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Jonathan "Man-Child" Jackson stormed the Marin County Courthouse in an attempt to liberate his brother George Jackson and other Black political prisoners known as the Soledad Brothers. Upon entering the courtroom, Jonathan freed Ruchell "Cinque" Magee, William Christmas, and James McClain and they took the judge, assistant prosecutor, and three jurors hostage in order to negotiate the freedom of the Soledad Brothers. The police and prison guards opened fire on a van Jonathan Jackson was driving killing him, McClain, Christmas, as well as the judge because they didn't want his bold act to serve as potential inspiration for other Black radicals. Ruchell Magee was injured in the assault and he would later stand trial with Angela Davis for the plot. At the time of his revolutionary strike for freedom, Jonathan Jackson was only 17 years old

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August 1971: George Jackson's Assassination

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August 1971: George Jackson's Assassination

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George L. Jackson was a revolutionary thinker, member of the Black Panther Party, and founder of the Black Guerrilla Army. He was killed in San Quentin Prison, allegedly for trying to escape. Ten years earlier, he had been sentenced to one year to life for participating in a robbery that only netted $70. While in prison, he was influenced by figures like Malcolm X, Karl Marx, and Mao Zedong, and he became deeply involved in revolutionary politics. Jackson dedicated himself to educating and organizing other prisoners, which made him a target for prison and government authorities. He wrote the influential books Soledad Brother and Blood In My Eye, which document his political growth during his decade in prison. On the day he was killed, Jackson was said to have led a prison rebellion, which coincided with the 140th anniversary of Nat Turner's rebellion. The San Quentin uprising was quickly suppressed, leaving six people dead, including Jackson. Despite his death, George Jackson remains a powerful example of the revolutionary potential of Black and other marginalized people trapped in the prison system.

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Following George Jackson's assassination, incarcerated Black revolutionaries organized Black August. The commemoration was born out of the need to honor fallen freedom fighters and to strategize ongoing resistance against racial oppression.

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1619: Arrival of the First Africans in America

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1619: Arrival of the First Africans in America

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The first enslaved Africans arrived in North America, landing in Jamestown, Virginia. While the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade had been happening since at least the late 1400s, this event marked the beginning of African enslavement in Britain's North American colonies. We should remember this as a time of great suffering, but it's also important to recognize that the Africans who were enslaved didn't just accept their fate—they resisted and rebelled at every opportunity.

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1978: The First Public Celebration of Black August

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1978: The First Public Celebration of Black August

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The first public celebration of Black August occurred in 1978. Its purpose was to raise awareness about the struggle of Black political prisoners and to celebrate the resilience and resistance of the Black community.

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1980s-1990s: Expansion of Black August Events

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1980s-1990s: Expansion of Black August Events

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Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Black August commemorations expanded beyond prisons and into communities, featuring cultural events, educational workshops, and solidarity actions that highlighted the ongoing struggles for Black liberation.

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In 1998, Black August events included tributes to political prisoners who have been incarcerated for decades due to their activism. These tributes emphasize the importance of remembering and fighting for those who have sacrificed their freedom for the cause.

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2020: Black August and the Movement for Black Lives

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2020: Black August and the Movement for Black Lives

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In 2020, Black August took on new significance amid the resurgence of the Movement for Black Lives, serving as a time to reflect on past struggles and to galvanize new generations in the continuing fight for racial justice.

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Ongoing: Black August Practices and Traditions

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Ongoing: Black August Practices and Traditions

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Black August involves a range of practices including studying and reflection on the continued fight for Black liberation. The traditions of Black August serve to educate and inspire action towards justice and equity.

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The island of Jamaica broke free from British colonial rule. Although the more radical People's National Party, led by Norman Manley, had lost power to the conservative Jamaican Labor Party in April of that year, Jamaica would become the first English-speaking Caribbean nation to gain formal political independence. Soon after, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Barbados would follow Jamaica's lead.

