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The Guns Of August Or The “Woke” Side Of History
I noticed a recent CNN headline that said: What is Black August and how is it different from Black History Month?
I knew “Black August” was the title of a 2007 biopic of George Jackson. Jackson was convicted of armed robbery in 1961 and became a political activist in San Quentin State Prison. In 1970 Jackson and two black prisoners were charged with murdering a white prison guard. That same year, Jackson’s teenage brother Johnathan was killed in a police shootout after he stormed the courthouse and took a judge hostage in an effort to secure his brother’s release. On August 21, 1971 a gun was smuggled to George Jackson, Jackson took a prison guard hostage, forced the guard to open several jail cells, then Jackson was killed during the prison escape. Jackson authored Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson and co-founded The Black Guerrilla Family while in prison. The BGF characterized itself as a black Marxist-Leninist revolutionary organization whose goals were to promote black power, prison reform, and overthrow the US government, but, in actuality, it was a prison/street gang known primarily for criminal activity.
I immediately wondered, has “Black August” been a commemorative month before or after the 2007 biopic. In other words, was the movie named after a preexisting month-long celebration or did the inspiration to…