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We Want Freedom | Praise
"This gripping revelatory account of the valiant struggles and achievements of the Black Panther Party is a superb antidote to the defamatory 'histories' put out by some earlier writers. Mumia fashions a multi-dimensional story with fine style, ideological clarity, and great humanity—as is his way."
—Michael Parenti, author of The Assassination of Julius Caesar and The Terrorism Trap
"Mumia's keen analysis of the Panthers provides readers with a unique understanding of an organization J. Edgar Hoover deemed the 'greatest threat to internal security in the country.' Rewarding too is his fresh assessment of the role of women in the Party, which thoughtfully draws on the work of the late Safiya Bukhari."
—Herb Boyd, editor of Race and Resistance and Black Panthers for Beginners
"Mumia Abu-Jamal has forged from the furnace of death row a moving, incisive and thorough history of the Black Panther Party. This book is required reading for any who would seek to understand race, revolution, and repression in the United States. With now half the US population born after the years described within, and given the resurgence of overt and covert government suppression of dissent, true accounts of the popular struggles of the late 60s and early 70s are needed now more than ever. Abu-Jamal carefully imparts the history as passionate participant, skilled journalist, and critical historian. That he has accomplished this without interruption to his prolific written and recorded commentaries, his continuing struggle against political persecution within an unjust criminal justice system, and despite the death penalty that hangs over his head daily, is further testimony to the need we all share to stop his planned execution."
—Amy Goodman, journalist, Democracy Now!
"Mumia is a soldier in the war for the soul of America. He is fighting the good fight with the same weapons his ancestors fought with: words. He sings with his words; he sings with his heart; he sings with the truth. Mumia is a free man, no matter what his address because he is a man who knows who he is: a child of challenging God."
—Nikki Giovanni, poet
"Mumia Abu-Jamal speaks in a voice as timeless as the resistance to oppression he personifies. His words, his mind—indeed, his life itself—stand as inspirations to all of us who yearn for liberation, exemplifying the continuities of struggle joining one generation to the next in our common effort to attain the dignity of human freedom. This book is as necessary as it is unavoidable. It simply must be read by everyone endowed with the least twinge of social conscience."
—Ward Churchill, author of Acts of Rebellion, Perversions of Justice, and On the Justice of Roosting Chickens
"Writing eloquently from his prison cell, Mumia Abu-Jamal gives us a fascinating and unusual history of the Black Panther Party. His chapters 'A Woman's Party' and 'COINTELPRO' would be enough to make this book an invaluable addition to anyone's reading list."
—Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States
"This book amazed and delighted me. I'm still not sure how Mumia has managed—from a maximum-security prison cell—to encompass in one book the broad scope of US history, a global perspective, and many intimate, first-hand accounts of life, love and politics in the Black Panther Party. Mumia tells this story with such energy and passion that reading it, I felt I'd returned to the storefronts and battlefronts of the 60s and 70s. This is the Black Panther Party—and the social movements to which it was connected—in its historical context, its hopes and triumphs, as well as its tragedies and limitations. It is a story fundamental to understanding the US of the 20th and 21st centuries, and I am eternally grateful to Mumia Abu-Jamal for having written it."
—Laura Whitehorn, former political prisoner
"We Want Freedom is a welcome addition to the Oakland centered accounts of the Black Panther Party. Mumia Abu-Jamal provides a provocative and insightful narrative of local Panther activism in Philadelphia. He presents a superb and thoughtful critique of a myriad of organizational dynamics, including tensions between local Party affiliates and national headquarters, gender relations, and intrafactional conflict within the BPP. Mumia's We Want Freedom enriches our understanding and appreciation of the Black Panther Party. His work will undoubtedly inspire his former Party comrades to document their experience of local Panther activism in the various communities across the United States."
—Charles E. Jones, chair of the Department of
African American Studies, Georgia State University and editor of
The Black Panther Party Reconsidered
"Weaving his experiences in the Black Panther Party into the tapestry of Africans' history in America, Mumia Abu-Jamal's book is essential reading for all of us involved in the struggle for freedom."
—George Katsiaficas, editor of Liberation, Imagination, and the Black Panther Party
"We Want Freedom demonstrates once again Mumia Abu-Jamal's leadership and commitment to activism and social change. Abu-Jamal's accounts of the strengths and triumphs of the Black Panther Party give readers hope. However, for those who view the governments' repression of the Black Panther Party as unique, the book also gives an opportunity to see what the USA PATRIOT Act portends for social justice activists of today."
—Tonya McClary, American Friends Service Committee National Criminal Justice Program
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