Biography
Kuwasi Balagoon (born Donald Weems) was a Black liberation-era activist whose politics moved through organizations such as the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. He was arrested and later convicted in connection with the 1981 Brink's armored-car robbery in Nyack—a case that became nationally notorious after multiple deaths during the heist and escape. While imprisoned, he continued to write and became closely associated with prisoner-support networks that viewed him as part of a broader generation of politically committed prisoners from the Black liberation movement. He died in custody in 1986 after developing AIDS-related illness.
