Former civil rights activist Jamil Al-Amin has died in prison at 82 while serving a life sentence.
Famed Black Power activist Jamil Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, has died in prison at 82 while serving a life sentence.
Kristie Breshears, communications director for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, confirmed his death at the Federal Medical Center, Butner, in North Carolina, on Nov. 23, The New York Times reported. She did not provide a cause, but it follows a February report that Al-Amin had multiple myeloma and was in declining health.
Al-Amin’s son announced his father’s death in a since-removed Facebook post through the Davis Bozeman law firm.
“On behalf of our entire family, I thank every single person who prayed, stood, marched, researched, wrote, advocated, and fought to clear my father’s name,” the statement read. “Your love sustained us. Your belief in his innocence strengthened us. We ask for your continued prayers as we mourn a father, a husband, a brother, a leader, and a servant of the people.”
Wearing his signature black beret and sunglasses, he championed armed resistance and separatism from white oppression, famously declaring, “Violence is necessary. Violence is a part of America’s culture. It is as American as cherry pie.”
“Black folk built America, and if it don’t come around, we’re gonna burn America down,” he said during countless speeches.
Kinchen and Deputy Aldranon English were attempting to serve an arrest warrant at Al-Amin’s home in Atlanta’s West End when gunfire erupted. The Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Imam Jamil Action Network, the Islamic Circle of North America, and other advocates later called on the Fulton County District Attorney to reopen the case, saying another individual had confessed to the shooting.
At the time of his death, Al-Amin was serving a life sentence without parole.
Source: Black Enterprise
