One more Black activist put on ice

Larry Pinkney was written about in the June 1981 Issue (VOLUME 6, No. 5) of the Hapotoc Collective newsletter (Amsterdam, Netherlands).

Excerpt from the newsletter:

One more Black activist put on ice.

American activist, Larry J Pinkney, has been imprisoned in Canada since 1976. Since the 60’s he has been very active in the Black Panther Party, Black Students Union, National Black Draft Resistance League, San Francisco Black Caucus and the Black National Independence Party.

As an activist he has known harassment and brutality. Until 1973 Larry had no criminal record and then he was suddenly framed on burglary and assault charges. After being brutally beaten several times, Larry jumped bail and fled into exile. In 1976, while in Canada, he was looking into what the Black National Independence Party could do about stopping the smuggling of precious finances and natural resources from African countries into North America by former colonizers and expatriates. Larry found proof that certain officials in Canada and American governments were reaping from the profits. While trying to get more information, he was charged with attempted extortion by Canadian authorities.

The evidence which would have freed Larry suddenly disappeared. The government has no explanation and the police gave witness to the fact that the evidence (key exhibits for the court) had been in their hands.

The US governmont (sic) is trying officially as well as unofficially to get extradition proceedings against Larry.

The United Nations office at Geneva has called Larry’s case “unusual and most unsatisfactory.”
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Larry Pinkney is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, and more recently on the nationally syndicated Alex Jones Show. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, San Francisco BayView newspaper, Black Commentator, Intrepid Report, Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), 107 Cowgate (Ireland and Scotland), and Mayihlome News (Azania/South Africa). He is in the archives of Dr. Huey P. Newton (Stanford University, CA), cofounder of the Black Panther Party. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.)