My attribute is Talib ‘Tyrone’ Shakur. I am the executive director of “Truth & Reconciliation: Dr. Mutulu Shakur”.
I was born and raised in South Jamaica, Queens. All my life I was told that someone else was my father. A man I had never seen nor heard his voice before. As a kid, I was constantly told I looked like a man named Jeral. Fast forward to 2015, more than 40 years later, I was riding the train in 2015 when a man wearing an African garment looked to be in his late 60s or early 70s approached me and asked, “excuse me young man, are you Dr. Mutulu Shakur’s son?” I told the man “no, I don’t know the man I’m sorry.”
After that encounter, I finally decided to ask my mother who my father is. When I asked my mother she hesitated then said, “yes son, that is your father, Jeral, now known as Dr. Mutulu Shakur. I’m sorry for keeping it from you all these years.”
Jeral was my father’s slave name before he legally changed it to Dr. Mutulu Shakur. Immediately, I typed his name in Google in order to find the address of the prison he was being held in. I wrote to him right away. A week later I got a letter in the mail from Dr. Mutulu. In the letter he said, “I finally found my son, here are your family names, addresses and phone numbers.” First on the list was Afeni Shakur, Set Shakur, Mopreme Shakur and the list kept going. Those moments of initial contact and greetings with my father are etched into my heart and soul.
Now, I have the opportunity to visit and speak with him frequently. I tell him that I’m going to do my best to show the world the real you, the passionate you, the healer, educator, mentor, the family man, community leader and so much more.
To you, my beloved readers, I share with you my story knowing that you all have many stories with my father as well that help to shape not only his legacy, but the Shakur legacy. To find out more about being featured in this documentary contact Talib Shakur. I ask that you join us to raise the funds so we can make this documentary a global success and finally bring Dr. Mutulu Shakur home!
For questions, comments or to inquire about being featured in the documentary leave a voice message or text your name, contact number and your reason for reaching out to the contact info below.
We are undertaking the project of producing an Expository and Participatory Documentary for Dr. Mutulu Shakur’s biography and achievements. However, creating a documentary of this fashion is finance sapping. We are faced with several financial challenges to meet all the requirements for this project.
Our goal is to raise $45,000.00 in 60 days. We need all hands on deck! Our primary goal is to ensure that a factual, well-articulated and compiled documentary is created for the sake of Dr. Mutulu Shakur’s life and freedom. The funds raised will go directly to providing all the required equipment and human resources to complete our project.
The Impact
This documentary aims to push forward the ongoing work of others who support the release of Dr. Mutulu Shakur from federal prison. We are striving to reach new networks of people locally and internationally, people who actively push for change, progress and are aware of our political climate and are taking a stand to see change in our criminal justice system. We present to you the unparalleled impact and positive work of Dr. Shakur as an acupuncturist, political prisoner and human rights activist, who has fought for the betterment of African American people and communities across the country.
For our documentary, the following will be done:
1. Gathering of facts (pictures, videos, interviews, testimonies, and stories) about Dr. Shakur
2. Crystallizing all the information gathered to enhance precision
3. Creating an informative and educative documentary about Dr. Shakur’s biography and achievements
4. Promoting this documentary on several TV channels in the USA
5. Sharing this documentary on social media platforms for global awareness
6. Creating a YouTube Channel where the documentary will be posted for public viewing
7. Creating an international impact
Risks & Challenges
We are on a strict deadline to complete this project before February 21st, as you can imagine we feel like we are fighting against time, especially since we are raising funds from the ground up. As Doc would say, “take no easy victories, the victory must be earned and the task understood.” We set the deadline for February 21st because he has a parole hearing soon after that and we would like to launch our film before his parole hearing. Our challenge is to raise the funds, complete the documentary and publish it to bring awareness and an uproar for action.
Other Ways You Can Help
We are asking folks to get the word out and make some noise about our documentary. Use the INDIEGOGO share tools to help us spread the word!
*This Truth and Reconciliation project is officially approved by Dr. Mutulu Shakur
Democrats may have recently “discovered” reparations, but Black activists held a World Tribunal on Reparations in 1982, in New York City. Speakers include Afeni Shakur, the former Black Panther and mother of Hip Hop legend Tupac Shakur. African People’s Socialist Party chairman Omali Yeshitela puts the reparations struggle in historical perspective.
A prisoner can be someone’s father, grandfather, mother, brother, sister or child. It could be you – though you’re more likely to be a prisoner if you’re Black, another person of color, or poor. Under the 13th Amendment, if you’re a prisoner in the U.S., you’re a slave – which is against international law because slavery has long been outlawed worldwide.
Why are so many Blacks and others of color in U.S. prisons?
There were very few Blacks in prison when we were slaves. That’s because the majority of Black men, women and children were already imprisoned on plantations at the time as slaves for life.
