Mr. Marshall "Eddie" Conway

Mr. Marshall “Eddie” Conway is a true servant of his community. Imprisoned for more than four decades for the crime of murdering a Baltimore City Police Officer – a crime for which he maintains his innocence – Mr. Conway has not allowed the prison cell to suppress his spirit and will to organize his community.

The former Baltimore-based, Black Panther Party Leader, has been a stabilizing and healing force in Maryland prisons. Mentoring young prisoners, co-creating violence prevention dramatic presentations, and speaking to the world through his writings – telling his story of growing up in Baltimore so that others might be helped.

I am so thankful that members of my church and I have connected with Friend of a Friend Mentoring Program – an effort that Mr. Conway cofounded that focuses on conflict resolution, communication, and coping skills inside three of Maryland’s correctional institutions.

On Tuesday, November 1, 2011, there will be a parole board hearing for Mr. Conway. Supporters are asking that all people of Faith and Conscience would consider faxing a letter to the Board requesting that Mr. Conway be granted parole. He has been a tremendous blessing to so many individuals and families while behind prison bars; there’s no telling the positive impact he would have on the community as a physically free man. Please consider editing the letter below and given the deadline PLEASE PRINT OUT AND FAX THE LETTER TO THE FOLLOWING NUMBER TODAY: 410-764-4355

Please comment below to let me know that you’ve faxed the letter if you feel led to do so. You’ll be joining more than 200 others who have already extended themselves in support of Mr. Conway. Thank you.

Honorable Members of the Maryland Parole Board
6776 Reisterstown Road
Suite 307
Baltimore, Maryland 21215

RE: Marshall Eddie Conway, # 116469

Dear Honorable Parole Board Members,

Support for the release of Marshall Eddie Conway has been previously and persistently expressed by thousands of Maryland tax payers and community citizens throughout the nation and abroad. This petition respectfully reiterates the sentiments of those who support the parole of Marshall Eddie Conway.

Inmate Conway, whose parole is scheduled for November 1, 2011, has been incarcerated in the Maryland state penal system for over four decades. Throughout that period, inmate Conway has utilized and continues to utilize his time to resolve conflict, build peace, and improve life outcomes for fellow prisoners and at-risk youth. The information below highlights ways in which Marshall Eddie Conway has been of invaluable service to the prison and Maryland community.

• Founded Friend of a Friend (2007), a peace building program that has trained 200 plus inmates per year to be mentors and peacemakers

• Collaborated with WombWorks Productions to produce “The Birth of Peace”, a play about finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts between street organizations in poor communities

• Worked to secure a $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to help improve the literacy skills of Maryland inmates

• Created a counseling program for youth at risk of imprisonment that operated for 12 consecutive years

While incarcerated, Mr. Conway has exhibited extraordinary character and personal commitment to peace building and positively impacting society. Maryland residents, including those representing the Baltimore City Council and the Maryland General Assembly support Mr. Conway’s release and re-integration into the Maryland community. In light of these factors, I respectfully ask this Honorable board to grant parole. Marshall Eddie Conway has proved himself a model inmate and will undoubtedly prove a model citizen.

Respectfully submitted,

[Your name]

Rev. Heber Brown, III with Former Black Panther, Kathleen Cleaver

The first time I met Kathleen Cleaver was a November 2007 Black Panther Rank & File Symposium that the Maryland Institute College of Art put on. As my blog article from that day reveals; I was touched by the continuing flame of Cleaver’s passion for the same issues she put her body on the line for back in the Panther’s heyday.

Which is why I’m excited that she’s on her way to Baltimore once more. This time to talk about Cointelpro – the U.S. Government’s covert and illegal assault upon those individuals and groups that it deemed were a threat to national security. (sound familiar?)

There will also be a viewing and discussion of COINTELPRO 101 – an educational film about the FBI program.

This is a timely event and viewing given that Clint Eastwood is preparing to release a film about J. Edgar Hoover – the man who directed COINTELPRO and has federal buildings named after him today -authorized the harassment and in some cases outright assassination of Black people in this country.

If you’re in the Baltimore area, you don’t want to miss this event:

SOURCE: David Shankbone

If all goes as planned. Today – October, 4, 2011 – will be a day that is remembered and perhaps even recorded in the “People’s History of Baltimore City.”

For the past couple of years a committed group of activists have been challenging Maryland state plans to build a multi-million dollar youth jail in East Baltimore – in a community that is already saturated with prisons and jails. While initial activism around the issue was met with strong resistance from political and agency leaders; some of them are beginning to become more vocal opponents of the youth jail citing stats that reveal that crime among youth in Baltimore is decreasing (following a national trend related to crime in general) and fiscal restraints are forcing political power brokers to consider other options.

Last year, this month, community leaders and grassroots activists hosted Youth Justice Sunday which brought a crowd of a few hundred to the neighborhood and site of where the construction of the youth jail is planned in East Baltimore. Today, youth leaders are joined by nonprofit professionals and their allies to once again march and raise awareness about the community’s continued disagreement with this youth jail project – demanding instead that dedicated operating and capital monies be redirected to schools, recreation centers, jobs, and other critical services that residents desire.

Today also marks the start of #OccupyBaltimore – an outgrowth of the #OccupyWallStreet effort that’s been going on for two weeks now in New York. The New York effort – which is a logistically impressive and passionate protest – has gained much attention in people-owned media and communication media, but just recently began grabbing the attention of corporation-owned media after NY police officers pepper-sprayed female protesters. (Wouldn’t be surprised if someone in the #OccupyWallstreet camp knew that crying White females on television in America gets the national TV cameras there quick!)  The #OccupyWallStreet narrative continued to develop with what protestors call the “Battle of the Brooklyn Bridge.”

200 people show up for inaugural meeting of #OccupyBaltimore

#OccupyBaltimore, which was started by the actions of those inspired by the NY-action, organized rapidly – largely on social networking sites and google. Remarkably, approximately 200 people attended the first meeting of the group (Sunday at 9PM!), more than 400 people have joined the Google group, and nearly 1,000 people have said on Facebook that they will join the group as they will begin “occupying” (that word has heavy negative baggage, but I get it.) downtown Baltimore at the corner of Pratt and Light Street – in the heart of Baltimore’s corporate and tourist district. Interestingly enough, the Baltimore police have already begun “monitoring” and likely infiltrating #OccupyBaltimore according to the Baltimore Sun:

“Baltimore police were monitoring social media and news reports for updates on the Inner Harbor protest, said spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.”

Stay tuned for up to the minute details regarding Baltimore’s Day of Protest. We’ll have pictures, video, and livestream of protestors and reactions.

June 16, 2010

Dear Ms. Bezold:

Thank you for your request on behalf of Mr. Marshall Conway regarding his attending the funeral service of his mother. As you know, Mr. Conway is housed at the Jessup Correctional Institution and has requested permission to attend. I understand the service will be on June 17, 2010 at March’s Funeral Home in Baltimore, Maryland.

I would first like to express my sincere condolences regarding Mr. Conway’s loss. I know that this is a difficult time for his family, friends and loved ones. However, at this time I am unable to approve Mr. Conway’s request as Maryland state law prohibits the temporary release of inmates who are not classified within the Maryland Pre-Release System. Although Mr. Conway is highly respected among his peers and has been a model inmate during his time within our State correctional facility, it is not possible for me to approve this request as he is classified as medium security.

However, in an effort to accommodate the family, Gary Hornbaker, Assistant Commissioner for the Division of Correction, has approved a special visit for Mr. Conway and his family at the Jessup Correctional Institution. Warden John Wolfe and the Chaplain at JCI will be in contact with Mr. Conway to facilitate a private visit.

I hope you find this a suitable alternative. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me, Warden John Wolfe or Assistant Commissioner Gary Hornbaker.

Sincerely,

Gary D. Maynard
Secretary

VoxUnion Media provides a wonderful tribute to our great Ancestor, Fred Hampton. Check it out.

You can kill a REVOLUTIONARY, but you can’t kill a REVOLUTION!

Well, according to the United States he was a terrorist, but now he is a highly respected international diplomat. Mandela was on the United State’s Terror Watch List which made sure he had to jump through extra hoops to gain entry into the U.S. I’m sure his name being on that list also authorized the CIA or FBI to take some “other” actions against him as well. [read: wiretapping and other surveillance activities. I'm sure we'll read about it in a book after Mandela has made his final earthly transition.]

