Writing on the Wall

Selected Prison Writings of Mumia Abu-Jamal

Mumia Abu Jamal, Johanna Fernandez

• Publisher: City Lights Publishers
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780872866751
• eBook ISBN: 9780872866553
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: African American History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

"Revolutionary love, revolutionary memory and revolutionary analysis are at work in every page written by Mumia Abu-Jamal … His writings are a wake-up call. He is a voice from our prophetic tradition, speaking to us here, now, lovingly, urgently. Black man, old-school jazz man, freedom fighter, revolutionary—his presence, his voice, his words are the writing on the wall."— Cornel West, from the foreword

From the first slave writings to contemporary hip hop, the canon of African American literature offers a powerful counter-narrative to dominant notions of American culture, history and politics. Resonant with voices of prophecy and resistance, the African American literary tradition runs deep with emancipatory currents that have had an indelible impact on the United States and the world. Mumia Abu-Jamal has been one of our most important contributors to this canon for decades, writing from the confines of the U.S. prison system to give voice to those most silenced by chronic racism, impoverishment and injustice.

Writing on the Wall is a selection of more than 100 previously unpublished essays that deliver Mumia Abu-Jamal's essential perspectives on community, politics, power, and the possibilities of social change in the United States. From Rosa Parks to Edward Snowden, from the Trail of Tears to Ferguson, Missouri, Abu-Jamal addresses a sweeping range of contemporary and historical issues. Written mostly during his years of solitary confinement on Death Row, these essays are a testament to Abu-Jamal's often prescient insight, and his revolutionary perspective brims with hope, encouragement and profound faith in the possibility of redemption.

"Greatness meets us in this book, and not just in Mumia's personal courage and character. It's in the writing. This is art with political power, challenging institutional injustice in the U.S. while catalyzing our understanding, memory and solidarities for liberation and love. Writing on the Wall can set the nation aflame—yes, for creating new possible worlds."— Mark Lewis Taylor, Professor of Theology and Culture, Princeton Theological Seminary

Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning journalist and author of two best-selling books, Live From Death Row and Death Blossoms.

Johanna Fernández is a Fulbright Scholar and Professor of History at Baruch College in New York City.

Cornel West is a scholar, philosopher, activist and author of over a dozen books including his bestseller, Race Matters. He appears frequently in the media, and has appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher, The Colbert Report, CNN and C-Span as well as Tavis Smiley.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction by Johanna Fernández
• 1. Christmas in a Cage
• 2. Court of Law or Hall of Oppression?
• 3. Different Sides of the Same System
• 4. Long Live John Africa
• 5. 900 Years for Surviving
• 6. The Mother’s Day Massacre
• 7. The Power of Truth
• 8. Christmas in a Cage II
• 9. The Philadelphia Negro Revisited
• 10. Birth of a Rebel
• 11. Community Service for a Contra Colonel
• 12. C’mon In, the Water’s Fine
• 13. Ronald Reagan Fiddled While the Poor Froze
• 14. Blues for Huey
• 15. Opposing Anti-Arab Racism
• 16. Rodney King
• 17. Never Again
• 18. Legal Outlaws: Bobby’s Battle for Justice September
• 19. Gangsters in Blue
• 20. Voting for Your Own Repression
• 21. Welfare Reform or War on Women?
• 22. The State of Pennsylvania Has Every Intention of Killing Me
• 23. The Passing of Kunstler: People’s Lawyer
• 24. Fugitive From Justice, Veronica Jones
• 25. When a Child Is Not a Child
• 26. More than Police Brutality
• 27. The Death Machine
• 28. What Amadou Diallo Really Means
• 29. The Damning of Dissent
• 30. The Life and Freedom of Shaka Sankofa (Gary Graham)
• 31. Texas: The Death State
• 32. The Real “Constitutional Crisis”
• 33. Many Trails of Tears
• 34. Message to the World Congress Against the Death Penalty Strasbourg, France
• 35. The Real Meaning of Genoa
• 36. Land
• 37. Imperial Pique in Durban
• 38. 9-11 . . . Why?
• 39. When News Isn’t News
• 40. War on the Waterfront
• 41. The Cuban 5 and “Homeland Security”
• 42. Analysis of Empire
• 43. Who’s “Wilding” Who?
• 44. Governor Ryan’s Song
• 45. Black Farmers, Still Fighting
• 46. To Be Young, Gifted and . . . Nina Simone
• 47. Sons of Malcolm
• 48. Soldiers of Misfortune
• 49. Black August
• 50. Forty Years in the Wilderness
• 51. The Ill-Advised Iraq Adventure
• 52. Democracy, Dictatorships and Empire
• 53. “Flawed Intelligence”
• 54. In the Shadow of Brown
• 55. Who “We” Are
• 56. “True American Values”
• 57. Another Ronald Reagan, Another America
• 58. America: Independent?
• 59. What Would Thomas Paine Think?
• 60. Voting for Yesteryear: Alabama Dreamin’
• 61. When the Prison Goes International
• 62. Lynne Stewart Speaks
• 63. Whitewashing White Crimes
• 64. Supreme Court Justice Calls System “Broken”
• 65. Rosa Parks, Claudette Colvin and Jo Ann Robinson
• 66. What Kids Are Really Learning in School
• 67. The Ongoing War Against Workers: The TWU Strike
• 68. FBI Surveillance
• 69. GM and the Global War Against Workers
• 70. Silence of the Lambs
• 71. Before Guantánamo or Abu Ghraib—the Black Panthers
• 72. Katrina: One Year Later
• 73. No Safe Age
• 74. Decolonization: The Influence of Africa and Latin America on the Black Freedom Movement
• 75. President or Priest?
• 76. 1967: Year of Fire, Year of Rage
• 77. The Latest Battle in the War Against the Poor
• 78. The Perils of Black Political Power
• 79. Beating Back Batson
• 80. The Time For Troy Davis Is Now
• 81. Welfare for the Rich
• 82. Israel
• 83. From Frantz Fanon to Africa With Love
• 84. With Judges Like These
• 85. The Other Inauguration Celebration
• 86. Black Citizenship
• 87. Union Busting
• 88. Tea Party or Occupy Movement?
• 89. To My Brethen and Sistas on the Row
• 90. For a Revolutionary Black History Month
• 91. Memories for Maroon
• 92. Beyond Trayvon: When the Personal Ain’t Political
• 93. The Real John Carter
• 94. Ending Solitary Confinement
• 95. Obama’s Re-Election: What It Means, What It Doesn’t
• 96. Martin Luther King: In Memory and in Life
• 97. The Coming Acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s Killer
• 98. Puerto Rico: Under U.S. Colonial Law
• 99. “Of All Our Studies, History Best Rewards Our Research”
• 100. National Security Agency
• 101. Martin, Women and the Movement
• 102. Land Grabs
• 103. Beatings
• 104. The Historic Role of Journalism Among Black People
• 105. The Meaning of Ferguson
• 106. Ebola
• 107. Goddard Commencement Speech
• Appendix: 10 Reasons Why Mumia Abu-Jamal Should Be Freed By Johanna Fernández
• Endnotes
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors