Wednesday, January 31
6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Indianapolis Liberation Center
UPDATED Jan 26: We are excited to announce that, in addition to our featured speaker Shaka Shakur, we will be joined by Akili Shakur and Jenipher Jones at this special Indianapolis Liberation Center event spotlighting our newest member-organizations: Free Shaka Shakur and FOCUS Initiatives, LTD!
The U.S. is the most highly incarcerated society in the world, with 5% of the world’s population and between 20-25% of the world’s prisoners; that means one out of every four prisoners in the world is in the U.S. The number of Black and Latino men alone in state and federal prisons is over 800,000 persons larger than the entire prison population of Russia. The “land of the free” is, in reality, the “land of the captives.”
Obscured or deliberately left out of the U.S. media and education system is that, throughout history and to this day, the U.S. holds many political prisoners. Nonetheless, as a result of prison activism, the names of political prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal, Rev. Joy Powell, and Leonard Peltier are familiar now to many.
Shaka Shakur, one of the many political prisoners from Indiana, remains a captive to this day on trumped-up charges of attempted murder of a cop over 20 years ago. Since that time, the cop himself has stated he is not opposed to granting Shaka some kind of post-conviction relief. The real reason for his unjust incarceration is that the capitalist ruling class in the United States are afraid of Shaka’s organizing efforts and steadfast commitment to New Afrikan revolutionary politics. Despite the state of Indiana’s attempts to neutralize his organizing within, across, and beyond the prison walls–including forcing him into domestic exile in Virginia–the struggle has only intensified.
Family, friends, and supporters of Shaka celebrate with perseverance as we continue to reach milestones that bring him closer to home and freedom. We celebrate the advance of the struggle now that Free Shaka Shakur and FOCUS Initiatives, LTD. are collaborating with the volunteers and member-organizations of the Indianapolis Liberation Center. As Free Shaka Shakur, FOCUS Initiatives, and other groups unite under one banner, we rededicate ourselves to freeing not only Shaka but all political prisoners. Hear from Shaka himself, as well as organizers in the trenches to free all political prisoners, including:
- Akili Shakur, a retired educator at Purdue University Northwest (PNW) and director of Saving Our Families (SOF) who is married to Shaka; and
- Jenipher Jones, a civil movement and human rights attorney and Managing Partner at the law firm, For the People, LLC. Jones also serves as Editor in Chief of the National Lawyers Guild Law Review.
We invite you to learn about the latest updates on the movement to free Shaka and, just as importantly, to celebrate the milestones we have achieved so far, and the victories our increasing collaborations–that can include you–will achieve in this new year.
In the meantime, we invite you to take these steps to help free Shaka now!
- Sign the Petition to Grant Shaka Shakur Clemency!
- Support the Shaka Shakur Legal Defense Fund!
- Volunteer for the Struggle to Free Shaka Shakur!
- Write to Comrade Shaka Shakur!
Featured photo: “The movement is for us all. Credit: Terrance Osborne. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
