2000 Capture of a violent radical
Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin was born Hubert Gerold Brown but is best known as H. Rap Brown. On this date in 2002 he was apprehended by police for the murder of a Georgia police officer.
Rap Brown first came to the attention of America in the 1960s when he assumed the chairmanship of the civil rights group known as the Students’ Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, (SNCC, pronounced “snick”). Under his leadership the group’s pronouncements were anything but nonviolent. He clashed with President Johnson in a visit to the White House, telling him “I think that the majority of Black people that voted for you wish that they had gone fishing.” He called for urban guerilla warfare in an armed uprising of blacks against the country he termed the “Fourth Reich” – “Black folks built America. If America don’t come around, we should burn it down.” He played a part in a short-lived attempt to merge SNCC with the Black Panthers, after which the group collapsed and Brown became increasingly alienated from the mainstream of the civil rights struggle.
Brown was charged with inciting a riot and a firearms offence; his trial was tumultuous, marked by bombings and Brown’s going on the run for 18 months. He was convicted in 1971 and served five years in New York’s notorious Attica prison. There he converted to Islam and took his new name.
After his release he moved to Atlanta and was active in community organizing and Islamic outreach. But the polic interest in him did not die down. In 1995 he was accused of shooting a man outside of the grocery store he ran but the charges were dropped. In 1999 he was stopped by police for driving a stolen car and impersonating a police officer; when he didn’t appear for a court date, two policemen (both black) were sent to serve a warrant on him. In the gunfire that ensued both officers were shot, one fatally. Al-Amin fled but was arrested four days later. He was convicted of murder by a majority-black jury and is serving a sentence of life without parole. Efforts continue to have him released.