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More than 20,000 Black women (many with their children) marched on the Union Building in Pretoria, South Africa to challenge the racist pass laws instituted during the apartheid era. The white supremacist-controlled government initiated the Population Registration Act, requiring Black South Africans to carry passes at all times as they traversed society. Since the inauguration of Nelson Mandela in 1994, August 9th is commemorated as National Women's Day, which is a public holiday in South Africa

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Dr. Anna Julia Cooper was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, and became a renowned scholar, activist, and an early voice in Black feminism. Born into slavery, she spent her early years working on a plantation owned by George Washington Haywood. After slavery was abolished, she was able to pursue an education, first at St. Augustine Normal School and then at Oberlin College. Cooper then began her career in teaching, public speaking, and writing.

Her first book, A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South (1892), emphasized the importance of educating Black women to empower the Black community. She was also a dedicated Pan-Africanist and played a role in organizing the first Pan-African Conference in 1900.

Dr. Cooper believed in lifelong learning. She began graduate studies at Columbia University in her late 50s and later attended the Sorbonne in France, where she earned a Ph.D. in 1924 at the age of 65, becoming only the fourth Black woman in the U.S. to do so. Upon returning to Washington, DC, she served as president of Frelinghuysen University, which provided education to working-class Black people. She continued her scholarly work, including publishing a memoir in 1951 titled Personal Reflections of the Grimké Family and the Life and Writings of Charlotte Forten Grimké.

Dr. Cooper passed away in her sleep at the age of 105, leaving behind a lasting legacy of Black feminist activism and scholarship that continues to inspire today's Black freedom struggle.

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Mike Brown was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. His death ignited one of the longest and most widespread protests by young Black people against police brutality and state-sanctioned violence in the 21st century. This event also helped to solidify #BlackLivesMatter as a national movement. The Ferguson Rebellion is one of many uprisings by Black people that have occurred in August, which is why this month is recognized as Black August. Although Mike Brown’s family did not receive justice from the system, the St. Louis County District Attorney, Bob McCulloch, who was seen as corrupt and racist, lost his re-election bid on August 6, 2018. Rest in power, Mike Brown, and long live the Ferguson Rebellion!

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The violent arrest of Marquette Frye by the LAPD sparked the Watts Rebellion. After years of police harassment and brutality, the people of Watts fought back in an intense conflict that lasted six days and caused $40 million in damages to Los Angeles. Although some claimed that Black residents were "destroying their own neighborhood," their anger was mainly directed at the LAPD, city officials, and white-owned businesses that exploited and overcharged them while draining wealth from their community. It took 14,000 National Guard troops to end the rebellion. Afterward, Watts experienced a cultural and political revival, with groups like the Watts Writers Workshop, Watts Prophets, and Watts Arts Studio turning Los Angeles into a key center for the Black Arts movement on the West Coast.

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Dutty Boukman, a Haitian vodun priest, led a religious ceremony at Bois Caïman with the priestess Cécile Fatiman. They predicted that the enslaved Africans would rise up and overthrow their oppressors. They urged those present to seek revenge against the French slaveholders who had brutally oppressed them for centuries. Within a week, thousands of Haitians joined the revolt, attacking the island of Saint-Domingue. Although Boukman was captured and executed by the French in November 1791, the rebellion had already grown into what became the Haitian Revolution.

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The Intersection of Solitary Confinement, Black August, and Disability Justice: A Call to Action

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The Intersection of Solitary Confinement, Black August, and Disability Justice: A Call to Action

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The Intersection of Solitary Confinement, Black August, and Disability Justice: A Call to Action

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Black August is a time to honor the sacrifices of our ancestors and pay tribute to the struggles of Black activists, freedom fighters, and revolutionaries who have resisted the shackles of systemic racism.

