By the time Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, arrived in Cambridge, Maryland, in the summer of 1967, he was ready to denounce white America's ills. But a white rampage was in the works. By the end of his speech, gunfire erupted, hitting Brown above his eye. Meanwhile, whites sent the Black neighborhood up in flames.
As punishment for Black people standing up for themselves, white firefighters and the governor let everything burn to the ground. Even worse, Al-Amin was arrested and charged with inciting a "riot.”
Still, only three days later, Al-Amin shocked white America by making this unapologetic statement at a conference: "I say violence is necessary … It is as American as cherry pie. Americans taught the Black people to be violent. We will use that violence to rid ourselves of oppression if necessary."
In 2002, Brown was convicted of allegedly killing a Georgia police sheriff. Even after a judge ruled that his constitutional rights were violated during the initial half-hearted trial, he remained incarcerated, serving a life sentence. On November 23, 2025, Brown died in a prison hospital at the age of 82.
The system always retaliates when we try to fight back. But, like Al-Amin, we must divest from a criminal legal system designed to deny Black people justice – by any means necessary.