| Two summers ago, writer and activist Sade Green wrote for The Nation about the origins of Black August, which was started in 1979 by incarcerated Black freedom fighters who wanted to commemorate the deaths of Black revolutionaries who were murdered by law enforcement. Green explained that the founders “were building on the radical resistance of the Black liberation movements that came before them, including Nat Turner’s Rebellion, the Fugitive Slave Law Convention, the Haitian Revolution, the Watts Uprising, and the March on Washington—all of which occurred in August.” To raise awareness of the inhumane conditions that exist behind bars and to fight back against anti-Black state-sanctioned violence, they fasted from sunup to sundown, exercised to keep themselves sharp, boycotted the prison commissary, avoided any radio and television, and studied Black revolutionaries, especially the work of George Jackson, who was murdered by prison guards in August 1971.
“The Black freedom fighters who founded Black August (and all of the Black freedom fighters who came before them) had unwavering strength, courage, and optimism,” Green wrote. “In the midst of their despair, they dared to dream of a more liberated world—a world where Black people have self-determination. And they didn’t just dream of that world, but they fought for it too.”
May we all carry the spirit of Black August, of liberatory dreams and freedom, into September and beyond.
In solidarity,
Regina Mahone
Senior Editor |
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