{"id":2001,"date":"2022-02-03T22:35:06","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T03:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/revolution1313\/?p=2001"},"modified":"2022-02-10T10:29:12","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T15:29:12","slug":"albert-woodfox-george-jackson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/revolution1313\/albert-woodfox-george-jackson\/","title":{"rendered":"Albert Woodfox | George Jackson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/REOg7N57P40\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By Albert Woodfox<\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1969 I was sentenced to fifty years in prison.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t begin to comprehend spending that much time in prison.\u00a0 I immediately began to plot my escape.\u00a0 When the opportunity presented itself, that\u2019s what I did.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I eventually made my way from New Orleans to Harlem, New York.\u00a0 Although I had a peripheral knowledge of the Black Panther Party, this was my first time having any close contact with members of the Party.\u00a0 Eventually, I was arrested and housed in the Manhattan House of Detention, aka the Tombs.\u00a0 While there, I had my first close encounter with members of the Party.\u00a0 At that time, I had no idea that I would eventually become a member. Meeting these men changed me.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once joining the Party, we were given a list of books that each Party member was expected to read.\u00a0 That\u2019s when I became aware of George Jackson. I read his book <em>Soledad Brother<\/em> first.\u00a0 Later, I read George\u2019s book, <em>Blood in my Eyes<\/em>, and I was even more impressed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>\u00a0Soledad Brother<\/em> taught me so many things about becoming a man.\u00a0 George set an example of the way a man is meant to be: dedicated, disciplined and willing to sacrifice. In many ways, he equipped me with the skills to survive prison.\u00a0 And for 44 years and ten months in solitary confinement those lessons stayed with me, and contributed greatly to me surviving, and prospering, even though I was in solitary.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <em>Soledad Brother<\/em>, George wrote, \u201cI just don\u2019t subscribe to that superman shit, I\u2019ve seen too many men cry, seen them in all postures of the common infirmity \u2013 death.\u00a0 My message to black people&#8230;will be the same message I receive from my brain for myself.\u00a0 It will be the same as long as we have the same problem, it will be the same coming from the living, loving brain or from the grave&#8230;just keep on going. \u2013 Just keep going \u2013 straight ahead \u2013 right on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I remember the day in 1971 when I was released from Angola\u2019s torture chamber, known as the red hat, where I was housed after a confrontation with a guard. \u00a0\u00a0Inside, I was kept in a 3 x 6 foot cell. There was a concrete bed, a slop bucket in the corner and no water. Outside the temperature reached 90 degrees; inside it felt double that.\u00a0 My commitment to being a revolutionary crystalized in that cell.\u00a0 After three days, I was released from the red hat on August 21, 1971.\u00a0 I remember the date because it was the day George Jackson was shot and killed by Soledad prison guards.\u00a0 When I learned of George\u2019s murder, my commitment only grew stronger.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As impressive as all of <em>Soledad Brother<\/em> is, the chapter that still stands out the most for me is at the very end of the book &#8211; \u00a0George\u2019s letter to a friend about the death of his brother.\u00a0 Jonathon Jackson was murdered while trying to free political prisoners during a court hearing.\u00a0 The part that touches me the most is in the second paragraph. \u201cManchild, manchild,\u201d George wrote, \u201cwith a sub-machine gun in hand. He was free for a while. I guess that\u2019s more than most of us can expect.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; By Albert Woodfox In 1969 I was sentenced to fifty years in prison.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t begin to comprehend spending that much time in prison.\u00a0 I immediately began to plot my escape.\u00a0 When the opportunity presented itself, that\u2019s what I&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/revolution1313\/albert-woodfox-george-jackson\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2322,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38972],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts-7-13"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/revolution1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/revolution1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/revolution1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/revolution1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/revolution1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/revolution1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/revolution1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/revolution1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/revolution1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}