Records
A Brief History of the New Afrikan Prison Struggle
Sundiata Acoli's original 1992 essay tracing the political history of Black political prisoners in U.S. state and federal custody from the late 1960s through the early 1990s. Written from inside, the text articulates the New Afrikan political identity — the post-1968 Republic of New Afrika tradition of Black national consciousness, anti-imperialist alignment...
Assata: An Autobiography
Assata Shakur's 1987 autobiography (Lawrence Hill Books / Zed). Black Liberation Army member, former Black Panther Party member, convicted in 1977 of the May 2, 1973 killing of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster on the New Jersey Turnpike after a confrontation that left Assata wounded and fellow BLA member Zayd Malik Shakur dead. Sentenced to life in N...
Bits N Pieces, by Sundiata Acoli
Collected shorter writings, letters, and political statements of Sundiata Acoli — Black Liberation Army member and longtime political prisoner held by New Jersey state corrections from 1973 to 2022. Acoli was convicted in 1974 alongside Assata Shakur for the May 1973 New Jersey Turnpike incident that killed State Trooper Werner Foerster. He was released on p...
Black August Resistance — Ashanti Alston Letter
Prison letter on Black August Resistance from former Black Liberation Army member Ashanti Alston.
Can't Jail the Spirit: Political Prisoners in the U.S. — A Collection of Biographies
Biographical compendium of US political prisoners compiled and published by the Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML) in 1985. Organized into sections on Native American, New Afrikan/Black, Puerto Rican, North American (white anti-imperialist), and Irish prisoners — including AIM defendants, Black Liberation Army and MOVE prisoners, FALN and Macheteros...
Collected Works of the Black Liberation Army, Volume 1
BLA primary documents, study guide, and essays from members and supporters.
Free Assata Shakur
Defense flyer for Assata Shakur produced by the May 19th Communist Organization in the 1980s.
Hauling Up the Morning / Izando la Mañana: Writings & Art by Political Prisoners & Prisoners of War in the U.S.
Bilingual (English/Spanish) anthology of writings and visual art by approximately 80 U.S.-held political prisoners and prisoners of war, edited by Tim Blunk and Raymond Luc Levasseur — themselves political prisoners at the time (the Resistance Conspiracy and Ohio 7 cases). Published in 1990 by Red Sea Press / Jacobin Books. The book opens with the declaratio...
Kuwasi Balagoon — Handwritten Prison Letter (Slogans Into Events)
A handwritten page from one of Kuwasi Balagoon's prison letters (c. 1983–1985, Brink's-case era), containing the often-quoted passage: "The difference between most of us in here and most of the 'revolutionaries' outside is we took the slogans seriously, transforming the slogans into events. Now we must transform a series of events into a deadlier and consist...
Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents from the Movements to Free U.S. Political Prisoners
900+ page omnibus edited by Matt Meyer and published by PM Press / Kersplebedeb in 2008, with a foreword by Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and an afterword by Ashanti Alston. The single most comprehensive published anthology of statements, letters, prison writings, support-committee documents, and movement-historical essays on U.S. political prisoners — covering the...
On the Black Liberation Army
Movement-published reader on the Black Liberation Army — historical and theoretical writings on the BLA's formation, its political program, the trial cohort of its prisoners, and the post-1981 BLA-era prosecutions including the Brink's-1981 case that landed Mutulu Shakur, Marilyn Buck, Sekou Odinga, and others in federal custody. Compiled and distributed by...
Right On! Black Community News Service — Vol. 2 No. 9 (May 1974)
Issue of Right On!, the Black Community News Service of the East Coast Black Panther Party — the paper of the faction aligned with Eldridge Cleaver after the Party's 1971 split, closely tied to the Black Liberation Army's prisoner-support networks. This issue carries the Symbionese Liberation Army's "The S.L.A. Speaks to the People," continued coverage of th...
The Political Conviction of R. Dhoruba Moore and the Repression of the Black Liberation Movement
An eight-page tabloid newspaper from the International Committee to Free Dhoruba Moore (Brooklyn, 1980): one long article on the political conviction of Richard "Dhoruba" Moore (Dhoruba Bin Wahad), the New York Black Panther and Black Liberation Army member convicted in the 1971 killing of two police officers and freed in 1990 after years of appeals, togethe...
Why Assata Shakur Must Be Supported
This statement includes analysis of Assata Shakur's case in the context of rising support among feminist groups. The statement asserts the primary importance of her case in relationship to the Black Liberation Movement.
Why Assata Shakur Must Be Supported
BLA bulletin laying out the political case for supporting Assata Shakur and Sundiata Acoli.
Interview with Herman Bell
Out of Control Lesbian Committee to Support Women Prisoners interview with Herman Bell, the Black Liberation Army veteran imprisoned from 1973 until his 2018 parole for his role in the BLA's 1971 Foster-Laurie case in New York. Sourced from search.freedomarchives.org.
Bonnie Kerness Interviews Sundiata Acoli
Out of Control / American Friends Service Committee's Bonnie Kerness conducts an interview with Sundiata Acoli at Allenwood Federal Prison surrounding his case and conditions of confinement. Sourced from search.freedomarchives.org.
Brink’s Trial Opening Statement
Kuwasi Balagoon Brink’s Trial Opening Statement July 11, 1983 The electronic version of the source text, Trial Statement of New Afrikan Revolutionary Kuwasi... Sourced from theanarchistlibrary.org.
Kuwasi Balagoon: Anarchist Warrior
Michael Kimble Kuwasi Balagoon: Anarchist Warrior December 2016 [Note: December 2016 marks both what would have been Kuwasi’s 70th birthday and the 30th... Sourced from theanarchistlibrary.org.
Interview with Anarchist Former BLA-Member Ashanti Alston
Treyf Podcast Interview with Anarchist Former BLA-Member Ashanti Alston July 28, 2020 From episode 47 of the Treyf Podcast Sourced from theanarchistlibrary.org.