H. Rap Brown

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (جميل عبد الله الامين; born October 4, 1943, as Hubert Gerold Brown), also known as H. Rap Brown, came to prominence in the 1960s as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and later the Justice Minister of the Black Panther Party. He is perhaps most famous for his proclamation during that period that "violence is as American as cherry pie", as well as once stating that "If America don't come around, we're gonna burn it down". He is currently serving a life sentence for homicide.

Contents 1 Active years 2 Early Activism 3 2000 arrest and conviction 4 Bibliography 5 See also 6 Notes 7 External links

[edit] Active years

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2009)

[edit] Early Activism

Brown was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He became known as H. Rap Brown during the early 1960s. His activism in the civil rights movement included involvement with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), of which he was named chairman in 1967. That same year, he was arrested in Cambridge, Maryland, and charged with inciting to riot as a result of a speech he gave there. He left the SNCC and joined the Black Panthers in 1968.

He appeared on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List after avoiding trial on charges of inciting riot and of carrying a gun across state lines. His attorneys in the gun violation case were civil rights advocate Murphy Bell of Baton Rouge, and the self described "radical lawyer" William Kunstler. Brown was scheduled to be tried in Cambridge, but the trial was moved to Bel Air, Maryland on a change of Venue.

On March 9, 1969 two black radicals, Ralph Featherstone and William ("Che") Payne died on a Maryland highway south of Bel Air when a bomb that they were carrying under the front passenger seat of their car exploded. Allegedly the bomb was intended to be used at the courthouse where Brown was to be tried. The next night the Cambridge, Maryland courthouse was bombed.^[1]

Brown disappeared for 18 months, and then was arrested after a reported shootout with officers. The shootout occurred after what was said to be an attempted robbery of a bar in 1971 in New York.

He spent five years (1971–76) in Attica Prison after a robbery conviction. While in prison, Brown converted to Islam and changed his name to Jamil Abdullah al-Amin. After his release, he opened a grocery store in Atlanta, Georgia and became a Muslim spiritual leader and community activist preaching against drugs and gambling in Atlanta's West End neighborhood.

He was affiliated with a Sunni militant network known as 'Dar ul-Islam',^[2] also became the leader of Ummah (see also ummah), "a group of mostly African-American converts to Islam, which seeks to establish a separate Sharia-law-governed state within the United States" according to the FBI. However, the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA) issued a statement disagreeing with the characterization of the Ummah, and stating that the allegations against Abdullah were "shocking and inconsistent" to those who had worked with him.^[3] On November 1, 2009, Mohammad Al-Sahli and Yassir Ali Khan were arrested in Windsor, Canada, in connection with the same felony charges.^[4]

[edit] 2000 arrest and conviction

On March 16, 2000, in Fulton County, Georgia, Sheriff's deputies Ricky Kinchen and Aldranon English went to al-Amin's home to serve an arrest warrant for his failing to appear in court after a citation for speeding, as well as for impersonating a police officer (al-Amin showed the officer his honorary badge, which was given to him by the city for cleaning up the West End). After stopping in front of al-Amin's home and determining that nobody was there, they drove away and were passed by a black Mercedes that was heading towards the home. Kinchen (the more senior deputy) watched the suspect vehicle, and turned the car around and drove up to it, stopping nose to nose. English approached the Mercedes and told the occupant to show his hands. The occupant opened fire with a .223 rifle. English ran, but was hit four times. Kinchen was shot with the rifle and a 9 mm handgun. The following day, Kinchen died of his wounds at Grady Memorial Hospital. English survived his wounds, and identified al-Amin as the shooter from six photos he was shown while recovering in the hospital. Both of the police officers whom Brown was convicted of shooting were African American.

Shortly after the shootout, al-Amin fled to White Hall, Alabama, where he was tracked down by U.S. marshals and arrested by law enforcement officers after a four-day manhunt. Al-Amin was wearing body armor at the time of his arrest, and near his arrest location, officers located a 9mm handgun and .223 rifle. Ballistics testing showed that both weapons were the same guns used to shoot Kinchen and English. Later, his black Mercedes, riddled with bullet holes, was located.^[5]

On March 9, 2002, nearly two years after the shooting took place, al-Amin was convicted of 13 criminal charges, including the murder of deputy Kinchen. Four days later, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.^[6] He was sent to Georgia State Prison, the state's maximum security facility near Reidsville, Georgia.

Since his conviction, supporters of al-Amin have asserted that another man, Otis Jackson, who confessed to the shooting (but later recanted), is the real shooter. Also, the police initially believed the shooter was wounded during the gun battle, but al-Amin had no injuries at the time of his arrest. Supporters assert that the investigation and trial were plagued by irregularities, including the suppression of evidence.

At his trial, prosecutors pointed out al-Amin never provided any alibi for his whereabouts at the time of the shootout, nor any explanation as to why he fled the state afterwards. He also did not explain the bullet holes in his car, nor how the weapons used in the shootout were located near him during his arrest. In May 2004, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously ruled to uphold al-Amin's conviction.^[7]

In August 2007, he was transferred from state custody to Federal custody as Georgia officials decided that al-Amin is too high-profile an inmate for the Georgia prison system to handle. He was moved to a Federal transfer facility in Oklahoma pending assignment to a Federal penitentiary. On October 21, 2007, al-Amin was transferred to the ADX Florence supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.^[8]

[edit] Bibliography

• Die Nigger Die!: A Political Autobiography, Lawrence Hill Books, 1969
• Revolution by the Book, 1993

[edit] See also

• American Civil Rights Movement (1896-1954)
• American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)
• Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: H. Rap Brown

• Online audiorecordings and video of H. Rap Brown via UC Berkeley Black Panther site
• Bio and Sound Clip, History Channel
• Video and Audio of Imam Jamil Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown)
• Southern Poverty Law Center report on the murder of Ricky Leon Kenchin
• Die Nigger Die: A Political Autobiography by H. Rap Brown
• Imamjamil.com by Justice for All, Inc.

v • d • e Black Panther Party Founding members Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale Influences Black Power, Malcolm X, Robert F. Williams, Frantz Fanon, Maoism, Communism Programs Free Breakfast for Children Panthers accused of murder Angola 3, Mumia Abu-Jamal, H. Rap Brown, Warren Kimbro, Lonnie McLucas, Geronimo Pratt, George W. Sams, Jr., Assata Shakur Panthers killed by police Mark Clark, Fred Hampton, Bobby Hutton Other notable members Ashanti Alston, Richard Aoki, Charles Barron, Elaine Brown, William Lee Brent, Stokely Carmichael, Bunchy Carter, Eldridge Cleaver, Kathleen Neal Cleaver, Angela Davis, Aaron Dixon, Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, Billy Garland, David Hilliard, George Jackson, Jamal Joseph, Chaka Khan, Robert Hillary King, Pete O'Neal, Larry Pinkney, Malik Rahim, Nile Rodgers, Bobby Rush, Afeni Shakur, Robert Trivers, Mark Essex, Betty Van Patter, Assata Shakur Other New Black Panther Party