BIOGRAPHY OF DR. MUTULU SHAKUR
Date of Birth: August 8, 1950
Nationality: New Afrikan
Incarcerated at: Coleman, FL
Dr. Mutulu Shakur is a New Afrikan (Black) man whose primary
work has been in the area of health. He is a doctor of
acupuncture and was a co-founder and director of two institutions
devoted to improving health care in the Black community.
Mutulu
Shakur was born on August 8, 1950, in Baltimore, Maryland
as Jeral Wayne Williams. At age seven he moved to
Jamaica, Queens, New York City with his mother and younger
sister. Shakur's political and social consciousness began
to develop early in his life. His mother suffered not only
from being Black and female, but was also blind. These
elements constituted Shakur's first confrontation with
the state, while assisting his mother to negotiate through
the maze that made up the social service system. Through
this experience Shakur learned that the system did not
operate in the interests of Black people and that Black
people must control the institutions that affect their
lives.
Since the age 16, Dr. Shakur has been a part of the New
Afrikan Independence Movement. As a part of this movement
Dr. Shakur has been a target of the illegal Counterintelligence
Program carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(COINTELPRO). This was a secret police strategy used in
the U.S. starting in the 1960's to destroy and neutralize progressive
and revolutionary organizations. It is believed that Dr.
Shakur's resistance to this program led to his arrest and
trial.
During
the late sixties Dr. Shakur was also politically active
and worked with the Revolutionary Action Movement
(RAM), a Black Nationalist group which struggled for Black
self-determination and socialist change in America. He
was also a member of the Provisional Government of the
Republic of New Afrika which endorsed the founding of an
independent New Afrikan (Black) Republic and the establishment
of an independent Black state in the southern U.S. Dr Shakur
also worked very closely with the Black Panther Party
supporting his brother Lumumba Shakur and Zayd.
In
1970 Dr. Shakur was employed by the Lincoln Detox (detoxification)
Community (addiction treatment) Program as a political
education instructor. His role evolved to include counseling
and treatment of withdrawal symptoms with acupuncture.
Dr. Shakur became certified and licensed to practice acupuncture
in the State of California in 1976. Eventually he became
the
Program's
Assistant Director and remained
associated
with the program
until
1978.
From 1978 to 1982, Dr. Shakur was the Co-Founder and Co-Director
of the Black Acupuncture Advisory Association of North
America (BAAANA) and the Harlem Institute of Acupuncture.
Where, at Lincoln, Dr. Shakur had managed a detox program
recognized as the largest and most effective of its kind
by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, National Acupuncture
Research Society and the World Academic Society of Acupuncture,
at BAAANA he continued his remarkable work and also treated
thousands of poor and elderly patients who would otherwise
have no access to treatment of this type. Many community
leaders, political activists, lawyers and doctors were
served by BAAANA and over one hundred medical students
were trained in the discipline of acupuncture.
By
the late 1970's Dr. Shakur's work in acupuncture and
drug detoxification was both nationally and internationally
known and he was invited to address members of the medical
community around the world. Dr. Shakur lectured on his
work at many medical conferences, and was invited to the
People's Republic of China. In addition in his work for
the Charles Cobb Commission for Racial Justice for the
National
Council of Churches he developed their anti-drug program.
Dr.
Shakur has furthermore been a dedicated worker and champion
in the struggle against political imprisonment
and political convictions of Black Activists in America.
He was the founding member of the National Committee to
Free Political Prisoners. He has been a leader in the
struggle against the illegal U.S.
and
local
American
law enforcement
programs
designed
to destroy the Black movement in America and has worked
to expose and to stop the secret American war against its
Black colony.
Through
his political work, Dr. Shakur has been associated with
the Committee to Defend Herman Ferguson, a Black activist
and educator charged with conspiracy in the RAM conspiracy
case of the 1960's; the National Task Force for COINTELPRO
Litigation and Research, which researched and initiated
suits against the FBI and American law enforcement agencies
for criminal acts, spying and counter-insurgency warfare
tactics; and the National Conference of Black Lawyers.
He has also endorsed support for the legal defense of political
prisoners and prisoners of war, including Imari Obadele,
Ph.D., Rev. Ben Chavis, Geronimo (Pratt) JiJaga of the
Black Panther Party, and Assata Shakur and Sundiata Acoli
of the Black Liberation Army.
In
March 1982, Dr. Shakur and 10 others were indicted by
a federal grand jury under a set of
U.S. conspiracy
laws called "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization" (RICO)
laws. These conspiracy laws were ostensibly developed to
aid the government in its prosecution of organized crime
figures; however, they have been used with varying degrees
of success against revolutionary organizations. Dr. Shakur
was charged with conspiracy and participation in a clandestine
paramilitary unit that carried out actual and attempted
expropriations from several banks. Eight incidents
were alleged to have occurred between December 1976 to
October 1981. In addition he was charged with participation
in the 1979 prison escape of Assata Shakur, who is now
in exile in Cuba (the question of Dr. Shakur being charged
with participation when in fact they alleged he masterminded
her escape creates the true fact of COINTELPRO).
After
five years underground, Dr. Shakur was arrested on February
12, 1986.
Dr.
Shakur is the father of six children. His son Tupac was
assassinated in 1996. He has solid evidence that it was
a continuation of COINTELPRO. The F.B.I., the Federal
Bureau of Prisons and law enforcement made every effort
to
keep
him separated from his son Tupac.
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