Jonathan Jackson's Attempt To Free The Soledad Brothers
On August 7, 1970, George Jackson's seventeen-year-old brother Jonathan Jackson held up a courtroom at the Marin County Civic Center, temporarily freed three San Quentin prisoners, and took Superior Court Judge Harold Haley, Deputy District Attorney Gary Thomas, and three female jurors hostage in a bid to secure the freedom of the "Soledad Brothers". Jackson, Haley, and prisoners William Christmas and James McClain were killed as they attempted to drive away from the courthouse. Haley died due to the discharge of a sawed-off shotgun that had been fastened to his neck with adhesive tape by the abductors. Thomas, prisoner Ruchell Magee, and one of the jurors were wounded.
Angela Davis, who purchased the guns used in the escape attempt, was later tried and acquitted of charges in connection with the escape.
Read more about this topic: Soledad Brothers
Famous quotes containing the words jonathan, jackson, attempt, free and/or brothers:
“The well-cared-for woman is a parasite, and the woman who must work is a slave.”
—Cora Anderson, U.S. male impersonator. As quoted in Gay American History, part 3, by Jonathan Katz (1976)
“Who are we? And for what are we going to fight? Are we the titled slaves of George the Third? The military conscripts of Napoleon the Great? Or the frozen peasants of the Russian Czar? No—we are the free born sons of America; the citizens of the only republic now existing in the world; and the only people on earth who possess rights, liberties, and property which they dare call their own.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“The attempt to force human beings to despise themselves ... is what I call hell.”
—André Malraux (1901–1976)
“What we want is not freedom but its appearances. It is for these simulacra that man has always striven. And since freedom, as has been said, is no more than a sensation, what difference is there between being free and believing ourselves free?”
—E.M. Cioran (b. 1911)
“Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)