Biography
Marilyn Buck was a Texas-born, white anti-imperialist revolutionary, the only white member of the Black Liberation Army, and a poet whose work won a 2001 PEN Prize. Originally convicted in 1973 for purchasing ammunition for the BLA, she escaped from federal prison in 1977 while on furlough and went underground, where she participated in the 1979 prison liberation of Assata Shakur and the 1981 Brink's robbery. Arrested in May 1985, she was ultimately convicted of the Brink's-related RICO conspiracy (1988) and the Assata Shakur escape, then pled guilty in 1990 in the Resistance Conspiracy Case. She received a cumulative 80-year sentence; she was paroled July 15, 2010 after a cancer diagnosis and died of uterine sarcoma on August 3, 2010, twenty days after release. Marilyn Buck was a Marxist, feminist poet and antiwar activist whose politics grew out of 1960s organizing, including work in Students for a Democratic Society and women’s liberation efforts. She participated in anti–Vietnam War and anti-racist organizing, edited movement publications (including The Rag), and later worked with Third World Newsreel on political media and solidarity campaigns.
Her activism led into repeated arrests and major federal prosecutions. In 1973, she was convicted of using false identification to buy ammunition and received a 10-year sentence; after a prison furlough in 1977, she went underground. She was arrested in Dobbs Ferry in 1985 and later convicted for roles linked to the 1979 prison escape of Assata Shakur, the 1981 Brink’s robbery, and a series of politically motivated bombings associated with the May 19 Communist Organization (including the 1983 bombing that damaged Senate offices at the United States Capitol after warning calls). She ultimately received an 80-year sentence. Buck wrote and published extensively while incarcerated and was released in July 2010 from Federal Medical Center, Carswell shortly before her death.