Now that we’re supposedly free, Blacks have become the majority of the U.S. prison population. And that is because the free labor of Black slaves built this country into a profitable, prosperous enterprise for whites who are trying to keep it that way.
The Civil War ended slavery and replaced it with segregation, but slavery’s racist, imperialist core still drives U.S. ambitions today. Thus, at slavery’s end we see white slave patrols morph into a white police force, and segregation’s laws, Black Codes, white judges, juries and police force morph into a rudimentary criminal in-justice system.
Blacks began to be arrested for everything, from refusing to sign slave-like work contracts to looking the wrong way at some white man. Black prison rates shot up from 0 to 33 percent. Most arrests were due to sundry attempts to force Blacks to work for free (slavery) or for nearly free (servitude) and always at cheaper wages than whites, who were the main beneficiaries of cheaper Black labor.
This meant higher white profits. So, the reason so many Blacks are in prison is ultimately due to their resistance, in one way or another, to being re-enslaved – at which point the real criminal is brought into the dispute and the innocent Black is shipped off to prison.
Segregation and civil rights
The Civil Rights Movement (CRM), along with the NAACP and Thurgood Marshall, defeated legal (de jure) segregation when the 1954 Supreme Court outlawed school segregation. Though the actual practice of (de facto) segregation continued, the ruling did open the door to attacks on segregation in general.
Enter Rosa Parks, MLK Jr., SCLC and the Montgomery Bus Boycott into the CRM, which ran strong, broke much ground, won many victories, suffered its share of setbacks and was eventually eclipsed by the Black Liberation Movement (BLM) in the latter half of the 1960s.
Now that we’re supposedly free, Blacks have become the majority of the U.S. prison population. And that is because the free labor of Black slaves built this country into a profitable, prosperous enterprise for whites who are trying to keep it that way.
The BLM and ‘serving the people’
The Black Liberation Movement: Black Panthers Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, Lumumba Shakur, Sekou Odinga; Assata, Afeni, Mutulu (RNA) and Zayd Shakur; Sundiata Acoli. Plus the various contributing movements: Puerto Rican (FLN), American Indian Movement (AIM), Weather Underground Organization (WUO, a white anti-imperialist group), Chicano Liberation Front, and I WOR KUEN, an Asian group.
The Panthers were about “Serving the People: Free Breakfast for School Children,” helping people solve their day to day problems and fighting for control of the institutions in their communities, like schools, hospitals and medical clinics. The Panthers had very good community support, particularly among the youth, other people of color, other liberation movements, progressives, the poor and other oppressed who wanted liberation.
COINTELPRO defeats the BLM
In response to the BLM’s growing support in the community and solidarity with other liberation movements, the U.S. government launched a Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) against the Panthers and defeated them. The Nation of Islam was attacked by COINTELPRO and survived. Other domestic liberation groups were attacked; some survived, some didn’t. Others just melted away. Some of today’s aged prisoners are among those who fell during COINTELPRO’s attack on the BLM in the 1960s and ‘70s.
Crack and the mass prison-building spree
The defeat of the BLM was followed immediately by the flooding of communities of color with more drugs: heroin, cocaine and the new drug of the Reagan era – crack. While inundating urban Black and Brown centers with crack, the government was quietly conducting mass prison-building sprees in white rural mountainous and other remote areas to provide jobs for local citizens and cells for the coming prisoners of the “crack scourge.”
War on Blacks and mass incarceration
Then came the “War on Blacks,” others of color and the poor disguised as the “War on Drugs,” or “War on Crime.” Strategies included the 100-to-1 “crack” cocaine (associated mostly with Blacks) vs. “powder” cocaine (associated mostly with whites) sentencing disparity; no more parole (one had to complete 85 percent of a sentence); Bill Clinton’s 50 new “Tough on Crime” death penalty offenses; “three strikes” life sentence for stealing a candy bar; life without parole (LWOP) sentence for “acquitted conduct,” where the jury acquits the defendant but the judge overrules and sentences “acquitted” defendant to LWOP anyway.
The Black community was targeted for constant patrols, higher arrest quotas, zero-tolerance crime enforcement, disproportionate stop and frisk and shoot and kill, harsher charges filed, higher bonds set, longer sentences given out, more paroles denied or revoked – more prison for Blacks than whites.
Equalizing crack and powder cocaine sentences
Colleagues of Congressional Black Congresswoman (CBC) Maxine Waters admitted to her that the current drug laws were often excessively unfair when applied to Blacks, others of color, poor and oppressed. Other CBC colleagues pled with the organization to bear with them until they could pass adequate sentence reduction laws. Congress passed laws that reduced sentences and freed large-scale marijuana growers and methamphetamine manufacturers (crimes usually associated with whites) as people of color patiently waited year after year for the 100-to-1 crack and powder cocaine sentencing disparity to be equalized.
