Yearly Archives: 2017

This article is part of a special Black August series on TheBurningSpear.com. We encourage all our readers to help “Keep The Spear Burning” during our Black August Fund Drive. Support your black power newspaper! Sponsor a prisoner or donate today at Burningspearmarketplace.com

Black August is a commemoration begun in 1979 by Africans in prison to raise up those who have died struggling for African liberation from within prison walls or in attempts to liberate Africans from the colonial prisons like George and Jonathan Jackson.

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department released to the city on the morning of Aug. 6th that six African teenagers were involved in a fatal car crash in Palm Harbor. As a result, three of the young boys were killed; one placed in critical condition and two arrested.

When I heard this, I couldn’t help but find a bit of myself dying as well, knowing that three lives were taken from this community that morning. Unfortunately, that feeling got a lot worse when I found out that these boys were illegally chased by an aggressive and trained cop squad forcing them to crash into a billboard pole, spiraling through the air and ending their short lives.

Pinellas County opened its gates for our K-12 grade public school students on August 10th. Popular television shows and local news programs portrayed the last few days of summer vacation as parents going out to look for the new deals on school supplies, engaged in the struggle of finding the perfect outfit for the first day back or reinforcing bedtimes again, but let’s not forget that back-to-school time isn’t the same for everyone.

August 9, 2017 marks 3 years since the police murder of 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. Young Michael was murdered by Ferguson, MO copy, Darren Wilson. 

Witnesses stated that Mike Brown was shot eight times while his hands were in the air. His rotting body was then left on the concrete for more than eight hours as an example to the Ferguson community of what the police will do if we disobey their colonial orders. 

What the police did not expect in this suburb of St. Louis, MO was resistance from the African working class community. This powerful display of African Resistance on August 9, 2014 marks one of the critical dates in Black August.

With bullhorn and banners in hand, on Saturday July 8, militant protesters marched on the spot where Houston cops murdered 38-year-old Alva Braziel on July 9, 2016.

It was a one year anniversary resistance march and rally.

For the second time in three months, a white people’s grand jury in Harris County, Houston, Texas has no-billed two cops: L. Lopez and E. Macias.

These pigs pumped fourteen bullets into the body of Alva Braziel while his hands were up.

Some of those shots hit the 38-year-old black father while he lay on the ground mortally wounded.

Nevertheless, the pigs still handcuffed him.

Back in March and again on July 29, 2017, prosecutor Kim Ogg, the new female pro-death penalty district attorney presented to grand juries cases she knew would not win indictments.

Securing indictments was never the intent.

Reinforcing the colonial relationship that Africans have to the State is always the unstated goal of unindicted police murderers.

Zenzele Consignment will host our One Year Anniversary Celebration and fundraising event in Huntsville, Alabama on August 27, 2017.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at Zenzele Consignment at 6pm.

This celebratory event will feature performances by local artists including the dynamic jazz and soul singer Alexandria Seward, a silent auction, live mannequins, food by Jenee Le Cuisines and a special presentation to our volunteers and donors.

Located at 2205-F University Drive in Huntsville, Alabama, Zenzele Consignment opened our doors for the first time on August 13, 2016, marking a new day in the work to build the economic foundation for the important work of the All African People’s Development & Empowerment Project (AAPDEP).

The African People’s Solidarity Committee (APSC) and Uhuru Solidarity Movement (USM) are rapidly expanding in the NE region!

As the courageous resistance of African people worldwide tops the news every day, the fact that the American colonial system is the real crime against humanity, and the solution is African Revolution, has penetrated the consciousness of the white population.

This realization is due to the African revolution led by Chairman Omali and the African People’s Socialist Party working on many fronts,

APSC and USM are organizations based in the white community that work directly under the leadership of the APSP.

These organizations are tasked with the responsibility to expose the colonial reality Africans face and to organize white people to unite with the fact that the only positive way forward for us is paying reparations to the African community.

APSC understands that what marks a progressive stand for white people is not saving the environment, it is not if you are gay or a feminist.

The dividing line is what your stand is on the tremendous debt the white population owes the African people for 600 years of colonial violence and terror, stolen land, lives and resources that built the lifestyle of consumption that white America and Europeans take for granted.

Where: Akwaaba Hall, 1245 18th Ave S
When: August 7th, 10am est

This morning at 10am est, at Akwaaba Hall, 1245 18th Avenue South, Eritha “Akile” Cainion, District 6 City Council candidate, and Jesse Nevel, mayoral candidate, will host a press conference to respond to the August 6th, 2017 incident in Palm Harbor in which Pinellas County Sheriff’s deputies chased six black teenagers, causing three of them to die in a fiery crash.

Rapper J. Cole visited prisoners at the birthplace of Black August—San Quentin State Prison—on August 1, 2017.

Cole made the prison visit during the middle of the North American leg of his "4 Your Eyez Only tour." 

BlackAugust originated in the prison camp of San Quentin 1979. African prisoners would wear black armbands to remember the heroic, revolutionary actions of the #SoledadBrothers, the San Quentin Six, Jonathan Jackson, Khatari Gaulden and all our fallen Freedom Fighters.