Imprisoned Intellectuals: America's Political Prisoners Write on Life, Liberation, and Rebellion

by Joy James editor, The New Abolition (Editor)

Overview

Prisons constitute one of the most controversial and contested sites in a democratic society. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the industrialized world, with over 2 million people in jails, prisons, and detention centers; with over three thousand on death row, it is also one of the few developed countries that continues to deploy the death penalty. International Human Rights Organizations such as Amnesty International have also noted the scores of political prisoners in U.S. detention. This anthology examines a class of intellectuals whose analyses of U.S. society, politics, culture, and social justice are rarely referenced in conventional political speech or academic discourse. Yet this body of outlawed 'public intellectuals' offers some of the most incisive analyses of our society and shared humanity. Here former and current U.S. political prisoners and activists-writers from the civil rights/black power, women's, gay/lesbian, American Indian, Puerto Rican Independence and anti-war movements share varying progressive critiques and theories on radical democracy and revolutionary struggle. This rarely-referenced 'resistance literature' reflects the growing public interest in incarceration sites, intellectual and political dissent for social justice, and the possibilities of democratic transformations. Such anthologies also spark new discussions and debates about 'reading'; for as Barbara Harlow notes: 'Reading prison writing must. . . demand a correspondingly activist counterapproach to that of passivity, aesthetic gratification, and the pleasures of consumption that are traditionally sanctioned by the academic disciplining of literature.'—Barbara Harlow [1] 1. Barbara Harlow, Barred: Women, Writing, and Political Detention (New England: Wesleyan University Press, 1992). Royalties are reserved for educational initiatives on human rights and U.S. incarceration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780585455082
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	09/01/2004
Series:	Transformative Politics Series, ed. Joy James
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Joy James is a professor in the Africana Studies Department at Brown University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Prologue: A New Declaration of Independence
Chapter 3 Introduction
Chapter 4 I. Black Liberationists
Chapter 5 1. Letter from Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King, Jr.
Chapter 6 2. The Ballot or the Bullet Malcolm X
Chapter 7 3. Political Prisoners, Prisons, and Black Liberation Angela Y. Davis
Chapter 8 4. Prison, Where is Thy Victory Huey P. Newton
Chapter 9 5. Towards the United Front George Jackson
Chapter 10 6. COINTELPRO and the Destruction of Black Leaders and Organizations (Abridged) Dhoruba bin Wahad
Chapter 11 7. On the Black Liberation Army (Abridged) Jalil Muntaquim
Chapter 12 8. July 4th Address Assata Shakur
Chapter 13 9. Coming of Age: A Black Revolutionary Safiya Bukhari
Chapter 14 10. An Updated History of the New Afrikan Prison Struggle (Abridged) Sundiata Acoli
Chapter 15 11. Anarchism and the Black Revolution (Abridged) Lorenzo Komboa Ervin
Chapter 16 12. Intellectuals and the Gallows Mumia Abu-Jamal
Chapter 17 II. Internationalists and Anti-Imperialists
Chapter 18 13. Genocide Waged Against the Black Nation Mutulu Shakur, Anthony Bradshaw, Malik Dinguswa, Terry D. Long, Mark Cook, Adolfo Matos, and James Haskins
Chapter 19 14. The Struggle for Status Under International Law Marilyn Buck
Chapter 20 15. White North American Political Prisoners Rita Bo Brown
Chapter 21 16. On Trial (Abridged) Raymond Luc Levasseur
Chapter 22 17. Letter to the Weathermen Daniel J. Berrigan, S.J.
Chapter 23 18. Maternal Convictions: A Mother Beats a Missile into a Plowshare (Abridged) Michele Naar-Obed
Chapter 24 19. Dykes and Fags Want to Know: Interview with Lesbian Political Prisoners (with QUISP) Linda Evans, Susan Rosenberg, and Laura Whitehorn
Chapter 25 20. This Is Enough! Jose Solis Jordan
Chapter 26 21. Art of Liberation: A Vision of Freedom Elizam Escobar
Chapter 27 22. Violence and the State Standing Deer
Chapter 28 23. Inipi: Sweat Lodge Leonard Peltier
Chapter 29 Epilogue: Incommunicado: Dispatches From a Political Prisoner A Poem by Marilyn Buck
Chapter 30 Appendix: Internet Sites

What People are Saying About This

Manning Marable

In this extraordinary volume, James brings together the powerful voices of prison resistance, past and present, providing the intellectual foundations for a comparative approach to our understanding of criminal justice as a tool for political repression. Imprisoned Intellectuals creates a critical scholarly resource for interpreting criminal justice and its impact on race, gender, and class hierarchies of power.

