Who Is Dr. Mutulu Shakur?: A Lifelong Activist in the New Afrikan (Black) Independence Movement

In a war against Black people in the United States that spans over four centuries and for many generations, few will rise as frontline soldiers on behalf of the oppressed. In such an enduring struggle, few will have the stamina and fortitude to fight and remain committed. Even fewer will have the courage.

But, in the spirit of the slave revolters-the Nat Turners and the Gabriel Prossers, and the Harriet Tubmans-new men and women rise, taking life and action.

Dr. Mutulu Shakur, a lifelong activist in the New Afrikan (Black) Independence Movement and a Doctor of Acupuncture, is one of those people. Because of his dedication to the Black liberation struggle-a struggle for human rights-he is currently being held prisoner by the U.S. government at Marion, a federal prison located in Marion, Illinois.

In 1987, Shakur was sentenced to 60 years imprisonment for an alleged conspiracy by the Black Liberation Army/New Afrikan Freedom Fighters against the U.S. government. Because of his political action, Dr. Shakur was marked a criminal and arrested. Since that time, there has been immeasurable and inhumane abuse inflicted upon Shakur from behind prison walls, unwitnessed by the public eye.

And still, he is not broken.

As a fearless activist for Black Liberation, Shakur was cofounder of the Republic of New Afrika (1968), and is now at the forefront of efforts to expose the FBI's illegal COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) campaign of domestic repression. As an acupuncturist, Dr. Shakur cofounded the Black Acupuncture Advisory Association of America and was one of the pioneers in using acupuncture in the treatment of substance abuse. He is a dedicated member of the New Afrikan People's Organization.

But, it is no easy struggle. Because of his consistent activism, even from within the prison system, he is persecuted. There are no rewards for his work. Instead, there is only cruel and unusual punishment. Dr. Mutulu Shakur helped found the Islamic Young Men's Movement, a youth prisoner organization, and was a key organizer in the historic gang truce between the Bloods and the Crips at Lompoc Penitentiary. He is recognized in the international media as an American political prisoner and freedom fighter. The government, however, fearful of his positive influence over massive numbers of young, Black minds, tries everything to disempower him.

"We are establishing a continuum of resistance of the oppression of New Afrikan People against the oppression of 400 years of slavery and genocide," Dr. Shakur affirms. "Many of us engaged in the conflict, targets of the conflict and victims of the conflict find ourselves in jail or cemeteries or find ourselves suffering mental stress and Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Without the recognition that a conflict exists, the martyrs and patriots of our struggle will continue to be labeled criminals in the annals of history. It is a significant political struggle for our movement and allies of our movement to create the recognition that there exists and will continue to exist political prisoners and prisoners of war in America."

Date of Birth: August 8, 1950
Nationality: New Afrikan
Incarcerated at: Coleman, FL

Dr. Mutulu Shakur is a New Afrikan (Black) man whose primary work has been in the area of health. He is a doctor of acupuncture and was a co-founder and director of two institutions devoted to improving health care in the Black community.

Mutulu Shakur was born on August 8, 1950, in Baltimore, Maryland as Jeral Wayne Williams. At age seven he moved to Jamaica, Queens, New York City with his mother and younger sister. Shakur's political and social consciousness began to develop early in his life. His mother suffered not only from being Black and female, but was also blind. These elements constituted Shakur's first confrontation with the state, while assisting his mother to negotiate through the maze that made up the social service system. Through this experience Shakur learned that the system did not operate in the interests of Black people and that Black people must control the institutions that affect their lives.

Since the age 16, Dr. Shakur has been a part of the New Afrikan Independence Movement. As a part of this movement Dr. Shakur has been a target of the illegal Counterintelligence Program carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (COINTELPRO). This was a secret police strategy used in the U.S. starting in the 1960's to destroy and neutralize progressive and revolutionary organizations. It is believed that Dr. Shakur's resistance to this program led to his arrest and trial.

During the late sixties Dr. Shakur was also politically active and worked with the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), a Black Nationalist group which struggled for Black self-determination and socialist change in America. He was also a member of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika which endorsed the founding of an independent New Afrikan (Black) Republic and the establishment of an independent Black state in the southern U.S. Dr Shakur also worked very closely with the Black Panther Party supporting his brother Lumumba Shakur and Zayd.

In 1970 Dr. Shakur was employed by the Lincoln Detox (detoxification) Community (addiction treatment) Program as a political education instructor. His role evolved to include counseling and treatment of withdrawal symptoms with acupuncture. Dr. Shakur became certified and licensed to practice acupuncture in the State of California in 1976. Eventually he became the Program's Assistant Director and remained associated with the program until 1978...cont. after video serieds

...From 1978 to 1982, Dr. Shakur was the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Black Acupuncture Advisory Association of North America (BAAANA) and the Harlem Institute of Acupuncture. Where, at Lincoln, Dr. Shakur had managed a detox program recognized as the largest and most effective of its kind by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, National Acupuncture Research Society and the World Academic Society of Acupuncture, at BAAANA he continued his remarkable work and also treated thousands of poor and elderly patients who would otherwise have no access to treatment of this type. Many community leaders, political activists, lawyers and doctors were served by BAAANA and over one hundred medical students were trained in the discipline of acupuncture.

