The War Before: The True Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison, and Fighting for Those Left Behind

312 Pages·2010·0.922 MB·English

by  Bukhari, Safiya;Whitehorn, Laura(Editor);Jones, Wonda(Preface);Davis, Angela Y(Foreword)

Safiya Bukhari
The True Life Story of Becoming a
Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison
& Fighting for Those Left Behind
EdiTE d, wiTh an inTroducTion
By Laura w hiTEhorn
ForEword By ang ELa y . davi S
aFTErword By mumia a Bu-jamaL
Published in 2010 by the Feminist Press
at the City University of New York
The Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, Suite 5406
New York, NY 10016
Feministpress.org
Text copyright © 2010 by the estate of Safiya Bukhari
Preface copyright © 2010 by Wonda Jones
Foreword copyright © 2010 by Angela Y. Davis
Introduction copyright © 2010 by Laura Whitehorn
Afterword copyright © 2010 by Mumia Abu-Jamal
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or used, stored in any information
retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written
permission of the Feminist Press at the City University of New York except in
case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Cover design by Faith Hutchinson
Text design by Drew Stevens
First printing February 2010
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bukhari, Safiya, 1950-2003.
The war before : the true life story of becoming a Black Panther, keeping the faith
in prison, & fighting for those left behind / by Safiya Bukhari ; edited, with an
introduction by Laura Whitehorn, preface by Wonda Jones, foreword by Angela Y.
Davis, and afterword by Mumia Abu-Jamal.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-55861-610-3
1. Bukhari, Safiya, 1950-2003. 2. Bukhari, Safiya, 1950-2003—Archives. 3. Black
Panther Party—Biography. 4. African American women political activists—Biog-
raphy. 5. African American women—Biography. 6. Women prisoners—
Virginia—Biography. 7. African Americans—Civil rights—History—Sources.
8. Civil rights movements—United States—History—Sources. 9. Social justice—
United States—History—Sources. 10. United States—Race relations—History—
Sources. I. Whitehorn, Laura. II. Title.
E185.97.B897A3 2009
973'.04960730092—dc22
[B]
2009033074
“And that is why . . . the youth were so important,
for they would prove to the ancestors that it had not been
foolish to fight for the right to be free, to be human.”
—Toni Cade Bambara, The Sea Birds Are Still Alive
Contents
Preface by Wonda Jones ix
Foreword by Angela Y. Davis xiii
Introduction by Laura Whitehorn xix
1 Coming of Age: A Black Revolutionary 1
2 Testimony: Experiences in the Black Panther Party 18
3 Marriage Contract: Safiya A. Bukhari and
Michael M. [Ashanti] Alston 34
4 What is Security? And the Ballot or the Bullet . . .
Revisited 36
5 Enemies and Friends: Resolving Contradictions 43
6 On the Question of Sexism Within the
Black Panther Party 52
7 “Islam and Revolution” Is Not a Contradiction 64
8 We Too Are Veterans: Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorders and the Black Panther Party 79
9 This is Worth Fighting For 87
10 On the Question of Political Prisoners 96
11 Building Support for Political Prisoners of War
Incarcerated in North America 104
12 Talks on the Black Panther Party and the Black
Liberation Struggle 119
13 Lest We Forget 135
14 CBS Tries the New York Three 156
15 Talking About Assata Shakur 168
16 Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! 184
17 COINTELPRO and the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal 189
18 Safiya Interviews Albert Nuh Washington 196
19 Letter for the Parole of Jalil Muntaqim 202
20 Q&A on Jericho 98 206
21 Debate: Should We Grant Amnesty to America’s
Political Prisoners? 216
22 Kamau Sadiki: Injustice Continues . . . 240
Afterword by Mumia Abu-Jamal 249

Preface
Not until my mother passed did I realize how important she
was—how hard she worked, how many people admired
her and looked up to her. It took me years to understand that
although she wasn’t around for me when I wanted her to be,
the things she was doing instead of raising me made life a little
safer for my daughter and other kids. If my mother and the rest
of the Panthers hadn’t done their work, we wouldn’t have seen
the gains made in Black civil and human rights. For instance,
I think of sickle-cell anemia testing. Although common today,
testing for sickle-cell anemia was virtually nonexistent until the
Panthers set up programs to go door to door testing for the dis-
ease. The Party founded health clinics and organized hospitals
in some cities to cooperate with the testing and to hold blood
drives.
I got to know my mother when I began to understand her
political life and work. That’s why I wanted to publish her words.
To let her speak so you could understand that too.
For much of my childhood, my mother was in prison. When
I was eleven years old—a few years before my mother was
released—I found out a lot about her. Until then, I thought my
grandparents were my parents—even though I’d been visiting
my mother in prison. Finally, an uncle told me the truth, and I
began to come to terms with the new facts of my life.
I learned that if it hadn’t been for my godmother, Safiya’s
sorority sister, Wonda (my namesake), I probably would have
become a child of the system shortly after I was born. But my
iixx
godmother called my grandmother, and she came to get me
from the Panther headquarters just a few hours before the police
raided those headquarters.
I was lucky. I’ve talked with a lot of Panther cubs who weren’t
as fortunate. They were hit with police sticks or had the cops
put guns to their faces when they were discovered at a raid
of Panther offices. I was lucky in that way. But in another, I
was less lucky. They grew up with their parents, and I didn’t.
I lost my father in March of 1971. Robert Webb, a member of
the Black Panther Party, was found dead on a street in New York
City. Police never investigated nor was anyone ever charged
with the murder. Then, for years after, my mother was on the
run or in prison, and my grandparents and other family mem-
bers raised me.
With all that, I didn’t have the worst childhood. In fact, it felt
like an ordinary life to me. At home, all I heard about was the
church, and heaven and hell. I never heard about the Panthers.
My mother came home from prison when I was fourteen and
in the midst of teenage rebellion. I didn’t want any part of her or
her life. I gave her hell. I gave Ashanti Alston hell, too. Ashanti
had married Safiya in 1985 and helped raise me.
Despite all this, we developed a good relationship in time.
She worked at it. When I got pregnant, my mother supported
me. The first time she heard my daughter’s heartbeat, she cried.
She said, “I can be here for her childhood like I wasn’t for yours.”
All the attention she hadn’t been able to give to me, she poured
into my baby Shylis. That’s when I understood that my mother
did regret not having been there as a parent for me. And that’s
when I forgave her.
Tragically, my mother died at the young age of fifty-three.
After I got over the fury at her death—at the people who’d
known she was in bad health but hadn’t helped her slow down
x The War Before