Catalogue Number
1995.91.105
Object Name
badge
Title
'Soledad Brothers'
Place
USA
Description
Green badge with black text 'Soledad Brothers' above a black handcuffed and chained fist raised in a Black power salute.
The Soledad Brothers were three Black prisoners at Soledad Prison, California. George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo, and John Clutchette, who were charged with murdering a prison guard in 1970. The guard was killed after another guard, Opie Miller, had been found not guilty of the murders of three Black prisoners when he fired into a recreation yard without warning during a yard fight. Racism from the prison guards was an endemic problem within the prison. Jackson, Drumgo and Clutchette were charged with first degree homicide - the evidence for the charges was weak, and Drumgo and Clutchette were found not guilty at trial. Jackson was not tried as he died after being shot by another prison guard while awaiting trial.
The Soledad Brothers Defense Committee was led by civil rights activist and political theorist Angela Davis, and supported by prominent figures including Jane Fonda, Allan Ginsberg and Noam Chomsky. Davis was later arrested following an incident where George Jackson's brother used guns she owned to take hostages in a courtroom, in an attempt to force the state to free the Soledad Brothers, killing a judge. Davis was not present during this incident. Her arrest on charges of murder, kidnapping and criminal conspiracy was politically motivated, and she was found not guilty.
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