Free Ruchell Magee
Black Power
Ruchell Magee was born in 1939. In 1963, Magee was convicted of aggravated kidnapping over a dispute involving $10 of marijuana. While in prison, Magee learned about African American history, the black liberation struggle and became politicized, joining the Black Panther Party.
While imprisoned during the 1960s, Magee dedicated much of his time to studying law and petitioning the court to challenge his conviction, stating the the U.S. criminal justice system “used fraud to hide fraud” to convict African Americans and other political activists. He was able to overturn his initial conviction and earn a new trial based on a falsified transcript. In essence, Magee argued that his conviction was based on fraudulent grounds, denying him his constitutional rights and holding him involuntarily, making him a slave. As such, he claimed, he and others had a legal right to do everything in their power to escape enslavement. “My fight is to expose the entire system, judicial and prison system, a system of slavery,” he wrote. “This will cause benefit not just to myself but to all those who at this time are being criminally oppressed or enslaved by this system.” During this period, Magee took the middle name “Cinque,” in honor of a slave who escaped the slave ship, Amistad, and won his freedom in a Connecticut court. Magee also hoped his case might draw attention to the broader injustices within the American legal system.
On August 7, 1970, just a few months before Magee was eligible for parole, 17-year old Jonathan Jackson, the younger brother of black radical, George Jackson, burst into the Marin County courtroom of Superior Court Judge Harold Haley, where James McClain was on trial for assaulting a guard in the wake of Black prisoner Fred Billingsley’s murder by prison officials in San Quentin Prison in February of 1970. Carrying three guns registered to Angela Davis, Jackson, with the help of McClain and Ruchell Cinque Magee, who was set to testify as a witness in McClain's trial, seized Judge Haley and ordered attorneys, jurors and court officials to lie on the floor. Magee freed another testifying witness, Black Panther William A. Christmas, who also aided in the escape attempt. In addition to their own freedom, the group sought a trade -- the release of Judge Haley for the “Soledad Brothers,” George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo, and John Clutchette, who were charged with killing a white prison guard at California’s Soledad Prison. During an effort to flee the courthouse in a van, a shoot-out with police took place, killing Jackson, McClain, Christmas and Judge Haley. Two other hostages, Prosecutor Gary Thomas and juror Maria Elena Graham, were also injured, but survived. Ruchell Magee was the only abductor to survive.
In the legal proceeding that followed the incident, prosecutors attempted to get Magee to testify against Angela Davis, but he refused. Ultimately, he pled guilty to aggravated kidnapping in exchange for the Attorney General requesting a charge of murder be dropped. Magee later tried to withdraw his guilty plea, but was unsuccessful. In 1975, he was sentenced to life in prison. Over the years, Magee has continued to petition the court for his release and to help other prisoners with legal challenges.
unknown
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. early-1970s
poster
Che Guevara
Cuban Revolution
The image of Latin American revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara became an icon among U.S. radicals during the 1960s, particularly after Guevara's assassination in 1967. To many activists, Guevara symbolized Third World solidarity in a global liberation struggle.
unknown
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. late-1960s
poster
Crazies
New Left
During the late-1960s, the Crazies was a small, anarchist, New Left cell in lower-Manhattan that included Sam Melville, a former engineering technician known as “the mad bomber”; anti-war activist and writer for RAT, Sharon Krebs; Krebs’ partner, Robin Palmer, an “ex-Navy, ex-porn star, ex-deep-sea diver” turned radical; and, George Demmerle, a FBI informant who called himself “Prince Crazy” and known for wearing a purple cape and pink Roman centurion’s helmet. Members of the Crazies believed it was necessary to “bring the war home” by staging political stunts, instigating disorder and bombings. They were critical of “corporate imperialism,” specifically the US involvement in the Vietnam War, as well as social and racial inequality. They referred to these actions, which were not aimed at taking life but destroying property, as “responsible terrorism,” patterned on the actions of IRA members in Ireland and FLQ members in Canada. Members of the group helped Canadian FLQ members, who had bombed about a dozen targets over a six-month period, including the Montreal Stock Exchange, flee the country and hijack an airplane to Cuba. In 1969, they also infiltrated a $200 a plate political fundraiser at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. Disguised as waiters, Palmer and Krebs stripped naked and presented pigs’ heads on platters to the dining politicians and wealthy donors. Some members of the group also participated in the theft of explosives from a warehouse in the Bronx, which were then used by Melville and others in a series of 8 bombings in New York City in 1969 and 1970, including United Fruit, Chase Manhattan, Standard Oil and an army headquarters, among other sites. Some members of The Crazies were also connected to the Weather Underground and other radical organizations during this period. Sam Melville, who was arrested and imprisoned at Attica, was killed during the Attica Prison Uprising.
The Crazies
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
late-1960s
Button
Physical Object
Viva Che
New Left
On an orange field, this button contains the words, “Viva Che,” in black. Representing the cult of personality Che Guevara developed internationally following his death in 1967, this button signifies the international appeal of Guevara, particularly his armed involvement in the Cuban Revolution and Bolivia campaign. Guevara embodied the image and philosophy of intellectual Marxism coupled with guerilla warfare tactics. Wearing a Che t-shirt or button, or hanging a Che poster on the wall of a bedroom or office, was meant to signify a person's own (aspired to) radicalism.
unknown
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. late-1960s
Button
Physical Object
Free the San Quentin 6
Prisoner's Rights Movement
The San Quentin 6 were six prisoners at the San Quentin State Prison in California - Hugo Pinell, Willie Tate, Johnny Larry Spain, David Johnson, Fleeta Drumgo and Luis Talamantez- accused of participating in the 1971 escape attempt that resulted in six deaths, including celebrated black radical, George Jackson, as well as three guards, Frank DeLeon, Paul Krasenes and Jere Graham, and two white inmates, John Lynn and Ronald L. Kane. After the longest trial in California history, a preceding that garnered widespread national publicity, the San Quentin 6 received a mixed verdict.
Jane Norling
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. 1973
poster
Rising Up Angry, vol. 2, no. 10
New Left
Rising Up Angry was a radical organization compromised of working class youth from communities in Chicago, Illinois. The group published a monthly newspaper that ran from 1969 to 1975. This issue features articles about revolutionary organizing in Asian American communities in San Francisco and New York; a critique of President Richard Nixon's welfare program; and, a statement that explains the repression against the radical press. Also highlighted in this issue is an article about self defense, including information about possession and proper use of guns. Towards the back of the publication, there is an entire page dedicated to local community programs, most of which are medical or legal in nature.
Rising Up Angry
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
1970
underground press
Ernesto Che Guevara
Latin American Revolution
A brief biography of Latin American revolutionary, Ernesto Che Guevara
unknown
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
undated
pamphlet