Free Mumia Movement collection (Ms.2023.004)

Biographical/Historical Note

Described as "the most visible of the 3,000 people awaiting execution on America's death rows" by the New York Times in 1995, Mumia Abu-Jamal was born Wesley Cook in Philadelphia in 1954. As a teenager, Abu-Jamal became involved with the Black Panther Party, and he later became a radio reporter. In 1981, he was arrested on charges alleging he'd murdered Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, and he was convicted and sentenced to death in 1982. Nearly 30 years and numerous appeals later, a federal court overturned Abu-Jamal's death sentence; he is now serving a sentence of life imprisonment without parole. Abu-Jamal's case is highly contested to this day, and conflicting accounts and pieces of evidence have convinced many that he is innocent.

This collection contains ephemera related to mass efforts to free Mumia Abu-Jamal from incarceration, including posters, brochures, postcards, buttons, reports, and some letters. Items in the collection were created in the late 1990s and the early 2000s by various organizations, artists and activists, typically as part of an event such as a fundraiser, concert, protest or art opening.