Parable of Black August

Parable of Black August

The American prison movement began around the time the staff of Black Dialogue magazine made a trip to Soledad prison to visit the black culture club chaired by Eldridge Cleaver and his lieutenant Alprentis Bunchy Carter, 1966. It was a historic meeting of the black student movement and the budding prison movement. George Jackson would eventually emerge as the hero and prophet of the movement, but there were many others who played a role.

My brother served time in Soledad, but he was in, North, another section from Cleaver, George Jackson and others who were in Central. Yet he had the same duties to gain consciousness and fight for survival. He said after reading John Hope Franklin's From Slavery to Freedom, he was seething with hatred for the white man when he learned of conditions during the Middle Passage and the cruelty of plantation life. He and forty other brothers were shipped out of Soledad to San Quentin in 1965 after a racial disturbance that lead to the death of several white inmates. My brother said the department of correction sent a letter to Mama saying he was sent out on suspician of murder and rebel rousing.

According to my brother, George Jackson's best friend was Doug Nolan. Everybody knew Doug was going to eventually get killed because he was a boxer and "more militant" than Malcolm X.

Marvin X

One of Marvin X's recent books is a memoir of Eldridge Cleaver, My friend the
Devil, Black Bird Press, 2099. He teaches at his Academy of Da Corner, 14th and
Broadway, downtown Oakland. Email him at jmarvinx@yahoo.com.