H. Rap Brown | |
|---|---|
 H. Rap Brown in 1967 | |
| 5th Chairman of theStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee | |
| In office May 1967 – June 1968 | |
| Preceded by | Stokely Carmichael |
| Succeeded by | Phil Hutchings |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Hubert Gerold Brown (1943-10-04)October 4, 1943 Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | November 23, 2025(2025-11-23) (aged 82) |
| Spouse | Karima al-Amin |
| Known for | Black Power movement |
| Criminal information | |
| Convictions |
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| Criminal penalty | Life in prison |
| Imprisoned at |
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Jamil Abdullah al-Amin (bornHubert Gerold Brown; October 4, 1943 – November 23, 2025), was an American Muslim cleric who was the fifth chairman of theStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s. Best known asH. Rap Brown, he served as theBlack Panther Party's minister of justice during a short-lived (six months) alliance between SNCC and the Black Panther Party.[2][3]
Brown was perhaps known for his proclamations during that period, such as, "Violence is as American as cherry pie",[4] and, "If America don't come around, we're gonna burn it down."[5] He was also known for his autobiography,Die Nigger Die! He served alife sentence for murder following the shooting of twoFulton County, Georgia, sheriff's deputies in 2000.[6]
Brown's activism in thecivil rights movement included involvement with theStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Brown was introduced into SNCC by his older brother Ed. He first visitedCambridge, Maryland, withCleveland Sellers in the summer of 1963, during the period ofGloria Richardson's leadership in the local movement. He witnessed thefirst riot between whites and blacks in the city over civil rights issues, and was impressed by the local civil rights movement's willingness to use armed self-defense against racial attacks.
He later organized for SNCC during the 1964 MississippiFreedom Summer, while transferring toHoward University for his studies. Representing Howard's SNCC chapter, Brown attended a contentious civil rights meeting at the White House with PresidentLyndon B. Johnson during theSelma crisis of 1965 as Alabama activists attempted to march for voting rights.[7]
Major federal civil rights legislation was passed in 1964 and 1965, including theVoting Rights Act of 1965, to establish federal oversight and enforcement of rights. In 1966, Brown organized inGreene County, Alabama to achieve black voter registration and implementation of the recently-passed Voting Rights Act.[8]
Elected SNCC chairman in 1967, Brown continuedStokely Carmichael's fiery support for "Black Power" andurban rebellions in the Northernghettos.[9]
During the summer of 1967, Brown toured the nation, calling for violent resistance to the government, which he called "The Fourth Reich". "Negroes should organize themselves", he told a rally in Washington, D.C., and "carry on guerilla warfare in all the cities". They should "make theViet Cong look like Sunday school teachers". He declared, "I say to America,Fuck it! Freedom or death!"[10]
In this period,Cambridge, Maryland, had an active civil rights movement, led byGloria Richardson. In July 1967 Brown spoke in the city, saying "It's time for Cambridge to explode, baby. Black folks built America, and if America don't come around, we're going to burn America down."[11] Gunfire reportedly broke out later, and both Brown and a police officer were wounded. A fire started that night and by the next day, 17 buildings were destroyed by an expanding fire "in a two-block area of Pine Street, the center of African-American commerce, culture and community."[12] Brown was charged with inciting a riot, due to his speech.[13][12]
Brown was also charged with carrying a gun across state lines. A secret 1967FBI memo had called for "neutralizing" Brown. He became a target of the agency'sCOINTELPRO program, which was intended to disrupt and disqualify civil rights leaders. The federal charges against him were never proven.[14] Brown was defended in the gun violation case by civil rights advocatesMurphy Bell ofBaton Rouge, the self-described "radical lawyer"William Kunstler, and Howard Moore Jr., general counsel for SNCC. Feminist attorneyFlo Kennedy also assisted Brown and led his defense committee, winning support for him from some chapters of theNational Organization for Women.[15]
