POST BIRTHDAY GREETINGS FOR SUNDIATA ACOLI & I WILL SEND THEM TO HIM!

by Sis Marpessa on Friday, January 14, 2011

PLEASE REPOST! AND IN KEEPING W/SIS. ASSATA'S WORDS, IF YOU'RE POSTING FROM OUTSIDE
THE U.S. PLEASE STATE THAT SO HE CAN KNOW THAT!

POST BIRTHDAY GREETINGS FOR SUNDIATA IN THE COMMENTS SECTION AND I WILL SEND THEM TO
HIM ... OR PLEASE DO WRITE TO HIM YOURSELF AT THE ADDRESS AT THE END OF THIS
POSTING!! JUST MAKE SURE YOU COMMUNICATE YOUR LOVE TO HIM SOME KINDA WAY!

http://sundiataacoli.org/

Words from Assata Shakur

"I want so much for Sundiata to know how much he is loved and respected. I want him
to know how much he is appreciated by revolutionaries all over the world. I want
Sundiata to know how much he is cherished by African people, not only in the
Americas, but all over the Diaspora. I want him to know how much we admire his
strength, his courage, his kindness and compassion. Sundiata loves freedom and we
must struggle for the life and freedom of Sundiata."


Sundiata Acoli (born in 1939, as Clark Edward Squire), a New Afrikan political
prisoner of war, mathematician, and computer analyst, was born January 14, 1937, in
Decatur, Texas, and raised in Vernon, Texas. He graduated from Prairie View A & M
College of Texas in 1956 with a B.S. in mathematics and for the next 13 years worked
for various computer-oriented firms, mostly in the New York area.

During the summer of 1964 he did voter registration work in Mississippi. In 1968 he
joined the Harlem Black Panther Party and did community work around issues of
schools, housing, jobs, child care, drugs, and police brutality.

In 1969 he and 13 others were arrested in the Panther 21 conspiracy case. He was
held in jail without bail and on trial for two years before being acquitted, along
with all other defendants, by a jury deliberating less than two hours.

Upon release, FBI intimidation of potential employers shut off all employment
possibilities in the computer profession and stepped-up COINTELPRO harassment,
surveillance, and provocations soon drove him underground.

In May 1973, while driving the New Jersey Turnpike, he and his comrades were
ambushed by N.J. state troopers. One companion, Zayd Shakur, was killed, another
companion, Assata Shakur, was wounded and captured. One state trooper was killed and
another wounded, and Sundiata was captured days later.
After a highly sensationalized and prejudicial trial he was convicted of the death
of the state trooper and was sentenced to Trenton State Prison (TSP) for life plus
30 years consecutive.

Upon entering TSP he was subsequently confined to a new and specially created
Management Control Unit (MCU) solely because of his political background. He
remained in MCU almost five years, … let out of the cell only ten minutes a day for
showers and two hours twice a week for recreation.

In September 1979, the International Jurist interviewed Sundiata and subsequently
declared him a political prisoner. A few days later prison officials secretly
transferred him during the middle of the night to the federal prison system and put
him en route to the infamous federal concentration camp at Marion, Illinois,
although he had no federal charges or sentences. Marion is one of the highest
security prisons in the U.S., also one of the harshest, and there Sundiata was
locked down 23 hours a day …. In July 1987 he was transferred to the federal
penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas.

In the fall of 1992, Sundiata became eligible for parole. He was not permitted to
attend his own parole hearing and was only allowed to participate via telephone from
USP Leavenworth. Despite an excellent prison work, academic and disciplinary record,
despite numerous job offers in the computer profession, and despite thousands of
letters on his behalf, Sundiata was denied parole. Instead, at the conclusion of a
20 minute telephone hearing, he was given a 20-year hit, the longest hit in New
Jersey history, which dictates that he must do at least 12 more years before coming
up for parole again.

The Parole Board’s stated reason for the 20-year hit was Sundiata’s membership in
the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army prior to his arrest, the
receipt of hundreds of “Free Sundiata” form letters that characterized him as a New
Afrikan Prisoner of War, and the feeling that the punitive aspects of his sentence
had not been satisfied and that rehabilitation was not sufficiently achieved. The
real reason for the 20-year hit is to attempt to force Sundiata to renounce his
political beliefs and to proclaim to the world that he was wrong to struggle for the
liberation of his people.



Write Sundiata Acoli:Sundiata Acoli #39794-066 (Squire)

P.O. Box 1000
FCI Otisville
Otisville, NY 10963-1000