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: Joseph Drexler-Dreis’s “Decolonial Love”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Joseph Drexler-Dreis’s “Decolonial Love”
    11 Sep 2019
    Colonial relations of power and ways of classifying human persons that were essential to political colonialism have persisted.
  • Spikes of Violence: Protest in West Papua
    Dr. Binoy Kampmark
    Spikes of Violence: Protest in West Papua
    11 Sep 2019
    Papua and West Papua are subjected to violence and habitual repression from the Indonesian central authorities.
  • A Ferguson Organizer Reflects on the Aftermath 
    Tory Russell
    A Ferguson Organizer Reflects on the Aftermath 
    11 Sep 2019
    We figured out pretty fast that hashtags don’t move white supremacists, and petitions don’t change policy for Black lives.
  • White Supremacy Tried to Kill Jazz. An Interview with Gerald Horne
    Anton Woronczuk 
    White Supremacy Tried to Kill Jazz. An Interview with Gerald Horne
    11 Sep 2019
    Viewing musicians as exploited workers and as beleaguered contractors helps contribute to a better understanding of their art form and art more generally.
  • Save the Planet and Stop the US War Machine! Sept 20-23
    Popular Resistance
    Save the Planet and Stop the US War Machine! Sept 20-23
    11 Sep 2019
    It’s time for the US government to obey the United Nations Charter by stopping regime change operations, ending sanctions and ceasing military attacks.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us