The past few years have been some of the most suitable times to celebrate and recognize Black August. Black August is the month where Black resistance, revolution, and incarcerated loved ones are honored for all they’ve struggled through and accomplished throughout history. Critical Resistance—one of the most revered abolitionist national organizations founded by Ruthie Wilson Gilmore and Angela Y. Davis—shared an article about Black August and its meaning in 2012, writing, “the month of August bursts at the seams with histories of Black resistance–from the Haitian Revolution to the Nat Turner Rebellion, from the Fugitive Slave Law Convention and the foundation of the Underground Railroad to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, from the March on Washington to the Watts Uprising, from the births of Marcus Garvey, Russell Maroon Shoatz, and Fred Hampton to the deaths of W.E.B du Bois and George Jackson’s own younger brother Jonathan killed while attempting to free the Soledad Brothers from prison. We celebrate Black August, commemorating the anniversary of George Jackson’s death while understanding his life as a revolutionary in a long and unbroken line of resistance and sacrifice of Black people throughout history.” The tradition began in California prisons in the 1970s after George and Jonathan Jackson’s deaths as the former activist was killed (he was incarcerated for stealing $70 from a gas station) while trying to escape the barbaric conditions at San Quentin State Prison (which was featured in the news last year for its truly horrific treatment of its people inside and for having the most COVID cases of any facility in America) and the latter was killed after holding a judge hostage in exchange for his brother’s freedom. Following the brothers’ murders, incarcerated people across America mourned their deaths in what we know now as Black August. The number of revolutionary Black figures and events in August make the month as significant as it is. Black people are already disproportionately policed, incarcerated, and disappeared by the criminal legal system, and they’re also made into political prisoners. One of the most important parts of Black August is remembering and celebrating the Black figures and incarcerated loved ones who fought for liberation and were targeted and killed or incarcerated by the State. A website called New Afrikan 77 has a list of currently imprisoned Black leaders with their contact information and one of the best ways to honor this month is by writing letters to them. I plan on doing just that.
