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• 1 2019-10-23T18:02:13-04:00 "All Power to the People: Free the Soledad Brothers" 8 plain 2020-03-17T23:40:12-04:00

  This artifact is a green poster circulated by the Black Panther Party during the movement to free the “Soledad Brothers,” George Jackson, John Clutchette, and Fleeta Drumgo (circa 1971). On the poster, a black fist is handcuffed and clutching chains. The fist is inscribed with the words
  
  “ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE FREE THE SOLEDAD BROTHERS”
  
  Under the words, in a small circle on the chained first is a smaller, unchained black power fist signifying that this is a Black Panther poster.
  The lack of other information on the poster regarding who distributed it and who the “Soledad Brothers” were speak to how mainstream the Black Panther Party and the movement to free Jackson, Clutchette, and Drumgo was — no other information was needed in order for people to know what the poster’s purpose was. While the poster itself is simple, its history and purpose is not. 
  
  In 1970,  The Soledad Brothers were charged with the murder of a prison guard. The killing of the guard occurred in the aftermath of a prison riot at Soledad Prison during which, an armed marksman working for the prison shot and killed three black inmates without firing a warning shot beforehand. The guard who killed the three prisoners was exonerated for the killings which were seen as “justifiable homicides.” In protest to the unpunished killing of their brothers, fellow black inmates went on a hunger strike. Minutes after the verdict of “not guilty” was broadcasted, a different security guard, was found dead and the Soledad Brothers were blamed. If found guilty in court, all three men, who were previously imprisoned on charges of burglary, would face the death penalty. 
  
  In a letter dated June 10, 1970 from his book “Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson,” Jackson describes the Soledad Brothers being charged with this murder saying: “I am being tried in court right now with two other brothers, John Clutchette and Fleeta Drumgo, for the alleged slaying of a prison guard. This charge carries an automatic death penalty for me. I can't get life. I already have it” (Jackson 16).
  
  In an attempt to free his older brother and the other two Soledad Brothers, Johnathan Jackson, armed with a gun registered under Angela Davis’s name, and several other members of the Black Panther Party  took hostages in the Marin County Courthouse where the Soledad Brothers’ cases were being heard. Moving the hostages from the courtroom to an elevator, the kidnappers informed the police that they wanted the Soledad Brothers to be freed. In a police shootout outside of the courthouse, Johnathan Jackson, two other black panther members, and the presiding judge on the Soledad Brothers case were killed. 
  
  In the wake of his brother’s death, George Jackson ended a letter in his book with:  “Cold and calm though. "All right, gentlemen, I'm taking over now” (Jackson 330), the words of Johnathan Jackson in the courthouse.
  
  Sources:
  Jackson, George, “Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson,” Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books : Distributed by Independent Publishers Group, 1994.
  
  “Jonathan Jackson: The Forgotten Man-Child.” Pasadena Black Pages, http://pasadenablackpages.com/jonathan-jackson--the-forgotten-man-child.html. Accessed 12 Dec. 2019.
  
  513.Soledad.Brothers.Support.the.Soledad.Brothers.Pdf. https://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC513_scans/Soledad_Brothers/513.Soledad.Brothers.Support.the.Soledad.Brothers.pdf. Accessed 12 Dec. 2019.