Summary

In this 2020 article, Mumia Abu-Jamal (Black radical writer, radio journalist, former Black Panther Party member, and current political prisoner of the state of Pennsylvania), writes about the long-lasting tradition of abolition. Mumia begins with the history behind the founding of the United States, reminding us that the Declaration of Independence was signed “while dark men, property-less white men, and all women were neither able to vote nor be voted for posts of political power.” Furthermore, Mumia explains that America was “was so deeply and openly negrophobic and racist, that the idea of a multiracial group opposed to slavery was considered aberrant.” The beginnings of the 19th-century abolition movement were met with utter disdain and very little support. To the regular person who relied deeply and proudly on slavery, abolition was an undesirable cause. Yet, although it seemed impossible, abolitionists formed a new country—one that was unfathomable to previous Americans. In conclusion, Mumia encourages prison industrial complex abolitionists to take a lesson from the first abolition movement: “to struggle and struggle, from generation to generation, until the People are finally free.”