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• 1 2019-12-12T01:13:17-05:00 "To Our Sisters In Arms" 25 plain 2020-03-18T16:14:06-04:00

  Power. Black Power. To be Black is to be Powerful in that the aptitude of resilience and resistance is maintained through the crux of the Black community. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s much of this “powerful” sentiment was fueled by Black woman. Black women, even when outside forces attempted to strip them of their dignity and power, impelled the Black community to take ownership of its narrative and fight for its autonomy. Afeni Shakur and Joan Bird are two such women who exemplified the strength of and fortitude of the Black Power Movement. Shakur, affectionately known as the mother of Tupac Shakur, was an steadfast figure of the Black Panther Party in New York City. Shakur authored the Black Panther Party newsletter, led a campaign a campaign that decelerated the FBI’s efforts in dismantling the Party, and was a renowned leader of the Harlem chapter of the Black Panther Party. Likewise, Bird was also a member of a New York City chapter of the Black Panther Party. Shakur described Bird as “the most unselfish person I know.”

  On April 21^st, 1969, 21 members of the Black Panther Party, including Shakur and Bird, were indicted on over 150 charges pertaining to planned bombings in New York City directed towards the police force. The 21 members involved in the dilemma became colloquially known as the “New York 21”. Bird was arrested in January 1969 in Queens and immediately accused of orchestrating a bombing in the city; she was only 19 at the time. Once arrested, she was beaten by law enforcement at the police station. Shakur and Bird were both put in prison in April of 1969 for their affiliation with the Black Panther Party and were accused of organizing three sets of bombings throughout the city. Shakur was released nine months after the bombing after multiple entities raised $100,000 for her bail. Bird was released from prison fifteen months later, 6 months after Shakur, also on $100,000 bail. All of the charges were eventually dropped for the New York 21.

  During the 1970 trial, Bird and Shakur released a memo entitled “To Our Sisters in Arms” a note of gratitude to women of various backgrounds for supporting them throughout their imprisonment and their trial. The memo is in the spirit of radical feminism, asserting notions of unity and collaboration across a racial spectrum that had and would be pushed for by Black feminist such as Audre Lorde and Belle Hooks. The memo highlights the ways in which Black women, even in bondage, have always found ways to support the Black community as a whole, even if it is at the expense of Black women’s peace. Overall, the memo thanks women, from across the diaspora, to those in America, for standing in solidarity with the women in the New York 21 and culminates by inviting them- and anyone who reads the memo- to the trial of the New York 21. This work is an illustration of the need for unity that Black women experienced in the prison system. Angela Davis in her autobiography, Angela Davis: An Autobiography, spoke to this sentiment. Davis was also a member of the Black Panther Party and like Bird and Shakur, believed in female unity and empowerment. The feminist mantra that is exuded throughout Bird and Shakur's memo is one that would resonate and be supported by Davis.

  Additional Sources: 
  https://www.nytimes.com/1970/07/07/archives/joan-bird-freed-in-100000-bail-black-panther-let-out-15-months.html
  http://blackyouthproject.com/panther-power-afeni-shakur-and-the-new-york-21/