Jalil Muntaqim Nyeusi Jami Jalil Muntaqim was born in 1951 and raised in the Bay Area of California. His mother was a student of African dance and a member of the NAACP. Like many people of his generation, Jalil (then named Anthony Bottom) was fundamentally changed by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and other events of 1968. He came to believe that the Black Liberation Movement needed to form a more aggressive response of self-defense in the face of our extreme repression from the US empire. Jalil was recruited into the Black underground, which came to be known as the Black Liberation Army. In May 1971, two New York City police officers were killed in an activity that the Black Liberation Army claimed responsibility for. Jalil Muntaqim, Albert “Nuh” Washington, and Herman Bell were later captured and convicted in connection with that activity. Jalil was 19 years old at the time, and his girlfriend was pregnant with his first and only child. He is now 68 years old and he has been held in state prisons for 48 years.
Photo Credit: Sheri Pinto
While in prison, Jalil has achieved degrees in sociology and psychology, certificates in architectural drafting and computer literacy, and he has established programs for prisoners in Black studies, conflict resolution, and poetry. He was highlighted in a 2000 Essence m agazine article about incarcerated fathers maintaining relationships with their children. While in San Quentin prison in California in 1976, Jalil launched the National Prisoners Campaign to Petition the United Nations to recognize the existence of