they found they were able to defend it, but in the event of a defeat or loss at those places they were to endeavor to form a junction with some negroes which, they had understood from Mr. Gregorys overseer, were in rebellion in some quarter of the country. This information which they had gotten from the overseer, made Gabriel anxious, upon which he applied to me to make scythe-swords, which I did to the number of twelve. Every Sunday he came to Richmond to provide ammunition and to . find where the military stores were deposited. Gabriel informed me, in case of success that they intended to subdue the whole of the country where slavery was permitted, but no further.

I have nothing more to offer than what General Washington would have had to offer, had he been taken by the British and put to trial by them. I have adventured my life in endeavouring to obtain the liberty of my countrymen, and am a willing sacrifice in their cause: and I beg, as a favour, that I may be immediately led to execution. I know that you have pre-determined to shed my blood, why then all this mockery of a trial?