Zillah Eisenstein

An important collection. In these troubling times it is more important than ever to discover the subversive intellectualism of the incarcerated.

Bettina Aptheker

A unique and very significant contribution.

Dennis Brutus

A superb collection—both instructive and inspiring. Joy James is to be complimented for this book and for her thoughtful introductory essay.

Vijay Prashad

The Jail is meant to be Cavernous, Bestial, Silence. Still the voices of imprisoned intellectuals leak out. Joy James' excellent volume demands our involvement in the struggle.

James E. Smith

James's book reminds the reader about the preciousness and tenuousness of freedom and liberty ...

Howard Zinn

The notion of 'political prisoners' is not widely accepted in the United States, and yet this country has had them. This extraordinary collection brings us their voices, their ideas, which have been muffled too long. These writers see American society with an acute understanding that people on the outside have a hard time matching.

Michael Eric Dyson

A bracing, poignant, and finally edifying colloquy of voices whose power and eloquence speak nobly against the forces that unfairly imprison them. As this book makes clear, men and women unjustly imprisoned by the state may ultimately hold the key to our moral freedom through their courageous witness and brilliant analysis. In a society hell-bent on locking up some of its greatest citizens, Imprisoned Intellectuals is an inspiring intervention in a conversation that is critical to our very survival.

Editorial Reviews

In this extraordinary volume, James brings together the powerful voices of prison resistance, past and present, providing the intellectual foundations for a comparative approach to our understanding of criminal justice as a tool for political repression. Imprisoned Intellectuals creates a critical scholarly resource for interpreting criminal justice and its impact on race, gender, and class hierarchies of power.

Manning Marable

James's book reminds the reader about the preciousness and tenuousness of freedom and liberty ...

James E. Smith

The Jail is meant to be Cavernous, Bestial, Silence. Still the voices of imprisoned intellectuals leak out. Joy James' excellent volume demands our involvement in the struggle.

Vijay Prashad

A superb collection—both instructive and inspiring. Joy James is to be complimented for this book and for her thoughtful introductory essay.

Dennis Brutus

An important collection. In these troubling times it is more important than ever to discover the subversive intellectualism of the incarcerated.

Zillah Eisenstein

A unique and very significant contribution.

Bettina Aptheker

A bracing, poignant, and finally edifying colloquy of voices whose power and eloquence speak nobly against the forces that unfairly imprison them. As this book makes clear, men and women unjustly imprisoned by the state may ultimately hold the key to our moral freedom through their courageous witness and brilliant analysis. In a society hell-bent on locking up some of its greatest citizens, Imprisoned Intellectuals is an inspiring intervention in a conversation that is critical to our very survival.

Michael Eric Dyson Michael Eric Dyson

The notion of 'political prisoners' is not widely accepted in the United States, and yet this country has had them. This extraordinary collection brings us their voices, their ideas, which have been muffled too long. These writers see American society with an acute understanding that people on the outside have a hard time matching.

Howard Zinn

The voices in Imprisoned Intellectuals tear apart common assumptions about the impossibility of resistance and survival.

San Francisco Bay Guardian Literary Supplement

A bracing, poignant, and finally edifying colloquy of voices whose power and eloquence speak nobly against the forces that unfairly imprison them. As this book makes clear, men and women unjustly imprisoned by the state may ultimately hold the key to our moral freedom through their courageous witness and brilliant analysis. In a society hell-bent on locking up some of its greatest citizens, Imprisoned Intellectuals is an inspiring intervention in a conversation that is critical to our very survival.

Michael Eric Dyson

James's book reminds the reader about the preciousness and tenuousness of freedom and liberty ...--James E. Smith, University of Wyoming

An important collection. In these troubling times it is more important than ever to discover the subversive intellectualism of the incarcerated.--Zillah Eisenstein

The notion of 'political prisoners' is not widely accepted in the United States, and yet this country has had them. This extraordinary collection brings us their voices, their ideas, which have been muffled too long. These writers see American society with an acute understanding that people on the outside have a hard time matching.--Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States and professor emeritus of Political Science, Boston University

From the Publisher