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


  • This is what hypocrisy looks like…
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    This is what hypocrisy looks like…
    13 Jan 2021
    “It's like writing history with lightning.“ â€” Woodrow Wilson on Birth of A Nation
  • W.E.B. Du Bois and the Paths to Communism: A Review
    Anthony Monteiro, BAR editor and columnist
    W.E.B. Du Bois and the Paths to Communism: A Review
    13 Jan 2021
    Du Bois, the father of Pan Africanism and the towering theorist of race, was – just as importantly -- one of the great theorists of communism.
  • The Capitol Catastrophe and Trump’s Hijacked White Nationalism
    Mark P. Fancher
    The Capitol Catastrophe and Trump’s Hijacked White Nationalism
    13 Jan 2021
    Trump threw a monkey wrench into the capitalist system’s population management machine.
  • Letters from Our Readers
    Jason Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers
    13 Jan 2021
    “The Squad Won’t Fight Pelosi and Corporate Power” by Glen Ford 
  • BAR Book Forum: Zakiya Luna’s “Reproductive Rights as Human Rights”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Zakiya Luna’s “Reproductive Rights as Human Rights”
    13 Jan 2021
    This book is a story about a group of (mostly) women who wanted to make change and understood that liberation is an inside job.  
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us