Free Mumia Abu-Jamal: The Urgent Call to Free All Political Prisoners

For more than four decades, Mumia Abu-Jamal has remained one of the most recognized political prisoners in the United States, an unwavering voice for justice, freedom, and human rights. A former Black Panther, award-winning journalist, and outspoken critic of police brutality, Mumia’s case has become a global symbol of the deep injustices rooted in America’s criminal legal system. Today, the movement to free Mumia Abu-Jamal is not only a call for his release, it is a demand to free all political prisoners targeted for their activism, their truth-telling, and their commitment to liberation.

A Life of Journalism, Resistance, and State Repression

Before his conviction, Mumia Abu-Jamal was known as “the voice of the voiceless,” a journalist who used radio and print media to expose police violence, government corruption, and racial injustice in Philadelphia. His reporting challenged powerful institutions, and he became a target of state surveillance long before his 1981 arrest.

The circumstances surrounding Mumia’s trial have been widely condemned. Numerous legal scholars, civil rights organizations, and human rights bodies including Amnesty International, have documented severe constitutional violations: racial bias in jury selection, withheld evidence, police coercion, and prosecutorial misconduct. These failures were not accidents, they reflected the political nature of the case. Mumia was not punished for a crime; he was punished for his voice.

Decades Behind Bars. Yet Still a Voice of Freedom

Despite spending over 40 years in prison, most of them on death row, Mumia has continued to write, speak, and inspire movements across the world. His books and commentaries expose the brutality of mass incarceration, the ongoing legacy of systemic racism, and the resilience of oppressed peoples fighting for their liberation.

His words have traveled beyond prison walls to empower new generations of organizers, educators, youth, and freedom fighters. Mumia’s unwavering courage shows that even in the darkest places, truth can shine.

Why Mumia Must Be Freed Now

Mumia’s health has significantly declined in recent years, making his imprisonment not only unjust but inhumane. He has faced medical neglect, dangerous prison conditions, and the emotional and physical toll of decades of confinement. Each day he remains behind bars is another day the state continues its decades-long attempt to silence him.

But Mumia is not alone. His fight represents the struggles of countless political prisoners whose only “crime” was standing up for justice, freedom fighters from the Black liberation movement, Indigenous movements, anti-war movements, and social justice movements targeted by state repression. Their continued imprisonment is a stain on the nation’s conscience.

Free All Political Prisoners

The call to free Mumia Abu-Jamal is inseparable from the broader demand to free all political prisoners. These individuals are elders of liberation struggles, many are in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, still locked in cages for acts tied to movements that sought equality, dignity, and the dismantling of white supremacy.

Freeing them is not only an act of justice, it is an act of historical correction.

The Time Is Now

Across the world, activists, scholars, artists, lawmakers, and everyday people continue to raise their voices:

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Free all political prisoners.

No more decades of state-sanctioned punishment for those who dared to fight for our freedom.

The movement is growing. The truth is undeniable. And the demand is simple:

Mumia must be freed—now.