Posted January 21, 2023
We, Second-Wave Feminists Still in the Fight, demand that Mumia Abu-Jamal be freed! Mumia is a Black journalist and political activist who was framed up in 1982 for the murder of a police officer, Daniel Faulkner, in Philadelphia. Some of us (Second-Wave Feminists) are older than Mumia, and some are younger, but we have all lived through and witnessed the many tragic decades Mumia has suffered unjustly incarcerated. He has been: falsely accused and convicted of killing Faulkner; sentenced to death and spent 30 years on death row (and now serves a life-without-parole sentence – a slow death row); endured numerous serious illnesses that were ignored or inadequately treated in prison; and now just recently faced the death of his beloved wife of 43 years, Wadiya Jamal. They married a year before he was imprisoned.
As young women, we knew of Mumia’s case, and as he has aged and we have, too, and as new evidence of his innocence has emerged, we join many others in this country and around the world to demand his freedom!
Second-Wave Feminists Still in the Fight coalesced in response to the overturning of Roe V. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court, ending the constitutional right to abortion last June. We struggled together as young women to win that right during the 1960s and ‘70s. We have reassembled as seniors to help win it back. Mumia decried the Dobbs decision bringing down Roe V. Wade, and he wholeheartedly supports women’s right to bodily autonomy. We in turn are in solidarity with his fight for justice and freedom.
Just as his freedom was snatched away from him, so was the freedom to control our own reproductive systems snatched away from women by a system hostile to both the welfare and rights of Black people and women. When Mumia was arrested and falsely charged, he was an active member of the Black Panther Party. His arrest can be seen as part of a long war against the Black Panther Party and the Black community. Now we are seeing a war on women beginning with the overturning of our right to reproductive freedom as the opening shot.
Mumia’s case is at an important juncture, because Judge Lucretia Clemons has ordered the district attorney in the case to examine exculpatory evidence in many boxes of documents previously hidden away from the defense and public. The judge has given the defense and prosecution 60 days to investigate the material, and she says she will rule on their findings in 90 days.
We have heard Mumia Abu-Jamal’s eloquent words and sonorous voice on every aspect of social justice throughout his imprisonment — via his writings, podcasts, and messages. We need and excitedly await his insight, strength, and determination on the outside and in our ranks!
We Second-Wave Feminists Still in the Fight call upon all to publicize Mumia’s unjust racist prosecution, conviction, and treatment in prison and join in unison for a reversal of this decades-long travesty of justice.
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!
Ann Marie Capuzzi, Vauxhall, NJ
Barbara Mutnick, New York, NY
Boden Sandstrom, Milton, DE
Carol Reed, Santa Cruz, CA
Carole Seligman, San Francisco, CA
Caryl Towner, Saugerties, NY
Catherine Evans, Pittsburgh, PA
Chris Hildebrand, Vauxhall, NJ
Claudette Begin, Union City, CA
Dianne Feeley, Detroit, MI
Delpfine Welch, Austin, TX
Ginny Hildebrand, Pittsburgh, PA
Helen Schiff, New York, NY
Jeanne Lafferty, Portland, ME
Kate Daher, Pittsburgh, PA
Kipp Dawson, Pittsburgh, PA
Linda Loew, Chicago, IL
Nancy Rosenstock, Chicago, IL
Pat Putnam, Camden, ME
Phyllis Kittler, New York, NY
January 14, 2023