While most world leaders applaud Baba Mandela today (some going so far as to suggest that he is nearly a saint), he wasn’t always so celebrated – of course most of us know about his being an anti-apartheid political prisoner for 27 years in Robben Island Prison, but I wonder if most people know that Mandela came to be a proponent of armed self-defense in South Africa. Consider this quote from his Opening Statement in his defense case before the Pretoria Supreme Court in April 1964 entitled, “I Am Prepared To Die.”

At the beginning of June 1961, after a long and anxious assessment of the South African situation, I, and some colleagues, came to the conclusion that as violence in this country was inevitable, it would be unrealistic and wrong for African leaders to continue preaching peace and non-violence at a time when the Government met our peaceful demands with force.

This conclusion was not easily arrived at. It was only when all else had failed, when all channels of peaceful protest had been barred to us, that the decision was made to embark on violent forms of political struggle, and to form Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation). We did so not because we desired such a course, but solely because the Government had left us with no other choice. In the Manifesto of Umkhonto published on 16 December 1961, which is Exhibit AD, we said:

“The time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices – submit or fight. That time has now come to South Africa. We shall not submit and we have no choice but to hit back by all means in our power in defence of our people, our future, and our freedom”.

They say that the conservatives of today were the radicals of yesterday. While I wouldn’t say that Mandela is a “conservative” it is interesting studying his development. I have serious doubts about whether or not he would support armed self-defense today. Or maybe he would. Who knows.

What I do know is that the revolutionary spirit is alive and well in the world, especially in Nigeria where members of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), are engaged in guerilla warfare against Western oil companies (Shell, Chevron, and others) who are extracting the “liquid gold” from their land and leaving the indigenous people to live in extreme poverty. Being that the government of Nigeria is not advocating for the masses of poor in the nation and non-violent rallies and protests are not working, groups like MEND have begun a campaign of sabotage, kidnapping, and murder of Western oil workers in order to aggressively reconstitute the redistribution of resources in their nation.

Now who are the terrorists in Nigeria?

How does this apply to other conflicts in the world? (i.e. Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinians, the Israeli Government, FARC, the Columbian Government, etc.)

How does this apply to historical conflict and its traditional re-telling? (i.e. the Black Panthers, American Indian Movement, Pilgrims, Black Muslims, Puerto Rican Independence Movement, the Central Intelligence Agency, Bloods, Crips, Black Guerilla Family, Young Lords, the Weathermen, MOVE, etc.)

SYMBOLS VS. SUBSTANCE
(Click here to listen to Mumia Abu-Jamal recite this powerful essay himself.)
[col. writ 4/12/08] (c) ’08 Mumia Abu-Jamal

Our national politics is largely the stuff of illusion.

It is the stuff of spin. It is the manipulation of images to pluck the heartstrings, or to stoke the furnaces of emotion.

Any emotion will do: love, hate, fear, all are but instruments upon which politicians will play to move people to the polls, to get them either to vote for them, or against their opponents.

What all of this really means in the day-to-day lives of many of the voters, is actually quite minimal, for politicians don’t really care about what voters want; they care about those who can afford them — those who pay them well for their services.

In essence, politics is a business, and voters are merely bare necessities.

We see this in the vast, obscene amounts of money raised for virtually all political offices.

At bottom, politics is the elevation of symbol over substance, for it seeks to create the illusion of change, while leaving unchanged the essential power relations at the lower levels of society.

Politics is great for changing forms, but it stumbles at changing essentials.

We’ve seen that in South Africa, where the faces of those in political power have changed dramatically — in its starkest sense, from palest white to darkest black — and yet those who hold financial power, immense wealth, and thus, those who control politicians, remain predominantly white — and remain in ultimate control.

Conversely, for the Black urban and rural poor, their lives are almost as hopeless as before, for what has changed is that a Black middle class has arisen into their political ascendency.

Here in the U.S., we often boast about Blacks having more and more political offices in local, state and federal government posts. Yet, if this is so (and it is) why are our lives so miserable, so threatened, so endangered? Why are our communities so dysfunctional?

