We Want Freedom. Mumia Abu-Jamal
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to Mumia Abu-Jamal you hear the echoes of David Walker, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, and the sisters and brothers who kept the faith with struggle, who kept the faith with resistance.
—Manning Marable
Mumia Abu-Jamal is one of the most important public intellectuals of our time … He offers us new ways of thinking about law, democracy and power. He allows us to reflect up on the fact that transformational possibilities often emerge where we least expect them.
—Angela Y. Davis
A rare and courageous voice speaking from a place we fear to know: Mumia Abu-Jamal’s voice must be heard
—Alice Walker
A brilliant, lucid meditation on the moral obligation of political commitment by a deeply ethical—and deeply wronged—human being. Mumia should be freed, now.
—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
If Mumia Abu-Jamal has nothing important to say, why are so many powerful people trying to kill him and shut him up? Read him.
—John Edgar Wideman
The first time I heard a tape of one of Mumia’s radio broadcasts, it was the first time I fully understood why the government was so intent on putting him to death.
—Assata Shakur
Refusing to be silenced by his incarceration … the flame of his keen intellect and irrepressible soul burns brightly, illuminating each mind that opens to his wise words.
—ALA Booklist
Abu-Jamal’s words flow like the very sap of trees, pulsing with energy and capturing the essence of life.
—Library Journal
His writings are dangerous
—The Village Voice
Crucial reading for all opponents of the death penalty—and for those who support it, too.
—Katha Pollitt, The Nation
Resonates with the moral force of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
—The Boston Globe
Title Page
We
Want
Freedom
A Life in the Black Panther Party
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Copyright
Copyright © 2004, 2016 by Mumia Abu-Jamal
Introduction copyright © 2004 by Kathleen Cleaver
This edition copyright © 2016 by Common Notions
Originally published by South End Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
c b n a
ISBN: TK
LCCN: 2016952179
The Library of Congress has cataloged the original edition as follows:
Abu-Jamal, Mumia.
We want freedom : a life in the Black Panther Party / by Mumia
Abu-Jamal ; introduction by Kathleen Cleaver.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-10 0-89608-719-0 (alk. paper)—ISBN 0-89608-718-2(pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-89608-718-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Abu-Jamal, Mumia. 2. African American political activists—Biography. 3. Political activists—United States—Biography. 4. Black Panther Party—Biography. 5. Black Panther Party—History. 6. Philadelphia (Pa.)—Race relations. 7. Philadelphia (Pa.)—Biography. 8. African American prisoners—Biography. I. Title.
E185.97.A18 A3 2004
322.4’2’092--dc22
2003026777
Common Notions
c/o Interference Archive
314 7th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11215
c/o Making Worlds Bookstore
210 S. 45th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Cover design by Josh MacPhee/Antumbra Design
Text design by Alexander Dwinell
Printed in the USA by the employee-owners of Thomson-Shore
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He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
Contents
Contents
Reflections—Introduction to a New, Revised Edition
Introduction, by Kathleen Cleaver
1. The Beginnings of the Black Panther Party and the History It Sprang From
2. The Deep Roots of the Struggle for Black Liberation