Who Is Sundiata Acoli?

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Who is Sundiata Acoli? out bail and on trial for two years before being acquitted, along with Sundiata Acoli, a New A f r i k a n all other defendants, by a jury political prisoner of war, mathe- deliberating less than two hours. matician, and computer analyst, Upon release, FBI intimidation was born January 14, 1937, in of potential employers shut off all D e c a t u r, Texas, and raised in employment possibilities in the Vernon, Texas. He graduated from computer profession and stepped- Prairie View A & M College of up COINTELPRO harassment, sur- Texas in 1956 with a B.S. in math- veillance, and provocations soon ematics and for the next 13 years drove him underground. worked for various computer-ori- In May 1973, while driving the ented firms, mostly in the New Yo r k New Jersey Turnpike, he and his a r e a . comrades were ambushed by N.J. Sundiata Acoli During the summer of 1964 he state troopers. One companion, International Jurist interviewed did voter registration work in Zayd Shakur, was killed, another Sundiata and subsequently Mississippi. In 1968 he joined the companion, Assata Shakur, was declared him a political prisoner. A Harlem Black Panther Party and wounded and captured. One state few days later prison off i c i a l s did community work around issues trooper was killed and another secretly transferred him during the of schools, housing, jobs, child wounded, and Sundiata was cap- middle of the night to the federal care, drugs, and police brutality. tured days later. prison system and put him en route In 1969 he and 13 others were After a highly sensationalized to the infamous federal concentra- arrested in the Panther 21 conspir- and prejudicial trial he was convict- tion camp at Marion, Illinois, acy case. He was held in jail with- ed of the death of the state trooper although he had no federal and was sentenced to Tr e n t o n charges or sentences. Marion is State Prison (TSP) for life plus 30 one of the highest security prisons years consecutive. in the U.S., also one of the harsh- Upon entering T S P he was sub- est, and there Sundiata was locked sequently confined to a new and down 23 hours a day …. In July specially created Management 1987 he was transferred to the fed- Control Unit (MCU) solely because eral penitentiary at Leavenworth, of his political background. He K a n s a s . remained in MCU almost five In the fall of 1992, Sundiata years, … let out of the cell only ten became eligible for parole. He was minutes a day for showers and two not permitted to attend his own hours twice a week for recreation. parole hearing and was only In September 1979, the allowed to participate via telephone .

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