The War Before

by Bukhari, Safiya

• ISBN13: 9781558616103
• ISBN10: 1558616101
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-02-01
• Publisher: Feminist Pr

Summary

In 1968, Safiya Bukhari witnessed an NYPD officer harassing a Black Panther for selling the organization's newspaper on a Harlem street corner. The young pre-med student felt compelled to intervene in defense of the Panther's First Amendment right; she ended up handcuffed and thrown into the back of a police car.The War Before traces Bukhari's lifelong commitment as an advocate for the rights of the oppressed. Following her journey from middle-class student to Black Panther to political prisoner, these writings provide an intimate view of a woman wrestling with the issues of her time-the troubled legacy of the Panthers, misogyny in the movement, her decision to convert to Islam, the incarceration of outspoken radicals, and the families left behind. Her account unfolds with immediacy and passion, showing how the struggles of social justice movements have paved the way for the progress of today.Born in Harlem, Safiya Bukhari joined the Black Panther Party in 1969. Imprisoned for nine years on a robbery and murder charge, Bukhari then co-founded the New York Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition and was co-chair of the Jericho Movement to Free US Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War. She died in 2003 at the age of fifty-three.Laura Whitehorn has been a progressive political activist since the 1960s, when she was a member of the Weather Underground. She is now a senior editor at POZ magazine.Wonda Jones is the daughter of Safiya Bukhari.