Why are Black urban schools so under-performing?

Why are Black and Latino homeowners the bulk of folks losing their homes to foreclosures?

Why are so many of our lives nightmares of survival in the midst of plenty?

How is it that more Black politicians ultimately means less Black political power?

It’s because black-faced politicians can best advance the aims of white economic supremacy. For they are but employees of white wealth, who do the duty of those who can afford them. That great French observer of American politics, Alexis de Tocqueville, aptly noted, “Than politics the American citizen knows no higher profession — for it is the most lucrative.”

Black politicians confuse us with their presence — not their power.

For power is the ability to make change in the conditions of people’s lives (for the better), to represent their interests, and to gain resources for the betterment of
Black people and their communities.

Presence is merely being there, being there in the place of a white politician, doing essentially nothing differently.

–(c) ’08 maj

I am writing this to convey to all of you something that I have been thinking about recently.  Freedom Ain’t free.  As I spent the day pissed off about being ripped off by AT&T, it occurred to me that my problem was minor.

Eddie Conway (pictured above) has been ripped off by this very criminal justice system for over 37 years.  That is a lifetime.  A lifetime absent of many of the things that we take for granted like cell phones, a cup of coffee at some corporate chain, the ability to watch the Sopranos, a hot bath, and just being able to close a door and be alone.  And while all of those things suggest privilege – well freedom ain’t really free.  We spend money on those things and more and sometimes we even see them as needs, but on a daily basis Eddie struggles to keep enough money on his phone card to keep up with the world outside the walls.  His is a hand to mouth existence and despite this Eddie has more freedom in his spirit than many of us, but it ain’t really enough freedom.

I am pleased that the Black Panther Party Rank and File exhibit is coming to Baltimore.  It will help to raise the profile of his case.  However, I am beginning to wonder why social justice activists and conscious artists aren’t working harder to free Eddie.  As the buzz about the exhibit and a renewed interest in the Black Panther Party begins to spread; what is conspicuously absent from the dialogue is freedom.  I wonder if we haven’t gotten to a place where our political prisoners are more valuable to us locked up and representing the lengths that the government will go to repress us than they are out in our communities organizing and raising consciousness among our youth.  I have spent the last several years working with Eddie and seen many people come and go, and others stay but not budge to really help this man.  Eddie spends his time working inside with our youth as well as on the phone speaking about the BPP, COINTELPRO, and a number of subjects, and rarely does Eddie narrow the focus down to just Eddie.  He is still doing what he was doing when he went to prison – serving people.

I think it’s time that we mount a serious effort to gain Eddie’s freedom because his freedom is our freedom.  Perhaps some of us need a consciousness check as we talk about the legacy of the BPP.  These folks are still alive, and in the case of the BPP political prisoners – doing more than many of us who are “free.”  I am challenging all of you good folk to make this the year that we FREE EDDIE CONWAY…by any means necessary!  We need to set aside our personal/political/social differences and come together.  There are several things that need to happen in order to gain Eddie’s freedom and it will take all the help we can get so please engage other folks.  I want to set up a meeting in October so that we can begin a step by step process of securing his freedom.  Please contact me at (301) 919-6846 or drobinson@afsc.org.

P.S. – This movement will not be funded! 

Justice!

Dominique Stevenson

AFSC Area Director-Maryland Peace with Justice Program

“You can kill a revolutionary, but you can’t kill a revolution!”

Those are the words of Fred Hampton, Deputy Chairman of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, who was assassinated by an axis of evil – the Chicago Police Department, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, and the FBI on December 4, 1969.

Last night, I watched The Murder of Fred Hampton, a 1971 documentary which provides rarely seen footage of Black Panther meetings, rallies, and community outreach – of course focusing on Hampton.  The film was shown at MICA’s Brown’s Center (Falvey Hall) as a part of the Fall Film Series.  The series, which takes place every Tuesday night of this month, will feature various personalities from the Black Panther Party as a part of the Black Panther Rank & File Exhibition that is taking place here in Baltimore. 