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Georgia Jackson in 1971, 3 weeks after her son and revolutionary George Jackson was murdered

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Georgia Jackson in 1971, 3 weeks after her son and revolutionary George Jackson was murdered

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Georgia Jackson in 1971, 3 weeks after her son and revolutionary George Jackson was murdered

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A Call to the United Nations to Abolish Death by Incarceration

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A Call to the United Nations to Abolish Death by Incarceration

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The following piece was written by Kempis "Ghani" Songster as a speech he planned to deliver to the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent. Only select speakers are allowed two minutes to share their words before the permanent forum, and Ghani was ultimately not allowed the time to share this speech in person. In reflection of the day, Ghani wrote this in a post on the Center for Constitutional Rights that highlighted the shortened speech to fit in the time slot:
" The United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, which held a session in New York City from May 30th to June 2nd, was as proper a platform as any, or so we initially thought. After all, Death By Incarceration (DBI) disproportionately afflicts communities of African descent. But the day ended with me being one of a very long list of people who did not get a chance to speak. Many had traveled much farther than I had, even from other countries, in hopes of speaking for a meager two minutes. What we experienced was not a mismanagement of time, but a very typical disregard for regular people's sacrifices, grievances, and lives. We watched in frustration as governmental talking heads burned up the majority of the people's time. Many people went home unheard. We realize, however, that it's important to see value in the anticlimactic outcomes in our struggle. Romanticizing our efforts won't help us accomplish our mission. So, we take the bitter with the sweet. And the sweet of it all for me was getting to work with comrades. Salutes to the Center for Constitutional Rights and to our DBI International Advocacy Team."
Below is the full, uncut speech that Ghani had originally written:
I would not be standing before this distinguished body of human beings today if the nations of the world had not resoundingly and unanimously denounced the distinctly American practice of condemning children to die in prison. I was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, or death by incarceration (DBI), at the age of 15. The only reason I'm here is because forces of goodwill from around the world as well as right here have been leading crying out against legal condemnation. I am blessed to be counted among the hundreds who have been released over the past five years. But, hundreds of thousands still are dying slow deaths in American dungeons.

Be it by noose, electric chair, lethal injection, and other horrific acute forms of state-sanctioned murder, or by regulation and legal condemnation, execution has been a characteristic of communities of African descent. The legacy of institutionalized condemnation is long and deep, from plantation to prison, from George Stinney to George Floyd. DBI is a continuation of the ongoing trauma that has defined the experience of African descendants in this country since the advent of slavery.

The examples are unconscionable. Joseph Ligon, for instance, was sentenced to death by incarceration at the age of 15 in 1953, two years before the Vietnam war began and almost 50 years after the war ended. He served almost 70 years of his DBI sentence. He was released almost 10 years after the US Supreme Courts ruled that it is unconstitutional to sentence children to mandatory life without parole. Like the rest of us, Joe avoided dying behind prison walls only by grace and grit. Many were not as lucky. Sharon "Peachie" Wiggins was perhaps the most accomplished imprisoned person of any agenda. She was the longest imprisoned female when she died 45 years into her DBI sentence. More people die serving DBI sentences than on Death Row. I would argue that DBI is more fatal than the "death penalty."

When people condemned to DBI succumb to that form of death sentencing, the language often used is that they died of natural causes behind prison walls. I would caution us away from that language and misperception. No death as a result of DBI can be called a "natural" death because the circumstances and conditions surrounding it are unnatural. Such a death is a toxic death. People who die in prison or serving a DBI sentence did not die of natural causes. Theirs are not passive deaths; it's being done to them by the state very slowly, which is why we emphatically say that DBI is torture.

