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


  • Corruption, Pollution and Economic Crisis: The Cautionary Tale of T&T's Oil Industry
    Alexander Ramdass, Lisa Premchand, Gary Aboud
    Corruption, Pollution and Economic Crisis: The Cautionary Tale of T&T's Oil Industry
    25 Aug 2021
    Oil Reserves Don't Benefit the People of Trinidad and Tobago
  • The U.S. Empire’s Achilles Heel: Its Barbaric Racism
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    The U.S. Empire’s Achilles Heel: Its Barbaric Racism
    18 Aug 2021
    More than nine years ago the late BAR publisher Glen Ford captured the essential character of the U.S.
  • Operation Tradewinds:  Collective Militarized White Supremacy and Black Neocolonialism in the Caribbean
    Gerald A. Perreira
    Operation Tradewinds: Collective Militarized White Supremacy and Black Neocolonialism in the Caribbean
    18 Aug 2021
    The People of the Caribbean and Latin America Must Say No to U.S. militarism and Subversion.
  • Afghanistan
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Afghanistan
    18 Aug 2021
    Afghanistan has been at the mercy of U.S. interventions for more than 40 years.
  • Descendants Sue Montgomery County to Stop the Human Trafficking of Black Bodies: Laundering of Black Flesh for The For-Profit Market
    Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, BAR editor and columnist
    Descendants Sue Montgomery County to Stop the Human Trafficking of Black Bodies: Laundering of Black Flesh for The For-Profit Market
    18 Aug 2021
    Officials in Montgomery County, Maryland have taken gentrification to a grisly conclusion as they work with a private investor to sell the Moses Macedonia African Cemetery, an early 20th centur
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us