by FREEDOM SOCIALIST newspaper, Feb/Mar 2013
IT TOOK THE NEW JERSEY parole board only minutes to deny Sundiata Acoli’s latest attempt at parole. That’s because he’s a Black political prisoner who has stuck to his principles – NOT because he’s a mortal danger to society.
Acoli, a mathematician and computer worker, launched into the social justice activism immediately after the murder of three civil rights workers – Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner – in Mississippi. That eventually made him a target of the FBI’s COINTELPRO, a program infamous for its frame-up trials and assassinations during the 1960s and ’70s, especially of Black activists.
NOW 76, ACOLI HAS SPENT 39 years in prison after being convicted of the killing of a state trooper, with no real evidence that he was the shooter. He has spent much of that time in the appalling conditions and vengeful solitary confinement of “super-max” penitentiaries. Unbroken, he has consistently encouraged freedom struggles on both sides of the prison bars and internationally. He has also long been a staunch defender of the right of women radicals to be movement leaders.
The Sundiata Acoli Freedom Campaign (SAFC) needs money to continue its legal and informational efforts to finally win parole for Acoli. Donations should be labeled “Legal Fund” and made payable to SAFC and sent to SAFC, PO BOX 766, Harlem Station, New York NY 10027. SAFC members are available to speak. Contact them at thesafc@gmail.com.
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