Black August

Peace. Black August is a time to honor and reflect on the Black freedom struggle, recognizing the contributions and sacrifices of individuals who have battled and are currently battling against systemic oppression. We will address the following questions in class and some within this collaborative build.

1. What does Black August mean to you personally? How do you cee yourself with its history and significance and how does it resonate with your own experiences and aspirations?

2. Are you aware of the origins of Black August and its connection to figures like George Jackson and the broader Black liberation movement? If so, explain your cee on the origin.

3. Is there one revolutionary's legacy and work that stands out to you or that you particularly have admiration and respect for?

4. If you could convey one message related to Black August to those outside the prison system, what would it be?

5. What are the key aspects of Black August that resonate with the teachings and principles of the NGE?

6.In what ways can the Nation of Gods and Earths contribute to the movements for social justice and change that Black August represents?

 7.What role do you think the principles celebrated during Black August play in mentoring and guiding the youth within the NGE community?

8. In what ways can we better highlight the struggles represented by Black August so they are seen for what they truly are, rather than misconstrued narratives?

  A political prisoner is an individual who is imprisoned for their political beliefs, actions, or affiliations rather than for committing a criminal offense. These prisoners may be incarcerated for advocating for social, political, or economic changes, resisting oppressive regimes, or exercising their rights to free expression and assembly. Slavery is a form of imprisonment.

9. The 3:36 degree states, "My uncle was brought here by a trader 379 years ago.” What significant events can we associate with the Black August movement that relate to this part of our history?

10. What are the principles of Black August? How are you incorporating them? In example: One of the principles is unity. What have you done to incorporate more unity amongst the brothers around you and those on the outside? 

By: Panther Allah and Yaa Majesty Earth

---

As a black woman the importance of celebrating Black August to pay tribute and honor to our national freedom fighters in the "belly of the beast, " August aka Black August I have become aware that many people have no idea what Black August is. In a nutshell, it is white racist oppression, and understanding how the enemy uses the prison to contain and oppress them. Again now the threat is all the unemployable black men in Amerikkka. So they Mass Incarcerate them to contain us (black people). This is why George Jackson said, "Every black person in prison, no matter their crime, is a political prisoner because the system has dealt, with them differently." On a broader scale, the color of our black skin is a threat. This makes me a political prisoner, this makes you a political prisoner, this makes all of us political prisoners. Today we're facing a prison industrial complex that exploits the suffering of our loved ones by selling them overpriced products, and poor health care and forcing them to live in less than humane conditions. Many are suffering not only physically but mentally as well. A lot of guys in prison today suffer from mental illness because they are living in deprived environments. The prisons are also extremely authoritarian. Denying them their most basic civil liberties. So with all that said we celebrate the historical events of those imprisoned for their political activity. As we focus on the 6 principles:

1. Unity

2. Self Sacrifice

3. Political Education 

4. Spiritual Renewal

5. Physical Fitness

6. Resistance

Black August is a month of great significance for Africans throughout the Diaspora, but particularly here in the U.S. where it originated. “August,” as Mumia Abu-Jamal noted, “is a month of meaning, of repression and radical resistance, of injustice and divine justice; of repression and righteous rebellion; of individual and collective efforts to free the slaves and break the chains that bind us.”

Black August, first organized to honor our fallen freedom fighters, Jonathan and George Jackson, Khatari Gaulden, James McClain, William Christmas, and the sole survivor of Aug. 7, 1970, Courthouse Slave Rebellion, Ruchell Cinque Magee, is still a time to embrace the principles of unity, self-sacrifice, political education, physical fitness and/or training in martial arts, resistance, and spiritual renewal.

In his second book, “Blood in My Eye,” published (A great read by the way), George Jackson noted: “Reformism is an old story in Amerikkka. There have been depressions and socio-economic political crises throughout the period that marked the formation of the present upper-class ruling circle and their controlling elites. But the parties of the left were too committed to reformism to exploit their revolutionary potential. … Fascism has temporarily succeeded under the guise of reform.” Those words ring even truer today as we witness a form of fascism that has replaced gas ovens with executions and torture chambers: plantations with prison industrial complexes deployed in rural white communities to perpetuate white supremacy and Black and Brown slavery.

