Former Political Prisoner Panel at 'No More Locked Doors' Conference

At 7pm on May 16th, after a day of tabling and workshops, a panel of former political prisoners will speak at Qilombo. We are overjoyed to announce the members of this panel: Richard Brown, Linda Sue Evans, Sundiata “Willie” Tate, Rita “Bo” Brown. These people, from a variety of social movements, will talk about their experiences as well as their perspectives on effective prisoner support.

Richard Brown

A former member of the Black Panther Party, Richard Brown was part of the ‘SF 8,’ which included Richard O’Neal, Ray Boudreaux, Hank Jones, Francisco Torres, Harold Taylor, Herman Bell, and Jalil Muntaqim. Bell and Muntaqim have been held as political prisoners for over 30 years in New York State prisons.

Richard describes the case of the SF 8: “We [were] charged with the 1971 Ingleside Station attack [on] a police sergeant by the name of John Young [who] was murdered. Because we were Panthers we are being charged with that murder and conspiracy to murder police officers and commit certain crimes. This was brought up for the first time in the 1970s. When the case was taken to court, the three people charged, John Bowman, Ruben Scott, and Harold Taylor, all stated that they were tortured and forced to confess. Because of that and the fact that they were questioned without any attorney being present in New Orleans, the court threw the so-called ‘admission of guilt’ and the case out.

In January of this year, 2007, they rearrested eight of us for the same crime and the same charges and as far as we can tell from what we’ve heard in court they plan to use the same ‘confessions’ that were ruled illegal in the first place. If you go according to what they said in court, what they’ve presented so far, they don’t even have any new evidence. We are being recharged with the same thing again which was already stated as illegal back in the 1970s.

Since then I might add that a lot of things have changed because of the Patriot Act and Homeland Security and the environment of the country, a period where they feel that they can come back and use what they couldn’t use before because it’s not so clear whether [the torture] is illegal or not.”

Fighting a grand jury and conspiracy charges, a community defense campaign mobilized to free the SF 8. Some of the charges from 1973 were thrown out due to police use of torture to get confessions, and by January of 2008, the case was dismissed.

Richard Brown stated on his previous involvement with the Panthers, “The Black Panthers were about serving the people… and I continued to serve the people as an individual by working with community-based organizations.”

We are honored to have Richard Brown join us and share his wisdom on the SF 8 case and the cause of political prisoners and prisoners of war.

Linda Sue Evans

Linda Evans has spent decades involved with various organizations and movements in militant opposition to imperialism and white supremacy, both inside and outside of prison. In 1987, Evans was sentenced to 40 years in prison for using false identification to buy firearms and for harboring a fugitive in the 1981 Brinks armored truck robbery, in which two police officers and a guard were killed. In a second case, she was sentenced in 1990 to five years in prison for conspiracy and malicious destruction in connection with eight bombings including that of the U. S. Capitol in the mid-1980s. Her sentence was commuted in 2001.

Politicized in the mid-1960s, Evans joined Students for a Democratic Society, but moved away from pacifism as she became more involved in various struggles – even traveling to Vietnam in 1969. As SDS split, Evans joined the Weather faction, and was arrested during the build up to the ‘Days of Rage.’ Evans remained heavily involved in the Weather Underground Organization, and even went on to participate in the May 19th Communist Organization after Weather folded.

No stranger to prison for carrying out militant actions and attempting to ‘fund’ revolutionary organizations, while incarcerated at the Federal Corrections Institution in Dublin, California Evans advocated for an AIDS educational program for women and lesbian inmates. Evans also helped raise funds for the program by creating quilts and served as a peer AIDS counselor and educator.

We are honored to have Linda Evan’s speak today, and share with us her insight into decades of struggle; both inside and outside the bars.

