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!

 

© 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


  • What the Chilean People’s Enemies in the US are Planning
    G1 of Rebel Diaz 
    What the Chilean People’s Enemies in the US are Planning
    13 Nov 2019
    Elites in Chile take their cues from places like the University of Chicago, where the author witnessed technocrats plotting to save the ruling order from popular uprising.
  • Policing Lumumba’s Jackson: Surveillance and Credible Messengers in the Most Radical City
    Adofo Minka
    Policing Lumumba’s Jackson: Surveillance and Credible Messengers in the Most Radical City
    13 Nov 2019
    Mayor Lumumba’s unabashed support of police demonstrates that his administration lacks the political courage and will to chart a new course.
  • Letters from Our Readers 
    Jason Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers 
    13 Nov 2019
    This week Black voters and the Democrats, the passing of John Conyers, and the alleged demise of Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi were on your minds.  We share your letters for “
  • BAR Book Forum: Walter Mignolo and Catherine Walsh’s “On Decoloniality”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Walter Mignolo and Catherine Walsh’s “On Decoloniality”
    13 Nov 2019
    The dominant conceptions and ideals of Western civilization aim to violate, destroy, and eliminate all that obstructs and impedes its path.
  • BAR Book Forum: “Books I Teach”
    Boké Saisi
    BAR Book Forum: “Books I Teach”
    13 Nov 2019
    Black class relations explicated, Moynihan debunked, slave life explored, prison abolition made conceivable – all this is teachable.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us