History
Political Chronology of the Black August Organizing Committee:
Movement Document.
December 1981
Cont'dJuly 18 Black August organizes a community fair in San Antonio Park in East Oakland to familiarize the community with Black August activities and goals.
August
Black August initiates a month of activities to commemorate the prison movement martyrs who died in August and in solidarity with those still struggling behind the walls.August 11 200 people attend a program in support of Black August held at the La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley.
August 22 150 people join Black August at the gates of San Quentin in a demonstration demanding an end to guard brutality and racist attacks on Afrikan and other prisoners of color...; an end to all new prison construction; unite to free all prisoners of war.
September 21 Black August joins the boycott of Berkeley’s Pay ‘n’ Save security guard for allegedly shoplifting a bottle of aspirin. For more than a week, Black August members maintain a 12-hour picket line, a crucial part of the very successful boycott.
October 1 Pay ‘n Save executives, attending a community meeting, agree to all the demands of the boycott. The meeting singles out Black August members’ participation as instrumental in the victory.
And the Repression That Followed ...
October 16 5:30am, SSU and the Berkeley and Oakland police departments batter down the doors of four Black August homes, holding members of the households, including children at gunpoint while the houses are ransacked. Msemaji (Anderson Thurston), Jasiri (Harold Benson) and Hashima (Michael Murdock) are arrested and held on “suspicion of parole violations.”
October 20 Hashima is released from Santa Rita County Jail by his parole officer.
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