By the late 1970's Dr. Shakur's work in acupuncture and drug detoxification was both nationally and internationally known and he was invited to address members of the medical community around the world. Dr. Shakur lectured on his work at many medical conferences, and was invited to the People's Republic of China. In addition in his work for the Charles Cobb Commission for Racial Justice for the National Council of Churches he developed their anti-drug program.

Dr. Shakur has furthermore been a dedicated worker and champion in the struggle against political imprisonment and political convictions of Black Activists in America. He was the founding member of the National Committee to Free Political Prisoners. He has been a leader in the struggle against the illegal U.S. and local American law enforcement programs designed to destroy the Black movement in America and has worked to expose and to stop the secret American war against its Black colony.

Through his political work, Dr. Shakur has been associated with the Committee to Defend Herman Ferguson, a Black activist and educator charged with conspiracy in the RAM conspiracy case of the 1960's; the National Task Force for COINTELPRO Litigation and Research, which researched and initiated suits against the FBI and American law enforcement agencies for criminal acts, spying and counter-insurgency warfare tactics; and the National Conference of Black Lawyers. He has also endorsed support for the legal defense of political prisoners and prisoners of war, including Imari Obadele, Ph.D., Rev. Ben Chavis, Geronimo (Pratt) JiJaga of the Black Panther Party, and Assata Shakur and Sundiata Acoli of the Black Liberation Army.

In March 1982, Dr. Shakur and 10 others were indicted by a federal grand jury under a set of U.S. conspiracy laws called "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization" (RICO) laws. These conspiracy laws were ostensibly developed to aid the government in its prosecution of organized crime figures; however, they have been used with varying degrees of success against revolutionary organizations. Dr. Shakur was charged with conspiracy and participation in a clandestine paramilitary unit that carried out actual and attempted expropriations from several banks. Eight incidents were alleged to have occurred between December 1976 to October 1981. In addition he was charged with participation in the 1979 prison escape of Assata Shakur, who is now in exile in Cuba (the question of Dr. Shakur being charged with participation when in fact they alleged he masterminded her escape creates the true fact of COINTELPRO).

After five years underground, Dr. Shakur was arrested on February 12, 1986.

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Excerpt from Dare to Struggle
Essay, by Dr. Mutulu Shakur

We Want Freedom Any-Way For Mumia
by Mutulu Shakur

So you say, at last this period has passed, they lost
We must kill him, He must pay
The words he spoke taught too much
Shed the light, Exposed the truth
WE WANT HIS FREEDOM ANY-WAY

Of course the power remains the same
Contradictions, Are we to ignore?
Victory? There are many objectives
Fighting within the void of unpredictably
WE WANT HIS FREEDOM ANY-WAY

Shame! of what?
Truth will raise the light he illuminated
Move ! Oh yea, that's the way
Reality! Fearless, Tears are no answer
Just fuel
WE WANT HIS FREEDOM ANY-WAY

We wouldn' t then, And we won' t now
Condone the killings of our future
Fearlessly we march, sign and draw
To DAMN with the consequences
WE WANT HIS FREEDOM ANY-WAY

We want our freedom any-way
Here comes the light - yes, And the wind too
Oh, It's not the light but the breath of it's glow
Oh yea, The wind must blow
WE WANT HIS FREEDOM ANY-WAY

I'll take my chances to join the fight
We must! We have no choice
For victory is in the fight
The results are the reward
In the star chambers of death
You mix the Confused, Bad and Deviant
With the Just and Righteous
Oh, Know we're not confused
What must be said is that there is a difference
We are the victims
We know it's never changed
Release the DREAD - Repent the abuse of power
WE WANT HIS FREEDOM ANY-WAY

The gas, The chair, The needle
You won't cleanse your hypocrisy that way
The battlefield of HUMANITY challenges your genocide
We beg not
Our spirit calls out to a higher Authority
We are not ashamed
It's been our companion against all odds.
The passion and justice of our conviction cleanses our concern
WE WANT HIS FREEDOM ANY-WAY

We've come too far to submit
Patty Rollers - Whippings - Hangings too
DAMN THOSE SHIPS
Hold fast my BROTHER, We can see your light
Of course the light will be lit again
WE WANT YOUR FREEDOM ANY-WAY
YOUR FREEDOM IS OUR FREEDOM ANY-WAY