“International capitalism cannot be destroyed without the extremes of struggle … We are the only ones … who can get at the monster’s heart without subjecting the world to nuclear fire. We have a momentous historical role to act out if we will. The whole world for all time in the future will love us and remember us as the righteous people who made it possible for the world to live on… I don’t want to die and leave a few sad songs and a hump in the ground as my only monument. I want to leave a world that is liberated from trash, pollution, racism, nation-states, nation-state wars, and armies, from pomp, bigotry, parochialism, a thousand different brands of untruth and licentious, usurious economics.” (“Soledad Brother”)

Peace

By: Imani Culture-Freedom DyVyne Earth

---

Peace! As I reflect on Black August I think that just like Kwanza, and Juneteenth it's us acknowledging the struggles and liberations of our people and looking at the value system and direction we are moving as a collective. Black August is so unique because it's not about commercialization or exploitation. We recognize everything European yet how much do we support something about us and for us? We read, study, exercise, and fast from certain activities. Black August is a time for us brothers in prison to bunker down and science up on revolutionary thinking and learn about how George Jackson got arrested for shoplifting and stealing $70 from a gas station and then given an exorbitant sentence that allowed him to be held for an indeterminate sentence (the imposition of a sentence of imprisonment with no definite period set during sentencing).

As a result, his brother On August 7, 1970, George Jackson's 17-year-old brother Jonathan P. Jackson burst into a Marin County courtroom with an automatic weapon, freed prisoners James McClain, William A. Christmas, and Ruchell Magee, and took Judge Harold Haley, Deputy District Attorney Gary Thomas, and three jurors hostage to demand the release of the "Soledad Brothers". Police killed Haley, Jackson, Christmas, and McClain as they attempted to drive away from the courthouse. Eyewitness testimony suggests Haley was hit by fire discharged from a sawed-off shotgun that had been fastened to his neck with adhesive tape by the abductors. Thomas, Magee, and one of the jurors were wounded. The case made national headlines.

Johnathan Jackson was fed up with the injustice of the racist system refusing to let his brothers free. So drastic times produced drastic measures, especially since we are still all living in drastic times.

After Jackson's death, on March 27, 1972, the two surviving Soledad Brothers—Clutchette and Drumgo—were acquitted by a San Francisco jury of the original charges of murdering a prison guard because the state had failed to completely prove its case.

So it should be clearly understood that Black August is a reflection and commemoration of history of those heroic partisans and leaders that realistically made it possible for us to survive and advance to our present level of liberation struggle, such as Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, Gabriel Prosser, Frederick Douglas, W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Paul Robeson, Rosa Parks, M.L. King, Malcolm X, Father Allah and numerous others in our more contemporary period. It must be further clarified that when we speak of “Culture Development,” we are not advocating Cultural Nationalism and/or merely talking about adopting African/Righteous names, jewelry, dashikis, etc. Our primary interest lies not only in where we came from, but the nature of “WHY” we were forcefully brought here, understanding the character of “CONTINUOUS” struggle with the recognition that it is a protracted struggle and developing the necessary lifestyles to guarantee its success. Black August is about all the people that's fighting the system from the inside out, to the outside in. It's about us putting on our armor and staying ready so we don't have to get ready for war. 

Peace

By: Empower God Allah

---

Peace and respect! 

It's the 6th day of Black August; unity is the key, knowledge of self, political education is the way to walk through that door. When we understand the principles of equality, we come to realize that quality is much heavier than quantity. Numbers only count when it's a conscious, committed, disciplined, organized movement; a body. We have many nations, organizations, groups, or whatever titles we take on to call ourselves....the fact is we are one body; one off-balanced body, one black nation, where the arms and legs don't work in accordance, and the head is dumb, deaf, and blind, at times...we should strive to understand equality; build with your people…your folk, your cuz, and/or your blood and understand that the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines, all look different, have different uniforms, colors. codes and mottos, yet they fight for one common cause...white world domination. When it’s all said and done, if your cause is not for us, {original  nation) to gain power, you're fighting to maintain white world domination....stand up and be counted...faceless and nameless...Peace

By: Lahborn Eyeself Allah