In a historic move, the 95th annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on July 15 for the first time took a strong stand in defense of celebrated Pennsylvania death-row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. The hard work and hardball tactics of activists committed to Mumia's freedom turned up the heat on the leadership of the venerable organization, who have been blocking resolutions of support for Mumia for years.

Once the resolution was forced to the floor of the convention, the tide turned. Meeting in his hometown of Philadelphia and with only one dissenting vote visible, the body passed an emergency resolution which called for overturning Mumia's conviction and death sentence. This will hopefully spur a new round of activity by local chapters on Mumia's behalf.

This was doubly important because the convention had a much higher profile than NAACP gatherings usually do. President Bush became the first president in well over half a century to skip NAACP conventions through a full term of office, a not very coded message to his racist backers that that he's still their best choice. Democratic candidate John Kerry did speak and NAACP leaders wanted a nice neat convention for his platform.

Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted in 1982 of the killing of a Philadelphia cop in a proceeding which could be characterized as no trial at all.  Mumia's defenders claim that he is an innocent man who became the political target of a racist criminal justice system.  During the “trial” the judge was overheard vowing that he was planning to help the prosecution “fry the n---.”

The NAACP resolution, entitled “Reaffirming Opposition to the Death Penalty,” also called for a moratorium on executions while restating the NAACP's long-time opposition to capital punishment.  It further asked for new studies on the relation to the death penalty of race, sex and age discrimination, adequacy of counsel, and access to modern technologies such as DNA analysis.

In passing the resolution, the convention asked all the NAACP's local units “to support the international call for Mumia Abu-Jamal to be released from death row” and to support the “movement for a new and fair trial.”

The NAACP's vote comes at a critical time for Mumia's defenders. Late in June the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia lifted the stay on the federal appeals of Mumia's case and ordered arguments as to why a death sentence should not be re-imposed on him.

Hearing of the vote, Mumia's lead attorney, Robert R. Bryan, said:  “I think to have the support of the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the U.S. is of enormous importance to this case.  Along with my client, I am very grateful to the NAACP for taking this stand.”

Passage of the resolution was no small feat for Mumia's supporters.  It also demonstrated the power of a small group when confronting a bureaucracy which is out of touch with its rank and file and community.

The successful resolution came as a result of two years of efforts by the Ossining, N.Y., chapter.  But the story really goes back a decade when Pam Africa and International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal (ICFFMAJ) first tried to get a resolution passed.  At that time the NAACP did adopt a very mild document, but put up bureaucratic roadblocks to anything stronger.  Later, in 2000, the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP co-sponsored an amicus brief in support of Mumia's federal court appeal.

It was about this time that the efforts began for a new resolution.  At first these attempts were unconnected, with the people involved not even knowing about each other.  One effort began at the large US Postal Service facility, the Morgan mail sorting center in New York, where a small group of rank and file workers formed Morgan for Mumia and began publicizing the case.  Out of this work came a resolution demanding a new trial for Mumia, which passed the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) convention in 2000.

This was in a period when scores of union groups passed resolutions supporting Mumia, including the giant Service Employees International Union, and during which the West Coast dockworkers gave life to their resolution by shutting down all Pacific ports for a day.  Amid all this activity for Mumia, this writer, a member of Morgan for Mumia, noticed that that the NAACP seemed to be conspicuously silent. 

The Ossining chapter, however, was not.  Unknown to this writer, it had been campaigning for the release of Mumia and all other political prisoners for years.  With Sundiata Sadiq as president, for example, it had organized in 1995 a meeting with the late Safiya Bukhari, beloved sister and co-coordinator of the New York Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYFMAJC).  The next year it held a march featuring local lawyer Steven Hawkins as a speaker.  Hawkins was one of the first attorneys to join Mumia's legal appeals team.

After making several false starts on a resolution, this writer was introduced to Sadiq by Pam Africa in early 2003.  As a result the Ossining chapter submitted to the national convention in Miami Beach a strong resolution pointing to Mumia's innocence and demanding his release.

