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


  • Corporate Democrats Want to Run Against Trump-like Republicans Forever
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    Corporate Democrats Want to Run Against Trump-like Republicans Forever
    05 Nov 2020
    Whoever wins the Electoral College, race-based politics will continue to allow the corporate rulers to ignore public demands for relief from the Race to the Bottom and endless war.
  • Freedom Rider: Black People Lose in 2020
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Black People Lose in 2020
    05 Nov 2020
    Black people will get nothing from a Joe Biden administration except fiscal austerity and the precarity that comes with it.
  • Confronting Bipartisan Repression and the US-led Axis of Domination Beyond Election Day
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Confronting Bipartisan Repression and the US-led Axis of Domination Beyond Election Day
    04 Nov 2020
    No matter who sits in the white peoples’ house, we will have to continue to fight for social justice, democracy, and People(s)-Centered Human Rights.  
  • American Exceptionalism Won’t Save the U.S. Empire from Itself, or Stop China’s Rise
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    American Exceptionalism Won’t Save the U.S. Empire from Itself, or Stop China’s Rise
    04 Nov 2020
    China’s rise reflects a bourgeoning global movement away from U.S. imperialism and toward self-determination.
  • That is not the Question
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    That is not the Question
    04 Nov 2020
    The question is not if teargas breath thugs weaponizing COVID; co-signing starvation; stage whispering, “Lock her up!” ripping children from mothers’ arms—splintering 
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us