http://www.blackcommentator.com/326/326_kir_from_bottom_of_heap_printer_friendly.html
By Larry Pinkney
May 28, 2009
As your writer finished reading the chilling, fascinating, and
powerfully informative (recently released) book by Robert Hillary
King (aka Robert King Wilkerson) titled, From The Bottom Of The Heap:
The Autobiography Of Black Panther Robert Hillary King (PM Press), I
found myself incensed yet again at the U.S. judicial and prison
systems responsible for framing, sentencing, and imprisoning a man
for over three decades in prison for a crime that he did not commit.
Robert King Wilkerson's story touches the core of, and goes beyond,
that of having been a prisoner and fellow Black Panther Party member.
It is the story of government and judicial abuse. It is also the
story of human dignity and resilience, of determination, and
ultimately of the highest form of love for humanity.
Robert King Wilkerson, though finally set "free" from the infamous
Angola prison in Louisiana, after thirty one years of wrongful
imprisonment (twenty nine of which were consecutively in solitary
confinement), remains today steadfast as a part of the group of three
U.S. political prisoners known collectively as the 'Angola 3.' He
continues to unrelentingly strive for the rights of the other two
still-imprisoned members of the Angola 3, and on behalf of the many
other political prisoners inside the United States, and around the world.
The book however, is so much more than merely an important indictment
of the U.S. system of injustice. It is an informative saga of
struggle written with a straight forward, beautiful rawness and
honesty that beckons and gently wraps itself around the reader. The
brutal and unspeakable horrors and injustices of the U.S. judicial
and prison systems are pitted against one man's humanity---and this
man's humanity triumphs. His human triumph translates into our own.
This book should be read and reread. It is a book that we ourselves
should turn to repeatedly for encouragement, and it should be put
forth as an example to our youth be they Black, Brown, White, Red, or Yellow.
As Marion Brown former member of the Black Panther Party and
Co-Founder of the A3 (Angola 3) Support Committee aptly wrote
concerning the resilience of Robert King Wilkerson: "From the moment
of his release, he has worked tirelessly to spread the word about the
innocence and the continued plight of his two remaining comrades,
both held in solitary confinement for thirty-six years. Upon his
release King was quoted as saying, 'I may be free from Angola, but
Angola will never be free of me!'"
Get this book, read it, and carry on in the struggle!
In these times when the black emperor of the U.S. Empire muses about
and proposes instituting "preventive detention" of people in this
nation against whom there is insufficient evidence to charge and/or
detain (reference article titled, Facts and Myths About Obama's
Preventive Detention Proposal by Glenn Greenwald, dated May 22, 2009
at "Salon.com;" and an article titled, Obama Is Said To Consider
Preventive Detention Plan by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, May 20, 2009, The
New York Times), it is critical to understand what imprisonment
really means. Will we now allow the empire to blatantly imprison the
innocent?! Think about it. Think about the opportunity for legalized
and massive government and judicial abuse that this Obama proposal is
really all about.
Struggle for systemic change.
Onward then my sisters and brothers!!! Onward…..
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