However, the resolution never made it to the floor.  The national office blocked it on the grounds that Ossining was behind in its dues.  The chapter then tried to get it considered as an emergency resolution, a move which required the signatures of national leaders Kwesi Mfume and Julian Bond.  But they wouldn't sign, with Bond bizarrely telling Sadiq that a resolution was unnecessary because Mumia's case was already in the federal courts.

This year Ossining tried again.  Sadiq made sure that the dues were paid, but this time the national office blocked the resolution again, this time with the excuse that Ossining hadn't filed a financial report.  At the urging of a sympathetic national Resolutions Committee member, Sadiq fired off a protest to Mfume requesting that the resolution be considered as an emergency, especially considering that the convention was being held in Philadelphia, the scene of Mumia's frame-up.  He got no response.

At this point ICFFMAJ rescheduled its usual July 4 protest to the 11th, a Sunday when several thousand convention delegates would begin gathering.  It also called for the demonstration to be an education and lobbying effort to get the Ossining resolution considered as an emergency.  To this end the NYFMAJC drafted a leaflet for the delegates entitled, “NAACP: Which Side Are You On?” with the Ossining resolution printed on the back.

The 50 or so street lobbyists who gathered at the Pennsylvania Convention Center found a friendly audience.  Delegates took leaflets and read them.  One, Mel Mason, president of the Monterey Peninsula chapter in California, let it be known that he was prepared to challenge the national leadership from the floor.  Later, Mfume himself came down to meet with Pam and Sadiq, promising to attend a workshop the next day on the criminal justice system.  He made no promises about a resolution, however.

He also didn't show up at the workshop.  Instead about 20 plainclothes cops appeared to bar Pam and Sadiq from the event.  After a loud protest from NAACP members, they were called off, and Pam and Sadiq went in to hear local attorney Michael Coard give the group a short presentation on Mumia's case.

This was certainly the low point.  But things began to move afterward, as more delegates learned about the Ossining resolution and the embarrassing scene with the cops.  At the same time Pam realized that the Ossining proposal had no chance of being endorsed by the leadership, so she requested a meeting to work out something acceptable.

That meeting happened on Wednesday.  Representing the NAACP leadership was Hillary Shelton, the group's D.C. lobbyist, who agreed to present an emergency draft to Mfume and Bond for their signatures.  But first it had to go to the typist.  Pam called a press conference for the next day in the street to make sure the agreement was carried out.

However, it wasn't.  What came back from the typist on Thursday morning had the important parts removed:  there were no calls for overturning Mumia's conviction and death penalty.  Pam and a small number of people from ICFFMAJ immediately – and very visibly – began making placards inside the Convention Center right as John Kerry began to address the convention.

Before long Shelton emerged to see what was going on.  He admonished the group about making the signs, but admitted that the typist's copy wasn't the agreement from the day before.  He and this writer then went upstairs at the Convention Center and drafted the final wording.  Sadiq and Pam approved it, Mfume and Bond signed, and the resolution went to the convention floor.

Pam Africa thinks that nothing would have passed without Ossining first having submitted its strong resolution.  She is undoubtedly right.  The leadership clearly didn't want to say anything about the case, probably – and understandably – fearing a funding backlash from some of the organization's corporate contributors.  But the leaders feared an embarrassing incident in front of the rank and file delegates and the national press during Kerry's speech even more.  So in the end the leadership did the right thing and supported their imprisoned brother Mumia.

In the face of a reluctant leadership, however, it will be up to the local chapters to put life into the statement.  The resolution gives the chapters the official go-ahead to do things which the Ossining chapter has been doing on its own for a long time.  The situation is similar to the one in the APWU, where the national leadership has ignored that union's resolution.  However, in locals like New York, rank and file members like Morgan for Mumia have used it to get an official union banner made, circulate educational leaflets on the case, and to bring other local union members to rallies and demonstrations.

Bill Bachmann is a long-time member of the New York Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition and of the American Postal Workers Union.  As a member of the rank and file group Morgan for Mumia, he authored the resolution supporting Mumia which was passed by the APWU's national convention in 2000. He wrote this article for Justice Speaks, the newspaper of Black Workers For Justice.

Information on Mumia's case can be obtained on-line at www.mumia.org or www.freemumia.com.