Under the name H. Rap Brown, Al-Amin emerged as a leading voice in the Black militant wing of the 1960s civil rights movement. As chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and an admirer of the Cuban revolution, he pushed to remove “nonviolent” from the organization’s name, leading to its rebranding as the Student National Coordinating Committee.
Wearing his signature black beret and sunglasses, he championed armed resistance and separatism from white oppression, famously declaring, “Violence is necessary. Violence is a part of America’s culture. It is as American as cherry pie.”
As riots swept more than 100 American cities in the summer of 1967, the 6-foot-5 Al-Amin — standing nearly 7 feet with his afro — emerged as a cultural force, delivering impassioned speeches on street corners and college campuses that gave voice to the frustrations within the Black community after over a century of unfulfilled promises since the end of slavery.
“Black folk built America, and if it don’t come around, we’re gonna burn America down,” he said during countless speeches.
By the 1970s, Al-Amin had converted to Islam, changed his name, and settled into a quieter life as a Muslim cleric and shopkeeper until his 2000 arrest in the killing of a sheriff’s deputy. In 2002, he was convicted of murdering Fulton County Deputy Ricky Kinchen.
Kinchen and Deputy Aldranon English were attempting to serve an arrest warrant at Al-Amin’s home in Atlanta’s West End when gunfire erupted. The Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Imam Jamil Action Network, the Islamic Circle of North America, and other advocates later called on the Fulton County District Attorney to reopen the case, saying another individual had confessed to the shooting.
At the time of his death, Al-Amin was serving a life sentence without parole.
*Former Black Power Activist Jamil Al-Amin Dies In Prison At Age 82
website https://www.imamjamilactionnetwork.org/
Bio/Obit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Rap_Brown https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/us/h-rap-brown-dead.html
Autobiography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Nigger_Die! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8_pY8rod0g https://www.nytimes.com/1969/06/15/archives/die-nigger-die-by-h-rap-brown-145-pp-new-york-the-dial-press-395.html
Book https://www.imamjamilactionnetwork.org/biography/books/revolution_by_the_book__the_rap_is_live
Interview 1968 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLTc2VRN7h0 2008 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK6nH0sLntc
Chronology https://www.imamjamilactionnetwork.org/biography/chronology_of_life_and_work
SNCC https://snccdigital.org/people/h-rap-brown/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV9Ipfbatgo https://diva.sfsu.edu/bundles/189468 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2illphdB1I4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IllXXhoF7oU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSid2BEIVdY
Black Panther Party https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_oUpJY6qd0
Prison interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhV9RHPhLm0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGItqPvY_I4
Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWoRTpRfD48 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0utN8-QNnc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WFFDm-Wyvw https://youtu.be/JqJYK92iUw4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wHajFg5iZg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v07lb3Zd8Y0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4jzfqRNISw
Analysis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKSiJVraG20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJbg5r2gixE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6jBpFWVqYk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6jBpFWVqYk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk0L_9YYV94
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