aboutJalil Muntaqim

Jalil A. Muntaqim was released from prison to parole on October 6, 2020, after being confined for almost 5 decades. Jalil is a veteran member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, the co-founder  (along with deceased Comrade Sister Safiya Bukhari, d. 2003 and Baba Herman Ferguson, d. 2014) of  the National Jericho Movement to Free All Political Prisoners.  Founding Jericho in 1998 was just one of Jalil’s many significant achievements.  In 1977,  he started the first national revolutionary prisoners newspaper - “Arm the Spirit”; during that same period he initiated the first petition to the United Nations calling for the U.N. to investigate the conditions of U.S. prisons and the existence of U.S. political prisoners.  In the 1980’s Jalil filed a federal petition challenging the U.S.government’s system of penal slavery, demanding the exception clause in the 13th Amendment be rescinded, and in 1990’s he filed a federal petition arguing for prisoners to have the right to vote in New York State. 

During his time in prison Jalil, received certifications in Office Management and Architectural Drafting, and college degrees, Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Bachelor of Science in Psychology.  He mentored other prisoners and resolved numerous prison beefs.  He stood by his  principles and maintained the highest level of discipline, integrity and self-respect and respect for others.  Jalil’s activism never ceased and is unquestionable.  He consistently provided movement leadership and guidance under the worst of conditions behind concrete and steel bars.  Jalil is the author of “We Are Our Own Liberators”,  “Escaping the Prism - Fade to Black” and his essays have been published in several books, magazines and newspapers.

Jalil continues in human rights activism and movement building in the fight for the release of the remaining national liberation and civil rights era  Political Prisoners (see: www.thejerichomovement.com).   In 2018, while in solitary confinement Jalil called for the establishment  of the “In the Spirit of Mandela Coalition.” (see: www.spiritofmandela.org).  The major historic initiative, on October 25th, 2021, the International Tribunal-International Jurists, found the U.S. corporate government Guilty of (5) charges of Genocide against Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples.  As a result of the International Tribunal’s guilty verdict, Jalil has been organizing the Peoples’ Senate  (see: spiritofmandela.org/PeoplesSenate) and the development of the Front for the Liberation of the New Afrikan Nation (FROLINAN).  Presently, working as the Special Projects Coordinator for Citizen Action of New York, in Rochester, New York,  Jalil had been organizing on the behalf of 13th Forward campaign to end penal slavery in New York State, and for economic justice to end systemic poverty in the Black, Brown and Indigenous communities.

The struggle continues!