They Huey P. Newton Reader

fallen comrade: eulogy for
George Jackson, 1971
eorge Jackson had genius. Genius is rare enough and should be
Gtreasured, but when genius is combined in a Black man with revolutionary
passion and vision, the Establishment will cut him
down. Comrade Jackson understood this. He knew his days were
numbered and was prepared to die as a true believer in revolutionary
suicide. For eleven years he insisted on remaining free in a brutal
prison system. All along he resisted the authorities and
encouraged his brothers in prison to join him. The state retaliated:
parole was continually refused; solitary confinement was imposed on
him fo r seven years; threats on his life were frequent-from guards,
from inmates who called themselves "Hitler's Helpers," from "knife
thrusts and pick handles of faceless sadistic pigs." And finally they
murdered him.
In the months before his death everything began to close in. He was
one of the few prisoners who was shackled and heavily guarded for
his infrequent trips to the visitors' room. Attempts on his life became
almost daily occurrences. But he never gave in or retreated. Prison was
the crucible that shaped his spirit, and George often used the words
of Ho Chi Minh to describe his resistance: "Calamity has hardened
me and turned my mind to steel."
I kncw him like a brother. At first, I knew him only spiritually,
through his writing and his legend in the prison system, when I was
at the Penal Colony and he was at Soledad. Then, not long after my
arrival, I received through the prison grapevine a request from George
to join the Black Panther Party. It was readily granted. George was
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