Thread by @AxumSelassie

THREAD: George Mason Murray was the Minister of Education for the Black Panther Party from April 1968 to July 1969. As an English instructor at San Francisco State College, his controversial firing was the catalyst for the longest strike by college students in Amerikan history

Murray was born in rural Mississippi. Shortly after making his way to San Francisco in 1963, he enrolled in SF State College + became a teaching assistant at Oakland’s Longfellow Elementary School. Murray was also the coordinator for the Oakland Public Schools Center for 3 years

Murray's consciousness began to grow, joining the Nation of Islam for a short time and eventually linking up with the Black Student Union. He would become the first Black director of the undergraduate tutorial program and began to recruit Black students to the university.

Within the Black Panther Party, he became a prominent voice in the growing debate around Black Culturalism and Black Nationalism.

“Cultural nationalism always exists in an oppressed people, at the time that they first begin to challenge the oppressors’ value systems”

Murray is credited with the development of the political education program for the cadre of the Black Panther Party, modeled after Mao's, and the political education classes put on by the party for the greater community.

During the summer of 1968, a 3 member Black Panther Party delegation consisting of George Mason Murray, David Hilliard and Landon Williams were set to visit Cuba at the invitation of Fidel Castro. While en route to Cuba, they stopped off in Mexico City for a night.

The next afternoon, almost immediately after arriving at the airport to make their way to Cuba, they were kidnapped at gunpoint by 12 men.

The delegation were taken to a secluded part of the city, robbed of everything in their possession and lined up against a wall.

Their captors peppered them with questions about why they were in Mexico. The delegation stated they were students but wouldn't answer any questions beyond that. Their captors then took their photos + told them should they ever return to Mexico, they would be jailed for 5 years

Their captors then drove them back to the airport + up the runway to board a nonstop plane to New York.

This didn’t deter Murray from getting to Cuba as he flew there days later. As a result of a speech he gave in Cuba, SF State decided to cancel Murray’s teaching appointment

He was assigned to a non-teaching position which garnered major backlash from students and faculty alike. Murray was eventually reappointed in September 1969.

This wouldn’t be the end of it though. A slew of politicians including then Governor Reagen called for his dismissal

Later that month, Murray would give a speech where he stated that all students should defend themselves against racist teachers and admin on and off campus.

The press ran with the lie that Murray had instructed students to bring guns to school and that started a domino effect.

Understanding the real reasons why the pig power structure wanted him gone, Murray remarked

“We aren’t just attacked because we are Black Panthers. We are attacked because we are Black people striving to political educate the masses of people here in America”

Murray, who had been an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War and a prominent member of BPP, was suspended on November 1st.

His suspension was the catalyst for the 5 month strike at SF State College - one that eventually led to the creation of the nation’s first Black studies dept

A swell of student organizing had been brewing for years at SF State College that included the occupation of the YMCA office on campus in March 1968 and a sit-in at the Administration Building on May 21st, 1968

Murray had taken part in a raid on the racist campus newspaper office in 1967 known as the "Gater incident" and was subsequently arrested. As a result, he was sentenced to 6 months in jail, but the judge decided to give Murray a year of probation instead.

San Francisco Mayor Joe Alioto in cahoots with San Francisco pig chief Joe Cahill made Murray one of their primary targets - one that the Black Panther Party said was a result of Murray developing into one of the most articulate spokesmen for oppressed people in the country

Before his probation was up, the state tried to jail him for violation of probation for “inciting to riot” + “speaking at an illegal rally”. Arguments in court by lawyer Charles Garry helped dismiss these bogus charges, but unfortunately that wouldn’t be the end of it

In December 1969, Murray and a comrade were on their way to Palo Alto when 8 California Highway Patrol patrol cars converged on them.

After pulling them over, pigs put their guns to Murray and his comrade’s heads telling them “If you move, we will blow your brains out”

The pigs claimed they saw Murray with a gun earlier, put him and his comrade in cuffs in a patrol car, and out of thin air, a pig produced 2 guns claiming he found them in their vehicle.

Despite Charles Garry eviscerating the pig in court during cross-examination, the state wanted to make an example out of Murray and used this fraudulent gun charge to revoke his probation and send him to jail.

BPP stated “The only crime George is guilty of is being the Minister of Education of the BPP; he is guilty of disagreeing with the way people are forced to live in this country. George is guilty of telling the truth + exposing the true nature of this racist decadent society”

Murray was sentenced to 3 months in jail for these “crimes” + was ordered by the court to resign from the Black Panther Party.

At the time, he had a newborn and given years of constant surveillance, targeting, and similar acts of political repression, he left the party

After leaving the party, Murray became the principal for Nairobi High School in East Palo Alto. The school was heavily inspired by SNCC’s Freedom Schools and described as "one of the best educational programs for Black children in the country"

One of my fav quotes from Murray “America represents slavery, America represents hell, America is the grave, America is the prison for all Blacks in this nation... The American flag is a piece of toilet paper... it should be flushed down the toilet and burned up in the sewers"

Every day for the month of Black August, I'll be posting a thread on a member of the Black Panther Party. Some will be long like this one and some will be short.

Some members you know well, some you don't. This is an observance of one of Black August's principles - STUDY