Black August: A tribute to freedom fighters
By Lamont Lilly posted on July 23, 2021
The following slightly edited article was first published in August 2013. Lilly ran as Workers World Party’s candidate for vice president in 2016.
George Jackson
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963, galvanized hundreds of thousands in the streets of Washington, D.C. A. Philip Randolph helped to establish the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in Harlem, N.Y., on Aug. 25, 1925. The Haitian Revolution first broke the chains of French colonialism in August 1791. August marks the Nat Turner slave rebellion of 1831 and the Watts Uprising of 1965. The Philadelphia Police Department first raided the MOVE organization on Aug. 8, 1978, giving way to the unjustly imprisoned MOVE 9. August also bears the births of Fred Hampton, Marcus Garvey and Mutulu Shakur.