1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything (2021) s01e05 Episode Script
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Some might even die
before the revolution comes.
What does it mean
to be a criminal in this society?
Brother George Jackson,
one of the Soledad Brothers,
has been in prison for 10 years,
since he was 18 years old,
on a second-degree robbery charge.
That tells me that something is wrong.
That tells me that maybe
the real criminals in this society
are not all of the people who populate
the prisons across the state,
but those people
who have stolen the wealth of the world
from the people.
And lastly, free all political prisoners
or face the revolutionary wrath
of the people.
All power to the people.
All power to the people.
Right on.
All power to the people.
1970, '71, if you didn't know
who Angela Davis was,
you came from outer space
five minutes ago.
Come on, move on down, now.
Angela Davis was a national figure.
All reporters stand back.
She was very educated.
Excuse me, ma'am.
A professor at UCLA.
She would speak about George Jackson.
And she was in the movement.
Aretha Franklin respected Angela Davis.
A lot. So they got to know each other.
Protest is a powerful tool.
But, for Aretha, protest was something
that she did her way.
She did it with making folks aware
because she was a voice.
The FBI has put
Black militant Angela Davis
on its list of ten
most wanted fugitives.
She's charged with murder in California.
The dream's over.
- In 1971
- Music said something.
The world was changing.
We were creating the
21st century in 1971.
You know, it's funny sometimes, um,
we seem to be able
to do everything but get along.
Now,
ladies and gentlemen, the Bitter End
is proud to present Curtis Mayfield.
It has always been my way
to take in the overall feelings
of my surroundings
and put them into music, whether
it be political or social comment.
There is a way of bringing about
any point, you know,
that we as a mass of people,
especially problems, have.
For peace no one is willing
Kind of make you get that feeling
Everybody smoke
Use the pill and the dope
Educated fools
From uneducated schools
Pimping people is the rule
Polluted waters in the pool
And Nixon talking about, "Don't worry"
He say, "Don't worry"
He say, "Don't worry"
He say, "Don't worry"
But they don't know
There can be no show
And if there's hell below
We're all gonna go
Dad, he just called everybody out.
I was very young, but to me,
I found that interesting as a kid
because for my dad, I mean, he had been
in this safe space of formula and
throughout the '60s when he was
with the Impressions, you know.
And in 1971,
wanted to get out of that containment.
You know, the '70s
was a change of the tide
in terms of the civil rights movement,
morphing into the Black Power movement.
And so, at that time, you had Marvin,
you had Stevie, you had Curtis.
These guys were saying some stuff.
And the things that they were
talking about were real.
of their peer group
or people from their Black heritage
Poets, novelists, recording artists.
I think that we are obligated to try
to be the drum majors of change.
Black power. Freedom.
When the revolution comes
Some of us will probably catch it on TV
With chicken hanging from our mouths
You'll know it's revolution
Because there won't be no commercials
When the revolution comes
I was in prison in 1971.
And it was really like a bad joke
because the Last Poets album
had just come out in 1970,
and it picked up steam in 1971.
When the revolution comes
Transit cops will be crushed
By the trains after losing their guns
And blood will run through the streets
Of Harlem
Drowning anything without substance
When the revolution comes
When the revolution comes
We sold a million copies of an album
because we were dealing
with issues at hand.
There's a serious paranoia that exists
when it comes to white folks in power.
Because we'd been so deliberately
held powerless for so long.
And they're afraid we
may flip the script.
Speak not of revolution
Until you are willing to eat rats
To survive
When the revolution comes
- When the revolution comes
- When the revolution comes
Widespread racism
and bewilderment over a strange war
are the seeds of the revolution.
This is where
the San Francisco police sergeant
was murdered.
Police are under attack
by revolutionaries.
The revolution has come
By 1971,
I thought not only was a revolution
necessary, but it was inevitable,
and that we were living
in revolutionary times.
At one minute
before 1 o'clock this morning,
the switchboard at the Capitol
received a phone call.
A man's voice said a bomb would go off
in the building in half an hour.
At 1:30 in the morning, it did.
The bombing of the Capitol
was in response
to the killing of Black Panthers,
and the disruption of the Black Freedom
Movement and the war in Vietnam.
Panthers called us
mother-country revolutionaries.
We called ourselves revolutionaries.
Revolutions are typically lead
by the young.
The Weather Underground
bombed the Capitol.
They bombed the Capitol to bring joy
to all the kids who hate
the American government.
We didn't do it, but we dug it.
Credit for the Capitol bombing
was claimed by the Weather Underground.
The Weather Underground started with,
"You don't need a weatherman to know
which way the wind blows" by Bob Dylan.
We thought the music and the politics
was all swimming in the same sea.
It was all part of the same thrust.
The documents prove, for the first time,
that the FBI undertook a program
to harass and destroy Black extremists
and revolutionists.
"We must frustrate every effort
of these groups and individuals
to consolidate their forces."
The FBI distributed a
Black Panther coloring book
that depicted the police
as saber-toothed pigs.
These, and many other dirty tricks
carried out by the bureau,
were revealed by files
on its counter-intelligence program
code-named COINTELPRO.
COINTELPRO,
counterintelligence program.
We knew it was something,
but we didn't know what it was called.
FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, today
asserted that of
the Black extremist groups,
the Black Panthers represent the
greatest internal threat to the nation.
This memo apparently
went out to 37 agents.
It ordered them to find informers
in the Black ghettos.
It was a command, not a suggestion.
I felt vindicated when
the COINTELPRO papers were exposed.
I would always tell people,
"Be careful what you say on the phone.
Did you just hear that click?"
We didn't trust the government any more
than the government trusted us.
I wasn't a soldier. I was a musician.
So I used to think
about this constantly.
"How can I use my music
to help change things?"
And I was happy to be writing
with Gil Scott-Heron at that time
because we wanted to write about
what it meant
to be young Black men in America.
No-knock is where
the police don't need a reason
to bust down your door.
They just need to suspect.
You explained it to me, I must admit
But just for the record
You were talking shit
Y'all rap about no-knock
Being legislated
For the people you've always hated
In this hellhole that you, we
Call home
No-knock, the man will say
To keep that man from beating his wife
No-knock, the man will say
To protect people from themselves
No-knockin', head-rockin'
Enter-shockin', shootin', cussin'
Killin', cryin', lyin', and being white
No-knock
No-knocked on my brother Fred Hampton
Bullet holes all over the place
You can't organize people
until you've educated them.
You can't educate them until you
take an analysis of what's going on.
Who's gonna protect me from you?
The likes of you? The nerve of you?
By discussing ideas,
by going into the substance of ideas.
No-knock on my brother's head
No-knock on my sister's head
And double-lock your door
Because soon someone
May be no-knockin'
Ha ha! For you
Gil used to like to beat
people over the head with lyrics.
We were extremely dangerous.
Long live George Jackson.
Power to the people.
Long live George Jackson.
Power to the people.
George Jackson.
He was in prison because
as a teenager he stole $70.
Well, I was incarcerated
under a one-to-life.
Where I could've done one year
and been released, I've done ten.
He got radicalized and started
a Black Panther chapter at San Quentin
and published a book
which became a best seller.
Of course, here in prison
we see the repression, the exploitation,
the the victimization
of, uh, lower-class peoples.
People who have read his book
have seen articulated in this book
the frustrations and the desires
that that Black people have had
for hundreds of years in this country.
Again the clenched-fist salute,
as the self-proclaimed communist
and former philosophy professor
entered the courtroom
for her arraignment.
Angela Davis is accused,
not of carrying out the crime,
but of supplying guns
to those who allegedly did so.
Miss Davis has said that not only
are the charges untrue,
but that the whole case against her
is a frame-up.
To put the available pieces to this
story together, one must go back in time.
Angela Davis was on trial
because Jonathan Jackson,
who was George Jackson's
younger brother, took a judge hostage
to try and get them
to release his brother George.
Judge Haley was killed in the truck,
as were two of the convicts and the man
believed to be their accomplice.
The FBI has put
Black militant, Angela Davis,
on its list of ten
most wanted fugitives.
She's charged with murder in California,
where authorities say she bought weapons
for that San Rafael courtroom shoot-out.
Angela Davis was in prison because
the gun that was used was her gun.
But guns were legal in California.
And doesn't mean that she had
any knowledge or was part of it.
Black revolutionary Angela Davis
appeared without her
distinctive Afro hairdo
as she was arraigned in New York City
today as a fugitive from justice.
Richard Nixon
was the president of the FBI.
The actions of the FBI
in apprehending Angela Davis
The whole apparatus of the state
was set up against me.
And they really meant to send me
to the death chamber
in order to make a point
that they would suppress any efforts
at revolution and liberation.
You see, Americans, of course,
are very, very instantaneous.
They want everything instantly.
So, consequently, when first st
people first started to hear
the word "revolution" over here,
they wanted to see it instantly.
And when they didn't see it instantly,
said, "Well, must not gonna be one."
But information, you see,
and information that leads to change,
takes place first in the mind,
because before
you can change what people do,
you have to change their minds.
And you have to give them information,
generally,
because they will not change their minds
without information.
Over here,
we have become victims of information.
We have become victims of people
like Walter Concrete
with with the news.
Howard?
Hand me a bottle of Future, please.
Oh. This is the new, improved Future,
Mrs. Jenkins.
- It's got a new
- Howard, I'm sold on Future.
"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"
was a way of comparing many of the
plastic things that we were getting into
that were of no use to us if we were
really about the business of change.
You will not be able
To stay home, brother
You will not be able to plug in
Turn on and cop out
You will not be able
To lose yourself on skag
And skip out for beer
During commercials
Because the revolution
Will not be televised
I push the button on the Xerox 914.
The revolution will not be televised
The revolution will not be
Brought to you by Xerox
In four parts
Without commercial interruptions
The revolution will not show you
Pictures of Nixon blowing a bugle
And leading a charge by John Mitchell
General Abrams, and Spiro Agnew
To eat hog maws confiscated
From a Harlem sanctuary
"The Revolution
Will Not Be Televised."
It was inspired by The Last Poets'
"When The Revolution Comes."
It's a series of tongue-in-cheek
comments about commercials.
Cheerios help you grow, grow, grow. Go!
The revolution will not
Give your mouth sex appeal
The revolution will not get rid
Of the nubs
The revolution will not make you look
Five pounds thinner
Because the revolution
Will not be televised, brother
There will be no pictures of you and
Willie Mays pushing that shopping cart
"The Revolution
Will Not Be Televised."
We used to all sing that.
You know how kids nowadays
you go down the street
and they're doing rap.
People were doing Gil Scott-Heron.
There will be no pictures of pigs
Shooting down brothers
On the instant replay
There will be no pictures of pigs
Shooting down brothers
On the instant replay
We weren't really telling
anybody anything that they didn't know.
But maybe what we could do is say,
"Hey, do you see this?
Well, we see it too,
so you're not alone."
You will not have to worry about
A dove in your bedroom
The tiger in your tank
Or the giant in your toilet bowl
The revolution will not go better
With Coke
The revolution will not fight germs
That may cause bad breath
The revolution will put you
In the driver's seat
The revolution will not be televised
Will not be televised
Will not be televised
Gil, he and I
were joined together poetically
because we wanted to have
a movement of folks
who were talking the
same basic language.
See, our people don't do
a great deal of reading.
You know, we watch a lot of television.
You know, but we don't read many books.
You know, and I'm about that.
And trying to get as
much help as I can
- Do you have hope for what's happening?
- Oh, you're damn right.
You know, we have survived everything
that's gone down and come out stronger.
Defense attorneys
are expected to depict Miss Davis
as a political prisoner, the victim
of a governmental vendetta.
J. Edgar Hoover,
in collusion with Nixon,
decided to make an example of me.
There will continue to be frame-ups.
I will not be free
until all Black people are free.
Rock steady, baby
That's what I feel now
Let's call this song
Exactly what it is
What it is, what it is
- It's a funky and low down feelin'
- What it is
- In my hips from left to right
- What it is
- What it is is I might be doin'
- What it is
This funky dance all night, oh!
Wave your hands up in the air
Gotta a feelin' and ain't got a care
In America, supporters
of the Black liberation movements
are stepping up the pressure
in the campaign to free Angela Davis.
Messages of support
have come in from all over the world.
We had a nice long visit with Angela.
And she's in very high spirits.
She's feeling good.
Step and move your hips
With a feelin' from side to side
Sit yourself down in your car
And take a ride
While you're movin' rock steady
Rock steady
What made anything work
for Aretha is the melody, the rhythm.
The energy was about love.
You don't have to hate your fellow man.
Getting angry doesn't solve it.
- What it is
- This funky dance all night, oh!
Wave your hands up in the air
Got the feelin' and ain't got a care
Angela Davis was super important,
but she put love inside
all of that hurt.
Rock steady, whoo!
Rock steady
Aretha Franklin
offered bail for Angela Davis.
It was an important gesture for her.
When I learned about it,
it was one of the most moving moments
I experienced during that time.
Rock steady
Rock steady
Suspicion remains that Angela Davis
may be tried on guilt by association,
that she's Black and militant,
and a close friend of George Jackson's.
Was the incident
for which you are charged now,
was it a revolutionary act on your part?
Are you asking me to
confess to something?
No.
I think that, uh,
what George Jackson said
about, uh, uh, life in prison
is very appropriate here.
He says that prison, um,
either breaks a person
or makes the person stronger.
Saturday, August 21st.
George Jackson
was killed as he broke and ran
outside the adjustment center.
Authorities
at California's San Quentin Prison
have locked up
the entire prison population
following the deaths of six persons.
Associate Warden James Park
says a guard shot and killed
Soledad brother George Jackson
as he tried to escape.
Three guards and two other prisoners
were found dead with slashed throats.
Park says a visitor smuggled
a .38 caliber revolver to Jackson.
George Jackson,
the day he was killed in Attica,
it was announced on the news,
a lawyer came to see him the day before
and he smuggled the gun
back into the prison.
Apparently a gun was smuggled in.
It was in the possession
of George Jackson.
Unbelievable.
You have any kind of visitor
or outside person
Take your pants off.
you strip search.
So why didn't they
find the gun on search?
We can now tie in
that there was help from the outside
because the wig is definitely
an outside wig.
It's, uh, it has a label in the
in the sweatband.
And, uh, it is an honest-to-God
bona fide wig.
They said he was trying
to hide the gun under a wig.
It's a made-up story.
How you gonna walk with a gun
on top of your head
without it falling out?
San Quentin Prison,
with its high walls
and its triple-locked exit ways.
There's absolutely no explanation
that makes sense to me
that you had to kill him.
I mean,
he's a single person standing in a yard
and you have an army surrounding him.
They were afraid that the
people were beginning to listen.
That's the reason why they framed him
to be murdered the way he was.
To try to discredit everything
that he had said.
Well, I think Jackson's aims
have been clearly stated.
He was dedicated to violence.
His writings, uh, clearly state
that he's dedicated to violence.
I can be violent also,
and I imagine so can you.
You see,
that's the whole story of America.
They take their violence and turn
it back around on somebody else.
I don't have to talk about
American violence.
You can look all over the world
and see American soldiers everywhere
fighting in other people's countries
and killing them.
So if I were if I were
running the country in America,
I wouldn't open my mouth about violence.
As many people as they've murdered
in Vietnam in the past ten years,
and they're gonna talk about violence?
As many Black people that get killed
every day in this country
and nobody knows or cares,
and you wanna tell me about violence?
How they wiped out
a whole nation of Indians
and they're gonna say something to me
about violence? I don't wanna hear it.
In Attica, me and
a lot of other guys was thinking,
"If they do that to him, executed him,
and get away with it
same thing might happen to me."
When Attica got word of it,
they actually went to the mess hall
wearing black armbands,
and we knew we were in trouble
'cause they could organize that quick.
It was mandatory meals,
and they all went to the mess hall.
They all went through the lines,
and nobody took even a glass of water.
Nobody said nothing.
The lieutenant that was
in the mess hall that morning,
he said it was so quiet,
he could hear his watch ticking.
Well, I stepped into an avalanche
It covered up my soul
When I am not this hunchback
That you see
I sleep beneath the golden hill
You who wish to conquer pain
You must learn, learn to serve me well
The killing of George Jackson
I thought the assassination of
a leader of the Black prison movement
can't go unanswered.
You strike my side by accident
And so, we,
the Weather Underground,
undertook to again issue
a screaming response
to the state taking a life,
and we bombed the California Department
of Corrections in San Francisco.
The Underground
Weatherman Organization
claimed responsibility
for the San Francisco
and Sacramento bombings
saying they were, I quote,
"in outraged response to the assassination
of Soledad brother George Jackson."
The bombings came
just hours before Jackson's funeral
at this Episcopal church
in the poor Black section of Oakland.
Step back, please. Step back.
George says to us,
"Arise and walk.
Silver and gold have I none,
but in the name of Jesus of Nazareth,
I say rise up and walk."
In the name of my brother
Jonathan Jackson,
in the name of James McClain,
in the name of William Christmas,
in the name of Angela Davis,
and in the name of George Jackson,
I say rise up and walk.
I woke up this morning
There were tears in my bed
They killed a man I really loved
Shot him through the head
Lord, Lord
They cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord
They laid him in the ground
Look on us.
From the time we've left the Black wombs
of our beautiful mothers,
Black people have been crippled
and maimed and murdered
suffering from the Black condition.
Sent him off to prison
For a seventy dollar robbery
They closed the door behind him
And they threw away the key
Lord, Lord
They cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord
They laid him in the ground
George certainly died
in a significant way.
We say that, even after death,
George Jackson still is alive
because his ideas, his spirit
will be manifested in the physical.
And we'll raise our children
to fight for freedom
as George Jackson fought for freedom.
He wouldn't take shit from no one
He wouldn't bow down or kneel
Authorities, they hated him
Because he was just too real
Lord, Lord
They cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord
They laid him in the ground
I think Bob Dylan's "George Jackson,"
it was affirming, for sure,
but it also felt like
it felt like we were living it together.
The people we listened to, the people
we admired in the political world,
everybody was walking the same path.
That particular day
I made a commitment to myself,
from what I seen,
and what people had sacrificed,
I'd be a revolutionary
the rest of my life.
The trouble
started around 9:00 this morning.
In Attica, New York,
about 1,000 long-term convicts today
rioted
and they gained control
of the maximum security prison.
They also seized 33 guards as hostages
and injured others in the fighting.
State police have regained control
of most of the prison,
but the trouble isn't over yet.
Thursday, September 9.
We took the prison. It was on.
There was 1,250 inmates
and I think 38 of us.
Most of the guys were really beat.
I was beaten, some guys were stabbed,
some guys were cut,
and I was shaking in my pants.
I had done a year in Vietnam
and I'm thinking,
"I'm gonna end up dying
eight miles from where I grew up."
As far
as the prisoners are concerned,
do they have weapons and such
that they're holding hostages with?
Our information is that, uh,
none of the prisoners are armed.
We're looking out
in the direction of B block.
Most of the prisoners
have concealed their faces
by wearing scarves, towels,
and what have you.
Have the inmates made any demands?
I, uh, I don't know.
They say that they only wanna speak
with the governor or me.
Prisoners would only talk
to New York State Corrections
Commissioner, Russell Oswald,
who is now inside.
"We want a stop to slave labor here.
We are men!
We are not beasts, and we do not intend
to be driven or beaten as such.
The entire prison populace
has set forth to change forever
the ruthless brutalization and disregard
for the lives of the prisoners here
and throughout the United States.
What has happened here
is but the sound before the fury
of those who are oppressed."
Attica. They were
protesting about some common dignity
that should be afforded
to every human being.
Gil, he was great at building a scene,
just like a playwright.
He used to say,
"We sold survival kits on wax."
Here I am
After so many years
Hounded by hatred
And trapped by fear
I'm in a box
- Ain't nothing dead about us.
- We ain't gonna die.
- Not dead.
- We are not dying here.
Count on it!
Help me, I'm the prisoner
Won't you hear my plea?
I need somebody
Yeah, to listen to me
I beg you, brothers and sisters
I'm counting on you, yeah
Every time you see folks taking their
their lives in their hands and
standing up for what they believe in,
and trying to do something progressive
for themselves and their people,
you're seeing a revolutionary act.
So Brian and I,
that's what we've been interested in.
Good morning, governor.
The governor of New York State
was Nelson Rockefeller,
and he figures prominently
in the Attica tragedy.
Both Nixon and Rockefeller feared
that this was a communist conspiracy.
And while the negotiations
were going on
Yeah, I'm still on.
the police were getting ready
to storm the prison.
Guards and troopers
standing by the entry
where the cells are located.
Pretty tense at this point.
We had the yard
from Thursday till Monday morning.
Right. Go down to the supply truck
and pick up the shotguns and rifles.
They had police,
national guards, sheriff deputies,
plus correctional officers
from other joints, outside.
This was gonna be George Jackson
on mass scale.
Reinforcements have moved in.
Before the assault,
the inmates placed several hostages
on the catwalks with inmates
holding knives to their throats
to deter troopers from coming in.
But it didn't work that way.
Authorities were willing
to sacrifice the hostages
in order to get its prison back.
When I heard the first helicopter
as soon as I smelled the gas,
I said my goodbyes to the maker.
State police, they couldn't see.
I don't know how they were firing.
Most of us were dressed
in inmate clothing
so I know they couldn't see who
they were shooting at.
They just shot.
Place your hands on top of your head.
They had the helicopter saying,
"Stand up,
put your hands on top of your head.
You won't be harmed."
I repeat, you will not be harmed.
Guys were getting up and getting killed.
They got that People are dying
in there. And the scene is
I'm I'm gonna cut this off.
Uh,
helicopters are still flying overhead.
It seems that people are dying
in there, and and I'm upset.
And it's it is unfortunate
what has happened here.
Whatever happens, uh,
after the situation here at Attica,
the penal system here
in the United States,
and the people who are kept
inside of them, will never be the same.
The guy that was holding me,
somebody shot him. It went by my head.
Never thought I was going
to live through it. Never.
I had terrible nightmares for years.
Years.
I'd wake up smelling gas.
Hear gunshots, I'd wake up.
We are men!
We are not beasts and we do not intend
to be beaten or driven as such.
Elliott Barkley was in Attica
on a relatively minor charge.
And he died with this police bullet
in him.
Twenty-nine inmates and ten hostages
were killed by police gunfire.
But the total number shot was 128.
As many Black people that get
killed every day in this country
and nobody knows or cares.
How they wiped out
a whole nation of Indians
and they're gonna say something to me
about violence.
It was the most lethal
state-sponsored violence
since the murders at Wounded Knee.
I wrote a poem, uh,
concerning the Attica prisoner killing.
It explains how the Black brothers felt
who died that day up in that prison.
Warden Rockefeller sent word,
"Shoot to kill if they don't give up
in five minutes."
And a Black man came out, and he said,
"Better far from all we see
To die fighting to be free
What more fitting end could be?"
"Let us die by being Black
Better far that we should go
Standing here against the foe
Is the sweeter death to know"
"Better calling death to come
Than to die another dumb
Muted Black man in the slum"
"Better than of this prison rot
If there's any choice we've got
Kill us today on the spot"
There was great animosity
among a great many of the troopers.
After the retaking,
troopers were saying,
"Got me a . Did you get one?"
"Oh, yeah, I got one."
Uh, Mr. President.
Are these primarily blacks
that you're dealing with?
Oh yes,
the whole thing was led by the blacks.
Are all the prisoners
that were killed blacks?
- Uh
- Or are there any whites?
I haven't got that report.
Many of the prisoners were from
New York and they were from Harlem.
And so they had this big benefit.
And Aretha Franklin was the headliner.
By doing the concert at the Apollo,
that was her way of speaking
to what's going on.
Attica affected Aretha because
she knew people that were in Attica,
and she knew the families of folks
that were there.
She understood. Aretha sang
"Bridge Over Troubled Water."
Don't trouble the water
Leave it alone, why don't you
Why don't you let it be?
It was a protest, but it was
also something that you can love.
The gospel feel.
It was like she preached.
Yes it do
Oh, yeah, yeah
When you're down and out
If you look up
See yourself on the street
- When evening falls
- When evening falls
- So hard
- So hard
I'll be there to comfort you
I'll take your part
I'll take it when darkness comes
Pain is all, is all around
Just like a bridge
Over troubled water
I'll be there, lay me down
- Like a bridge
- Just like a bridge
- Over troubled
- Over
Troubled water
I'm gonna be there
To lay
Come and lay me down
- Lay me down
- Come and lay me down
Oh, yeah
He suffered. He gave his life.
But I hope he gave his life
for something. For a reason.
- For what?
- For what?
So we Blacks can have a chance
in this country
that we call ours as well as yours.
We can have a chance.
We can walk the street.
We can live decently.
We can get good jobs.
He had a stigma.
Convict number 25985. A stigma.
And when If he would've
came out He was due out March of '72.
He would've came out,
he couldn't have got a job.
They wouldn't have gave them any.
Everybody gather round
And listen to my song
I've only got one
We who are young
Should now take a stand
Don't run from the burdens
Of women and men
Continue to give, continue to live
For what you know is right
Free Angela! Free Angela! Free Angela!
When we cry "Free Angela Davis,"
our cries are only coming
and our love is only coming
as an extension of ourselves.
And we just keep on keeping on
As a young, Black, creative person,
I'm a believer in
lending food for thought
through my lyrical contents.
Many think that we have blown it
But they too will soon admit
That there's still a lot of love
Among us
And there's still a lot of faith
Warmth and trust
When we keep on keeping on
Keep on keeping on, y'all.
To any people that may
feel somewhat oppressed,
when you hear these words,
they've got to hopefully
give you a bit of inspiration
as to where you wanna go.
I always said, "Let's follow
the yellow brick road," you know?
Some years back I remember
Still in my mind so well
My mama made this work ethic
And I found it never fails
- Never worry too long
- Worry too long
About what goes wrong
Today it's sorrow
We got joy tomorrow
A revolutionary
doesn't necessarily have to have a gun,
you know?
Curtis Mayfield, the music was great.
You have a good time, you dance and
party, but you will leave with a message.
You know?
You would leave with a message.
Well, I think throughout this country,
people are becoming increasingly aware
of the fact that whatever the government,
uh, does is not a priori the truth.
And it's not only the struggle around
political prisoners
that has begun to change the climate
in this country
so that an acquittal like this
could occur
but, uh, also the reaction to the war
in Vietnam
and the reaction to, uh,
Nixon's, uh, economic policies.
I think there's a lot
more resistance now.
This is the happiest day of my life.
Power to the people.
Jim had left the band.
We were stuck in the south of France.
And Sly,
he didn't even want to leave his house.
It was getting
progressively more messed up.
We got heavily into drugs.
He never had it under control.
A lot of nights they played like shit.
We're all completely loose cannons.
The military police came one night.
Ahmet Ertegun said to me,
"Get us an album." So that's it.
before the revolution comes.
What does it mean
to be a criminal in this society?
Brother George Jackson,
one of the Soledad Brothers,
has been in prison for 10 years,
since he was 18 years old,
on a second-degree robbery charge.
That tells me that something is wrong.
That tells me that maybe
the real criminals in this society
are not all of the people who populate
the prisons across the state,
but those people
who have stolen the wealth of the world
from the people.
And lastly, free all political prisoners
or face the revolutionary wrath
of the people.
All power to the people.
All power to the people.
Right on.
All power to the people.
1970, '71, if you didn't know
who Angela Davis was,
you came from outer space
five minutes ago.
Come on, move on down, now.
Angela Davis was a national figure.
All reporters stand back.
She was very educated.
Excuse me, ma'am.
A professor at UCLA.
She would speak about George Jackson.
And she was in the movement.
Aretha Franklin respected Angela Davis.
A lot. So they got to know each other.
Protest is a powerful tool.
But, for Aretha, protest was something
that she did her way.
She did it with making folks aware
because she was a voice.
The FBI has put
Black militant Angela Davis
on its list of ten
most wanted fugitives.
She's charged with murder in California.
The dream's over.
- In 1971
- Music said something.
The world was changing.
We were creating the
21st century in 1971.
You know, it's funny sometimes, um,
we seem to be able
to do everything but get along.
Now,
ladies and gentlemen, the Bitter End
is proud to present Curtis Mayfield.
It has always been my way
to take in the overall feelings
of my surroundings
and put them into music, whether
it be political or social comment.
There is a way of bringing about
any point, you know,
that we as a mass of people,
especially problems, have.
For peace no one is willing
Kind of make you get that feeling
Everybody smoke
Use the pill and the dope
Educated fools
From uneducated schools
Pimping people is the rule
Polluted waters in the pool
And Nixon talking about, "Don't worry"
He say, "Don't worry"
He say, "Don't worry"
He say, "Don't worry"
But they don't know
There can be no show
And if there's hell below
We're all gonna go
Dad, he just called everybody out.
I was very young, but to me,
I found that interesting as a kid
because for my dad, I mean, he had been
in this safe space of formula and
throughout the '60s when he was
with the Impressions, you know.
And in 1971,
wanted to get out of that containment.
You know, the '70s
was a change of the tide
in terms of the civil rights movement,
morphing into the Black Power movement.
And so, at that time, you had Marvin,
you had Stevie, you had Curtis.
These guys were saying some stuff.
And the things that they were
talking about were real.
of their peer group
or people from their Black heritage
Poets, novelists, recording artists.
I think that we are obligated to try
to be the drum majors of change.
Black power. Freedom.
When the revolution comes
Some of us will probably catch it on TV
With chicken hanging from our mouths
You'll know it's revolution
Because there won't be no commercials
When the revolution comes
I was in prison in 1971.
And it was really like a bad joke
because the Last Poets album
had just come out in 1970,
and it picked up steam in 1971.
When the revolution comes
Transit cops will be crushed
By the trains after losing their guns
And blood will run through the streets
Of Harlem
Drowning anything without substance
When the revolution comes
When the revolution comes
We sold a million copies of an album
because we were dealing
with issues at hand.
There's a serious paranoia that exists
when it comes to white folks in power.
Because we'd been so deliberately
held powerless for so long.
And they're afraid we
may flip the script.
Speak not of revolution
Until you are willing to eat rats
To survive
When the revolution comes
- When the revolution comes
- When the revolution comes
Widespread racism
and bewilderment over a strange war
are the seeds of the revolution.
This is where
the San Francisco police sergeant
was murdered.
Police are under attack
by revolutionaries.
The revolution has come
By 1971,
I thought not only was a revolution
necessary, but it was inevitable,
and that we were living
in revolutionary times.
At one minute
before 1 o'clock this morning,
the switchboard at the Capitol
received a phone call.
A man's voice said a bomb would go off
in the building in half an hour.
At 1:30 in the morning, it did.
The bombing of the Capitol
was in response
to the killing of Black Panthers,
and the disruption of the Black Freedom
Movement and the war in Vietnam.
Panthers called us
mother-country revolutionaries.
We called ourselves revolutionaries.
Revolutions are typically lead
by the young.
The Weather Underground
bombed the Capitol.
They bombed the Capitol to bring joy
to all the kids who hate
the American government.
We didn't do it, but we dug it.
Credit for the Capitol bombing
was claimed by the Weather Underground.
The Weather Underground started with,
"You don't need a weatherman to know
which way the wind blows" by Bob Dylan.
We thought the music and the politics
was all swimming in the same sea.
It was all part of the same thrust.
The documents prove, for the first time,
that the FBI undertook a program
to harass and destroy Black extremists
and revolutionists.
"We must frustrate every effort
of these groups and individuals
to consolidate their forces."
The FBI distributed a
Black Panther coloring book
that depicted the police
as saber-toothed pigs.
These, and many other dirty tricks
carried out by the bureau,
were revealed by files
on its counter-intelligence program
code-named COINTELPRO.
COINTELPRO,
counterintelligence program.
We knew it was something,
but we didn't know what it was called.
FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, today
asserted that of
the Black extremist groups,
the Black Panthers represent the
greatest internal threat to the nation.
This memo apparently
went out to 37 agents.
It ordered them to find informers
in the Black ghettos.
It was a command, not a suggestion.
I felt vindicated when
the COINTELPRO papers were exposed.
I would always tell people,
"Be careful what you say on the phone.
Did you just hear that click?"
We didn't trust the government any more
than the government trusted us.
I wasn't a soldier. I was a musician.
So I used to think
about this constantly.
"How can I use my music
to help change things?"
And I was happy to be writing
with Gil Scott-Heron at that time
because we wanted to write about
what it meant
to be young Black men in America.
No-knock is where
the police don't need a reason
to bust down your door.
They just need to suspect.
You explained it to me, I must admit
But just for the record
You were talking shit
Y'all rap about no-knock
Being legislated
For the people you've always hated
In this hellhole that you, we
Call home
No-knock, the man will say
To keep that man from beating his wife
No-knock, the man will say
To protect people from themselves
No-knockin', head-rockin'
Enter-shockin', shootin', cussin'
Killin', cryin', lyin', and being white
No-knock
No-knocked on my brother Fred Hampton
Bullet holes all over the place
You can't organize people
until you've educated them.
You can't educate them until you
take an analysis of what's going on.
Who's gonna protect me from you?
The likes of you? The nerve of you?
By discussing ideas,
by going into the substance of ideas.
No-knock on my brother's head
No-knock on my sister's head
And double-lock your door
Because soon someone
May be no-knockin'
Ha ha! For you
Gil used to like to beat
people over the head with lyrics.
We were extremely dangerous.
Long live George Jackson.
Power to the people.
Long live George Jackson.
Power to the people.
George Jackson.
He was in prison because
as a teenager he stole $70.
Well, I was incarcerated
under a one-to-life.
Where I could've done one year
and been released, I've done ten.
He got radicalized and started
a Black Panther chapter at San Quentin
and published a book
which became a best seller.
Of course, here in prison
we see the repression, the exploitation,
the the victimization
of, uh, lower-class peoples.
People who have read his book
have seen articulated in this book
the frustrations and the desires
that that Black people have had
for hundreds of years in this country.
Again the clenched-fist salute,
as the self-proclaimed communist
and former philosophy professor
entered the courtroom
for her arraignment.
Angela Davis is accused,
not of carrying out the crime,
but of supplying guns
to those who allegedly did so.
Miss Davis has said that not only
are the charges untrue,
but that the whole case against her
is a frame-up.
To put the available pieces to this
story together, one must go back in time.
Angela Davis was on trial
because Jonathan Jackson,
who was George Jackson's
younger brother, took a judge hostage
to try and get them
to release his brother George.
Judge Haley was killed in the truck,
as were two of the convicts and the man
believed to be their accomplice.
The FBI has put
Black militant, Angela Davis,
on its list of ten
most wanted fugitives.
She's charged with murder in California,
where authorities say she bought weapons
for that San Rafael courtroom shoot-out.
Angela Davis was in prison because
the gun that was used was her gun.
But guns were legal in California.
And doesn't mean that she had
any knowledge or was part of it.
Black revolutionary Angela Davis
appeared without her
distinctive Afro hairdo
as she was arraigned in New York City
today as a fugitive from justice.
Richard Nixon
was the president of the FBI.
The actions of the FBI
in apprehending Angela Davis
The whole apparatus of the state
was set up against me.
And they really meant to send me
to the death chamber
in order to make a point
that they would suppress any efforts
at revolution and liberation.
You see, Americans, of course,
are very, very instantaneous.
They want everything instantly.
So, consequently, when first st
people first started to hear
the word "revolution" over here,
they wanted to see it instantly.
And when they didn't see it instantly,
said, "Well, must not gonna be one."
But information, you see,
and information that leads to change,
takes place first in the mind,
because before
you can change what people do,
you have to change their minds.
And you have to give them information,
generally,
because they will not change their minds
without information.
Over here,
we have become victims of information.
We have become victims of people
like Walter Concrete
with with the news.
Howard?
Hand me a bottle of Future, please.
Oh. This is the new, improved Future,
Mrs. Jenkins.
- It's got a new
- Howard, I'm sold on Future.
"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"
was a way of comparing many of the
plastic things that we were getting into
that were of no use to us if we were
really about the business of change.
You will not be able
To stay home, brother
You will not be able to plug in
Turn on and cop out
You will not be able
To lose yourself on skag
And skip out for beer
During commercials
Because the revolution
Will not be televised
I push the button on the Xerox 914.
The revolution will not be televised
The revolution will not be
Brought to you by Xerox
In four parts
Without commercial interruptions
The revolution will not show you
Pictures of Nixon blowing a bugle
And leading a charge by John Mitchell
General Abrams, and Spiro Agnew
To eat hog maws confiscated
From a Harlem sanctuary
"The Revolution
Will Not Be Televised."
It was inspired by The Last Poets'
"When The Revolution Comes."
It's a series of tongue-in-cheek
comments about commercials.
Cheerios help you grow, grow, grow. Go!
The revolution will not
Give your mouth sex appeal
The revolution will not get rid
Of the nubs
The revolution will not make you look
Five pounds thinner
Because the revolution
Will not be televised, brother
There will be no pictures of you and
Willie Mays pushing that shopping cart
"The Revolution
Will Not Be Televised."
We used to all sing that.
You know how kids nowadays
you go down the street
and they're doing rap.
People were doing Gil Scott-Heron.
There will be no pictures of pigs
Shooting down brothers
On the instant replay
There will be no pictures of pigs
Shooting down brothers
On the instant replay
We weren't really telling
anybody anything that they didn't know.
But maybe what we could do is say,
"Hey, do you see this?
Well, we see it too,
so you're not alone."
You will not have to worry about
A dove in your bedroom
The tiger in your tank
Or the giant in your toilet bowl
The revolution will not go better
With Coke
The revolution will not fight germs
That may cause bad breath
The revolution will put you
In the driver's seat
The revolution will not be televised
Will not be televised
Will not be televised
Gil, he and I
were joined together poetically
because we wanted to have
a movement of folks
who were talking the
same basic language.
See, our people don't do
a great deal of reading.
You know, we watch a lot of television.
You know, but we don't read many books.
You know, and I'm about that.
And trying to get as
much help as I can
- Do you have hope for what's happening?
- Oh, you're damn right.
You know, we have survived everything
that's gone down and come out stronger.
Defense attorneys
are expected to depict Miss Davis
as a political prisoner, the victim
of a governmental vendetta.
J. Edgar Hoover,
in collusion with Nixon,
decided to make an example of me.
There will continue to be frame-ups.
I will not be free
until all Black people are free.
Rock steady, baby
That's what I feel now
Let's call this song
Exactly what it is
What it is, what it is
- It's a funky and low down feelin'
- What it is
- In my hips from left to right
- What it is
- What it is is I might be doin'
- What it is
This funky dance all night, oh!
Wave your hands up in the air
Gotta a feelin' and ain't got a care
In America, supporters
of the Black liberation movements
are stepping up the pressure
in the campaign to free Angela Davis.
Messages of support
have come in from all over the world.
We had a nice long visit with Angela.
And she's in very high spirits.
She's feeling good.
Step and move your hips
With a feelin' from side to side
Sit yourself down in your car
And take a ride
While you're movin' rock steady
Rock steady
What made anything work
for Aretha is the melody, the rhythm.
The energy was about love.
You don't have to hate your fellow man.
Getting angry doesn't solve it.
- What it is
- This funky dance all night, oh!
Wave your hands up in the air
Got the feelin' and ain't got a care
Angela Davis was super important,
but she put love inside
all of that hurt.
Rock steady, whoo!
Rock steady
Aretha Franklin
offered bail for Angela Davis.
It was an important gesture for her.
When I learned about it,
it was one of the most moving moments
I experienced during that time.
Rock steady
Rock steady
Suspicion remains that Angela Davis
may be tried on guilt by association,
that she's Black and militant,
and a close friend of George Jackson's.
Was the incident
for which you are charged now,
was it a revolutionary act on your part?
Are you asking me to
confess to something?
No.
I think that, uh,
what George Jackson said
about, uh, uh, life in prison
is very appropriate here.
He says that prison, um,
either breaks a person
or makes the person stronger.
Saturday, August 21st.
George Jackson
was killed as he broke and ran
outside the adjustment center.
Authorities
at California's San Quentin Prison
have locked up
the entire prison population
following the deaths of six persons.
Associate Warden James Park
says a guard shot and killed
Soledad brother George Jackson
as he tried to escape.
Three guards and two other prisoners
were found dead with slashed throats.
Park says a visitor smuggled
a .38 caliber revolver to Jackson.
George Jackson,
the day he was killed in Attica,
it was announced on the news,
a lawyer came to see him the day before
and he smuggled the gun
back into the prison.
Apparently a gun was smuggled in.
It was in the possession
of George Jackson.
Unbelievable.
You have any kind of visitor
or outside person
Take your pants off.
you strip search.
So why didn't they
find the gun on search?
We can now tie in
that there was help from the outside
because the wig is definitely
an outside wig.
It's, uh, it has a label in the
in the sweatband.
And, uh, it is an honest-to-God
bona fide wig.
They said he was trying
to hide the gun under a wig.
It's a made-up story.
How you gonna walk with a gun
on top of your head
without it falling out?
San Quentin Prison,
with its high walls
and its triple-locked exit ways.
There's absolutely no explanation
that makes sense to me
that you had to kill him.
I mean,
he's a single person standing in a yard
and you have an army surrounding him.
They were afraid that the
people were beginning to listen.
That's the reason why they framed him
to be murdered the way he was.
To try to discredit everything
that he had said.
Well, I think Jackson's aims
have been clearly stated.
He was dedicated to violence.
His writings, uh, clearly state
that he's dedicated to violence.
I can be violent also,
and I imagine so can you.
You see,
that's the whole story of America.
They take their violence and turn
it back around on somebody else.
I don't have to talk about
American violence.
You can look all over the world
and see American soldiers everywhere
fighting in other people's countries
and killing them.
So if I were if I were
running the country in America,
I wouldn't open my mouth about violence.
As many people as they've murdered
in Vietnam in the past ten years,
and they're gonna talk about violence?
As many Black people that get killed
every day in this country
and nobody knows or cares,
and you wanna tell me about violence?
How they wiped out
a whole nation of Indians
and they're gonna say something to me
about violence? I don't wanna hear it.
In Attica, me and
a lot of other guys was thinking,
"If they do that to him, executed him,
and get away with it
same thing might happen to me."
When Attica got word of it,
they actually went to the mess hall
wearing black armbands,
and we knew we were in trouble
'cause they could organize that quick.
It was mandatory meals,
and they all went to the mess hall.
They all went through the lines,
and nobody took even a glass of water.
Nobody said nothing.
The lieutenant that was
in the mess hall that morning,
he said it was so quiet,
he could hear his watch ticking.
Well, I stepped into an avalanche
It covered up my soul
When I am not this hunchback
That you see
I sleep beneath the golden hill
You who wish to conquer pain
You must learn, learn to serve me well
The killing of George Jackson
I thought the assassination of
a leader of the Black prison movement
can't go unanswered.
You strike my side by accident
And so, we,
the Weather Underground,
undertook to again issue
a screaming response
to the state taking a life,
and we bombed the California Department
of Corrections in San Francisco.
The Underground
Weatherman Organization
claimed responsibility
for the San Francisco
and Sacramento bombings
saying they were, I quote,
"in outraged response to the assassination
of Soledad brother George Jackson."
The bombings came
just hours before Jackson's funeral
at this Episcopal church
in the poor Black section of Oakland.
Step back, please. Step back.
George says to us,
"Arise and walk.
Silver and gold have I none,
but in the name of Jesus of Nazareth,
I say rise up and walk."
In the name of my brother
Jonathan Jackson,
in the name of James McClain,
in the name of William Christmas,
in the name of Angela Davis,
and in the name of George Jackson,
I say rise up and walk.
I woke up this morning
There were tears in my bed
They killed a man I really loved
Shot him through the head
Lord, Lord
They cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord
They laid him in the ground
Look on us.
From the time we've left the Black wombs
of our beautiful mothers,
Black people have been crippled
and maimed and murdered
suffering from the Black condition.
Sent him off to prison
For a seventy dollar robbery
They closed the door behind him
And they threw away the key
Lord, Lord
They cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord
They laid him in the ground
George certainly died
in a significant way.
We say that, even after death,
George Jackson still is alive
because his ideas, his spirit
will be manifested in the physical.
And we'll raise our children
to fight for freedom
as George Jackson fought for freedom.
He wouldn't take shit from no one
He wouldn't bow down or kneel
Authorities, they hated him
Because he was just too real
Lord, Lord
They cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord
They laid him in the ground
I think Bob Dylan's "George Jackson,"
it was affirming, for sure,
but it also felt like
it felt like we were living it together.
The people we listened to, the people
we admired in the political world,
everybody was walking the same path.
That particular day
I made a commitment to myself,
from what I seen,
and what people had sacrificed,
I'd be a revolutionary
the rest of my life.
The trouble
started around 9:00 this morning.
In Attica, New York,
about 1,000 long-term convicts today
rioted
and they gained control
of the maximum security prison.
They also seized 33 guards as hostages
and injured others in the fighting.
State police have regained control
of most of the prison,
but the trouble isn't over yet.
Thursday, September 9.
We took the prison. It was on.
There was 1,250 inmates
and I think 38 of us.
Most of the guys were really beat.
I was beaten, some guys were stabbed,
some guys were cut,
and I was shaking in my pants.
I had done a year in Vietnam
and I'm thinking,
"I'm gonna end up dying
eight miles from where I grew up."
As far
as the prisoners are concerned,
do they have weapons and such
that they're holding hostages with?
Our information is that, uh,
none of the prisoners are armed.
We're looking out
in the direction of B block.
Most of the prisoners
have concealed their faces
by wearing scarves, towels,
and what have you.
Have the inmates made any demands?
I, uh, I don't know.
They say that they only wanna speak
with the governor or me.
Prisoners would only talk
to New York State Corrections
Commissioner, Russell Oswald,
who is now inside.
"We want a stop to slave labor here.
We are men!
We are not beasts, and we do not intend
to be driven or beaten as such.
The entire prison populace
has set forth to change forever
the ruthless brutalization and disregard
for the lives of the prisoners here
and throughout the United States.
What has happened here
is but the sound before the fury
of those who are oppressed."
Attica. They were
protesting about some common dignity
that should be afforded
to every human being.
Gil, he was great at building a scene,
just like a playwright.
He used to say,
"We sold survival kits on wax."
Here I am
After so many years
Hounded by hatred
And trapped by fear
I'm in a box
- Ain't nothing dead about us.
- We ain't gonna die.
- Not dead.
- We are not dying here.
Count on it!
Help me, I'm the prisoner
Won't you hear my plea?
I need somebody
Yeah, to listen to me
I beg you, brothers and sisters
I'm counting on you, yeah
Every time you see folks taking their
their lives in their hands and
standing up for what they believe in,
and trying to do something progressive
for themselves and their people,
you're seeing a revolutionary act.
So Brian and I,
that's what we've been interested in.
Good morning, governor.
The governor of New York State
was Nelson Rockefeller,
and he figures prominently
in the Attica tragedy.
Both Nixon and Rockefeller feared
that this was a communist conspiracy.
And while the negotiations
were going on
Yeah, I'm still on.
the police were getting ready
to storm the prison.
Guards and troopers
standing by the entry
where the cells are located.
Pretty tense at this point.
We had the yard
from Thursday till Monday morning.
Right. Go down to the supply truck
and pick up the shotguns and rifles.
They had police,
national guards, sheriff deputies,
plus correctional officers
from other joints, outside.
This was gonna be George Jackson
on mass scale.
Reinforcements have moved in.
Before the assault,
the inmates placed several hostages
on the catwalks with inmates
holding knives to their throats
to deter troopers from coming in.
But it didn't work that way.
Authorities were willing
to sacrifice the hostages
in order to get its prison back.
When I heard the first helicopter
as soon as I smelled the gas,
I said my goodbyes to the maker.
State police, they couldn't see.
I don't know how they were firing.
Most of us were dressed
in inmate clothing
so I know they couldn't see who
they were shooting at.
They just shot.
Place your hands on top of your head.
They had the helicopter saying,
"Stand up,
put your hands on top of your head.
You won't be harmed."
I repeat, you will not be harmed.
Guys were getting up and getting killed.
They got that People are dying
in there. And the scene is
I'm I'm gonna cut this off.
Uh,
helicopters are still flying overhead.
It seems that people are dying
in there, and and I'm upset.
And it's it is unfortunate
what has happened here.
Whatever happens, uh,
after the situation here at Attica,
the penal system here
in the United States,
and the people who are kept
inside of them, will never be the same.
The guy that was holding me,
somebody shot him. It went by my head.
Never thought I was going
to live through it. Never.
I had terrible nightmares for years.
Years.
I'd wake up smelling gas.
Hear gunshots, I'd wake up.
We are men!
We are not beasts and we do not intend
to be beaten or driven as such.
Elliott Barkley was in Attica
on a relatively minor charge.
And he died with this police bullet
in him.
Twenty-nine inmates and ten hostages
were killed by police gunfire.
But the total number shot was 128.
As many Black people that get
killed every day in this country
and nobody knows or cares.
How they wiped out
a whole nation of Indians
and they're gonna say something to me
about violence.
It was the most lethal
state-sponsored violence
since the murders at Wounded Knee.
I wrote a poem, uh,
concerning the Attica prisoner killing.
It explains how the Black brothers felt
who died that day up in that prison.
Warden Rockefeller sent word,
"Shoot to kill if they don't give up
in five minutes."
And a Black man came out, and he said,
"Better far from all we see
To die fighting to be free
What more fitting end could be?"
"Let us die by being Black
Better far that we should go
Standing here against the foe
Is the sweeter death to know"
"Better calling death to come
Than to die another dumb
Muted Black man in the slum"
"Better than of this prison rot
If there's any choice we've got
Kill us today on the spot"
There was great animosity
among a great many of the troopers.
After the retaking,
troopers were saying,
"Got me a . Did you get one?"
"Oh, yeah, I got one."
Uh, Mr. President.
Are these primarily blacks
that you're dealing with?
Oh yes,
the whole thing was led by the blacks.
Are all the prisoners
that were killed blacks?
- Uh
- Or are there any whites?
I haven't got that report.
Many of the prisoners were from
New York and they were from Harlem.
And so they had this big benefit.
And Aretha Franklin was the headliner.
By doing the concert at the Apollo,
that was her way of speaking
to what's going on.
Attica affected Aretha because
she knew people that were in Attica,
and she knew the families of folks
that were there.
She understood. Aretha sang
"Bridge Over Troubled Water."
Don't trouble the water
Leave it alone, why don't you
Why don't you let it be?
It was a protest, but it was
also something that you can love.
The gospel feel.
It was like she preached.
Yes it do
Oh, yeah, yeah
When you're down and out
If you look up
See yourself on the street
- When evening falls
- When evening falls
- So hard
- So hard
I'll be there to comfort you
I'll take your part
I'll take it when darkness comes
Pain is all, is all around
Just like a bridge
Over troubled water
I'll be there, lay me down
- Like a bridge
- Just like a bridge
- Over troubled
- Over
Troubled water
I'm gonna be there
To lay
Come and lay me down
- Lay me down
- Come and lay me down
Oh, yeah
He suffered. He gave his life.
But I hope he gave his life
for something. For a reason.
- For what?
- For what?
So we Blacks can have a chance
in this country
that we call ours as well as yours.
We can have a chance.
We can walk the street.
We can live decently.
We can get good jobs.
He had a stigma.
Convict number 25985. A stigma.
And when If he would've
came out He was due out March of '72.
He would've came out,
he couldn't have got a job.
They wouldn't have gave them any.
Everybody gather round
And listen to my song
I've only got one
We who are young
Should now take a stand
Don't run from the burdens
Of women and men
Continue to give, continue to live
For what you know is right
Free Angela! Free Angela! Free Angela!
When we cry "Free Angela Davis,"
our cries are only coming
and our love is only coming
as an extension of ourselves.
And we just keep on keeping on
As a young, Black, creative person,
I'm a believer in
lending food for thought
through my lyrical contents.
Many think that we have blown it
But they too will soon admit
That there's still a lot of love
Among us
And there's still a lot of faith
Warmth and trust
When we keep on keeping on
Keep on keeping on, y'all.
To any people that may
feel somewhat oppressed,
when you hear these words,
they've got to hopefully
give you a bit of inspiration
as to where you wanna go.
I always said, "Let's follow
the yellow brick road," you know?
Some years back I remember
Still in my mind so well
My mama made this work ethic
And I found it never fails
- Never worry too long
- Worry too long
About what goes wrong
Today it's sorrow
We got joy tomorrow
A revolutionary
doesn't necessarily have to have a gun,
you know?
Curtis Mayfield, the music was great.
You have a good time, you dance and
party, but you will leave with a message.
You know?
You would leave with a message.
Well, I think throughout this country,
people are becoming increasingly aware
of the fact that whatever the government,
uh, does is not a priori the truth.
And it's not only the struggle around
political prisoners
that has begun to change the climate
in this country
so that an acquittal like this
could occur
but, uh, also the reaction to the war
in Vietnam
and the reaction to, uh,
Nixon's, uh, economic policies.
I think there's a lot
more resistance now.
This is the happiest day of my life.
Power to the people.
Jim had left the band.
We were stuck in the south of France.
And Sly,
he didn't even want to leave his house.
It was getting
progressively more messed up.
We got heavily into drugs.
He never had it under control.
A lot of nights they played like shit.
We're all completely loose cannons.
The military police came one night.
Ahmet Ertegun said to me,
"Get us an album." So that's it.