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


  • The US Has Long Led the Assault on Human Rights
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    The US Has Long Led the Assault on Human Rights
    02 Sep 2020
    The historical record on U.S. human rights policies, both domestic and international, is one of hypocrisy, deceit, and denigration.
  • The NBA’s Black Power
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    The NBA’s Black Power
    02 Sep 2020
    Black NBA players, writes Ann Garrison, are just beginning to understand the power of the attention and admiration they command.
  • Deja vu—Step 1 and Step 2? 
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Deja vu—Step 1 and Step 2? 
    02 Sep 2020
    Is this Deja Vu— Step1 and Step 2? The long, long lines breaking with 12 years of Reaganite reaction in  ’92  Slick Willy’s $campaign—his sax-
  • “The Balls in (Y)our Court:” Naomi Osaka and (Continued) Black Genocide 
    P. Khalil Saucier
    “The Balls in (Y)our Court:” Naomi Osaka and (Continued) Black Genocide 
    02 Sep 2020
    Osaka’s statement must be seen as part of a radical tradition too often redacted from sports history.
  • The Invention of Ibram X Kendi and the Ideological Crises of Our Time
    Anthony Monteiro
    The Invention of Ibram X Kendi and the Ideological Crises of Our Time
    02 Sep 2020
    Rich white capitalists may be donating millions to Black Lives Matter, but they’re also funding and praising nonsense like Kendi’s babblings on race and capitalism.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us