Bro. Robert writes: "My name is Robert H. King, a.k.a. Robert King Wilkerson. I am the only freed member of the Angola 3. Along with my comrades Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace we were targeted for our activism as members of the Black Panther Party.
After 31 years in Angola prison in Louisiana, 29 spent years in solitary confinement, I was released in February 2001. Since that time I have been described as an author, a candy maker, a former political prisoner and an activist. However, I just see myself as a person trying to make a difference. My life’s focus is to campaign against abuses in the criminal justice system and for the freedom of Herman and Albert, who are now serving their 40th year in solitary confinement. I may be free from Angola, but Angola will never be free of me…". 40 years ago, deep in rural Louisiana, three young black men were silenced for trying to expose continued segregation, systematic corruption, and horrific abuse in the biggest prison in the US, an 18,000 acre former slave plantation called Angola.
These men are known as the Angola 3, Robert Hillary King (born Robert King Wilkerson), Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace. While inside prison, contact with members of the Black Panthers led to the creation of a prison chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1971. The men then organized prisoners to build a movement within the walls to desegregate the prison, to end systematic rape and violence, for better living conditions, and worked as jailhouse lawyers helping prisoners file legal papers. They organized multiple strikes and sit-ins and called for investigations into a host of inhumane practices commonplace in what was then the “bloodiest prison in the South.” Eager to put an end to outside scrutiny, prison officials began punishing inmates they saw as troublemakers. At the height of this unprecedented institutional chaos, Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox, and Robert King were charged with murders they did not commit and thrown into 6x9 foot solitary cells.
Herman and Albert remain in solitary, continuing to fight for their freedom, over 40 years later. Both men, whose sentences for their original crimes have long since passed, suffer from a range of different medical issues. Amnesty International is calling on the Louisiana authorities to end the cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Woodfox and Wallace, and to remove them immediately from solitary confinement.
Please go to http://www.kingsfreelines.com/ and http://angola3news.blogspot.com/ to take action and receive ongoing updates on supporting the release of these political prisoners.
