The 99 books would likely have sticky association for anyone who was literate and on the Left in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She added that “all the books have a memory attached to them.” In my mind they are also linked to images, recollections, libraries and reading lists. In the interview with Davis, which was conducted by The Freedom Archives for its “99 Books” Project, Angela noted that June Jordan’s name and the title of her book of poems, Some Changes, were the “only surprises” (for her) on Jackson’s list. While it had limited circulation in the 1970s, the list didn’t go public, modestly, until August 2009, and then again with a wide reach twelve years later, in August 2021 in the nick of time for the 50 th anniversary of George’s bloody death. Not surprisingly, Davis took a keen political and personal interest in the list of 99 books that were removed from the cell of prisoner A-63837.Īfter all, she was/is a Black intellectual, a former Communist Party member, student of Herbert Marcuse, a fugitive from the FBI, a college teacher, an author, a comrade of Jackson’s and more. “It put a smile on my face when I saw June Jordan’s name there,” Angela Davis said on a Zoom event to commemorate the 50 th anniversary of the death of the celebrated, notorious author of Soledad Brother and Blood in My Eye and co-founder of the Black Guerrilla Family who had been behind bars in California every since 1961 when he was 20 years old.ĭavis was talking about the list of books that the authorities at San Quentin typed 13 days after George Jackson was shot and killed August 21, 1971.
If we all read and understand the same books that Jackson read we might call ourselves intellectuals and intelligent. Books educated him and made a role model to other prisoners. In the hands of George Jackson, books were a lifeline to the world outside prison where he lived much of his life.
In the hands of readers hungry for ideas, books are weapons and tools for social change. That’s why there are book burners and why there is censorship of books.
Photograph Source: Book Cover for Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George JacksonĪre books dangerous? You bet they are.
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