A Brief Life Story of Wesley Cook a.k.a Mumia Abu Jamal Essay

Mumia Abu JamalWesley Cook was born in 1954. While he was protesting at a George Wallace forpresident rally in 1968, several white men attacked him. He claims that two mengrabbed him. One kicked his face and skull, while the other kicked him in thegroin. As the beating progressed, "he looked up and saw the two-tonedgold-trimmed pant leg of a Philadelphia police officer." He yelled for thepolice, who saw him on the ground being beaten to a pulp. "A police officermarched over briskly, and kicked him in the face."1 "I have been thankful tothat faceless cop ever since, for he kicked me straight into the Black PantherParty."2 Wesley Cook became a founding member of the Black Panther Party'sPhiladelphia chapter in 1969 at the age of 15. After joining mainstream newsorganizations in the 1970's, Wesley Cook changed his name to Mumia Abu-Jamal.As a teenage journalist, Jamal took an interest in stories about policebrutality. Jamal was known to be a rare talent of radio journalism. He had apowerful intellect and a burning empathy for poor people. He was known as askillful interviewer and became a well-known figure in local broadcastingjournalism. Jamal appeared on National Public Radio, the National Black Network,and local Philadelphia stations including WUHY-FM (now WHYY). He had a lot ofadmiring friends in journalism and politics, and had no prior record of crime orviolence. Despite his personal experience of police brutality and years as ateenage Black Panther, he kept his noise clean even under the microscope of theFBI and Philadelphia police surveillance. By the late 1970's, Jamal was alsoan ardent sympathizer and supporter of MOVE...

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