George Jackson (Black Panther) - Biography

Biography

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Jackson was the second of Lester and Georgia Bea Jackson's five children. He spent time in the California Youth Authority Corrections facility in Paso Robles because of several juvenile convictions including armed robbery, assault, and burglary. In 1961 he was convicted of armed robbery, for robbing a gas station at gunpoint and at age 18 was sentenced to serve one year to life in prison.

During his first years at San Quentin State Prison, Jackson became involved in revolutionary activity as well as assaults on guards and fellow inmates, which was used to justify his continued incarceration on an indeterminate sentence. He was described by prison officials as egocentric and anti-social. In 1966, Jackson met and befriended W.L. Nolen who introduced him to Marxist and Maoist ideology. The two founded the Black Guerrilla Family in 1966 based on Marxist and Maoist political thought. As Jackson's disciplinary infractions grew he spent more and more time in solitary confinement where he studied political economy and radical theory. He also wrote many letters to friends and supporters which would later be edited and compiled into the books "Soledad Brother" and "Blood in My Eye," which became bestsellers and brought him a great deal of attention from leftist organizers and intellectuals in the U.S. and Western Europe. Jackson's political transformation was seen as insincere by prison officials, with San Quentin associate warden commenting that Jackson "was a sociopath, a very personable hoodlum" who "didn’t give a shit about the revolution". He did, however, amass a following of inmates including whites and Hispanics although with less enthusiasm than his fellow black inmates.

According to David Horowitz, Jackson joined the Black Panther Party after meeting Huey P. Newton in jail.

In January 1969, Jackson and Nolen were transferred from San Quentin to Soledad prison. In January 1970, Nolen along with two other black inmates were shot to death by guard O.G. Miller during a yard riot with members of the Aryan Brotherhood. Following the death of Nolen, Jackson became increasingly confrontational with corrections officials and spoke often about the need to protect fellow inmates and take revenge on guards for Nolen’s death in what Jackson referred to as “selective retaliatory violence”.

On January 16, 1970 Jackson was charged along with Fleeta Drumgo and John Clutchette for murdering guard John V. Mills, who was beaten and thrown from the third floor of Soeldad’s Y wing This was a capital offense and a successful conviction could put Jackson in the gas chamber. Mills, an inexperienced rookie, was murdered, supposedly in retaliation for the shooting deaths of Nolen and the other two black inmates by officer Miller the year prior. Miller was not convicted of any crime, a grand jury ruling his actions to be justifiable homicide.