#blackaugust

Have you heard of the month-long Holiday in August called Black August?

Started in the 1970s by Black prisoners in San Quentin, Black August is a month-long in memoriam to prisoners whose lives were lost, as a result of state-sanctioned killings of prisoners for demanding Humane treatment. It has long since been recognized internationally.

In 1970, after thwarting California governor Ronald Reagan's attempts at barring her from teaching at UCLA, professor Angela Y. Davis took to advocacy for the Soledad Brothers. Six African Americans were later acquitted of the murder of a prison guard.

During a prisoner escape attempt at the Marin County Courthouse, in which two prisoners and a judge were killed, California charged professor Angela Davis with accessory to murder for supplying the guns. Professor Angela Davis was acquitted in San Jose, California.

In 1970, professor Angela Davis announced, “We are calling for basic structural changes within the prison system and are also attempting to build a movement directed towards the liberation of political prisoners.”

Today, this Black August adherent is Distinguished Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies Departments at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 1994, Professor Emerita Angela Davis received the distinguished honor of an appointment to the University of California Presidential Chair in African American and Feminist Studies.

By Gloria Verdieu

August 21, 2021, marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of revolutionary George Jackson.