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Kent
State University Students ask Mumia Abu-Jamal to speak at the
historic 30th Commemoration of the May 4th, 1970 shootings of
four Kent State students by the Ohio National Guard
Pennsylvania
Death Row Inmate, Mumia Abu-Jamal, asked to speak at another Ohio
University
Kent
State University
Kent
State University students,
like Antioch students have invited America's most controversial
death row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, to deliver a taped speech.
At
this years May 4th Commemoration, an event looking back at the
shooting of four Kent State students in 1970 by the Ohio National
Guard, will include a speech by the political journalist and one
time Black Panther.
Jamal
was sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder of a Philadelphia
police officer. Since that time, however, thousands have come
to regard the original trial has unjust and biased against Jamal.
Groups
calling for a new trial include Amnesty International, the Congressional
Black Caucus, Martin Luther King, IIII, and many more.
Recently,
the students of Antioch College nominated Jamal to deliver a speech
at their graduation ceremony on April 29th. While thousands applaud
the student's decision, the entire College has come under attack
by groups such as the Fraternal Order of Police,The
National Association for the Advancement of White People, and
the District Attorney's office of Philadelphia. The
DA's office has even go so far as to question the intelligence
and "impressionability" of the Antioch students.
Kent
Student Anti-Racist Action and the May 4th Task Force asked Mumia
Abu-Jamal to speak at the historic 30th Commemoration of the May
4th, 1970 shootings of four Kent State students by the Ohio National
Guard for precisely the same reason those with tremendous political
power are outraged that he will be speaking at Antioch College.
Justin
Hons of Anti-Racist Action explained the reasoning behind this.
"Mumia's commentary and analysis has shed new light on the nature
of the world we live in to a generation many write off as apathetic.
Mumia's searing critiques of police brutality, racism, and poverty
have inspired a whole new generation to stand up and fight back.
The
forces hell-bent on his execution want to do the same thing as
the forces who killed the four Kent State students in 1970-silence
strong voices of political dissent." Jamal will be joining the
speaker's podium with the likes of Noam Chomsky, Ramona Africa,
Vernon Bellecourt, and many more.
Thousands
are expected to attend this historic 30th Commemoration. He will
be speaking on the connection between his own impending political
execution and the political shooting of the four Kent State students
in 1970 at an anti-Vietnam War protest by the Ohio National Guard.
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