Harlem street meeting says, "Free Mumia"
By Monica Moorehead
Harlem, N.Y.
May 14, 2009
The struggle to free death-row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is heating
up in New York City. On May 8, an emergency, militant street meeting took place
in front of Harlem’s Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building to
demand that elected officials call upon U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and
the Justice Department to conduct a civil rights investigation into
constitutional rights violations against Mumia. Congressperson Charles Rangel,
who represents the Harlem community, has come out in support of the call for
the investigation.
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Larry Hales
photos: Lal Roohk
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Mumia, a former Black Panther and an award-winning journalist, was arrested
in December 1981 for the shooting death of a white police officer, Daniel
Faulkner, in Philadelphia. Mumia has maintained his innocence for almost 27
years following a sham of a trial in which he was convicted. He is facing the
possibility of lethal injection or life in prison without parole. The U.S.
Supreme Court recently refused to review one of Mumia’s legal petitions
that exposed the racist exclusion of Black jurors during the original
trial.
Orrie Lumumba, a MOVE supporter, chaired the street meeting called by the
New York Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition. Speaker after speaker linked the
campaign to free Mumia with broader political and economic issues, such as the
prison industrial complex, gentrification, police brutality, foreclosures,
health care, racism, Palestine and Somalia. A number of talks raised the case
of Troy Davis, another Black man being threatened with execution in
Georgia.
Speakers included City Councilperson Charles Barron; Rev. Luis Barrios, who
was recently released from a New York prison following his arrest at a protest
of the repressive Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in
Georgia; Esperanza Martell, long-time fighter for the freedom of Puerto Rican
political prisoners; Nellie Bailey, Harlem Tenants Council; Laura Whitehorn and
Lawrence Hayes, former political prisoners; Larry Hales, Fight Imperialism,
Stand Together and the International Action Center; Omowale Clay, December 12th
Movement; Suzanne Ross and Sundiata Sadiq, N.Y. Free Mumia Coalition; Nada
Khader, Westchester Peace Action Coalition; and Pam Africa, International
Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
The street meeting attracted many Harlem residents. Copies of Mumia’s
new book, “Jailhouse Lawyers,” were sold during the talks. Visit
www.iacenter.org to sign the petition in support of the civil rights
investigation.
