Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by reads2cope
I Am Maroon: The True Story of an American Political Prisoner by Kanya D'Almeida, Russell Shoatz
5.0
“Armed struggle is never undertaken lightly. It is always the final straw, a decision made by a man with his back up against the wall, when all other means have been tried and have failed. Everyone comes to it differently, some with conviction, some with doubts, in desperation or in anticipation of something — anything — that can change their circumstances. I am not talking about kids wielding guns in gang warfare or a soldier enlisting in the military. I am talking about revolutionaries, those who have rejected once and for all the oppressor’s monopoly over violence, those of us who have rejected the state as the only legitimate purveyor of death.”
This is an incredible memoir, so fast paced and shocking that I dreaded any time I had to put it down. I am also surprised how little I knew about Russell Maroon Shoatz before this, and how few reviews this book has here and on other reader platforms. Shoatz was a member of the Black Panther Party and other Black Liberation and Black Power groups. This memoir details his life from a child gang member in Philadelphia, to being moved to leave the gang life after hearing Malcolm X speak and learning more about Black liberation groups, to his arrest after being involved with the shooting of multiple police officers. Shoatz then manages to escape from three prisons, and his stories of harrowing treatment within each facility and the wild ways he managed to break out and how he survived on the run each time before his ultimate recaptures were breathtaking.
It was so interesting to hear how his life and surrounding circumstances led him to commit awful crimes and treat those around him terribly, and how he came to gain purpose and find regret for his past behavior through Black Power groups and later Islam. He details how reading and seeing films changed his views on women's rights and made him reflect on how he treated women in his life. It was disappointing that his reflections didn't extent to viewing coercion as a form of assault, as during his earlier years in his gang he describes"group sex" or "pulling trains," describing what I understood as gang rape as a "rite of passage" for girls and women in his neighborhood as they were pressured into proving a girl’s worth among her peers—how many guys in a row could she endure, or “pull?'"
It was also strange that he described how Yemoja, a woman from "“a cadre of young Black revolutionary sisters who had become active in the Black Liberation Movement in Pittsburgh” visited him and eventually helped him break out of another prison. He ended up cornered in the winter forests of Pennsylvania with Yemoja and another prisoner, engaging in a long lasting gun fight against the police. After a two hour standoff, they were recaptured, and though they were well armed with Shoatz having a machine gun he says no police were shot. It was strange reading how Shoatz described Yemoja as another key woman in his life who led him away from his past misogynistic behavior, but not saying anything about her fate after that standoff. After breaking him out of prison and fighting alongside him, he only mentions that she testified in his defense despite risking "losing much from her continued support" and thanked her and her sister briefly. I had to search for a while to find an article from Plough Publishing that named her as Oshun (previously Phyllis Hill) and said she "agreed to a plea deal that would give her a reduced sentence if she agreed to keep a low profile with the media (and) served just under three years in prison for her role in their escape."
The way Shoatz was able to start liberatory study groups with other prisoners even while in solitary confinement was inspiring.
This is an incredible memoir, so fast paced and shocking that I dreaded any time I had to put it down. I am also surprised how little I knew about Russell Maroon Shoatz before this, and how few reviews this book has here and on other reader platforms. Shoatz was a member of the Black Panther Party and other Black Liberation and Black Power groups. This memoir details his life from a child gang member in Philadelphia, to being moved to leave the gang life after hearing Malcolm X speak and learning more about Black liberation groups, to his arrest after being involved with the shooting of multiple police officers. Shoatz then manages to escape from three prisons, and his stories of harrowing treatment within each facility and the wild ways he managed to break out and how he survived on the run each time before his ultimate recaptures were breathtaking.
It was so interesting to hear how his life and surrounding circumstances led him to commit awful crimes and treat those around him terribly, and how he came to gain purpose and find regret for his past behavior through Black Power groups and later Islam. He details how reading and seeing films changed his views on women's rights and made him reflect on how he treated women in his life. It was disappointing that his reflections didn't extent to viewing coercion as a form of assault, as during his earlier years in his gang he describes
It was also strange that he described how Yemoja, a woman from "“a cadre of young Black revolutionary sisters who had become active in the Black Liberation Movement in Pittsburgh” visited him and eventually helped him break out of another prison. He ended up cornered in the winter forests of Pennsylvania with Yemoja and another prisoner, engaging in a long lasting gun fight against the police. After a two hour standoff, they were recaptured, and though they were well armed with Shoatz having a machine gun he says no police were shot. It was strange reading how Shoatz described Yemoja as another key woman in his life who led him away from his past misogynistic behavior, but not saying anything about her fate after that standoff. After breaking him out of prison and fighting alongside him, he only mentions that she testified in his defense despite risking "losing much from her continued support" and thanked her and her sister briefly. I had to search for a while to find an article from Plough Publishing that named her as Oshun (previously Phyllis Hill) and said she "agreed to a plea deal that would give her a reduced sentence if she agreed to keep a low profile with the media (and) served just under three years in prison for her role in their escape."
The way Shoatz was able to start liberatory study groups with other prisoners even while in solitary confinement was inspiring.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, and Murder
Moderate: Racial slurs, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail