January 13th 1970 Soledad Assassination of W.L.Nolen, Cleveland Edwards, Alvin Miller , Soledad Prison Riot

On January 13, 1970, 14 black inmates and 2 white inmates from the maximum-security section of Soledad Prison were released into a recreation yard. It had been several months since they were last released into the yard. The black prisoners were ordered to the far end of the yard, while the white prisoners remained near the center of the yard. Officer Opie G. Miller, an expert marksman armed with a rifle, watched over the inmates from a guard tower 13 feet (4 m) above the yard. A fist fight ensued and Miller opened fire on the prisoners below. No warning shot was fired. Three black inmates were killed in the shooting: W.L. Nolen and Cleveland Edwards died in the yard, while Alvin Miller died in the prison hospital a few hours later. A white inmate, Billy D. Harris, was wounded in the groin by Miller’s fourth shot, and ended up losing a testicle. In a letter from June 10, 1970, George Jackson described the scene as seeing three of his brothers having been “murdered […] by a pig shooting from 30 feet above their heads with a military rifle.”

Blood in My Eye January 13 52 ADM

Following the incident, thirteen black prisoners began a hunger strike in the hopes of securing an investigation. On January 16, 1970, a Monterey County grand jury convened, then exonerated Miller in the deaths of Nolen, Edwards, and Miller with a ruling of “justifiable homicide”. No black inmates were permitted to testify, including those who had been in the recreation yard during the shooting. In Soledad Prison, inmates heard the grand jury’s ruling on the prison radio. Thirty minutes later, John V. Mills was found dying in another maximum-security wing of the prison, having been beaten and thrown from a third-floor tier of Y Wing, George Jackson’s cellblock, to the television room below. On February 14, 1970, after an investigation into Mills’ death by prison officials, George Lester Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo and John Wesley Clutchette were indicted by the Monterey County grand jury for first-degree murder.

Long Live The Spirit of Comrad W.L. Nolen

In the era of the 1960s and 1970s, the California Prison System was and remains mired in a cesspool of injustice fomented by a culture of institutional racism. Adding to this contradiction, was and is the multitude of Amerikkkanized offshoots (prisoners) who aided racist prison guards with terrorizing and attacking New Afrikan Black Prisoners – often gaining extremely favorable advantages, such as three or more racist lackeys (prisoners), given access to store-bought knives by prison guards, being let out on the tier for their recreational exercise period, where they would be allowed to attack the sole New Afrikan, also out on the tier for his recreational exercise time.

Comrades W.L. Nolen, George Jackson, William Christmas, Howard Tole, Alvin “Sweet Jugs” Miller, Khatari Gaulden, Cleveland Edwards and countless others not only successfully resisted these attacks militarily, but W.L. Nolen had the foresight to politcize these contradictions by filing a petition in the court, where the comrade asserted:

“Prison guards are complicit in fomenting racial strife by aiding white inmate confederates in ways not actionable in court, i.e., leaving cell doors open to endanger the lives of New Afrikans; placing fecal matter or broken glass in the food served to New Afrikans etc., as these material factors would be difficult to prove.” See W.L. Nolen, et. al. v. Cletus Fitzharris, et. al.

W.L. Nolen was one of the founders of the Black Liberation Movement in the California Prison System, along with Comrade George Jackson.

Four months later, on Jan. 13, 1970, Comrade W.L. Nolen was assassinated, shot at point-blank range by white racist prison guard Opie G. Miller. This murder was ruled a justifiable homicide, in spite of concrete evidence that the comrade was defending himself and his fellow New Afrikans from a staged racist attack on their lives, while on Soledad’s O-Wing exercise yard.

I urge the people to read “The Melancholy History of Soledad Prison” by Min Sun Yee and “The Road To Hell” by Paul Libertore in order to grasp the true historical origins of our legacy of resistance under the leadership of Comrade W.L. Nolen. CAN’T STOP! WON’T STOP!

Comrade W.L. Nolen was instrumental in shaping and molding the exemplary model of undaunting resistance that many of us New Afrikans now find ourselves emulating today.

The W.L. Nolen Mentorship Program has been constructed as a dedication towards carrying forward the legacy of Comrade W.L. Nolen.

LONG LIVE THE MEMORY OF OUR BELOVED COMRADE!

http://sfbayview.com/2016/11/long-live-the-spirit-of-comrade-w-l-nolen/

Black August Memorial/ Black August Resistance – Haki Shakur