Abolition Week One
LIBERATION LECTIONARY - BLACK AUGUST
Being in Black August
“Abolition, I have learned, is a bigger idea than firing cops and closing prisons; it includes eliminating the reasons people think they need cops and prisons in the first place.” Derecka Purnell
Reflection: What is Black August?
Summer months hold a number of revolutionary remembrances. The Ferguson Uprising began August 9th, in response to the murder of Michael Brown, Jr. On August 5th 2014, John Crawford was executed by police in Ohio. The Watts rebellion was August 11th 1965. Areas of Kentucky have a freedom celebration similar to Juneteenth on August 8th. Toni Morrison went to rest with the ancestors on August 5th, 2019. And there is so much more.
Black August began in the 1970s to mark the assassination of the imprisoned Black Panther, author, and revolutionary George Jackson during a prison rebellion in California. Since this time, Black August has been a time when we remember incarcerated loved ones by visitation as much as possible, advocating for liberation, and fighting for abolition. The principles of Black August are Study, Fast, Train, Fight. We hold these principles through the actions of Political Education, Solidarity Fasting, Direct Action Training, and Abolition work.
On August 7, 1970 Jonathan Jackson, William Christmas, James McClain, and Ruchell Magee were gunned down at the Marin County Courthouse in an attempt to free arrested comrades from state custody. Ruchell Cinque Magee remains the sole survivor of that bid for liberation. Though this rebellion was put down, it was internalized within the hearts and minds of the people on the outside, as well as those incarcerated, internalized in the same fashion as we honor other historic Black Freedom Fighters, who sacrificed their lives for the people and the liberation.
On August 21, 1971, a year following the rebellion at Marin County Courthouse, George L. Jackson (older brother of Jonathan Jackson as well as one of the Soledad Brothers) whose freedom was the primary demand of the Marin rebellion, was assassinated at San Quentin prison in an alleged escape. The alleged escape attempt was an account fabricated by prison administration and the state to cover its conspiracy. George Jackson was a purposely influential leader in the Revolutionary Prison Movement.
James Baldwin was born on August 2nd. A revolutionary thinker in his own right, Baldwin bore witness to the freedom struggle against legalized race based terrorism in the western world. He was raised in the church, spent some of his young adult years a youth pastor, after spending some of his teenaged years pastoring children.
Many of his works employ traditional phrases and titles well known in Black church culture. Go Tell it on the Mountain, Fire Next Time, Evidence of Things Unseen. Black and Queer, Brother Jimmy knew the tensions of loving a place that he longed to see transformed into welcoming and affirming of his identity and so many others. He wrote:
“Love takes off the masks we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.”
Love as a state of being is an often forgotten grounding principle in the Black August theme of Abolition.
The tragedy of John Crawford’s murder is made plain by the pain of his loved ones. The rage and grief of Michael Brown Jr’s family is an expression of love. And love is from God. God’s fury over injustice comes from the strength of Their love. Love is our future’s fervent hope, and a very present fuel for the work at hand. That work is dismantling carceral christianity, a kind of religion that polices our personhood and enshrines hatred as kin to holiness. Carceral christianity says that every action we take is either sinful or salvific; this is a binary that cannot be escaped, and so we must learn to accept it. Moreover, we are meant to evangelize from it, testifying of its protective, nourishing qualities. But the uprisings of our time say otherwise. The power of the people says otherwise.
Our destiny is dignity. No system can define that for us. No police presence can force that dignity away. Forced foolery is exactly what policing is designed to do. When the people are united we cannot be defeated, so keeping people divided is the feature that carceral religion shares with seats of power. This is why we need abolition. Because we want more than a more polite form of punishment.
We want the power to overcome punishment with connection.
“Police manage inequality by keeping the dispossessed from the owners, the Black from the white, the homeless from the housed, the beggars from the employed. Reforms only make police polite managers of inequality. Abolition makes police and inequality obsolete.” Derecka Purnell
Prayer for Abolition
From the Friendly Fire Collective
“Dear God of mercy, we ask that you conquer us, devastate us – tear through the walls we have built up so that your freedom may reign fully in our lives. May we not cling on to the desires of our flesh but instead die to ourselves, surrendering to your emancipating presence.
God of mercy, even as we race toward your kin-dom in the Spirit of sacrifice, we pray that you would accompany us as our comforter. May we know your love so deeply that fear will not take root in us nor lead us into destruction. Baptize us fresh in your Holy Ghost, that we may be healed by your liberation, and so that we may impart this gift to your children.
God of mercy, possess us with your Spirit of abolition. Fill us with your relentless fire. Use us to destroy empire and all its chains. Use us to accompany the struggles of the oppressed and suffering. May we see the day where those long-subjugated by the state finally inherit the earth” Ashe, Amen.
Music: Black August Playlist
This month’s meditation music varies from Gary Clark, Jr. and the Roots, Syl Johnson, to Sun Ra, and Anderson Paak. Enjoy these grooves under the themes of deliverance, dreaming for our futures, and demanding change even now.
YouTube Video Playlist – watch live performances of the tracks we’ve chosen for this month.
Daily Readings - from the Book of Isaiah
Monday: Isaiah 61.1-3 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me; They sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion— to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display God’s glory.
Tuesday: Isaiah 61.4 They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
Wednesday: Isaiah 61.5-6 Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks; foreigners shall till your land and dress your vines, but you shall be called priests of the Lord; you shall be named ministers of our God; you shall enjoy the wealth of the nations, and in their riches you shall glory.
Thursday: Isaiah 61.7 Because their shame was double and dishonor was proclaimed as their lot, therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; everlasting joy shall be theirs.
Friday: Isaiah 61.8-9 For I, the Lord, love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants shall be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.
Saturday: Isaiah 61.10-11 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my whole being shall exult in my God, for She has clothed me with the garments of salvation; She has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks themself with a garland and as a bride adorns theirself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its shoots and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
Credits & End Notes
Artwork by Rachel Jones
Article – Learn more about Black August
Radio – Learn from and support Incarcerated communities on Prison Radio
Video– Derecka Purnell, Author of Becoming Abolitionists, with Imani Perry for Harvard Bookstore
Source - Prayer for Abolition