Finally came the day! C-Span televised the congressional debate for equalizing crack cocaine and powder cocaine sentences. It never happened! Crack was only reduced to an 18-to-1 ratio to powder, though cocaine is the only active drug in either crack or powder cocaine. Even the 18-to-1 sentencing disparity was not made retroactive to those with prior convictions.
People of color felt betrayed by Congress. Prisons erupted in riots. The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) instantly shut down C-Span and locked down the prisons that flared up. Today the 18-to-1 disparity remains, as does the racist overkill tactics of the Criminal Injustice System against Black and Brown communities in particular and the poor in general.
Where do we go from here?
Our Black families, communities of color and poor people have been torn asunder by one racist scheme after another to keep Blacks and other oppressed in subservient roles for the benefit of an imperialistic white supremacist system.
Sundiata Acoli, Kevin Jones-Bey (16)
Sundiata Acoli
Quite simply: We want our imprisoned parents, grandparents, teachers, leaders, brothers, sisters, political prisoners, exiles, students and children freed and exonerated to help rebuild our families, communities, lives and Black Nation now, not at some vague future date that will allow most of our loved ones to slowly die off in prison – as is the case with 82-year-old Black Panther political prisoner Sundiata Acoli, held at FCI Cumberland, Maryland. (His full address is Sundiata Acoli (Squire), 39794-066, FCI Cumberland, P.O. Box 1000, Cumberland MD 20501; please write. – ed.)
Kevin Jones-Bey
Or: the case of Kevin Jones-Bey, who’s doing LWOP for an “acquitted conduct” sentence. Along with Sundiata Acoli, Kevin Jones-Bey is a brilliant co-teacher of the Critical Thinking course that is tasked, inter alia, with teaching younger prisoners to control their emotions in critical situations so that they think and act rationally to avoid the revolving door recidivism (like parole violations) that return so many young parolees to prison. (Kevin’s address is the same as Sundiata’s, except his number is 32567-037.)
Tony Lewis Sr.
Or: the case of Tony Lewis Sr., former kingpin, doing LWOP, who deliberately steered his son, Tony Lewis Jr., nicknamed “Slugg,” away from drugs and crime and toward the best schools and love of self, family, community and people – but taught him never to forget where he came from. Tony Lewis Jr. did not disappoint, going on to write an inspiring double biography of father and son, “Slugg: A Boy’s Life in the Age of Mass Incarceration.”
He heeded his father’s caution not to glamorize drugs or street life but to save Black lives and inspire Black men to be better than they are – and he did indeed! Tony Lewis Jr. is now a member of the Washington, D.C., City Council, serving and representing his people well and moving on up the ladder.
We want freedom
“It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.” – Assata Shakur
Valerie Haynes, who can be reached at Valerie_Haynes@Hotmail.com, describes herself as a “Black woman, mother, community organizer, activist from Brooklyn, New York. I’ve been organizing with and advocating for u.s. held Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War since 2010.
“I joined the Sekou Odinga Defense Committee (SODC) in 2013 and when Sekou came home, he co-founded, with other former PPs/POWs, activists, organizations, the North East Political Prisoner Coalition (NEPPC). I’ve been with NEPPC since 2015. We educate the masses on the existence of u.s. held PPs and POWs, particularly focusing on the forgotten ones from the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army movement of the 1960s. We share their stories so we can change and correct the narrative on our history of Black Resistance while the powers that be continue to criminalize Black Resistance. FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS! FREE ’EM ALL!
[Memorial]
Freedom fighter\activist Afeni Shakur mother of rapper Tupac Shakur
Photo: Wiki Commons
Black Panther Party Leader and freedom fighter Afeni Shakur
This month marks four years since the passing of Afeni Shakur, who was an important leader of the Black Panther Party chapter in New York—and the activist minded mother of rapper Tupac Shakur.
Afeni Shakur’s story is filled with the pain, struggle and triumph of someone who dedicated her life to the struggle for Black liberation. As a passionate advocate for the rights of African-Americans, her legacy entails far more than being just the mother of Tupac Shakur.
Afeni Shakur was born Alice Faye Williams on January 10, 1947, the daughter of Rosa Belle and Walter Williams Jr., in Lumberton, North Carolina. Shakur, and her sister, Gloria Jean, had a difficult childhood, where domestic abuse was present. In a 1997 People Magazine interview, Shakur said, “My momma left my dad because he was kickin’ her ass.”
In 1958, Shakur and her sister moved to New York City. She would enroll in Bronx High School of Science. Shakur’s drug use, that would become documented later, started around the time she was 15.
By 1968, Shakur had joined the Black Panther Party. She took the first name “Afeni” a Yoruba word meaning “lover of people,” and joined it with the word “Shakur,” an Arabic word meaning “thankful.” She lived in Harlem, where she became a chapter leader of the Panthers.
In April 1969, Shakur was arrested, with 21 other members of the Black Panthers, on conspiracy charges allegedly to conduct bombings in New York City. The 21 were accused of plotting three separate attacks. The defendants were charged with attempting to kill police officers.
One attack was allegedly to occur at the Bronx 44th Precinct. Another at Manhattan’s 24th Precinct and a third at the Queens Board of Education office. The three attacks were all supposed to occur at 9:00 p.m. on January 17, 1969.
At this time, J Edgar Hoover’s FBI, and police departments across America, were actively trying to destroy the Black Panther Party. One primary reason was because the Black Panthers were fearless fighters against racist police violence and their murders of African-Americans. The FBI utilized its COINTELPRO program to “neutralize,” a euphemistic term which really meant assassinating, murdering and imprisoning members of the Black Panthers. In 1969, Hoover had called the Black Panthers “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country.”
Some of the other New York Black Panthers jailed along with Afeni Shakur were: Lumumba Shakur, Ali Bey Hassan, Michael Tabor, Dhoruba al-Mujahid bin Wahad, Jamal Joseph, Abayama Katara, Baba Odinga, Joan Bird, Robert Collier, Sundiata Acoli, Lonnie Epps, Curtis Powell, Kuwasi Balagoon, Richard Harris, Lee Berry, Lee Roper, and Kwando Kinshasa. The Panther 21 faced a total of 156 charges. Before the trial started the Panther 21 had dwindled to 16 defendants.
Judge Charles Marks set bail for all the defendants at $100,000. Manhattan District Attorney Frank Hogan gave Assistant District Attorney Joseph A. Phillips the task of prosecuting the defendants with help from Jeffrey Weinsten. The trial was held before State Supreme Court Justice John M. Murtagh, in the New York County Courthouse, at 100 Centre Street.
Shakur, then 22, opted to defend herself in the case which became infamously known as the Panther 21 case. There were objections to her decision to defend herself—including by some of her co-defendants. Besides not being a trained lawyer, Shakur was pregnant—with Lesane Parish Crooks, otherwise known as Tupac Shakur—at the time.
She faced a 300-year sentence.
In court, Shakur skillfully interviewed witnesses and successfully argued her case for close to six months. In May 1971, she delivered a stunning humiliating blow to the Manhattan prosecution team—and to the New York political establishment—when the jury ruled in the Panthers’ favor and freed all the defendants. A few weeks later, on June 16, 1971, her son Tupac Amaru Shakur—an Inca phrase meaning “shining serpent”—was born.
An account of this epic New York trial was written in the book “The Briar Patch,” by Murray Kempton.
Perhaps because of her historical legal victory in the Panther 21 case, Shakur would eventually end up working as a paralegal for Bronx lawyer Richard Fischbein. At this time, she married Mutulu Shakur who became Tupac’s stepfather. He also fathered their daughter Sekyiwa. By 1984, Afeni moved the family to Baltimore, Maryland where Tupac would attend the Baltimore School for the Performing Arts, studying music and dance.
During the 1980’s Shakur’s drug use started to take a toll. By 1991, she was attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings and was able to overcome her addiction. In the 90’s, Afeni’s son Tupac became star. He was the hottest rapper on the planet and started to transition into films as well. In one of his classic songs, “Dear Mama,” Tupac delved into the difficulties of Afeni’s drug addiction while expressing his love for her. Before his death, Tupac bought a home for Afeni, and set aside money to be delivered to her monthly from his estate.
After Tupac was murdered in September 1996, Afeni took over Tupac’s estate, with the help of her former employer Richard Fischbein. In 1997, she founded Amaru Entertainment to control the unreleased recordings of her son. She also started the Tupac Amaru Foundation for the Arts in Stone Mountain, Georgia. The foundation mission was to offer entertainment arts classes to young African-Americans. In July 2007, she filed an injunction in federal court to stop Death Row Records from profiting off of unreleased songs from Tupac.
Besides her involvement in philanthropic ventures, Afeni was a sought-after lecturer. On February 6, 2009, she gave the keynote address during Vanderbilt University’s Black History month celebration.
Afeni Shakur was an important activist and leader in Black America during a violent turbulent time where institutional racism was far worse than today. She served the interests of African-Americans through her leadership efforts in the Black Panther Party. This brave Black woman inflicted a crushing legal defeat to the racist justice system in New York. Her successful inspiring defense in the Panther 21 case should be studied and remembered.
Sister Afeni Shakur should be memorized for who she was: a freedom fighter and ardent activist, who was also the mother of Tupac Shakur.
Truth & Reconciliation Project: Dr. Mutulu Shakur
We are raising funds for the production of a documentary on the life of Dr. Mutulu Shakur.Please Click Below To See The Video, Donate & Then Share Widely To Help Bring Mutulu Home
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