Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Ruchell Magee Must Be Set Free!
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
26 Jul 2023
🖨️ Print Article

Ruchell Magee Must Be Set Free! 

Elder, brother, comrade…Been gone 

too long…

Wanted in the Black Community—

Watts writ large!

 

If 1619 started it—ebony/ivory—

teenage attraction 

Jim Crow’s watch—upped the ante!

Deep South apartheid stench/Emmett

Till terror/Pitched battles on blood rivers…

What could the boy be but Black rapist?

 

Bullwhip warped minds of white men— 

What could this be but ‘Master’s’

midnight visits to slave quarters—Prying

apart Black thighs—overruling cries, pleas,  

Love?

What could the boy be but Black rapist?

 

Crackers coveted Choctaw land—

Black soil mattered…

More than visiting terror—or

Another muddy, mutilated body in Mississippi

or another Dixie river. Crackers coveting

Choctaw land put the boy in his plantation place… 

 

Crackers coveting Choctaw land gifted 8 Angola yrs,

Under horseback-ridin, shot-gun-totin, tobacco-spittin

gaze; Under King Cotton’s rule; Gifted target embroidered

Jacket— Gifted exile to: City of Angels/ruled by devils…

 

Elder, brother, comrade…Been gone 

too long…

Wanted in the Black Community—

Watts writ large!

 

His numbers are no longer:

“6-3-4-5-7-8-9”

no longer:

“Beechwood 4-5-7-8-9” 

far too long his numbers been:

#A92051 #T115— 83—Caged since ’63—

60 yrs of vengeance-driven torture!

 

Elder, brother, comrade…Been gone 

too long…

Wanted in the Black Community—

Watts writ large!

 

Visualize him home—sun splashing light comic 

book bright colors of L.A. murals!

Visualize him home, pulling three-deep lines snaked 

‘round crooked corners…holding youth centers, senior

centers, libraries, bookstores captive.

Visualize him home—space, light, air, freedom to stretch 

out in sensory overload!

 

Elder, brother, comrade…Been gone 

too long…

Wanted in the Black Community—

Watts writ large!

 

No mo’ Golden State gulag/COVID 

concentration camp—

No mo’ Octogenarian barrister behind bars

law book-lifting—iron-pumping mind:

 

No mo’ memoranda, motion, writ and plea

No mo’ heroic, litigious—War of the Flea—

No mo’ symbol of strength/wisdom of tree—

People, Ruchell Magee must be set Free!

Governor, Ruchell Magee must be set Free!

People, Ruchell Magee must be set Free!

 

Š 2023. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.



 

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • BAR Book Forum: Interview with Ampson Hagan
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Interview with Ampson Hagan
    19 Jul 2023
    This week’s featured scholar is Ampson Hagan. Hagan is Dean's Research Associate Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at Michigan State University. His article is “Coloniality of…
  • Playing ‘SCOTUS Says’ to death?
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Playing ‘SCOTUS Says’ to death?
    19 Jul 2023
    Playing ‘SCOTUS Says’ to death?  
  • RFK, Jr.: It’s Not Genetics, It’s Racial Capitalism
    Jacqueline Luqman
    RFK, Jr.: It’s Not Genetics, It’s Racial Capitalism
    19 Jul 2023
    Black people were disproportionately impacted by the covid pandemic. The causes of the crisis were systemic, not genetic.
  • The Soviet Union’s Support for Black Liberation Earns Russia Grace With Africans Everywhere
    Jon Jeter
    The Soviet Union’s Support for Black Liberation Earns Russia Grace With Africans Everywhere
    19 Jul 2023
    The Soviet Union's support of liberation movements and the activism of the Communist Party in the U.S. is not forgotten by the African diaspora. Today the Russian Federation is a beneficiary of good…
  • Nahel's France: Neo-Colonized and Pan-African Voices Speak Up
    Julia Wright
    Nahel's France: Neo-Colonized and Pan-African Voices Speak Up
    19 Jul 2023
    The police killing of Nahel M. in France cannot be properly analyzed outside of the context of French colonialism and neo-colonialism.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us