Sundiata “Willie” Tate

Sundiata was one of the 6 people accused of participating in an escape attempt from San Quentin prison in 1971. The group became known as the ‘San Quentin 6.” The other inmates included, Hugo Pinell, Johnny Larry Spain, David Johnson, Fleeta Drumgo and Luis Talamantez. The trial latest an incredible 16 months.

According to an article on Found SF: “Prior to the 1971 San Quentin Six indictments, Hugo Pinell, and Fleeta Drumgb, along with fellow inmates, including George Jackson, had fought against prison authorities’ attempts to whip up racial hatred among prisoners. They strongly protested the January, 1970 murder of three Black prisoners. In November, 1970, Johnny Spain is put into the hole at Soledad for possession of literature alleged to be “inflammatory” — his personal writings about prison life.

At San Quentin, Willie Tate and David Johnson vigorously protest the fatal gassing and beating of Fred Billingslea. On January 13th, 1970, three Black prisoners — Nolan, Edwards, and Miller — are killed by a Soledad prison guard. Two of them had been involved in a suit against Soledad, exposing the racist, hate-mongering tactics employed by prison officials. These killings are ruled “justifiable homicide” by the Grand Jury. A Soledad guard, O.G. Mill is killed shortly thereafter.

On January 16th Fleeta Drumgo, John C1utchette, and George Jackson are accused of murdering Mills. Angela Davia joins the campaign to free the Soledad Brothers. (After George Jackson was murdered in 1971 the two surviving Soledad Brothers were acquitted of charges by a jury.) On August 7th, Jonathan Jackson, younger brother of George Jackson, walks into the Marin County courtroom where a Black San Quentin prison activist, James McClain, is standing trial. McClain, Jackson, and inmate-witnesses William Christmas and Ruchell Magee take hostages. Jackson, McClain, Christmas, and Superior Court Judge Haley are killed.

Angela Davis and Ruchell Magee are subsequently accused of murder, kidnap, and conspiracy in connection with the above events. On August 21st, George Jackson is fatally shot in the back by prison guards at San Quentin. Two other inmates and three guards are also killed. In the days that follow, Adjustment Center (AC) inmates are beaten, shot,
burned, and generally brutalized.”

The trial of the San Quentin 6 continues throughout the 1970s; spawning a movement that calls for the release of the 6 as well as against the assassination of George Jackson and other prison rebels. After his release, “Sundi” remained active in struggles for liberation, both around prison issues and the broader revolutionary movement. In the spirit of total resistance and in the memory of prison warrior George Jackson, we are honored to have Sundiata share his wisdom with us on the panel.

Rita “Bo” Brown

In the 1970s, Brown was a member of the militant underground group the George Jackson Brigade, which operated out of the Pacific Northwest. As a working-class lesbian herself, Brown was part of a Brigade whose members flew in the face of stereotypes of militants of the time. Comprised of ex-cons, proletarians, women, prison activists, queers, white and black members, as well as both communists and anarchists, the group carried out a string of armed actions and expropriations. Brown was soon named, “The Gentleman Bank Robber,” and the Brigade quickly landed on the FBI’s most wanted list.

One news article referred to Brown: “Klamath, Oregon native who often did her dirty work in drag, creatively blending her butch cross-dressing style with polite gun-pointing prattle, and was praised by bank tellers for her congeniality while committing her outlaw
activities.

The Brigade’s list of terrorist activities included firebombing a Seattle contractor’s office who refused to hire black workers, Safeway stores to show solidarity with the United Farm Workers, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Tacoma office of the FBI for their
aggressive stance toward the American Indian Movement. They also blew up a Seattle power station.

Of her experiences with the Brigade, Brown has said, “we were at war.”’

Eventually, Brown was captured and did 8 years for the robbery of a Portland bank. Upon release in 1987, Brown formed the group, Out of Control: Lesbian Committee to Support Women Political Prisoners, and remains active in struggles for liberation and in prison abolition groups in the Bay Area.

Bo Brown’s experience and wisdom pulls from a multitude of struggles,
communities, and well-springs of revolt.