A donation for Hurricane Katrina victims from a political prisoner.

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Author: Boyd, Herb1

Usually when I receive a letter from my brothers and sisters behind bars they want me to look into their plight and help them in their quest for freedom. So it came as a great surprise when I got a recent letter with a check enclosed. The check was not for me but a donation to one of the Hurricane Katrina relief funds. Here was a man in prison with hardly any means of income scraping together a substantial donation to the needy in the Gulf Coast.

This thoughtfulness prompted a further inquiry and I learned later a lot more about the man behind this humanitarian gesture. I hope he doesn't mind my revealing who he is, but I think his generosity deserves something more than a private, personal response from me. His name is Bashir Hameed and he has been a political prisoner for 24 years.

Hameed is currently incarcerated at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburgh, N.Y., where he is the chairman of the Al-Jundi, Bukhari, Green, Meyers, White chapter of N'COBRA (National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America). As Hameed notes, this may be the only active chapter of the organization in a prison.

"I would first of all like to thank you for taking the time to take care of that matter for me," Hameed said in his letter to me about forwarding the check to the proper organization. "I was in sort of a dilemma since I didn't want to send it to the Red Cross, given its history of mismanagement, and the foundation article in the [Amsterdam News] didn't provide an address. I took it as a small matter not that I have a lot of funds, but it is my position that our struggle and moving forward is all about sacrifice."

Along with his thank you letter, Hameed enclosed the mission statement of N'COBRA, a chapter he wrote about his life published in a book called "Can't Jail the Spirit," and a long letter to the Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam about the then-forthcoming Millions More Movement.

According to his brief bio in "Can't Jail the Spirit," which is a collection of biographies authored by political prisoners, Hameed was born in Elizabeth, N.J., in 1940. "My father was a butcher, and though he wasn't an educated man, having dropped out of school during his elementary school years, he stressed getting an education and developing a skill/trade to all of his children," Hameed wrote.

To this end, Hameed attended Delaware State College in Dover on an athletic scholarship. But his tenure there was brief and after an even shorter stint at Seton Hall University he joined the U.S. Army.

"After numerous run-ins due to the racism there I parted with them in the summer of '61 with a general discharge, to both my relief and the Army's," Hameed continued.

After the military, he returned to Delaware State for another year and subsequently became acquainted with the ideas and philosophy of Malcolm X, which for him was a more meaningful alternative to the nonviolent tactics advanced by the civil rights movement. By 1968, Hameed was on the West Coast and closely observing the development of the Black Panther Party.

"After attending classes and participating in the party's new free breakfast program at St. Augustine Church, I fell in love with the party, its philosophy and people," he said.

A year later he was back in New Jersey with the intention of restructuring the Panther chapter that was under brutal attack by law enforcement agencies.

The leadership of the Jersey City branch had been jailed for allegedly machine-gunning a local police precinct," Hameed wrote. "The Newark branch office had been bombed and both branches were in a shambles."

Because of his prominent role in rebuilding the party, Hameed and his family were targeted for harassment and intimidation. He was arrested on several occasions on trumped-up charges and eventually was sentenced to serve four years at Trenton State Prison. At Trenton, he met Sundiata Acoli, John "Andaliwa" Clark, Kwesi Balagoon and other political prisoners and together they formed a study group. Though Hameed was released in 1975 he was a prime suspect a year later after an attempted prison break that left Clark dead, along with a prison captain.

Having left the area to escape harassment, Hameed was still under surveillance, and when a shootout occurred in the spring of '81 and one cop was killed and another wounded, he was arrested four months later. After two trials ended with hung juries, Hameed was convicted following allegations that he confessed to the crimes. He was sentenced to 30 plus years to life with the recommendation that he never be paroled.

Such a stiff sentence has not curbed Hameed's struggle for the liberation of his people, as his donation and his work with N'COBRA so vividly attest. Exemplary, too, is the political insight he conveyed to Minister Farrakhan during the days before the tenth anniversary of the Million Man March. Among his suggestions to Minister Farrakhan was that the voice of political prisoners be heard at the event.

"In recent years several political prisoners have passed, Albert 'Nuh' Washington and Teddy 'Jah' Heath to name two," he said toward the end of his long letter. "Hugo 'Dahariki' Pinell and Ruchell 'Cinque' Magee have been in prison 45 and 42 years respectively; and Marshall Eddie Conway and Sundiata Acoli have 35 and 32 years in. Many of us like Russell 'Maroon' Shoats, Robert 'Seth' Hayes, myself and others have serious health problems that are not being adequately addressed. We and our families have paid a heavy price.

"My point is: what do we have to do to get our voices and concerns heard by representatives of our choosing at this gathering?" he asked.

To some degree, Hameed's request was answered at the event: "Sisters and brothers, my name is Efia Nwangaza. I, along with Herman Ferguson, former political prisoner and exile, chair the Jericho Movement for recognition and freedom of all U.S. political prisoners. The Jericho Movement is the official prisoner-organized voice and representative of all U.S. political prisoners, prisoners of war and exiles. Our website is www.thejerichomovement.com.

"We bring thanks to the people of Cuba for their support of our struggles and of our political prisoners. The Jericho Movement brings greetings from United States political prisoners who have been held longer than Nelson Mandela for the same reason that Nelson Mandela was held.

"U.S. political prisoners are survivors of COINTELPRO, the U.S. government's attack on all Black, Latino and Native movements. U.S. political prisoners are the people's troops. Bring them home now!"

PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): BASHIR HAMEED

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By Herb Boyd, Special to the AmNews