I have seen portions of the documentary before on youtube, but watching it all in one sitting was a completely different experience.  As the documentary played, I took notice of what was going on inside of me.  Great love and burning anger rose within me.  As Chairman Fred talked about getting “high off the people” and organizing against the pigs; I thought about Baltimore and how extremely relevant his words are still today.  Unarmed Black men are still being killed by the police.  Poor people are getting poorer by design.  Black children are not being educated by design.  Black families are being forced from their homes in the name of revitalization by design.  And all the while, Baltimore’s White Power Structure is getting stronger – again by design. 

 It’s no wonder I was never taught about Fred Hampton during my youth.  At the young age of 21, Fred was and is one of the most powerful African men in the history of revolutionary struggle.  If youth learn about him and hear his voice and study his life, they just might be inspired to follow his example of what it means to love and serve your people.  As I sat in the theatre I wondered how many of the other attendees would embrace Fred’s message as a call to action.  How many would just chalk it up as another good documentary?  Who knows.  What I do know is that as they say in church – my heart is fixed and my mind is made up.  I will serve my people until I die. 

Next week, MICA will show A Panther in Africa, a documentary about a young Black Panther named Pete O’Neal who fled the U.S. and relocated to Tanzania in 1969 where he remains to this day.  I hope to see you there.  This is good medicine for frustrated revolutionary souls.

There’s a reason why this story broke late Friday/early Saturday morning.  It’s called the politics of news placement.  The Fourth Branch of the Government (aka mainstream American media) knows that if you want to slip something by the American people; you don’t publish it on Monday morning.  You wait until Friday when people have their minds focused on weekend plans and are less likely to give energy to heavy news items. That’s not hard to do these days.  Americans by and large are terribly apathetic – choosing to dedicate more attention to the all-important question of who is the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby…and how can I forget – the American Idol “controversy”.  (We have no idea of what a controversy is.)

This reminds me of a poster from my 7th grade social studies class.  It read:

THOSE WHO DO NOT STUDY HISTORY ARE BOUND TO REPEAT IT

The “powers that be on earth” rely on the American public’s apathy about these types of issues and our collective amnesia concerning similarly related items from our history. 

Does anybody remember the FBI’s illegal Counter Intelligence Program also known as COINTELPRO?  Better yet – was anyone taught about this in high school?  college?

This program’s goal was to: “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” the activities of these movements and their leaders.”  People like Martin Luther King, Jr. Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, Marc Clarke, and many others were assassinated with the support and active involvement of COINTELPRO agents.

A major investigation of COINTELPRO was launched in 1976 called the Church Committee.  The final report of the Church Committee concluded:

“Too many people have been spied upon by too many Government agencies and too much information has been collected. The Government has often undertaken the secret surveillance of citizens on the basis of their political beliefs, even when those beliefs posed no threat of violence or illegal acts on behalf of a hostile foreign power. The Government, operating primarily through secret informants, but also using other intrusive techniques such as wiretaps, microphone “bugs”, surreptitious mail opening, and break-ins, has swept in vast amounts of information about the personal lives, views, and associations of American citizens. Investigations of groups deemed potentially dangerous — and even of groups suspected of associating with potentially dangerous organizations — have continued for decades, despite the fact that those groups did not engage in unlawful activity. Groups and individuals have been harassed and disrupted because of their political views and their lifestyles. Investigations have been based upon vague standards whose breadth made excessive collection inevitable. Unsavory and vicious tactics have been employed — including anonymous attempts to break up marriages, disrupt meetings, ostracize persons from their professions, and provoke target groups into rivalries that might result in deaths. Intelligence agencies have served the political and personal objectives of presidents and other high officials. While the agencies often committed excesses in response to pressure from high officials in the Executive branch and Congress, they also occasionally initiated improper activities and then concealed them from officials whom they had a duty to inform.

Governmental officials — including those whose principal duty is to enforce the law –have violated or ignored the law over long periods of time and have advocated and defended their right to break the law.

So we have COINTELPRO and now it’s son called the PATRIOT ACT.  I wonder what the grandson of COINTELPRO will be named.  Oh well never mind.  Americans won’t be paying attention then either.

Our constitutional rights will continue to erode until the American people wake up, kill the “I’ll let someone else do it” attitude, and develope the courage to challenge the criminals that are running the country.