"ON A MOVE: THE STORY OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL" : NEW BIOGRAPHY EXPOSES CLASS NATURE OF JUSTICE IN AMERICA
By Chris Mahin
The first full-length biography of imprisoned journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal delivers a searing indictment of the class nature of justice in America.
In 1982, Abu-Jamal, a dynamic African American radio journalist, was sentenced to die for allegedly killing a Philadelphia cop. The sentence came at the end of a trial that the human-rights group Amnesty International said "clearly failed to meet minimum international standards."
The Mumia Abu-Jamal case has become a banner in the fight against the death penalty. But the word "Mumia" is not simply a slogan, part of the text on posters plastered across the world; it is the name of a very real man with an intriguing history. Terry Bisson's new biography "On a Move: The Story of Mumia Abu-Jamal" tells that man's story.
Bisson begins "On a Move" in North Carolina after World War II. The mechanization of agriculture is driving millions of African Americans out of the South. One of those forced north in this "Great Migration" is an orphan named Edith Cook -- Mumia's mother. In a bittersweet, impressionistic style, Bisson recounts Mumia's birth and childhood in "the PJs" [the housing projects] of Philadelphia, his membership (while still a teen-ager) in the Black Panther Party, his searching for a way to contribute after the collapse of the Panthers, and his muckraking journalism. Mumia's arrest and trial are described briefly at the end, for this is a biography of the man, not a legal document about the case.
Bisson is the author of numerous science fiction novels, short stories, motion picture novelizations and a biography of Nat Turner for young adults. He puts his considerable experience to good use in "On a Move," masterfully conveying what it was like to be young and committed during the 1960s.
"On a Move" paints a picture of Mumia as a decent, intelligent, restless person searching for a way to contribute to the fight for justice while the world shifts around him. His first efforts include writing for The Black Panther newspaper (and selling the newspapers he helps create). Later, he becomes a radio journalist and is able to speak to tens of thousands of people over Philadelphia's airwaves. Whatever the format he employs, he attempts to agitate, to communicate, to prod people into thinking.
"On a Move" does not make Mumia Abu-Jamal into a plaster saint. (To his credit, Mumia insisted that Bisson not do that.) The Mumia Abu-Jamal in "On a Move" doesn't always know what to do. He makes some mistakes, hurts some people he loves, and flounders at times -- as we all have. But he emerges from these pages as a person who has spent his life questioning, examining, and struggling to do what is right. Bisson paints a picture of a fallible human being, but this unblinking portrait does not diminish Mumia's stature; for any serious reader, it can only enhance it.
The questions that "On a Move" raises about the nature of justice in the United States could not be more timely. This work was published just days after President Bill Clinton pardoned fugitive billionaire financier Marc Rich. I found myself reading it during the height of the revelations about the Rich pardon; that experience produced contrasts that were instructive, but almost surreal.
One day, I would read Bisson's taut description of how Mumia's friends and loved ones desperately tried to secure help for him after he was shot, arrested, and charged with murder. The next day, the newspapers would bring the lurid details of the well- orchestrated campaign to buy a pardon for a billionaire. One family's frantic effort began by rushing Mumia's children to their grandmother's apartment in a Philadelphia housing project; the other family used its billions to secure access to the White House. Can there be any doubt that there are two systems of justice in America?
"On a Move: The Story of Mumia Abu-Jamal" by Terry Bisson is published by Litmus Books and sells for $12. ISBN: 0-87486-901-3. To order copies, call Litmus Books at 1-800-806-3079. For more information, check the Web site: http://www.MumiaBook.com
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