Special Features

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. 

Today we raise up HarrietTubman as we celebrate Black August. The Burning Spear newspaper’s “Harriet’s Daughters” page is dedicated to the fighting African women who continue the legacy of Harriet Tubman, who was a fearless freedom fighter during the times of slavery in the U.S. 

Over the course of 10 years, Harriet Tubman made over 19 trips to the slave states of the South and helped bring over 300 Africans to the so-called “free” states of the North. 

Unfortunately, just bringing people to states where chattel slavery was illegal did not change the overall system of oppression that Africans were faced with throughout the U.S. 

Now over 150 years later we pick up where Harriet left off. 

But today as African Internationalists we understand that ours is not a struggle “from slavery to freedom” as Booker T. Washington might say. 

Rather, it is a struggle from being a free, independent and proud people with our own power and our own land, back to being a free, independent and proud people with our own power and our own land. 

The Burning Spear newspaper is celebrating the month of August––Black August––with a month-long fundraiser to raise $10,000 towards the production and distribution of our revolutionary newspaper!

“Black August: Keep The Spear Burning” will educate the masses of African people of the history and significance of this 38-year-old revolutionary celebration, while winning our people to support our very own black power newspaper through prisoner sponsorships, getting subscriptions and becoming distributors!

There will be various Uhuru Movement events held throughout the country in celebration of Black August putting forth the significance and history of The Spear and outlining various stories of African resistance, many of which have been chronicled in our beloved newspaper.

The August 29th primary elections in St. Petersburg, Florida are fast approaching as the climax of one of the most radical election seasons in recent years, and probably of all time.

This is due to two young radical candidates, Eritha “Akilé” Cainion and Jesse Nevel who are running under the slogans 'radical times, radical solutions' and 'unity through reparations,' respectively.

The movement to elect Akilé for District 6 City Council and Jesse Nevel for mayor of St. Petersburg is gaining fierce momentum and winning international support.

Although Akilé and Jesse are running against the big money political establishment, their campaigns, led by the Uhuru Movement, are fueled by an uprising of young, black working class leaders.

They are also fueled by white people who unite that the cornerstone of a progressive stance is a commitment to reparations to the black community.

St. Petersburg, Florida—The St. Pete local elections continue to be the focal point of many conversations held by residents, mainly because of the two candidates the Uhuru Movement has put forward: 20-year-old Eritha “Akilé” Cainion, who is running for District 6 City Council on a platform titled “Radical Times, Radical Solutions;” and 27-year-old mayoral candidate, Jesse Nevel, whose platform demands “Unity Through Reparations.”

These two candidates have been the driving force behind many of the critical points being addressed, such as reparations and economic development for the African (black) community, gentrification, Black Community Control of the Schools and Black Community Control of the Police.

St. Petersburg, FL—A candidate for mayor representing a pitiful sector of the white ruling class told attendees of Tuesday night’s Mayoral debate to “go back to Africa.”

Paul Congemi made these vile comments in response to Uhuru Movement mayoral candidate Jesse Nevel, whose platform calls for “Unity through Reparations.”

It was July 10, 2017, a rainy night in Florida’s fourth largest city, St. Petersburg.

The Hilton hotel was the battleground for for two political debates, one featuring the District 6 Seat and one for the Mayor. This all may sound like the backdrop to a typical evening of political banter, but this evening was anything but normal.

While Coastal Living recently ranked St. Petersburg as one of the best 20 places to live calling it a cosmopolitan city that “strikes a balance between historic, small-scale neighborhoods and big-city pleasures.”

There’s just one problem… this cosmopolitan city does not care about the black culture and they aren’t very “worldly” towards the black community. The building of Tropicana Field where the Tampa Bay Devil Rays play baseball displaced a thriving African Gas Plant District, which has confined the black community to south part of the city which has no grocery stores for low income or working class African people to go for food. But unfettered, dog eat dog capitalism wants more.

A building spree of $500,000 to $600,000 luxury condominiums are being put up to put out the black community. So sorry Coastal Living your balance of small-scaled neighborhoods and big city pleasures is full of shit and is for a white audience only.

And now the Black Community has been backed into a corner and they are coming out swinging, and full-on revolting. This movement is being led by the African People’s Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement which is running candidates in the District 6 (Eritha “Akilé” Cainion) and Mayoral Race (Jesse Nevel).

On Monday, July 10th the voice of the black working class shattered the stifling “decorum” set by the St. Petersburg, FL League of Women Voters and the Downtown Neighborhood Association.

The SEIU’s People’s Budget Review held a local forum on Thursday June 15th at The Sunshine Center so that the nine district 6 candidates could have an opportunity to hear out the concerns of the community. The description of the event read: “You’ll be able to engage in dialogue with candidates for the District 6 race and hear them respond to how they will be supporting the People’s agenda.”

The open forum quickly became a battle royale. Most candidates were obviously fighting in the interest of prime real estate, while others were engaged in a vested struggle against police violence and gentrification.