Angela Yvonne Davis is an American Marxist and feminist political activist, philosopher, academic, and author; she is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Davis was a longtime member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and a founding member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS). She was active in movements such as the Occupy movement and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.
George Lester Jackson was an American author, activist and convicted felon. While serving an indeterminate sentence for stealing $70 from a gas station in 1961, Jackson became involved in revolutionary activity and co-founded the prison gang Black Guerrilla Family.
Jonathan Peter Jackson was an armed militant who died of gunshot wounds sustained during the armed invasion of a California courthouse.
The Soledad Brothers were three inmates charged with the murder of a prison guard, John Vincent Mills, at California's Soledad Prison on January 16, 1970. George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo, and John Clutchette were alleged to have murdered Mills in retaliation for the shooting deaths of three black prisoners during a prison fight in the exercise yard three days prior by another guard, Opie G. Miller. Clutchette and Drumgo were acquitted by a jury while Jackson was killed in a prison riot prior to trial.
Vonetta Lawrence McGee was an American actress. She debuted in the Spaghetti Western The Great Silence and went on to appear in blaxploitation films such as Hammer, Melinda, Blacula, Shaft in Africa, Detroit 9000, and 1974's Thomasine & Bushrod alongside her then-boyfriend Max Julien. In 1975, she was Clint Eastwood's co-star in The Eiger Sanction. She was a regular on the 1987 Universal Television situation comedy Bustin' Loose, starring as Mimi Shaw for its only season (1987–88).
The Prisoner of Shark Island is a 1936 American drama film loosely based on the life of Maryland physician Samuel Mudd, who treated the injured presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth and later spent time in prison after his controversial conviction for being one of Booth's accomplices. The film was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, was directed by John Ford and starred Warner Baxter and Gloria Stuart.
Black August is a 2007 drama film directed by Samm Styles and starring Gary Dourdan, Darren Bridgett, Ezra Stanley, "Big" Leroy Mobley, and Don Williams. It was produced by Tcinque Sampson. The film centers on the story of George Jackson's life.
"George Jackson" is a song by Bob Dylan, written in 1971, in tribute to the Black Panther leader George Jackson, who had been shot and killed by guards at San Quentin Prison during an attempted escape on August 21, 1971. The event indirectly provoked the Attica Prison riot.
The San Quentin Six were six inmates at San Quentin State Prison in the U.S. state of California who were charged with actions related to an August 21, 1971 escape attempt that resulted in six deaths and at least two people seriously wounded. The San Quentin Six were Fleeta Drumgo, David Johnson, Hugo Pinell, Johnny Larry Spain, Willie Tate, and Luis Talamantez. The dead included George Jackson, a co-founder of the Black Guerrilla Family; two other inmates, and three guards.
Nuremberg is a 2000 Canadian-American television docudrama in 2 parts, based on the book Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial by Joseph E. Persico, that tells the story of the Nuremberg trials. Actual footage of the Nazi Concentration Camps (film) was included in this miniseries.
The Marin County Civic Center attacks were two related attacks in 1970 at the Marin County Civic Center courtroom in San Rafael, California, United States, tied to escalating racial tensions in the state's criminal justice system.
Laughter in Hell is a 1933 American Pre-Code drama film directed by Edward L. Cahn and starring Pat O'Brien. The film's title was typical of the sensationalistic titles of many Pre-Code films. Adapted from the 1932 novel of the same name by Jim Tully, the film was inspired in part by I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang and was part of a series of films depicting men in chain gangs following the success of that film. O'Brien plays a railroad engineer who kills his wife and her lover in a jealous rage and is sent to prison. The movie received a mixed review in The New York Times upon its release. Although long considered lost, the film was recently preserved and was screened at the American Cinematheque in Hollywood, CA in October 2012.
Fay Abrahams Stender was an American lawyer from the San Francisco Bay Area, and a prisoner rights activist. Some of her better-known clients included Black Panther leader Huey Newton, and the Soledad Brothers, including Black Guerrilla Family founder George Jackson.
Fleeta Drumgo was an American convict who was one of the Soledad Brothers, who were three African-American inmates accused of killing prison guard John Vincent Mills in January 16, 1970. Following this, Drumgo participated in an escape attempt from San Quentin Prison on August 21, 1971, which resulted in the deaths of three prison guards and three inmates, including George Jackson, who led the escape attempt.
Melinda is a 1972 American drama film directed by Hugh A. Robertson and written by Lonne Elder III. The film stars Calvin Lockhart, Rosalind Cash, Vonetta McGee, Paul Stevens, Rockne Tarkington and Ross Hagen. The film was released on August 16, 1972, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This film marked karate champion Jim Kelly's first appearance in a film.
Renny Roker is a promoter and actor. As a promoter, he has been involved in both music and sport. He also ran various record labels with his brother Wally Roker in the 1970s. As an actor his career which really started in the 1960s has carried on through to the 2010s.
If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance is a collection of writings about U.S. legal trials and prisons, edited by Angela Davis and published in 1971. Contributors included Black Panther Party members and the Soledad Brothers. As Davis' first book, it contains description of her experiences in prison. The book was positively received by African-American and communist media of the time.
Blood in My Eye is a book of political philosophy written by George Jackson, a co-founder of the Black Guerrilla Family. Jackson finished writing the book only days before he was killed at San Quentin State Prison on 21 August 1971. The book was first published on 1 January 1972.
W.L. Nolen was an American convict who co-founded the Black Guerrilla Family, in San Quentin State Prison in 1966, along with George Jackson. Nolen is considered the mentor of Jackson and is often credited with introducing Jackson to radical left-wing politics.