The Cambridge fire was among incidents investigated by the 1967Kerner Commission. But their investigative documents were not published with their 1968 report. Historian Dr. Peter Levy studied these papers in researching his bookCivil War on Race Street: The Civil Rights Movement in Cambridge, Maryland (2003). He argues there was no riot in Cambridge. Brown was documented as completing his speech in Cambridge at 10 pm July 24, then walking a woman home. He was shot by a deputy sheriff allegedly without provocation. Brown was hastily treated for his injuries and secretly taken by supporters out of Cambridge.[12]
Later that night a small fire broke out, but the police chief and fire company did not respond for two hours. In discussing his book, Levy has said that the fire's spread and ultimate destructive cost appeared to be due not to a riot, but to the deliberate inaction of the Cambridge police and fire departments, which had hostile relations with the black community.[12] In a later book, Levy notes that Brice Kinnamon, head of the Cambridge police department, said that the city had no racial problems, and that Brown was the "sole" cause of the disorder, and it was "a well-planned Communist attempt to overthrow the government".[16]
While being held for trial, Brown continued his high-profile activism. He accepted a request from the Student Afro-American Society ofColumbia University to help represent and co-organize the April1968 Columbia protests against university expansion intoHarlempark land in order to build a gymnasium.[17]
He also contributed writing from jail to the radical magazineBlack Mask, which was edited and published by the New York activist groupUp Against the Wall Motherfucker. In his 1968 article titled "H. Rap Brown From Prison: Lasima Tushinde Mbilashika", Brown writes of going on a hunger strike and his willingness to give up his life in order to achieve change.[18]
Brown's trial was originally to take place in Cambridge, but there was a change of venue and the trial was moved toBel Air, Maryland, to start in March 1970. On March 9, 1970, two SNCC officials,Ralph Featherstone and William ("Che") Payne, died onU.S. Route 1 south of Bel Air, when a bomb on the front floorboard of their car exploded, killing both occupants. The bomb's origin is disputed: some say the bomb was planted in an assassination attempt, and others say Payne was carrying it to the courthouse where Brown was to be tried. The next night, the Cambridge courthouse was bombed.[19]
Brown disappeared for 18 months. He was posted on theFederal Bureau of Investigation'sTen Most Wanted List. He was arrested after a reported shootout with officers in New York City following an attempted robbery of a bar there. He was convicted of robbery and served five years (1971–76) inAttica Prison in western New York state. While in prison, Brown converted toIslam. He formally changed his name from Hubert Gerold Brown to Jamil Abdullah al-Amin.
After his release, he moved toAtlanta, Georgia, where he opened a grocery store. He became an imam, a Muslim spiritual leader, in the National Ummah, one of the nation's largest black Muslim groups. He also was a community activist inAtlanta's West End neighborhood. He preached against drugs and gambling. It has since been suggested that al-Amin changed his life again when he became affiliated with the Dar ul-Islam Movement.[20]
On May 31, 1999, al-Amin was pulled over inMarietta, Georgia, by police officer Johnny Mack for driving a suspected stolen vehicle. During a search, al-Amin was found to have a police badge in his pocket. He also had a bill of sale in his pocket, explaining his possession of the stolen car, and he claimed that he had been issued an honorary police badge by Mayor John Jackson, a statement which Jackson verified. Despite this, al-Amin was charged with speeding, auto theft andimpersonating a police officer.[21]
On March 16, 2000, inFulton County, Georgia, Sheriff's deputies Ricky Kinchen and Aldranon English went to al-Amin's home to execute anarrest warrant for failing to appear in court over the charges.[11] After determining that the home was unoccupied, the deputies drove away and were shortly passed by a black Mercedes headed for the house. Kinchen (the more senior deputy) noted the suspect vehicle, turned the patrol car around, and drove up to the Mercedes, stopping nose to nose. English approached the Mercedes and told the single occupant to show his hands. The occupant opened fire with a.223 rifle. English ran between the two cars while returning fire from his handgun, and was hit four times. Kinchen was shot with the rifle and a9 mm handgun.
