Safiya Bukhari – Black Panther Party, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition
After witnessing a Panther being assaulted by a cop, Bukhari joined the Harlem branch of the BPP, rising quickly through its ranks. She had become the head of Information and Communications for the East Coast Panthers when tensions broke out between Huey P. Newton and Eldridge Cleaver. The factional split in the Party ultimately led to the murder of Robert Webb, the father of her child.
Bukhari’s conversion to Islam in 1971 coincided with her deeper involvement with the Black Liberation Army’s clandestine activities. In 1974, she chose to join the Black underground rather than testify against her comrades. However, police eventually captured Bukhari following a shootout in 1975, where they killed one of her comrades and severely injured another. Her involvement with the BLA resulted in a 40-year sentence in the Virginia Correctional Center for Women. During her time as a political prisoner of war, Bukhari organized Mothers Inside Loving Kids (MILK), which assisted incarcerated women with childcare. She also filed several lawsuits against the state of Virginia, accusing it of cruel and unusual punishment, which won her release in 1983.
After her time in prison, Bukhari co-founded and participated in several political prisoner organizations, including the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, the Jericho Movement, and Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. She was also elected as Vice President of the Provisional Government of New Afrika. In addition to organizing, Bukhari wrote essays about her experiences and that of other Black women in the Black liberation movement. AK Press posthumously published many of her writings as The War Before: The True Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison, and Fighting for Those Left Behind (2010). On August 24, 2003, Safiya Bukhari died from heart failure after a lifetime of revolutionary activity with the BPP and BLA.
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