Our complaint to the United Nations that Death By Incarceration is Torturepresents unconscionable facts for the global community tosee. We are well aware that the U.S. has had more human beings in prison than any other nation in the world. It is now common knowledge that 25 percent of the world's imprisoned population exists in the U.S. But, we might not all be aware that 15 percent of the total prison population, or 203,865 people, are serving life or virtual life sentences. More than two-thirds of the human beings serving LWOP/DBI in the United States are people of color. While in 2020 only 12.4 percent of the US population was Black, 46 percent of all of those serving LWOP/DBI sentences nationwide were Black. I believe this sentence sends a clear message to already marginalized communities, that those communities are less redeemable than other communities. Not to mention how DBI helps to destabilize and cripple Black families and communities for generations to come. Forty eight percent of everyone condemned to DBI in PA, the state in which I reside, for instance, are aged 50 or older. Elders as sources of wisdom in families and communities all over the world are decreasing in Black communities, as they remain condemned to DBI. Millions of children who have a parent so situated are now seven times or 85 percent more likely to be imprisoned themselves, if no positive intervention is made in their lives.

Thirteen of my 30 years of imprisonment was spent on a cell block with four father-son pairs, eight individuals, serving death by incarceration sentences. I could only imagine what it has been like for a parent to-after being condemned to never see their child in the free world again-to see their child brought into prison similarly condemned to die in prison. All eight of those people, those fathers and sons, were African descendants.

The racial particularization of this sentence is why we also say that DBI is genocide.

Some might argue that DBI is necessary for people who've caused irreparable harm. Among many things the nations of the world are in harmony about is the human capacity for atonement and redemption after the commission of causing harm. It is the human ability, with the right guidance and support, to become better and learn to make contributions towards making their communities and the world better. Five years after my release, I am a husband, a father, a homeowner, and a servant of my community. Countless others deserve an opportunity to show their communities the same capacity even more than me.

I urge everyone in this room to think about what it means to die in prison. Can you even imagine it? Do you have a family member in prison? A harrowing reality is continuously taking shape, seeking to make it so that no person in the U.S. doesn't have or know someone who is in prison, maybe for the rest of their lives.

Consistent with U.N. treaty bodies' previous pronouncements calling for the abolition of policies that disproportionately subject racial and ethnic minorities to some of the worst consequences of the criminal legal system, such as the death penalty and juvenile life without parole, our complaint asks the Special Procedures mandates to call for the abolition of all DBI sentences in the United States. Thank you for this precious opportunity to stand before you to make this plea to the global community on behalf of my community who continues to reel from the onslaught of Death By Incarceration sentencing.

Kempis Songster ("Ghani")
Ghani returned home from his death by incarceration sentence in 2017 and now works as the Program Manager for the Healing Futures restorative justice diversion program at the Youth Arts Self Empowerment Project (YASP). The featured image is Robert Saleem Holbrook, the executive director of Straight Ahead (left), Kempis "Ghani" Songster (right), and Ghani's child (center) at the 2022 Decarcerate and Chill community event.

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A Call to the United Nations to Abolish Death by Incarceration - Straight Ahead

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Restoring justice by building a statewide decarceration movement across PA. Dismantling institutions of state violence.

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A People's Panel on Abolition and Disability Justice

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A People's Panel on Abolition and Disability Justice

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A People's Panel on Abolition and Disability Justice

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Black August Celebrates the History of Black Resistance in the U.S.

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Black August Celebrates the History of Black Resistance in the U.S.

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We Should All Be Commemorating Black August

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“August is a month of meaning, of repression and radical resistance.”

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Eyes Of The Rainbow a documentary film with Assata Shakur

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Eyes Of The Rainbow a documentary film with Assata Shakur

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Eyes Of The Rainbow   a documentary film with Assata Shakur

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Still Fighting: Unpacking the Revolutionary Spirit of Black August

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Still Fighting: Unpacking the Revolutionary Spirit of Black August

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Still Fighting: Unpacking the Revolutionary Spirit of Black August

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“There is no Black liberation without Disability Justice and there is no Disability Justice without Black liberation.” -Sami Schalk

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“There is no Black liberation without Disability Justice and there is no Disability Justice without Black liberation.” -Sami Schalk