The next day, Kinchen died of his wounds atGrady Memorial Hospital. English survived his wounds. He identified al-Amin as the shooter from six photos he was shown while recovering in the hospital[citation needed] Another source said English identified him shortly before going into surgery for his wounds.
After the shootout, al-Amin fled Atlanta, going toWhite Hall, Alabama. He was tracked down byU.S. Marshals who started with a blood trail at the shooting site, and arrested by law enforcement officers after a four-day manhunt. Al-Amin was wearingbody armor at the time of his arrest. He showed no wounds.[22] Officers found a 9 mm handgun near his arrest site. Firearms identification testing showed that this was used to shoot Kinchen and English, but al-Amin's fingerprints were not found on the weapon. Later, al-Amin's black Mercedes was found with bullet holes in it.[23]
His lawyers argued he was innocent of the shooting. Defense attorneys noted that al-Amin's fingerprints were not found on the murder weapon, and he was not wounded in the shooting, as one of the deputies said the shooter was. A trail of blood found at the scene was tested and did not belong to al-Amin or either of the deputies.[24] A test by the state concluded that it was animal blood, but these results have been disputed because there was no clear chain of custody to verify the sample and testing process.[21] Deputy English had said that the killer's eyes were gray, but al-Amin's are brown.[22]
At al-Amin's trial, prosecutors noted that he had never provided an alibi for his whereabouts at the time of the shootout, nor any explanation for fleeing the state afterward. He also did not explain why the weapons used in the shootout were found near him during his arrest.[25]
On March 9, 2002, nearly two years after the shootings, al-Amin was convicted of 13 criminal charges, including Kinchen's murder and aggravated assault in shooting English. Four days later, he was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole (LWOP).[26] He was sent toGeorgia State Prison, the state's maximum-security facility nearReidsville, Georgia.
Otis Jackson, a man incarcerated for unrelated charges, claimed that he committed the Fulton County shootings, and confessed this two years before al-Amin was convicted of the same crime. The court did not consider Jackson's statement as evidence. Jackson's statements corroborated details from 911 calls following the shooting, including a bleeding man seen limping from the scene: Jackson said he knocked on doors to solicit a ride while suffering from wounds sustained in the firefight with deputies Kinchen and English.[27] Jackson recanted his statement two days after making it, but later confessed again in a sworn affidavit, stating that he had only recanted after prison guards threatened him for being a "cop killer".[21] Prosecutors refuted Jackson's testimony, claiming he couldn't have shot the deputies as he was wearing anankle tag for house confinement that would have shown his location. Al-Amin's lawyers allege that the tag was faulty.[28]
Al-Amin appealed his conviction on the basis of a racial conspiracy against him, despite both Fulton County deputies being black. In May 2004, theSupreme Court of Georgia unanimously ruled to uphold al-Amin's conviction.[25][29][30]
In August 2007, al-Amin was transferred to federal custody, as Georgia officials decided he was too high-profile for the Georgia prison system to handle. He was first held in a holdover facility in theUSP Atlanta; two weeks later he was moved to afederal transfer facility in Oklahoma, pending assignment to a federal penitentiary.
On October 21, 2007, al-Amin was transferred toADX Florence, asupermax prison inFlorence, Colorado.[31] He was under an unofficial gag order, prevented from having any interviews with writers, journalists or biographers.[32]
Al-Amin sought retrial through the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Investigative journalist, Hamzah Raza, has written more about Otis Jackson's confession to the deputy shootings in 2000, and said that this evidence should have been considered by the court. It had the potential of exonerating al-Amin.[33] However, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his appeal on July 31, 2019.[34]
In April 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from al-Amin.[35] His family and supporters continue to petition for a new trial.[36][37]
On July 18, 2014, having been diagnosed withmultiple myeloma, al-Amin was transferred toButner Federal Medical Center in North Carolina.[38] In the late 2010s to the early 2020s, he was incarcerated at theUnited States Penitentiary, Tucson.[1]
In March 2025, al-Amin was transferred once again toFMC Butner after family members requested he receive medical help.[39][40] He died at FMC Butner on November 23, 2025, at the age of 82.[41][42]
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